Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Dr. Leana Wen speaks the truth for once Date:   12/22/2021 2:11:49 PM

There was a large study I read several months ago about the social distancing issue.  It pointed out the obvious, that when a person breathes out warm air it rises and spreads. Being 6 feet away is not at all helpful.  What seemed to be more important is how long you spend breathing the air of an infected person.  I was a big proponent of social distancing until I read that study.  Now I focus on the time spent in close contact with someone that has symptoms.  I still think staying away from someone who is actively coughing or sneezing is probably helpful to avoid droplets but you would have to be very close to them for you to inhale droplets as they drop to the floor pretty quickly.  But if someone is asymptomatic or taking medication to mask their symptoms you'll never know.

I don't like masks for many reasons, most importantly is that they do not protect you (especially the cloth ones that 99% of people wear), they give wearers a false sense of security, they quickly become germ factories which is why medical professionals change them often, they are very harmful to the social development of young people and I bristle at the gov't intervention in areas where they don't belong.  Like I said, I wear a mask sparingly and only when I have to in order to go where I want.  I really hate them on airplanes and in airports so I avoid that as much as possible these days.