Have surgical masks really shown to be effective in reducing the spread of disease when worn by people who are not yet infected?
I've been to mainland China, Taiwan, HK, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in the last four weeks. China has close to 100% usage of masks in public, mostly the surgical type. The virus is spreading like wildfire there. Every other country I've visited has markedly less mask usage, in particular Vietnam where at least in the south, it's relatively rare to see people wearing them.
Yet in all the other countries it's hardly spreading (obviously I'm excluding the cruise ship off the coast of Japan here, which appears to be a special case).
I've been to mainland China, Taiwan, HK, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in the last four weeks. China has close to 100% usage of masks in public, mostly the surgical type. The virus is spreading like wildfire there. Every other country I've visited has markedly less mask usage, in particular Vietnam where at least in the south, it's relatively rare to see people wearing them.
Yet in all the other countries it's hardly spreading (obviously I'm excluding the cruise ship off the coast of Japan here, which appears to be a special case).