You hit the nail on the head. MY OPINION! I see a rush to put out studies that show how the mask "stops the spread of COVID 19", so there is
bias IMO on all these studies. Medical personal used to use universal precautions but in 1996, the CDC expanded the concept and changed the term to standard precautions, which integrated and expanded the elements of universal precautions to include contact with all body fluids (except sweat), regardless of whether blood is present. But before COVID 19 you didn't hear anyone running around telling people to wear a mask for the SARS or MERS (COVID), or even for the flu (H1N1). Not even if you were going to visit anyone in a nursing home or a hospital.
I never said that COVID 19 was a special virus. IMO, it has been blown way out of proportion by the media and the politicians. Next time you go to the grocery store or gas station look around at all the masks on the ground and tell me that is not a biohazard. There is also a lot of unintended consequences from mandating people to wear PPE and not educating them on the proper disposal of PPE.
So my stance, although it is not popular, is you do you and I do me. I wear a mask when I have to but that is it. I hate them, I cant understand what people are saying while wearing a mask, and I think they provide more of a placebo effect for the masses. But I also have stated, I have the antibodies for COVID so I have had it. This leads to an interesting segway, now we have people that have recovered from the virus or getting immunized from it. Do you still want everyone wearing a mask for the rest of your life or when will it be safe to not wear a mask anymore?
Why Most Published Research Findings Are False
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedici...l.pmed.0020124