I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell...

***Still*** don't believe me when I say masks are worthless for the overall population, kirinje?!?!

Oh, so now you are declaring St. Fauci fallible but when he confirms your bias, he's infallible.

Gimme a break. He's a goddamn liar who deserves to go to jail. Follow him right off the cliff, lemming.

You need to read that again.  He's very clearly saying that masks do work if the sick person wears them.................................just.................................like..................................we've................................been................................saying.  

He then says that it won't keep it out if some dumbfuck like you is infected and not wearing a mask.   His advice not to wear one was 1) because she was going to a low risk area anyway, and 2) it was early on and he didn't have all the information available.

You're cherry picking a lot more than she is.

What part of masks you buy in drugstores won't do anything don't you get? Even St. Fauci is declaring their inability to block virus in his email. What part of the multiple studies I've linked to that clearly show universal masking by healthy people does nothing to prevent the spread of viruses, especially when they are not N95 or full face respirators worn by an untrained public don't you understand?

I'll spell it out for you: a crowd of 100 people are healthy. They are forced to wear masks because of health theater. How are they going to prevent spreading illness by wearing masks when they aren't sick to begin with?

A sick person wears a typical drugstore mask. Fauci admits in his email that it isn't gonna do a damn thing to prevent a healthy person from breathing in virus though the mask. The *only* thing it'll help with is *gross droplets* - i.e. gigantic drops of bodily fluid. Aerosols? Forget it. No surgical-type mask blocks aerosols because they'll find their way into the airstream at points of lower resistance around the ears, nose, jawline. Or they'll go right through that weave pushing virus through along with it. In fact, pretty much every non N95/non-respirator *creates* aerosols during exhalation. Which is *why* surgical masks are clearly labeled to indicate that won't prevent infections - they'll only prevent large droplets from contaminating the surgical field.

As to the "low risk" statement in his email, it's entirely clear that he is stating this as a reassurance to a nervous traveler - *any* place other than in a healthcare facility or a setting like a nursing home is low risk.

I can't help that you and kirinke have allowed yourselves to be duped into believing statements based on political expediency rather than actual science. You wanna continue wearing ineffective masks - feel free. I choose not to. Our worthless hunk of shit governor was finally forced to rescind mask mandates. I've been to multiple indoor locations in the past week without masks and it was glorious.

Here's several illustrations of just how easily-led people have been over this rather than thinking for themselves:

During those past summer, my daughter's rec league lacrosse season was cancelled. Her club team season was abbreviated. Parents were forced to sit at least six feet apart from each other and wear masks. Outdoors. In sunshine. When the girls were riding in the same car to and from tournaments each week. After having spent the night at each other's homes having sleepovers.

My son's football fundraiser skit practice a month or so ago was most of the team in close proximity (arm-in-arm) for two hours with some of them choosing to not wear masks. One kid the next morning had symptoms and tested positive. Not one other kid (including those who were right next to him) developed symptoms.

Other interesting tidbits: *Everyone* will test positive for covid using PCR when the cycle time is 60. Because PCR is a manufacturing tool - it'll multiply a single molecule. Regardless of whether it is live virus or viral debris. When labs started reducing cycle times from as high as 40 down to the mid-20s, suddenly all those poor schlubs who had no symptoms but tested positive were no longer testing positive.

It was never about trying to prevent people from getting really really sick from covid since the vast majority get the sniffles at the worst. It was always about forcing a specific gloom-and-doom narrative as every PCR positive case was breathlessly announced by the media. When a measly 6% of covid deaths were due to covid and the other 94% were people with 2+ comorbidities to such an extent that those conorbidities were already in the process of killing them, it was never about the science.

In other words, wear the damned mask 3cat. Science marches on as more information becomes available.

Those studies don't claim what you think they claim.

I've looked at the actual double-blind peer-reviewed studies over the past 70+ years - they *all* show no difference when worn outside a clinical setting by people not trained in PPE use. Those drug store masks prevent large droplets from falling into a sterile surgical field. That's it. They don't prevent aerosolization of exhalate. A recent study stated: "Importantly, medical masks (surgical masks and even N95 masks) were not able to completely block the transmission of virus droplets/aerosols even when completely sealed."

If an infected person is wearing a well fitted mask and is trained in it's use, it's fairly effective at preventing transmission - as shown by healthcare workers in clinical settings. Unfortunately, the general public is neither wearing well fitted masks, nor trained in the use of them as PPE.