Quote Originally Posted by cher1 View Post
That is completely wrong. Here you go:

https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj-2021-068302
Just to be clear, I've taken the vaccine so I'm not a conspiracy theorist, they have been shown to work and I absolutely believe in their efforts acy.
There's been a lot of studies on mask wearing the last couple of years and at best they've been inconclusive. It's very tricky to measure as even with control groups you can't necessarily give exact like for like experience in real world environments.
On observation from cities and countries with strong mask wearing protocols most studies haven't been able to nail their colours to the mast and say it's made a difference. Paris and New York have both been pretty strict and are both seeing remorsely rising cases at the moment.
If there was conclusive proof Whitty and Vallance would absolutely have put up a graph at their press conferences , Hancock would have been shouting from the roof tops and we would all have heard about it.
When pressed they've admitted that evidence is thin, which is a 180° U turn on their original comments when they told us not to wear them. It's also worth noting that the masks most people wear aren't top quality or even a good fit.
Personally and anecdotes are entirely unscientific, I've watched a lot of people I know who've followed the rules and protocols very closely and still some have succumbed but thankfully all got better.
I'll nail my colours to the mast though Cher and say that Covid is endemic now and that it's going to rip through the whole world, New Zealand included in the end as people will just get worn down in a war of attrition lasting years that can't be won.