Read on Twitter
I still have no idea how people who think mask mandates work, that they need to be initiated where they don’t exist, and who generally center their entire virus aspirations around ‘wear a mask!’, explain why Wisconsin (=mandate since August) is suffering such a spike right now.
Obligatory disclaimer: I’m not ‘anti-mask’. I’ve been using em voluntarily since March, when most of you weren’t.
I think I am, however, anti mask *mandate*. There doesn’t seem to be any intelligent or factual basis for thinking them to be a valid public health intervention.
I think I am, however, anti mask *mandate*. There doesn’t seem to be any intelligent or factual basis for thinking them to be a valid public health intervention.
And if that is the case, then it’s not simply a matter of ‘worth a shot’ or ‘no harm, no foul’ for authorities to continue this pointless mask obsession. They’ve conveyed to much of the public that Masks Are The Solution when they are, by all appearances, not. This is *harmful*.
It’s harmful because it alters behavior (mask=magic shield, now I’m safe) and because it focuses the public’s hopes on a policy that, by all appearances, isn’t effective. If so, ‘wear a mask!’ is like telling a bicyclist to ‘pedal faster!’ when his bike’s chain is broken.
This has led huge numbers of people to keep on assuming that the reason the bike isn’t going anywhere is that we’re not pedaling hard enough (=not enough mandates, not enough people wearing masks) instead of looking for actual solutions or trying other things or mitigants.
Nowadays it’s common to call out authorities for lying to us about masks to preserve PPEs, and while I’m not thrilled about the lying, it’s clear there *was* a perfectly valid and thoughtful position being voiced at the time:
Masks are not recommended as a public-health measure.
Masks are not recommended as a public-health measure.
There were Experts saying this at the time, and it’s clear they were right. The available science, conducted at soberer times, did not indicate them to be recommended to the public as a NPI. Did something change? ‘More science’? Nope. Just political winds.
