Re: masks - I posted early on that masks can have a good benefit - that being to train people to not bring their hands to their mouth or nose. That’s about it.
However, I believe that there is at least this topic you and I will be in perfect agreement upon:
The politicization of science within the US has ended the trust we have in science to tell us the truth about what we know, and the limits to what we know.
I’ve been on FreeRepublic for a couple of decades. I watched this politicization with Global Warming. That began even before NASA had satellites in orbit.
My introduction to politicized science began even earlier with “acid rain” in the 80s. I was part of a group that watched weather patterns. We had the “perfect storm” that pulled the worst of Ohio’s polluted industries into our region and we then titrated the water, not to find out IF there was acid rain, but how bad it was.
Personally, I was shocked when we began brainstorming why that rain came down with a perfect Ph of 7.0. Everyone was looking for an excuse for why we didn’t detect what was “obviously” happening all around us. As one of the last to speak offered up the obvious: “There’s no such thing as acid rain.”