PATed wrote: “It’s not propaganda. Available data indicates that if everyone wears makes it reduces spread by 70-80%.”
Your study doesn’t support your claim. The study only reports that droplet transmission is reduced and says nothing about the effect on infections.
Second, all those references are in high risk areas and says nothing about whether masks should be worn everyday, everywhere by everyone.
I’ve seen reports that if everyone wears a mask for four months then deaths will be reduced by 40,000. Sounds good, right? Well suppose masks are four for a dollar. 300 million people. Four masks a day each (they can’t be reused). That’s 120 million masks a day for 160 days. That’s 192 billion masks costing $48Billion. You don’t suppose that money might be better spent trying to protect the most vulnerable instead of trying to protect those unlikely die from the virus.
The primary mechanism of spread is respiratory droplets, the transmission of which is reduced by masks.
We should be doing both masking and protecting the most vulnerable. Government aid is already $3 trillion+ along with untold economic impact. Unless something changes we’re going to see hospitals in hard hit areas (like mine) start collapsing. This will impact the care of anyone who needs a hospital, not just COVID patients.