[burger]

Someone here suggested the Feds supply masks. Why?   Do you truly think people not wearing masks are people who can’t afford to wear masks? There’s no proof of that. They just don’t wanna wear them for one reason or another. So the feds go out purchase and delivers 300 million masks. And the same people who aren’t wearing masks still won’t wear masks. That in my opinion is a big waste of money.

That was me.  Even if free masks don't result in more mask usage, if you replace the crappy cotton masks that millions of people are using with more effective surgical masks (or, even better, N95's assuming they are fit properly), you can potentially reduce the spread of the virus.

This study from a few years ago showed that viral illnesses were much more common in medical workers wearing cloth masks than those who wore surgical masks: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577

This modelling study found that the key variable in mask effect on virus spread was the % of people using them times the effectiveness of the mask in blocking the virus.  If you can't change the number of people who use masks, then we should do everything we can to make the masks more effective: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7186508/

You're entitled to your opinion, but the research says you're wrong.

And I disagree that free masks wouldn't make a difference in mask usage.  If you combine a good PR campaign (seriously, why am I not seeing "wear a mask" PSAs every time I turn on the TV?) with easily available masks and good example setting by leaders (even Marco Rubio was admonishing people to wear masks this week), I think you would see a change.  What's the worst that happens?  Some US mask manufacturer gets to hire a bunch of unemployed people to make masks?  Worrying about wasted money now is fiddling while Rome burns.

[burger]

Someone here suggested the Feds supply masks. Why?   Do you truly think people not wearing masks are people who can’t afford to wear masks? There’s no proof of that. They just don’t wanna wear them for one reason or another. So the feds go out purchase and delivers 300 million masks. And the same people who aren’t wearing masks still won’t wear masks. That in my opinion is a big waste of money.

That was me.  Even if free masks don't result in more mask usage, if you replace the crappy cotton masks that millions of people are using with more effective surgical masks (or, even better, N95's assuming they are fit properly), you can potentially reduce the spread of the virus.

This study from a few years ago showed that viral illnesses were much more common in medical workers wearing cloth masks than those who wore surgical masks: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577

This modelling study found that the key variable in mask effect on virus spread was the % of people using them times the effectiveness of the mask in blocking the virus.  If you can't change the number of people who use masks, then we should do everything we can to make the masks more effective: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7186508/

You're entitled to your opinion, but the research says you're wrong.

And I disagree that free masks wouldn't make a difference in mask usage.  If you combine a good PR campaign (seriously, why am I not seeing "wear a mask" PSAs every time I turn on the TV?) with easily available masks and good example setting by leaders (even Marco Rubio was admonishing people to wear masks this week), I think you would see a change.  What's the worst that happens?  Some US mask manufacturer gets to hire a bunch of unemployed people to make masks?  Worrying about wasted money now is fiddling while Rome burns.