NEJM has a pro-mask piece which unfortunately is clearly politicized. It is clear that even today we do not know two facts:
1. How is COVID spread? Aerosols and if so how far and haw how a count?
2. What is a mask blocking if it is to prevent infection. The corollary is what does a mask have to do to prevent spread?
The NEJM piece states:
These tensions were exacerbated by ongoing scientific debates about exactly what masks accomplished (did they protect people who wore them from others, or did they protect others from those who wore them?). Playing out during a heated presidential campaign, the mask debates were quickly politicized. And as had happened in 1918, mask confrontations could turn violent.
The article then states:
A definitive count will probably never be possible, but it is certainly plausible that many deaths occurred because of people's reluctance to use masks, and other basic preventive techniques, to their fullest potential. These deaths should not be forgotten. The public health field may have the tools it needs to prevent another pandemic, but it will succeed only if it receives adequate investment and public support.
In my opinion and in my experience the problem was the Government, both Administrations. Thankfully we have vaccines, a patina of protection. The mask issue however is problematic. On march 9, 2020 I sat waiting for a meeting in the Weill Cornell hospital downtown in a stuffed waiting room. I sat by the door with alcohol for my hands and fresh air to avoid transmissions and gloves to take the subway. This of course when the risk on the subway was greater from a virus than the miscreants attacking the riders. But alas, I saw the lights of the train coming down the COVID tunnel, we already had two months warning.
The real problem is that science is often more adversarial than our legal profession. "Facts" change as we learn more yet two problems exacerbate the issue. First almost all people assume science is somehow settled. Second we have seen a massive explosion of ego driven "scientists", especially related to the Government, who are more often the Ex Cathedra variant than the true scientific mode.
The second statement above will never be achieved as long as he above problems persist, especially the latter. Egos can kill more people than the virus.
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