[stouset]

And the reason for that is a something they've owned up to and apologized for.

3 months ago was ages given the recency of this catastrophe. And what we learned is that while masks don't help the wearer, they do help everyone around the wearer. Most of the medical profession wasn't operating from the current understanding we have about symptomless spread. As that became a dramatically more clear concern here, the scientific establishment quickly pivoted to pushing mask-wearking hard.

Isn't that exactly the kind of behavior you'd like to see?

[chrisco255]

Do you have the data on asymptomatic transmission? Because I've seen conflicting reports on that.

[rsynnott]

There's some question on asymptomatic transmission. That's important from an epidemiological point of view, but irrelevant to you as an individual deciding whether to wear a mask, because at any given time it is generally impossible to know whether you're asymptomatic, _presymptomatic_, or negative. And presymptomatic infection is definitely common.

[BryanBigs]

Well, it's pretty easy to know if you are in the 4th category. Recovered. Should someone that's been infected and recovered from COVID have to wear a mask?

[rsynnott]

I would say, until we're fairly confident that having had covid confer permanent immunity, yes, it would be more responsible to wear a mask. Hopefully it does confer permanent immunity, but it would honestly be pretty optimistic to assume that at this point.

[stouset]

Not to mention, nobody around you knows whether or not you're recovered. Wearing a mask is about as close to zero effort as plausible, so wear one anyway out of consideration for others.