johnforbes insists there is no scientific evidence that masks curb the spread of respiratory disease.
Yes, he is actually that stupid. And that incompetent using an internet search engine.
Every medical facility in the world uses masks to curb the spread of respiratory disease because it has been proven repeatedly how effective they are.
(Now let's watch the raving lunatic return, hypocritically babbling about how the little alien microbes that are a global(?) Democrat plot to grab power aren't really affected by masks and in fact need to be set free to infect everyone.)
For the technology challenged dimwits here:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118 (The National Academy of Sciences)
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... -cov2.html
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-con ... t-20485449
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7253999/
"Results
A total of 21 studies met our inclusion criteria. Meta-analyses suggest that mask use provided a significant protective effect (OR = 0.35 and 95% CI = 0.24–0.51). Use of masks by healthcare workers (HCWs) and non-healthcare workers (Non-HCWs) can reduce the risk of respiratory virus infection by 80% (OR = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.11–0.37) and 47% (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.36–0.79). The protective effect of wearing masks in Asia (OR = 0.31) appeared to be higher than that of Western countries (OR = 0.45). Masks had a protective effect against influenza viruses (OR = 0.55), SARS (OR = 0.26), and SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 0.04). In the subgroups based on different study designs, protective effects of wearing mask were significant in cluster randomized trials and observational studies.
Conclusions
This study adds additional evidence of the enhanced protective value of masks, we stress that the use of masks serve as an adjunctive method regarding the COVID-19 outbreak."-nih.gov