of us. There will be LOTS of discussion on this, but with Delta running around and tens of millions of Americans unvaccinated, that concern is secondary.
As for masking...here's an excerpt from Baron's MIT Study on the topic of indoor transmission risk that I posted earlier...note that "CET" means "Cumulative Exposure Time"
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"In both examples, the benefit of face masks is immediately apparent, since the CET limit is enhanced by a factor pā2m
, the inverse square of the mask penetration factor. Standard surgical masks are characterized by pm=1to5% (73, 74), and so allow the CET to be extended by 400 to 10,000 times. Even cloth face coverings would extend the CET limit by 6 to 100 times for hybrid fabrics (pm=10to40%)or 1.5 to 6 times for single-layer fabrics (pm=40to80%)(75). Our inference of the efficacy of face masks in mitigating airborne transmission is roughly consistent with studies showing the benefits of mask use on COVID-19 transmission at the scales of both cities and countries (22, 33, 83)."
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Another way of expressing the efficacy of 'Cloth Masks' is that the report finds them to be anywhere from 500% to 9,900% more effective than no masks at all...not the same level as surgical masks which front line doctors and nurses use, but nothing to be "Sneezed" at either ;-).
Link: https://www.vox.com/2021/10/22/22737328/covid-19-pandemic-endemic