[Goose]

Thoroughly agree with this.  Lockdowns should only be necessary as a last resort when you're already facing a health disaster (think Wuhan, Lombardi, Spain, the UK, New York), but under most situations should be unnecessary.  A policy that restricts large numbers of people from gathering indoors unless necessary and masking in public when possible probably gets you 90% of the way there.

BC, why do we think that masking is really so effective? I am not saying it isn't. I am very compliant, mostly because a) it may work, b)it doesn't harm me in any way, and c) I am comfortable wearing a mask, it doesn't bother me at all. However, do we really have data that says how well it works? I know there are plenty of problems measuring this effect, and a placebo mask doesn't really exist. Any measured good effects of mask wearing could also be due to the fact that people who wear masks are more concerned with the disease and behave differently than people who do not wear masks. That said, it seems we have come a long way from "masks may be useful, but the data doesn't really support that" in February to "Masks are the answer" in September. It seems to me that social distancing has been a much more measurably certain contributor to controlling the virus than mask wearing has been at this point. When you say "Masking in public" are you saying when social distancing is impossible or in all cases?

[Goose]

Thoroughly agree with this.  Lockdowns should only be necessary as a last resort when you're already facing a health disaster (think Wuhan, Lombardi, Spain, the UK, New York), but under most situations should be unnecessary.  A policy that restricts large numbers of people from gathering indoors unless necessary and masking in public when possible probably gets you 90% of the way there.

BC, why do we think that masking is really so effective? I am not saying it isn't. I am very compliant, mostly because a) it may work, b)it doesn't harm me in any way, and c) I am comfortable wearing a mask, it doesn't bother me at all. However, do we really have data that says how well it works? I know there are plenty of problems measuring this effect, and a placebo mask doesn't really exist. Any measured good effects of mask wearing could also be due to the fact that people who wear masks are more concerned with the disease and behave differently than people who do not wear masks. That said, it seems we have come a long way from "masks may be useful, but the data doesn't really support that" in February to "Masks are the answer" in September. It seems to me that social distancing has been a much more measurably certain contributor to controlling the virus than mask wearing has been at this point. When you say "Masking in public" are you saying when social distancing is impossible or in all cases?