It’s a bit worse than that, of course. Frequently there’s a little salt of truth on both sides.
For example—I’ll put my cards on the table about the mask thing now—I suspect—steel yourselves for my highly uninformed guess on the matter of masks—I suspect that those who argue that masks make people sicker AND those who argue that they make society healthier are both right.
How would they make people sicker? It’s been claimed, and debunked, that masks can reduce oxygenation of the blood.
Except the debunkings are … not 100% accurate either. I think. A little careful internet searching seems to indicate that some types of masks—the kind doctors wear for surgeries—do, in fact, with prolonged use, decrease oxygen.
This is probably not a big deal—unless you are, say, asthmatic, or have some other preexisting lung condition. If that’s not the case, most likely your run-of-the-mill cotton cloth mask that you wear for half an hour a day while doing your grocery run, your gym workout, and your post office trip does not pose a danger to your health.
And on the flip side, most likely, masks of the non-surgical type provide some protection from the spread of the virus, but not as much as one might hope.
But now, depending on what side of the mask wearing question you’re on, it should be clear why the folks on the other side aren’t budging.
Of course, they may be not merely humanly fallible (as this series has argued) but also evil and/or stupid (“Why not both?”). But that’s for another day.
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