observing the thousands of shoppers coming through our doors....they are straight under the chin or nose once in store and upon approaching the doors people are pulling out grubby, flimsy unwashed masks that are used over and over....arent you also supposed to sanitise hands before putting on/taking off a clean, sterile mask?
these cheap flimsy scraps from poundland coming out of pockets and bags are saving lives?
Well, you’re moving the goalposts here aren’t you? First it’s masks are doing nothing much based on rising case numbers. When pointed out that case numbers are thoroughly suppressed, you move on to the idea that masks aren’t helping because no one you see wears them properly (not my experience but all of us have different experiences of this!) and anyway you think flimsy bits of cloth can’t make a difference.
I don’t disagree that people not wearing masks properly massively reduces their effectiveness! I do disagree that it’s a reason to ditch them altogether.
On the effectiveness of cloth masks - given we’re looking at stopping aerosol droplets they won’t be perfect but any barrier should help. To test it, I’d suggest coughing and sneezing into your hand while wearing a mask, and then without one, to see how much gets stopped. Overall, the evidence base isn’t amazing either way but they seem to have a low to moderate impact on transmission.
As for the handwashing - that was mainly based on concerns about surface transmission in the early days, wasn’t it? When we were all diligently washing our hands before crowding into airless meeting rooms….
Masks aren’t perfect. They’re certainly not 100% preventive by any means, and a lot of people take the piss with them. That doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact.