"Although some asymptomatic and mild infections have been documented, they seem to be uncommon and do not appear to contribute to the extension of the chain of infection among humans." - New England Journal of Medicine on SARS-Cov in 2003.
Mask mandates are being driven by the assumption of asymptomatic transmission. But we have never definitively determined that this is happening with SARS-Cov-2 (aka, COVID-19) at a rate to warrant widespread mask usage by the general public.
If it wasn't the case with SARS-Cov (the OG SARS virus) as proven years ago, and if it wasn’t the case with other respiratory viral infections, why is it assumed with COVID-19? Prove that asymptomatic transmission is rare or doesn’t happen with COVID-19 and you end the mask mandates.
Even Gepetto’s mistake, alleged “doctor” Anthony Fauci said that asymptomatic carriers are not the driver of outbreaks:
And, of course, Fauci changed his tune a couple of months later. But, recall that Fauci said as late as March 2020 that the public shouldn’t be walking around wearing masks, because they didn’t prevent transmission:
He later said he was lying about that to prevent people from buying up the stockpiles and causing a shortage. But also claimed that masks would save lives and prevent overwhelming the hospitals…where all the masks were supposed to be. It’s a confusing mess, but it was supposed to be. Fauci has admitted time and again that he was intentionally misleading the public over something we were supposed to be afraid of and risking crippling the economy to stop.
As Fauci “lied” to the public (meaning, told the truth until he realized it would be more politically expedient to flip-flop on “the science”), he was also giving the exact same advice in his personal emails.
So, do masks work against the spread of COVID-19, or do they not? We used to agree that they didn’t.
You can do your own research on the matter, but you will likely end up coming down on one side or the other based on your predilections. You can find plenty of studies that only work to confirm your biases. And that’s the problem:
We have politicized science to the point nobody can trust it anymore.
Thanks to people like Fauci who have an agenda, “the science” is now just a political buzzword and used to attack the “other side”. And it’s on that politicized basis that mandates, lockdowns, vaccine passports, COVID concentration camps are being founded, and a stark dividing line in society is being drawn.
On one side, you have power-mad people demanding you surrender your freedom over a virus with a 99% survival rate. On the other, you have liberty. Choose wisely.