BC Snob wrote:
More believable study than simply comparing rates in states with and without mask mandates
....we will have to agree to disagree on this. To me, the proof is in the infection rate of an entire population with strict mask laws (ie. Rhode island RIDOH Executive order mandatory masking indoors; recently lifted), in the case of Rhode Island, a population of ~1.1 million. How effective was that Executive Order in the face of Omicron BA.1 ??
IF masking had worked, in say, Rhode Island (or, Quebec; or Ontario; or...or...or...or...) during the Omicron onslaught, regardless of other Executive Order restriction in this (and other States and Canadian Provinces), it would have, well, worked! In spite of everyone in the State wearing masks indoors, the Omicron infection numbers tell the story. The fact that NOTHING mitigative worked shows in the massive infection rate during Omicron.....everywhere in the World. Even in countries that are approaching staggering (in a good way) fully vaccinated status: Canada: 81.4% | 80%+ in UK (with 38 million boosters given!) back just as Omicron was hitting, those countries then had indoor masking. What did indoor masking do? If it was effective at all, we would not have seen the MASSIVE and unprecedented Omicron infections we just saw (and AGAIN are seeing as I type, 1 in 19 Britons are
presently infected with SYMPTOMATIC Omicron LOL!). I'll bet this infection level gets to 1 in 3 by next week, at the present climb in infections. But intensive care admissions are very, very low (for the last BA.1 round) in the UK and Canada (because of highly vaccinated populations).
Here....lets look at it another way: why is masking failing to make a any dent in Omicron's onslaught? If masking is a panacea, why haven't the "pandemic" numbers reversed? Masking with fully vaccinated (say, 80% fully vaccinated) populations make little and no difference in the global Omicron waves. What *third* mitigation do we need to implement to reverse the pandemic? Anyone?
Can anyone think of anything? Short of locking down the entire planet's human population for 1 or 2 years from today forward (and destroying life as we know it....
but why, in the face of vastly declining Covid deaths, even in the US?).