Are they saying covid isn't airborne anymore?
It has never been technically considered "airborne" the way measles and TB are, but respiratory droplets containing the virus can aerosolize through coughing, sneezing, even talking, and that aerosol can stay suspended for a few minutes within a small radius. Exactly like influenza and the common cold. The difference with COVID-19 is that it is considered to be much more contagious than seasonal influenza or the cold, so with the same amount of exposure you are more likely to get it. There's no question that masks reduce that to at least some extent, especially if both parties (the sick one and the not-sick one) are wearing them. Effectiveness depends widely on who you ask, as well as the characteristics of the masks themselves, of course.
The questions in my mind are: is masking among the general public really necessary; is the effectiveness of masking among the general public consistently worth the mandates; what are the unintended consequences of mask mandates (there are
always unintended consequences); what about individual autonomy (always a foremost concern in my mind); and, lastly, is trying to stop the spread really the best strategy to begin with, vs. instead focusing on protecting the minority of the population who is likely to develop severe disease and allowing those who are at very little risk to be exposed naturally and develop herd immunity? Especially considering that the more we learn about it, the less deadly we are finding out it is on a per-case basis.
The officials have been wrong about pretty much everything they've told us since day 1. They've changed most of their recommendations at least once, been inconsistent and self-contradictory in their messaging in general, and every prediction has failed to come true. We HAVE managed, however, to beat the hell out of our economy, massively increase our federal debt, create record unemployment, destroy many, many businesses, force the cancellation of countless weddings, graduations, family vacations, and funerals, seen a huge spike in suicides, a huge spike in mortgage defaults, etc, etc. All that, and it isn't even clear that any of the lockdown and social distancing orders were really necessary or all that effective. Considering all that, I'd say anyone who
doesn't question the necessity of mask mandates at least a little bit, should probably give some more thought to the reliability and intentions of the governing officials who are telling us how important it is.
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