To best avoid covid-19, avoid lockdowns, don't wear masks, stop washing your hands and remain at a distance of no more than 50cm for the nearest person that's coughing up a lung. This is the surefire way to ensure that the virus magically disappears overnight.
Alternatively, we can build on the progress that was clearly achieved through lockdown, by being careful, considerate and following the growing body of research that point towards cleanliness, distancing, and mask wearing as factors that can help to reduce spread.
Once the r0 rate is high (see Florida), even if each person spreads it to 1 individual, that's still 10-15,000+ cases a day where many hospitals are already full. A dire situation for public health and business (some states like California are already on lockdown number 2) that is difficult to fix without extensive measures. When it's low we have options and I'd rather it ebb along at numbers that are easily dealt with, and for us to open up on that basis, then make further mistakes and have another national shutdown.
The bulk of research clearly shows that masks, especially decent ones do work very well, and when we're dealing with issues like exponential growth, even a slight reduction of transmission can make a massive difference over time. It's possible for find individual articles that support any view, but if people honestly go into it with no preconceptions and are not working back from a pre-set conclusion to begin with, they will draw the conclusion that masks do help. It's a minor inconvenience at worst. I'd rather be wrong about their impact, than responsible for potentially making others gravely ill.
