Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[SYZ]

How exactly have you quantified this 10x figure...

I gave you the overall population density per sq km for the US vs Australia. It's a > 10 fold difference.

As I've explained, the overall or average population density of the two countries cannot be used
as a relevant metric to indicate social distancing.  The requisite social distancing is 1.5m (5 feet)
in Australia and 6 feet in the US, so the person-to-person distance is virtually identical, whilst the
overall  numbers of people is immaterial.  It makes no difference as to whether you have 200
people in a shopping mall or 2,000 people.

I pointed out that there are MANY other variables aside from average population density and masks,
so no, you nor anyone else can prove masks are useless (or useful).

Nope.  I'm relying on the information about wearing masks provided by Australia's Chief Medical
Officer, and chair of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, professor Brendan Murphy
and his state counterparts.  On 9 March, Murphy said "certainly wearing a mask walking down the
streets of Melbourne makes no sense at all".  (Melbourne has a population larger than that of Los Angeles.)

Masks are cheap, do no harm, and help at least sometimes to some debatable degree...

Murphy also warned about the complacency of people wearing masks giving them a false sense of security
and thus decreasing their practising and/or awareness of other essential hygiene.  He also said people
untrained in the use of masks often mishandled them, reused them, wore and/or removed them incorrectly,
and lifted them to scratch or otherwise fidget with them.
 
It was also found [Daniel Maxin et al ] that face masks also negatively impact respiratory and dermal
mechanisms of human thermoregulation, making it hard for many to wear constantly.

So your "do no harm" claim is nor exactly correct.

I think, in the wash-up, we simply don't yet know whether or not face masks are effective, due in part to the
uniqueness of this virus plus the lack of its study over time.  It would seem that medical authorities all over
the world have differing opinions on their effectiveness, as do their governments.

I'm glad Australia has had good luck without masks but I'm not using it as proof—much less definitive proof —that masks do nothing.

How then can you explain why it is that Americans—who're wearing masks—have had 1,532 new cases reported
today if masks are supposedly so effective?  And with the US now having the highest coronavirus death rate in
the world?  (More than 83,000 today.)