the proper way to test the mask hypothesis would be to conduct as close of an RCT as we possibly can, controlling for vital factors such as seasonality and demographics of population.

here are 5 geographically concentrated states, 3 with mask mandates and 2 without, observed throughout the duration.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

we can also observe the DANMASK study out of denmark, a well-powered RCT actually exploring this question. it concluded that masks have at best a minimal effect size on protecting the wearer.

Counterpoint: masks are useless. Just ask Fauci and many others (before they changed their mind last year for political reasons...which they became stubbornly wed to).
I know you are an independent thinker, but are you living in a bubble on this one and don't even realize it? Hmmm.

Somewhat related -- my gradeschooler has been in person school all year, NO MASK WORN (EVER!, along with all but 1-2 other kids in the class). IN CLASS, NORMAL SCHOOL DAY (recess, classroom changes, no classroom desk divider crap etc, class size ~20, school size several hundred) in large metro urban area. Never had one single disruption from covid the entire year. All the kids are fine (yes, they are alive! and thriving). Fact. https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Obviously he does not go to a Government School (or "Public School", as I think most call them) where teachers won't even go back to teaching. Pfff pathetic. Our 40+ teachers and staff did just fine, all year (they did wear face coverings). Real people who have stepped outside the COVID "matrix" empirically know this pandemic is not all it's been cooked up to be. And that's especially true of masks. they are worthless. Virus transmission is independent to mask wearing.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

The messaging for this was all wrong. Having worked in Japan in the 1980's people wore masks, not all of the time but one day someone would come into the office with a mask?

Why? Because they had or were getting over a cold and they didn't want to spread it.

That should have been the easy message. You wear a mask inside because you don't know if you have and you hurt others if you spread. Anyplace where people need to go inside should require a mask. A choice like a restaurant? You choose after we slow the spread.

Unscientifically supported view but if you had made sick people wear masks to come in and get medical attention I think that would have been better than having the healthcare providers wear them, of course you want to give providers as well and if you are sick having a hard time breathing already, that's easy to say not to do

But when you tell people to wear a mask so they won't get Covid..... They say it's my choice if I get or not. Seatbelts are a bad example. Speeding and Drunk driving are. You can't do those because you can kill me. Now we don't have the will in the U.S. to say if you are not wearing a seatbelt or helmet you are denied medical treatment, same for not wearing a mask. I can't solve that.

But we turned this into a political battle, and people fought instead of solved. And we did have some elites like the Harvard Medical School putting out this in every piece: "The COVID pandemic has now claimed as many American lives as World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War"

This is gross malpractice. Exactly how many 18-25 year old men that are able to pass a draft physical did COVID kill? And btw if we really want to compare numbers lets adjust down for population at the time. The problem is if you are Harvard and making completely bogus statements like this as your very first sentence, I know you think the masses are stupid, but they look at you and just think damn, you are a liar. Even a good old baybilly who is 75 who refused to wear a mask or social distance (I said c'mon Gee it is real) said I was in la Drang and they are telling me this is worse? https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Instead of providing a real narrative, neither party could do anything but polarize.

All that data and this is the linchpin of your point of view:

Now I don’t find this convincing because we are deep into this pandemic and at this point people’s mask wearing behavior is much more likely to be influenced by what they know about them than by a mandate.

It's an assumption...

Have you been to a state that doesn't require masks recently? If so, why don't you state that? When I go - I often DO NOT see masks.

I'm not disagreeing (or agreeing for that matter) that masks make a difference - but someone that has been in NYC for a day, then in one of these places a day would have a stronger analysis than you. Sorry my friend.

Yes. I live in Indiana, mask mandate ended april 6. Indianapolis kept it's mask mandate at the county level; some suburban counties did not. The difference in mask usage is easily apparent between the counties.

Is this a convoluted data driven way of saying that wearing a mask to combat an airborne virus is... *COMMON SENSE*?

Do masks fox facial recognition technology? Hope so.

N.B. I always delete my tweets. It's the new form of 'speech'. Temporal and not eternal.