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Just Wear the Damned Mask

Baseless conspiracy theories and general stubbornness over masks give COVID-19 sustainable momentum

Andrew Martin
5 min readAug 1, 2020

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Just wear the damned mask. Please, just wear it. COVID-19 has ravaged the globe with millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Even though the medical and scientific communities have strongly urged the use of masks and face coverings when near others (along with other measures) as one of the best methods of prevention, a significant number of Americans continue to push back and offer a veritable cornucopia of excuses and conspiracy theories as to why their opposition is justified.

There is no way to precisely calculate exactly how much wearing a mask reduces one’s chances of catching or transmitting COVID-19, but scientific study after study shows that it dramatically contributes to prevention. With cases continuing to rise in this country, and around 150,000 dead here thus far with no cure or vaccine, any safe preventative measures should be taken seriously.

Unfortunately, there is a growing laundry list of excuses and conspiracy theories for the “anti-masker” crowd. Not surprisingly, none of them hold up to reason and fact, but that doesn’t stop them being peddled and keeping COVID firmly in the driver’s seat.

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .

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