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Comment by fivea | Hacker News Reader

> Likewise face masks only marginally reduce the risks of transmission in individual interactions.

Even if your personal assertion regarding the effectiveness of facial masks in containing COVID spread had any bearing in reality, don't you believe that such a low effort/high reward move is well justified given the current public health scenario, and more importantly the need to avoid escalating to higher-impact measures?

This irrational opposition to facial masks reads like ranting against other basic personal higiene etiquette, such as covering coughs and sneezes.

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How did you get "high reward" from "only marginally reduce the risks"? Also, do you wear glasses? Masks are way worse if you do.

> This irrational opposition to facial masks reads like ranting against covering coughs and sneezes.

To me, it feels more like if you got told to keep your mouth covered all the time because sometimes you suddenly cough or sneeze.

> How did you get "high reward" from "only marginally reduce the risks"?

Don't you believe that reducing or outright eliminating the chance that a single person you come across to not experience hospitalization or death due to covid constitutes a worthy reward given the tradeoff?

> Also, do you wear glasses?

Why do you feel this is relevant?

> Don't you believe that reducing or outright eliminating the chance that a single person you come across to not experience hospitalization or death due to covid constitutes a worthy reward given the tradeoff?

I agree that reducing the risk constitutes a reward. I don't agree it constitutes a high reward, since the reduction is only marginal.

> > Also, do you wear glasses?

> Why do you feel this is relevant?

Based on this response, I assume that you don't wear glasses, or you'd know exactly why it's relevant: masks make them fog up all the time.

> I agree that reducing the risk constitutes a reward. I don't agree it constitutes a high reward, since the reduction is only marginal.

I suggest you review your definition of "marginal". Even the use of low-effecriveness cloth masks have been observed as reducing the symptomatic seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 by about 9%, and in the outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt it was associated with a 70% reduced risk of infection.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-br...

I also couldn't help notice how you base your personal assertions in no evidence or observation, and instead you simply repeat your baseless assertions without any substance. Do you feel this conveys any relevance to these personal beliefs?

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