We do know masks prevent the spread disease. Look in any Operating Room. If masking by the general public is shown to be ineffective, that only argues for further education on how to mask properly.
I see the "surgeons use masks in operating rooms, this proves public masking prevents the spread of COVID" argument nearly every time a mask debate appears on this site or others, and it just seems so...obviously fallacious and absurd to me on a dozen different levels, that I almost feel like I'm missing some fundamental point about it.
The point is that masks are obviously effective. It requires a lot of mental gymnastics to reach the conclusion that masks are not effective despite the overwhelming evidence in support of masks. Even the Reason article admits that masks are effective despite its misleading headline that suggests masks are not effective.
I would like you to consider the possibility that the evidence in favor of masks is probably overwhelming as you might believe. The studies that have been done have so many cofounders as to be flawed at best, useless at worst. The "overwhelming evidence" line not even consistent with the studies that do strongly support maskin.
In addition, the arguments have become political/partisan which muddies discussion (i.e. even if you or I had a study that proved it 100% beyond a shadow of doubt, many people would refuse to believe it nonetheless), and in general even though I personally believe that masks are effective at slowing down the spread of covid, I don't believe it particularly strongly and my belief has a lot of qualifiers to it. The phrase "overwhelming evidence in support of masks" overstates your point.
You are obviously conflating the use of surgical masks in operating rooms that are for stopping droplets with using masks to stop a respiratory airborne virus. How can this possibly be the basis of your argument? It's utter nonsense.
Simple observation: The huge difference in infection rates between Democratic and Republican areas--far more than can be accounted for by the vaccination rate. That says behavior (masks + distancing) is definitely a substantial factor.
Also note the much smaller effect of mask mandates--it's compliance that matters, not merely the rules.
Florida has been the media whipping boy for the entire pandemic, and yet here we are almost 2 years in and their infection rates are on par with the states that had the most restrictions.
