Did you bother to really read the article from NEJM And read their update about people claiming you shouldnt wear masks
Yeah..didnt think so.
Scroll down and read what they said on July 9.
.
I wonder what this guys handle was on FR
You live and die by the choices you make. It is your responsibility. I dont always wear a seat belt around my chest because it chokes me due to placement on my neck despite trying different devices. I assume the risk and am responsible for the results.
https://heavy.com/news/2020/07/richard-rose-covid-19-coronavirus/
This article is about wearing masks in the Hospital setting where you are in contact with people who are sick.
The second paragraph of this article says it all with respect to Universal Mask wearing.
“We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.”
Now, several studies have shown that asymptomatic spreading is improbable which is less than unlikely.
The note you mention,
“A growing body of research shows that the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission is strongly correlated with the duration and intensity of contact: the risk of transmission among household members can be as high as 40%, whereas the risk of transmission from less intense and less sustained encounters is below 5%.5-7 This finding is also borne out by recent research associating mask wearing with less transmission of SARS-CoV-2, particularly in closed settings.”
This makes no mention that face masks are helpful in preventing transmission to others, but rather than these masks “MIGHT” be helpful in preventing spread to the wearer. However, this statement doesn’t provide any evidence that mask wearing in the home would have prevented these transmissions, it just says they occured, then jumps to an unsubstantiated conclusion.