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someone's got to do it, and given my association with extended family medical professionals in the "Infectious Disease" and "Intensive Care" fields, I'm confident in my postings...now, to your comments...so first a few basic comments, and then onto your observations/comments...

>"Spread"...unlike Smallpox and Polio which have been largely eradicated or controlled, COVID-19 is a highly transmissible airborne disease with the potential to cause large numbers of deaths and overwhelm health care systems. The primary tool in fighting it is vaccination...once a population is vaccinated...and boosted...the death rate plummets...initially because a) the mRNA vaccines were 95% effective in protecting against infection by the "Wild Type" (i.e. Original) version of COVID, and b) those who did get infected were able to fight off the infection...

However, such viruses will naturally mutate and the initial vaccines become less effective in stopping 'the spread' of infection, but they still enable those infected to fight off serious effects, especially death, while newer vaccines (not unlike what happens with yearly flu shots) become available...i.e. our latest 'bi-valent' booster shots...

It's a constant battle in which the virus makes the first moves and we have to respond by giving it fewer opportunities to spread and mutate...right now, there is no "Silver Bullet" that will eradicate this disease that has killed over a million people in two years here in the U.S....so, we do our best to reduce the toll through vaccinations...and masking...note that I've provided compelling evidence that when a country uniformly adopts the need for vaccination and masking...Japan's death rate is 1/9th that of the U.S. because over 85% of their citizenry is not only vaccinated, but 'boosted'...and mask wearing is virtually universal.

>"Masks"...using face masks is all about REDUCING the odds of infection and enabling people function in this intermingling society...for detailed info on their effectiveness, I've provided Baron's MIT Report...check out my recent post on that...

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Now, to your comments...

First, masks REDUCE the spread of COVID...no one has ever said that their use would STOP the spread...reductions in cases saves lives...and helps keep our HC systems from becoming overwhelmed...again, 'barriers to entry', such as face masks and social distancing reduce transmission. as for vaccines, the evidence is overwhelming...the work very, very well when it comes to keeping people out of ICUs and morgues, which is their primary purpose. The initial vaccines were very effective in reducing infections as well, but this is a "Pandemic"...i.e. prevalent throughout the world, and in places like Africa that has very little access to vaccines, mutations, like Omicron were able to emerge and such variants have turned out to be able to get around the existing vaccines' protection from infection...time to develop newer vaccines.

NBA teams...in fact all Pro Teams...require players, coaches and staffs to be fully vaccinated...those who won't comply must be tested regularly...so long as the case and hospitalization rates in those communities are low enough, then it's pretty much up to the individuals, including fans, to decide for themselves whether or not to 'mask up'. I'm sure that if those rates suddenly spiked there would be more stringent measures taken.

As for 'sloppy' mask wearing, I think the CDC and local health organizations should re-double their efforts to show how people ought to use them...because when done right they really are effective in REDUCING the spread of COVID...

With the advent of COVID, restaurants have made significant accommodations...wider spacing of tables...better air ventilation and filtering...servers with masks, etc....so long as the community case/hospitalization rates stay low enough they will stay open...it's up to the individual customers to judge their own risk factors...we've gone out to eat a few times, but we always wear masks while waiting in the entryway for our table...lots of other people around in close proximity of whom we have no idea of their infection status...that's why we use masks there. btw, when dining out, we 'Antigen' test beforehand to protect our friends, family and others.

A bad 'Flu Year' results in ~ 50K deaths and typically around 25K...COVID has been more than 10x that death toll...also, I can't remember a year when there were refrigerated semi-trailer morgues parked in hospital lots during 'Flu Season'...can you?...furthermore, at its peak, COVID overwhelmed all hospitals in a state, necessitating the transport of patients to neighboring states...did you not read about this?...again, I have never seen such chaos during a Flu Season.

You need to open your eyes to what's been going on in the world around you...COVID has been a threat to our entire health care system, and it's only through vaccinations and mitigation efforts that the toll hasn't been higher...sadly, if we had better leadership in the beginning that encouraged trust and compliance with health professionals' guidance...like in Japan...our toll would have been much, much lower.