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Comment by ghthor | Hacker News Reader

If I am not coughing, I dont need to wear a mask. You cant say I dont care about other people if I'm not sick and not coughing/sneezing, but not wearing a mask. You're acting like an authoritarian and you're treating people like they are ignorant.

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Droplets are produced to a lesser degree by just breathing or talking: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK143281/

Additionally as many as 50% of people who test positive for COVID-19 have virtually no symptoms: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/50-percent-of-people-...

This means that you can have the virus without knowing, and spread it without the need for coughing or sneezing, potentially infecting others who will go on to develop far more serious symptoms.

Wearing a mask is a cheap and easy insurance policy against these scenarios.

> Why? The U.S. CDC and most experts agree that many infected and contagious people don’t know they’re sick because they don’t have symptoms.

Well, that's debatable. The WHO made a statement that asymptomatic spread was rare but then immediately walked it back[0], quite awkwardly I might add if you watch the spokesperson's press video, most likely due to US political pressure[1]. There are studies from as far back as February from Germany, that challenged previous asymptomatic spread studies[2], and another one in May[3], although that one comes out of China and may just be trying to cover their response.

[0]: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200609/who-clairifies-comm...

[1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/10/dr-anthony-fauci-says-whos-r...

[2]: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/paper-non-symptomati...

[3]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219423/

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