SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, yet masking policies in the west have featured some spectacular policy wrong turns.
Here are some. 1. Ignoring Asia Early studies showed that countries (mostly Asian) that made mask-wearing mandatory within 30 days of the first case emerging had dramatically fewer COVID-19 cases than those (mostly western) that delayed beyond 100 days.
Rather than taking seriously the theory that the masking may have contributed to the low death rate, western countries dismissed mask-wearing as a cultural quirk of so-called collectivist societies or as a folk myth among the less educated. 2.