Unfortunately, there is MUCH medical PROOF that masks for Covid are ineffective.
Commonly worn by the paranoid, and virtue signaling folks.
Sadly some folks think everything is black / white, yes / no, but the real world is a lot more nuanced. I've read the real data and what it shows is that back at the beginning of the covid pandemic masks were helpful in *reducing* the spread.
- A mask on someone infected reduced their emissions perhaps 10%
- A mask on someone not-infected reduced their exposure another 10%
- The combination of source masking and recipient masking reduced exposure levels 20%
- The data showed that lower exposures were associated with less severe cases as it allowed the immune system more time to get working before it was overwhelmed.
- The earlier covid variants were somewhat less infections than the current variants
- There was initially no vaccine available, nor any treatments, so severe cases had a higher chance of being fatal
All this means that unquestionably in the initial year or so of the pandemic masks saved a good number of lives. Today the current variants are more infectious, we have vaccines and we have several proven treatments as well.
At this point masks are of less value than they were at the beginning. The vaccines are also somewhat less important now as well since it seems we have reached the point where most people will catch covid annually and while the antibodies will wane somewhat over a year they will still have some level of protection for the next season.
Hindsight is 20/20 and looking back we can see some of the early actions were not needed, however you have to make decisions based on the information you have and at the start we had very, very little information. As time went on we learned more which is why advice changed along the way. Less educated or more conspiracy minded folks attack this, but this is normal reality, you learn and adapt as you go as with anything else in life. Did you know everything about operating a tractor the first time you got to use one, or did you learn over time and find you had been doing some things wrong or there were better ways to do something?