One-third of New York’s small businesses may be gone forever
It’s insane to me that we don’t just make masks 100% mandatory when you’re outside your own home. We don’t have exact numbers on how effective masks are, but when everyone is wearing them, evidence suggests “very effective.” Anecdotal examples - a man with a dry cough, that was later diagnosed to be COVID, wore a mask on the long flight from Wuhan to Toronto, had extended/close contact with 25 people, but he was wearing a mask, and none of them contracted it from him [1]. 2 hairdressers in Missouri had COVID, but they and their clients all wore masks, they had extended close contact with 140 people and none of them got COVID [2]. We know masks are most effective when the infected person wears them, and we know that asymptomatic spreaders are common, so really we just need everyone wearing masks for all close personal interactions.We could keep the economy decently open AND keep COVID cases down dramatically with a simple law to mandate masks 100% of the time when outside your own home. In plenty of professions people are wearing masks all day long now, it’s uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it. Crazy that this isn’t being strongly considered.[1] https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/15/E410
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/17/masks-sal...