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The embedded assumption here is that if we make the "grown-up decision" to trade some lives for a better economy we'll necessarily get a better economy. There is not a lot of reason to believe that is true.

We make this "grown-up decision" all the time. What's so special about COVID?

And there actually is a lot of evidence that had we not bothered with government intervention beyond support of isolation/treatment for those at great risk, the economy would be light years better than it is now. It's not like this is the first time we've been confronted with a bad flu, bad cold, etc. Even if for the sake of this discussion I grant you that COVID is 2x or even 3x as deadly as the Hong Kong Flu, there is a ton of evidence and a lot of logic behind the argument that the economy would not be cratered by retired people and very sick people (few have jobs or run small businesses, fair?) being isolated.

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LINK

In the US, 15 states plus DC have issued mandates for face mask use in public between April 8 and May 15. We examine the effects of state mandates for use of face masks in public on the daily COVID-19 growth rate using an event study that examines the effects over different periods.

First, I'll admit I did not read every word of this "study," but I believe it's another example of what I mentioned before - it's not scientific proof that masks work as advertised by the Left.

So face masks were mandated between April 8 and May 15, and there was perceived drops in the transmission of the virus in the data. This is anecdotal, right?

Are you suggesting there were no other mitigation measures/mandates over the study period? I'm pretty sure this was when shelter in place mandates were quite the rage then. What do you think would be more effective in mitigating the spread of a virus - everybody avoiding contact with each other, or the few times there is contact everybody wears a mask?

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The resistance to mask is fascinating since the costs are so low and benefits so great.

It might be fascinating, but it's not hard to figure out.

1. As much as you would like it to be different, it has not been established that masking up America - the masks everybody has, how they use them - is effective, even in the least, against COVID. Even with better practices, it's reasonable to question how effective masking would be. Answer this for me, if you would - if masking was truly that effective, why do we need social distancing/shutting down businesses? If the so-called experts said, "Okay, you have two choices, wear a mask and everybody can go about their normal lives, or don't wear a mask and everybody stay home" - if they truly believed in masks, we'd all comply.

2. But you know masks are 3% about COVID, and 97% about politics. That's why you see the resistance over something that's otherwise no big deal. We are tired of being lied to. We are tired of being manipulated. And there's a reasonable belief that playing along will allow this BS to go on and on.

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If seat belts work, why do we need airbags and crumple zones and anti-lock brakes, etc.?

Meaningless analogy, and I'm sure you know why. But I'll help just in case you haven't thought of it -

To make your analogy work it would have to go something like this -

If seatbelts work (adds $100 to the price of your car), why wouldn't you want airbags and crumple zones and anti-lock brakes even if they raise the price of a $30K car by $100,000?

Now answer that question.

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Other countries have shown that this does not have to be the case. Let's be like them.

We can't be. We aren't Japanese and we don't live in Japan.

If you wanted the US to be more like Japan (as just one example), then you'd have to change the culture completely, change standards and norms of living, change education wholesale, change healthcare systems dramatically.

It's not a government mandate that is the difference between the US and Japan where COVID is concerned.

This post was edited on 7/12/20 at 10:24 pm