Masks don't work? Seriously?
So surgeons and hospitals have been wearing them since the 1890s...for no reason whatsoever? They suddenly don't work, or they never worked?
I will totally grant you that of all disease causing pathogens they are least effective against viruses (if for nothing else by simple virtue that a virus is the smallest and most readily spread by aerosol), but to say there are no prophylactic qualities is demonstrably and historically false.
As some sort of talisman, no. As some sort of shield that "prevents" contagion, no. But as a reasonable way to reduce communicability, absolutely now and for more than 100 years. It is not that the mask is STOPPING any water droplets with virions, it is that it lessens their dispersion cloud, and that reduces the communicability, period. How much? The honest answer is "some".
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This is totally and far and away a different argument from whether state and local government do/or ought to have the power to compel citizens to wear masks. In that argument I will always firmly come down on the side of limiting government power, and maximizing personal liberty, even when it is a gray area like this where the argument can be made that exercising your liberty effects other citizens, because that is bullshit and a slippery slope. That is no different than the left's Universal Healthcare arguments, wherein since we all pay a premium for those who don't have insurance they are owed that insurance. You can't steal money from a person, or steal their liberty, via second or third person reasons. If those stupid, chain arguments stand then they can be made for government to totally abridge all our liberties, so it is essential that this sort of junk philosophy is never accepted. The crisis in our Judiciary is precisely because arguments like this are allowed to stand. To me it is absolutely critical that these "orders" are defeated in court, but that doesn't mean I believe that "masks don't work", which was the initial lie CDC made "for our own good", and how, for me, they blew all credibility so that whatever they put out now, if it does not jibe with my own common sense, I do not believe. If you have been proven to lie you are now a liar. The CDC is a proven liar. See how that works?