People doing the responsible thing and staying home while they are sick would have gone a lot further.
Absolutely! If people stayed home and got tested with the earliest suggestion they are infected, that would have been a great way to reduce those you might infect. The big problem is COVID-19 will infect you and be transmissible when you don’t feel any symptoms. Many who do will think it is something else. So, like wearing a seat belt, you take precaution with a mask in case you do get COVID. It is a practical precaution that, when your are with other people, the mask works to shorten the range of the droplet emissions. That way they hit the ground and die before they reach others. COVID is a hell of a virus, but we can outsmart it.
Now with COVID-19-Delta, the viral load (1000 times) is so astronomical, you can infect nine people at ultra-fast speed. Yikes! COVID-19-Delta is a hell (X9) of a virus! But, I have faith the masks will still turn those COVID basketballs into “packs.” In addition, being vaccinated (like me) is like a having an air bag. I know, if I get infected because of Delta, I will have a certain viral load that my vaccinated immune system will be fighting and conquering. While it does so, it will keep me from dying ($funeral expense) or running up huge hospital bills from Delta. During that purge of Delta, I will be shedding and masking up will help the other guy from getting my COVID. That way, COVID will hit the floor and die.