[jfrankamp]

Both have theater aspects and let me propose something: that's good.

When you approach airport security (theater) you wonder what their capabilities are _today_. Are they sniffing the air at large with their GCMS? Is there going to be a dog today? Its intimidating to think of it as a theoretical attacker because of its large and multifaceted apparatus, which is part of its deterrent power.

Masks are somewhat similar, they have a vanishingly small chance of actually intercepting a virus particle/droplet that was going to infect you on a case by case basis BUT they make people approach you differently. They say "stand back".

[mrtksn]

Actually they did a study on the masks and proved effective.

It was done by picking a population of 350K, then separating them to test and control groups, encourage mask for the test group.

The results are that at 39% mask use in the test group the covid cases were %12 lower than the control group.

There was also a difference between surgical mask(%12) and cloth mask(%9) use.

[0] https://twitter.com/Jabaluck/status/1433036933400305673/phot...

[jfrankamp]

No actually required :-). I didn't say masks were not effective, I said part of their effectiveness is the making-conscious of transmission vectors. E.g. when you wear a mask and see others do it you are more likely to wash your hands or stand back.

When you wear a mask (as I do) in addition to blocking some particles you signal to others "lets play the not kill eachother game by limiting virus vectors!"

[mrtksn]

Fair enough:) They should also made some of the test ground really chill to see if it is the mask or the attitude!

[SergeAx]

When you approaching airport or train station security theater, you slowing down due to limited throughput. And then bang! - a terrorist blows up in the crowd right in front of security gate.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2013_Volgograd_bomb...