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| “Following the science” by masking outdoors. Riiight… Click above for SCMP Letters |
Ng mentions “several studies” which show masks have “some effects”. I’ve read many mask studies. For every one showing benefit there’s one showing like or none. And the argument ought to be if the evidence is equivocal, why have mandates? Yet we do have mandates here in Hong Kong the only place in the world still with such strict mandates — masks on indoors and outdoors in all public spaces.
My conclusion from the studies: masks work in the laboratory; they don’t work in practice. A point I’ve made before and which one commenter makes:
Sorry Allison, but that letter on masks is wrong on pretty much every account. While there are studies that show (as would be implied by common sense) that masks help prevent the spread on cvoid (to a small extent), these studies where carried in idealized settings where it is assumed everyone wears the mask correctly which in practice is neither realistic nor enforceable esp not in classroom settings and longer lectures. And with the emergence of the higher contagious omicron the protection of masks has been reduced to zero basically, in fact the detrimental effect has overtaken the benefits, as the masks (to some extent) prevent the flow of less contagious viruses and bacteria and thereby disrupt our natural immunity barrier, similar to people living in isolated environments that are more susceptible to disease. On top of that masks are a giant environmental disaster, a typical surgical mask consists of three layers, neither of which is easily degradable. Vaccination and medical treatment remain the only effective tools in combatting Covid, all the rest has mostly done nothing but making our lives miserable. Lastly, before covid there was never a mask mandate in place for the cold, it was a recommendation only, and the best recommendation for that, or related respiratory illnesses is still to simple stay at home. False sense of duty will help spread illnesses at the work place, weather you wear a mask or not. Best. S. Nagl. Asst. Prof. of Chemistry, HKUST
