Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

That document does not say wearing a mask increases your risk of acquiring COVID-19, which would be an absurd claim without some pretty extraordinary evidence.

No, because those studies have not yet been done, but it explores some of the risks and prior studies done on other respiratory diseases including influenza. It's not risk-free as some are portraying.

What do you mean by "risk-free" in this context? Because you just strongly implied that mask-wearing increases the risk of acquiring a disease, and that's *really* irresponsible without clarification.

Hard to parse limited and somewhat contradictory research. Harm reduction is not a meaningless strategy. While people crowd in a COSTCO masks will probably provide incomplete protection, but in many cases with education, controls, protocols to doff and clean it seems worthwhile.

If people reduce social distancing because they think a mask filters out virus and then they remove it and touch themselves and others that is risky. If they wear it for short duration and follow other recommendations, remove it carefully and disinfect then it could be good.

Technology of any kind is rarely good or bad. It depends on all kinds of context. It might be the impact on droplet dispersal is the best, it might be reduction in touching. There needs to a robust public health campaign with this, not just “wear masks”.

There are very few public health interventions that don't require accompanying education, including hand-washing to combat the coronavirus & condoms to prevent STDs. We don't typically warn people against those because they might implement them incorrectly.