| > ...you still insist on being absolutely correct? I don't. I haven't been provided clear evidence, I have been given speculation. I can speculate as well. As a general rule, is a mask going to protect you from infection? No. There is overwhelming evidence to support that. Even an N95 mask will not protect you. Your eyes are still exposed, you'll still be breathing in a sufficient amount of particles to get infected. On the average, might it reduce your personal risk of infection at least a little bit, because of some droplets missing your mouth? Maybe, maybe not. We don't know that. It might increase your risk, for the reasons I have mentioned. This is not just me speculating, I have seen it in medical papers as well. The idea that "you cannot protect yourself" simply isn't as popular, so people cling to the idea that cloth masks that everyone can make themselves will protect them. Fair enough, but then we should be recommending diving goggles as well. We should be recommending people to cover their clothes in plastic bags to dispose of later, because that too is "better than nothing". > What is your explanation for the graph on this page, which clearly shows that wearing a mask has massive effect on the spread of the disease? It doesn't show that, that's spurious reasoning. If that was valid reasoning, I might as well re-label those circles with "eating mostly rice" and "eating mostly wheat" and claim that "rice saves lives". Correlation does not imply causation, there's lots of other factors at play here. Nevertheless, widespread wearing masks may well significantly reduce the spread of the disease to others, I said that myself. It just won't protect you. |