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Comment by mikemotherwell | Hacker News Reader

Let's assume healthy people do not need a mask. In fact, let's take it as Gospel, and the statement "Healthy people have no use for a mask" as absolutely true.

Given we know there are people with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic, any "Healthy people have no use for a mask" can simultaneously be true, and be practically irrelevant, as any definition of "healthy people" is necessarily impossible to prove. You simply can not know you are free of Corona Virus, short of having recovered from the virus.

If the standard was EVERYONE wears a mask, asymptomatic people would be a non-issue. Any advice contrary to the 100% mask usage argument has to explain how we deal with asymptomatic people. Short of testing everyone all the time, what would that even be?

TL;DR In a world with asymptomatic COVID-19 people, a 100% mask policy seems the sane default position.

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Then WHY ARE SO MANY EXPERTS TELLING US WHAT I QUOTED?

What you say (and others too) makes sense to me and I could well believe it true, but I'm NOT claiming that masks are useless unless you are infected, I'M ASKING IF ANYBODY KNOWS WHY EXPERTS ARE SAYING OTHERWISE (or whether I just heard an unluckily skewed sample)

Plus, I also asked for a citation to back up the poster's position, not common-sense arguments (which are a good starting point but not evidence in themselves).

Masks may be 100% irrelevant for healthy people, but we have asymptomatic people. There is no way to ascertain who is healthy, ergo "healthy people don't need masks" is practically redundant. What am I missing?

Oh, and you want citations, sorry, my bad:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HLrm0pqBN_5bdyysOeoOBX4p... - 30 some citations on masks.

> What am I missing?

See my reply https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22701821 Mind, I just don't know if what I'm saying there holds water.

Citations are good, following up!

Which experts are saying masks are not effective? From what I read the experts (curiously from countries that did not prepare enough masks for their hospitals) say it is not recommended for the general public to wear a mask. They definitely still recommend nurses, doctors, and sick people to wear one. But they never explicitly say that masks do not reduce transmission. They may have said "there is little evidence to suggest..." which is not the same as masks do not reduce transmission.

The official position for many countries that are containing the virus suggests wearing a mask when out in public. One notable exception is Singapore.

Here is the Korean society of infection FAQ that says wearing a mask can reduce transmission:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ko&tl=en&u=http%3A...

Thanks, I've updated my original post.

I imagine to prevent mask shortages and to make law enforcement easier.

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