If we agree that masks slow the spread of disease from and to wearers then we are in clear disagreement with the Surgeon General. Masks work and the general populace should be encouraged to wear makeshift masks until such time as there are enough surgical masks for everybody or the crisis is over.
We don't agree. Masks would only help in the event that someone coughed/sneezed directly on your face but missed the eyes. Even then, removing the mask and washing your face without contamination would be difficult.
Makeshift masks don't necessarily even help in that situation, become a liability when contaminated, and putting it on then removing it causes additional risk.
This is why that someone also needs to wear a mask.
Don't worry, people aren't morons and have been using masks in Japan and other countries for decades just fine.
Yes, masks can hold contaminated droplets --that's their purpose. When people don't use masks on the other hand, those droplets that would have remained on the mask now end up everywhere else, and now you have a far more spread vectors with basically everything being potentially contaminated.
Using a mask ensures that a lesser percentage of your contaminated droplets end up in other places.
> If you are sick, masks are great. Even homemade ones. This is about healthy people wearing masks.
First, masks work better when both sides use them. In Japan, healthy people wear masks as well during flu seasons because it makes it offers better protection than wearing nothing.
Second, in the specific context of COVID-19, how do you know they're healthy? That's the key, because asymptomatic cases are estimated to be the main driver of this pandemic by far. And it's only worsened by the fact that only few tests are available.
