OT - New Lockdowns/curfews/restrictions

[TheValley91]

I’m still waiting for someone to tell me who will shut down the country.

The answer: no one has that authority

THEY. Haven't you heard?

 

[lstroud]

Since I’m stuck in DC and surrounded by nut jobs, I’ll rant a bit here, where most of you seem somewhat reasonable in comparison.

I’ll preface this by saying I am a physician, though not an expert on this virus. Also, I’m sorry for anyone that has been directly affected by the disease. Please do not make this post personal. It is meant to be a macroscopic view on the topic. Also, please don’t make replies overly political, though politicians in general are much to blame for this situation.

That said, I can’t believe there are more lockdowns coming. Didn’t we learn anything from the previous ones? They will kill our livelihoods but not the virus.

I’m not usually a conspiracy theorist but this is either a terrible joke, or an experiment in social control.

First, we were told the lockdowns would end the virus. That was a lie. Then we were told they would slow it. That was true but the cost of the lockdowns was never elucidated to the public. We still don’t know the extent of the damage done by the previous rounds. Economic hardship, mental anguish, substance abuse, child mal-development, etc have skyrocketed, but nobody is telling us how much.

The most non-refutable excuse they stuck with for previous lockdowns was to protect the frontline workers. Those workers have an amazing supply of PPE now and the transmission rate when wearing it is incredibly low. And more importantly, frontline workers and our most vulnerable populations will imminently be vaccinated with what appears to be an extremely effective vaccine.

So what reason is there for the current lockdowns happening around the country. Will they even let us travel to see loved ones for the holidays? I can’t imagine the hardship caused if this trend continues.

Be glad most of you live in SC, where sensibility has largely prevailed, and “shockingly” without a major change in the trajectory in the virus. I hope it stays that way.

In the last couple of weeks I know several people that should have been admitted and were sent home/kept in ER because of a lack of beds. This is mostly rural areas in NC, but lack of beds is already a problem in some areas. The state level stats don’t tell the whole story.

 

[nytigerfan]

You make horrible comparisons. Why do you keep using the "why do surgeons wear masks". Those are trained pofessionals who know how to properly wear and dispose of n95 masks.

Surgeons dont wear n95 masks, and I notice you completely ignored my second point.

 

[Little Lebowski Urban Achiever]

Surgeons dont wear n95 masks, and I notice you completely ignored my second point.

actually I’m a surgeon and I wear an N95 mask for every surgery right now. Although that is not common practice outside of covid

 

[nytigerfan]

actually I’m a surgeon and I wear an N95 mask for every surgery right now. Although that is not common practice outside of covid

Of course you do... now. Every dental hygienist in America wears an N95 mask now. But prior to that, you guys wore normal masks. Why did you wear them if they don’t work? I understand you being against lock downs, I am not a fan of them either. But I think it is irresponsible as shit for you - a doctor - to be on here feeding the false narrative that masks don’t help. The data says otherwise.

 

[Little Lebowski Urban Achiever]

Of course you do... now. Every dental hygienist in America wears an N95 mask now. But prior to that, you guys wore normal masks. Why did you wear them if they don’t work? I understand you being against lock downs, I am not a fan of them either. But I think it is irresponsible as shit for you - a doctor - to be on here feeding the false narrative that masks don’t help. The data says otherwise.

I never said masks don’t help. And I’m not advocating irresponsible behavior. People like you immediately start accusing people like me the minute we open our mouths.

Masks may help. I wear one pretty much all the time. But the lack of evidence and consensus that they help over the last 8 months is certainly puzzling and it is not wrong to question it.

My reason for posting this thread had nothing to do with masks, and nothing to do with minimizing the effect of the virus or encouraging people to act in irresponsible ways. It was solely to question the necessity and consequence of the loss of livelihoods and civil liberties we are now facing for the second time.

 

[stigers91]

I disagree with a LOT of this. I don't recall anyone saying that the 1st lockdown was going to end the pandemic. I recall the the 1st lockdown was about "flattening the curve". IE slowing the virus down enough that the people needing hospitalization would not exceed the ability of the healthcare system to care for them.

I'm thinking that this is the reason for the 2nd round of lockdowns we are seeing as well. Hospitals are at or near full around the nation. You can only tighten up so much on the social restrictions (especially when a substantial minority ... Trump followers mostly are openly denying it's even real) before you have to take drastic measures.

You are correct in that socially distancing is causing some harm around the country and you are also right in that no one knows how much. Yet you don't seem to have a problem using that unknown value to justify not locking down.

I'm also not not sure what the heck you are talking about with "Will they even let us travel to see loved ones for the holidays?" I'm assuming that you consider Thanksgiving one of the "holidays". Was there a single airport closed? I'm not aware of it if so. Were there roadblocks placed so that you couldn't drive anywhere? I know that experts asked people not to travel, but I'm unaware of any restrictions on national travel.

Well in NC there is now a curfew from 10pm to 5am. Everyone is supposed to be home and not on the roads.

 

[nytigerfan]

I never said masks don’t help. And I’m not advocating irresponsible behavior. People like you immediately start accusing people like me the minute we open our mouths.

Masks may help. I wear one pretty much all the time. But the lack of evidence and consensus that they help over the last 8 months is certainly puzzling and it is not wrong to question it.

My reason for posting this thread had nothing to do with masks, and nothing to do with minimizing the effect of the virus or encouraging people to act in irresponsible ways. It was solely to question the necessity and consequence of the loss of livelihoods and civil liberties we are now facing for the second time.

You never said masks don’t work? This is your quote from earlier.


As far as the masks go, real medical grade PPE when properly worn is quite effective. But it is not practical for people to wear in everyday life. These ridiculous cloth things are a symbol of the social changes. If they had any real effect the CDC and that moron FAUCI would have mandated them long ago. But now they are mandated because of public shaming.

 

[stigers91]

Bingo.

I have an employee that started showing symptoms Sunday after Thanksgiving. He had a rough first week (fatigue, aches, slight cough), but seemed to be better the next Sunday. 3 days later (Wednesday) his fever spikes to 101, he could hardly breathe, so he goes to the hospital and is diagnosed with COVID pneumonia. His last 5 days have been hell. He is 69, but in great health overall (eats right, exercises). He texted me this morning and said "this virus has given me a new perspective on living. it's the worst pain I've ever experienced". I think he'll beat it, but I don't that for sure. His crime? Spending Thanksgiving with his extended family. The assumption is someone there was asymptomatic.

It has certainly made me more aware of my choices, and I've been pretty conservative anyway. When it hits close and is severe, it is eye-opening.

I hope he gets better and makes a full recovery.

The thing is for every story like this there are 50 stories where COVID was no more than a cold and could be 100 with asymptomatic people.

300k deaths nationwide is a terrible number, but if 15 million people have had it then the mortality rate is overall low.

Are new cases spiking to all-time highs because COVID is worse? Or are we really at the same numbers as before, but testing has become more readily available and we didnt capture the true data in the initial wave?

I was willing to take the risks by not isolating 100% of the time. I contracted COVID, and have fully recovered. No one else in my family contracted. No one else I know contracted. Not even 100% sure where I got it because no one I know had it. Most likely at a bar I go to once a week and someone was asymptomatic, but no confirmed contact tracing.

 

[WildWater]

Anyone live in the Asheville area? Most restaurants and activities still available? Heading up this Friday. Had tickets to Biltmore but they refunded me due to restrictions. Thanks in advance guys.

Yes most restaurants are open at 50% capacity and require masks. Good time to visit, things are starting to slow down a bit

 

[adgjunior]

I hope he gets better and makes a full recovery.

The thing is for every story like this there are 50 stories where COVID was no more than a cold and could be 100 with asymptomatic people.

300k deaths nationwide is a terrible number, but if 15 million people have had it then the mortality rate is overall low.

Are new cases spiking to all-time highs because COVID is worse? Or are we really at the same numbers as before, but testing has become more readily available and we didnt capture the true data in the initial wave?

I was willing to take the risks by not isolating 100% of the time. I contracted COVID, and have fully recovered. No one else in my family contracted. No one else I know contracted. Not even 100% sure where I got it because no one I know had it. Most likely at a bar I go to once a week and someone was asymptomatic, but no confirmed contact tracing.

Don't disagree with any of this.

This thing has always been a case of risk analysis, especially the farther we go into it and discover that the economic and societal toll seems to be worse than the impact to individuals. This is where I think leadership has failed us the most. Maybe I'm being naïve, but I think we could've "opened up" businesses, schools, churches, etc while still showing compassion to the folks that have lost loved ones and protecting the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, many politicians (led by the President) just used it as a means to further divide us and play politics with eyes on the 2020 election cycle, and we fell right in line.

To me that is the saddest part of 2020 - we had an opportunity to use this pandemic as a galvanizing force and instead allowed it to drive a wedge further between us by arguing over masks, lockdowns, schools, death rates, case numbers, vaccines, etc. And we ain't done yet.

 

[stigers91]

Is there an "economic consequence" only when a business is closed? What about the lost productivity of a dead worker?

You think there is equivalent economic impact from a closed business and lost worker? You must or why would you make the comparison.

If an employee leaves for another job what is the economic impact? Does it equate to the business being closed? Does the business not bring on a new employee to replace the former employee?

If an employee dies of cancer or heart disease do you question the economic impact for a business or is only COVID related deaths.

You got me if you were trying to fish for a response. I hope that's what you were doing because no way a reasonable person would try to make this arguement

 

[Little Lebowski Urban Achiever]

You never said masks don’t work? This is your quote from earlier.


As far as the masks go, real medical grade PPE when properly worn is quite effective. But it is not practical for people to wear in everyday life. These ridiculous cloth things are a symbol of the social changes. If they had any real effect the CDC and that moron FAUCI would have mandated them long ago. But now they are mandated because of public shaming.

My point was this is not a simple issue. The harm done by wearing a mask is minimal, so it’s worth it to try. But when a person walks around with a T-shirt over their mouth it’s largely symbolic, and provides a false sense of security to him and those around him.

 

[TigerGrowls]

Of course you do... now. Every dental hygienist in America wears an N95 mask now. But prior to that, you guys wore normal masks. Why did you wear them if they don’t work? I understand you being against lock downs, I am not a fan of them either. But I think it is irresponsible as shit for you - a doctor - to be on here feeding the false narrative that masks don’t help. The data says otherwise.

Just saying...LOL!!

 

[nmerritt11]

My point was this is not a simple issue. The harm done by wearing a mask is minimal, so it’s worth it to try. But when a person walks around with a T-shirt over their mouth it’s largely symbolic, and provides a false sense of security to him and those around him.

wasting your time...he has a hard on for people who don’t wear masks

And I think it’s funny on Monday Good Morning America or one of those shows my mom had on was talking about doubling up on masks because cloth masks aren’t effecting. Went on to talk about leaving the N95 for healthcare specialist, etc. basically the same shit I’ve been saying on here he’s argued about for months. If people don’t know proper mask procedure and protocol and don’t practice infectious disease control measures it is not near as effective as the media has made you believe. Cloth masks and gators people wear and reuse and do not sanitize are not effective. Hell they are not really effective period...not to mention how many times in stores are you going to be within 6 feet of someone for the time period the CDC states it takes to contact the virus?

Now CNBC runs a story in double masking being 75% effective and triple masking gets you to 90% level effectiveness. Hope everyone starts triple bagging

it’s insane...

 

[jakefest]

95% of the people I see at the grocery, work, restaurants, stores, etc are wearing masks. I know that if thats happening in SC its probably happening up north also. People are wearing masks, clearly there's more to it than just mask virtue signaling

All stores, public places, school pickup, etc etc refuse entry if you don't have a mask on here in NJ. Even when I flew down to GA to see my Dad on his Birthday late summer, I don't recall masks being an option when you went into grocery stores, starbucks...etc.

Where are people not wearing masks?

 

[TigerGrowls]

All stores, public places, school pickup, etc etc refuse entry if you don't have a mask on here in NJ. Even when I flew down to GA to see my Dad on his Birthday late summer, I don't recall masks being an option when you went into grocery stores, starbucks...etc.

Where are people not wearing masks?

People are not wearing masks in restaurants here in GA at all and in most other stores I would estimate that 75% are wearing masks at this point. Outside I would say that over 75% are not wearing masks. I forgot a mask for the grocery store the other day and didnt get a second glance from anyone. Now last summer when Walmart started the mask requirement and all other stores fell in with it, most were wearing masks for a time after not wearing them in stores at all for the first 5 months of covid.

 

[nmerritt11]

All stores, public places, school pickup, etc etc refuse entry if you don't have a mask on here in NJ. Even when I flew down to GA to see my Dad on his Birthday late summer, I don't recall masks being an option when you went into grocery stores, starbucks...etc.

Where are people not wearing masks?

There are a small percentage of people who do not wear masks in grocery stores here in Greenville but most do. People in gas stations is more 50/50. And if it is really 6 feet for cumulative 15 minutes over a 24 hour period, how often is that happening in these stores?

The fact of the matter is that there have been more masks mandates put into place, there have been more strictly enforced, more people have the anti-bodies but the "numbers" keep going up and magically the flu numbers are essentially non existent and the mask nazis will tell you the flu isnt here because people are wearing mask but on the other side COVID is growing and not stopping because of the people not wearing makes.

Cannot have it both ways...if these family outings from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Yeas caused an outbreak of COVID why not the flu? If these crowded bars are spreading the COVID, why not the flu. Is there real evidence

I am not denying that if everyone wore a medical 3-ply mask, KN95, N95 level masks then it would greatly help the spread of all infectious disease if used properly, sanitized after each use or thrown away. That has never been in question. It is why they are used in infectious disease situations and isolation situations

But there is no evidence to lend to people wearing these cloth masks being effective with the numbers rising. Now the WHO is changing the way they declare positives because certain particles can throw a positive test so they now want another positive and symptoms being shown. The numbers have never been accurate...I will stand by that. Way too many positive tests for people who never experience a symptom and never pass along to anyone in contact with them. I think the false positive numbers are way higher than we will ever know especially early on when testing was incredibly shaky and unreliable.

But serious question for the "put your mask on" people...why are numbers still rising and why if they worked are they now telling you to double or even triple up. That is outragious....no way in hell I am wearing multiple masks.

The good news is the hospitalizations in SC seem to have steadied...ICU beds are sitting around 440 out of the 1390 being utilized. The number of cases in Greenville is way down from the big spike that saw over a thousand new cases but also, people must remember that sometimes these labs get backlogged.

There are products used to test samples that get back ordered and so sometimes test get held for a few days so they may run 2-3 days of samples collected in one day. The labs have more capability to run test than they have ability and supplies at times.

The numbers in Greenville are as low as they have been in a while. That is good news for getting fans out to baseball games and hopefully some SoCon football games

 

[nytigerfan]

wasting your time...he has a hard on for people who don’t wear masks

And I think it’s funny on Monday Good Morning America or one of those shows my mom had on was talking about doubling up on masks because cloth masks aren’t effecting. Went on to talk about leaving the N95 for healthcare specialist, etc. basically the same shit I’ve been saying on here he’s argued about for months. If people don’t know proper mask procedure and protocol and don’t practice infectious disease control measures it is not near as effective as the media has made you believe. Cloth masks and gators people wear and reuse and do not sanitize are not effective. Hell they are not really effective period...not to mention how many times in stores are you going to be within 6 feet of someone for the time period the CDC states it takes to contact the virus?

Now CNBC runs a story in double masking being 75% effective and triple masking gets you to 90% level effectiveness. Hope everyone starts triple bagging

it’s insane...

OK little man. The fact is I have come around to your point of view. The other day we were out in our boat and we passed another boat. I noticed that several people on the other boat were not wearing their life jackets correctly. I immediately told my three and six year old to take off their life jackets. Because if there are other people out there that don’t know how to wear them properly then they don’t work!

 

[nmerritt11]

OK little man. The fact is I have come around to your point of view. The other day we were out in our boat and we passed another boat. I noticed that several people on the other boat were not wearing their life jackets correctly. I immediately told my three and six year old to take off their life jackets. Because if there are other people out there that don’t know how to wear them properly then they don’t work!

Why are they now telling you to wear double mask or triple mask? It has been on every news station this week? I have stated all along, I am not an anti-mask but the gators and the cloth masks are not as effective as they claim. I think that is now being proven accurate. And I am abt o head to Costco...guess what...to be compliant I will throw one of the cloth masks on that are in my car to make you feel better.

and your analogy in life jackets is a weak one. If they are coast guard approved they are still gonna float regardless. It is why you are required to wear a certified life jacket. Cloth masks and gators are not medical grade or FDA compliant.

But go ahead and throw on another layer or two of cloth masks. Spring and summer are gonna be fun for you.

 

[jakefest]

There are a small percentage of people who do not wear masks in grocery stores here in Greenville but most do. People in gas stations is more 50/50. And if it is really 6 feet for cumulative 15 minutes over a 24 hour period, how often is that happening in these stores?

The fact of the matter is that there have been more masks mandates put into place, there have been more strictly enforced, more people have the anti-bodies but the "numbers" keep going up and magically the flu numbers are essentially non existent and the mask nazis will tell you the flu isnt here because people are wearing mask but on the other side COVID is growing and not stopping because of the people not wearing makes.

Cannot have it both ways...if these family outings from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Yeas caused an outbreak of COVID why not the flu? If these crowded bars are spreading the COVID, why not the flu. Is there real evidence

I am not denying that if everyone wore a medical 3-ply mask, KN95, N95 level masks then it would greatly help the spread of all infectious disease if used properly, sanitized after each use or thrown away. That has never been in question. It is why they are used in infectious disease situations and isolation situations

But there is no evidence to lend to people wearing these cloth masks being effective with the numbers rising. Now the WHO is changing the way they declare positives because certain particles can throw a positive test so they now want another positive and symptoms being shown. The numbers have never been accurate...I will stand by that. Way too many positive tests for people who never experience a symptom and never pass along to anyone in contact with them. I think the false positive numbers are way higher than we will ever know especially early on when testing was incredibly shaky and unreliable.

But serious question for the "put your mask on" people...why are numbers still rising and why if they worked are they now telling you to double or even triple up. That is outragious....no way in hell I am wearing multiple masks.

The good news is the hospitalizations in SC seem to have steadied...ICU beds are sitting around 440 out of the 1390 being utilized. The number of cases in Greenville is way down from the big spike that saw over a thousand new cases but also, people must remember that sometimes these labs get backlogged.

There are products used to test samples that get back ordered and so sometimes test get held for a few days so they may run 2-3 days of samples collected in one day. The labs have more capability to run test than they have ability and supplies at times.

The numbers in Greenville are as low as they have been in a while. That is good news for getting fans out to baseball games and hopefully some SoCon football games

The flu mention has been my argument as well. One of our neighbors is the Head of Emergency Medicine at our local hospital and basically said they are down 97% on flu cases for this time of year and also said they've been instructed to not even bother testing for it unless Covid comes back negative (2 tests required).

I'm sure the masks, hand washing and limited personal contact in the North East has helped but we are basically talking about eradicating not reducing the flu at this stage and I can't fathom how that's possible if so many people aren't wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands etc. A reduction in flu cases makes some sense but 97% reduction doesn't.

Personally, I wear a mask for the people who are concerned or at risk out of respect and I will continue to do so but I'm not tripling up. That has to bring some level of negative health impact given the lack of good oxygen.

My kids school just shutdown for 2 weeks because some 7th graders came down with it via rec basketball. The kids are at 50% capacity, half day in person schooling already. If masks and social distancing work, then why shut the entire school down when my 4th and 2nd graders would never come into contact with 7th graders on a normal, non-covid school day? They also have contact tracing so taking siblings and others out of school that came in contact should be easy given how small of a school we are (K-8th grade).

I'm not suggesting the virus isn't real and I do hurt for anyone who lost a loved one, friend etc but I am in the camp that the lockdowns will be more damaging in the long run in relation to poverty, depression, suicide etc. Trusting the science has to factor in those things when considering what's best for millions of people both short term and long.

 

[nmerritt11]

The flu mention has been my argument as well. One of our neighbors is the Head of Emergency Medicine at our local hospital and basically said they are down 97% on flu cases for this time of year and also said they've been instructed to not even bother testing for it unless Covid comes back negative (2 tests required).

I'm sure the masks, hand washing and limited personal contact in the North East has helped but we are basically talking about eradicating not reducing the flu at this stage and I can't fathom how that's possible if so many people aren't wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands etc. A reduction in flu cases makes some sense but 97% reduction doesn't.

Personally, I wear a mask for the people who are concerned or at risk out of respect and I will continue to do so but I'm not tripling up. That has to bring some level of negative health impact given the lack of good oxygen.

My kids school just shutdown for 2 weeks because some 7th graders came down with it via rec basketball. The kids are at 50% capacity, half day in person schooling already. If masks and social distancing work, then why shut the entire school down when my 4th and 2nd graders would never come into contact with 7th graders on a normal, non-covid school day? They also have contact tracing so taking siblings and others out of school that came in contact should be easy given how small of a school we are (K-8th grade).

I'm not suggesting the virus isn't real and I do hurt for anyone who lost a loved one, friend etc but I am in the camp that the lockdowns will be more damaging in the long run in relation to poverty, depression, suicide etc. Trusting the science has to factor in those things when considering what's best for millions of people both short term and long.

It is amazing to me that we have had national wrestling tournaments with wrestlers not wearing mask and now are almost through an entire high school season. One would think that would be the sport that caused serious outbreaks. On our youth team, my son is the only one who has had to quarantine and that was because his sister had it. Also made it through an entire youth football season with not one kid getting it or having to sit

It is just random and makes no sense to me. My high school son has been out and about and around people this entre time as well...just like me. I've traveled in and out of country, never really stayed home, only wore mask when required and have been exposed numerous times with never a positive anti-body or covid test.

I am gonna test this morning actually because I found out last night the guy I had Happy Hour with early last week tested positive yesterday

 

[nytigerfan]

Why are they now telling you to wear double mask or triple mask? It has been on every news station this week? I have stated all along, I am not an anti-mask but the gators and the cloth masks are not as effective as they claim. I think that is now being proven accurate. And I am abt o head to Costco...guess what...to be compliant I will throw one of the cloth masks on that are in my car to make you feel better.

and your analogy in life jackets is a weak one. If they are coast guard approved they are still gonna float regardless. It is why you are required to wear a certified life jacket. Cloth masks and gators are not medical grade or FDA compliant.

But go ahead and throw on another layer or two of cloth masks. Spring and summer are gonna be fun for you.

They are telling us to double up because the new variants of the virus are much more contagious. I heard this a few weeks ago (before it hit the news) from my buddy that runs a pharma company in NJ and speaks to the CDC, and scientists from other countries regularly. He called me to warn me off continuing to fly because the contagion factor was much higher with the new strain, making masks less effective.

I know you won't believe this because you are mask salesman / health expert, but that is the case.

 

[nmerritt11]

They are telling us to double up because the new variants of the virus are much more contagious. I heard this a few weeks ago (before it hit the news) from my buddy that runs a pharma company in NJ and speaks to the CDC, and scientists from other countries regularly. He called me to warn me off continuing to fly because the contagion factor was much higher with the new strain, making masks less effective.

I know you won't believe this because you are mask salesman / health expert, but that is the case.

By what the news stated from CDC and the reports in the news...double masks filters about 75% of airborne particles, triple mask 90% and N95 95% or better

That number didn’t get better as a more contagious virus came along. Of it is effective and would help now why didn’t they do it when they first made mask mandates?

But I’ll sell you as many N95 masks as you want today and you can be assured they will actually help. I just think cloth mask used over and over is almost (notice I said almost) worthless and a waste of time and effort

 

[nytigerfan]

By what the news stated from CDC and the reports in the news...double masks filters about 75% of airborne particles, triple mask 90% and N95 95% or better

That number didn’t get better as a more contagious virus came along. Of it is effective and would help now why didn’t they do it when they first made mask mandates?

But I’ll sell you as many N95 masks as you want today and you can be assured they will actually help. I just think cloth mask used over and over is almost (notice I said almost) worthless and a waste of time and effort

i have never disagreed with any of that. I have always worn a three layer cloth mask that gets washed frequently. In recent weeks I have upgraded to KN95 masks. I stared out wearing gaiters and then read that those were worthless so I quit.
My issue with you has always been that you convince people on here that masks are worthless because most people don’t know how to use them. Wearing masks does help. Instead of discouraging people from using them instead try to educate people on how to use them properly. Have you ever posted a thread to educate people (seeing as you are the expert)?

 

[nmerritt11]

i have never disagreed with any of that. I have always worn a three layer cloth mask that gets washed frequently. In recent weeks I have upgraded to KN95 masks. I stared out wearing gaiters and then read that those were worthless so I quit.
My issue with you has always been that you convince people on here that masks are worthless because most people don’t know how to use them. Wearing masks does help. Instead of discouraging people from using them instead try to educate people on how to use them properly. Have you ever posted a thread to educate people (seeing as you are the expert)?

not an expert by any means but pointing out that the increase of mask usage and people with anti-bodies has not decreased the number of “reported” cases so it’s worth questioning.