Michael Hiltzik: COVID deniers think a new study says mask mandates don't work. They should try reading it
What is it about conservative COVID deniers and masks?
For some reason, mask mandates have been the target of more overheated carping by right-wingers about anti-COVID measures than almost anything else, vaccines aside.
They've physically attacked retail staffers for trying to enforce mask rules, marched performatively around public spaces with their mugs proudly bared, carried on endlessly about how mask mandates infringe on their individual liberties.
Joseph Ladapo, Florida's crackpot surgeon-general, refused to wear a mask at a meeting with a state legislator even after she told him she was a breast cancer patient with an elevated susceptibility to infection. Ladapo, a physician, was ejected from the office.
The mask critics are now touting what they seem— that is, a compilation — of studies on physical interventions against the spread of respiratory viruses. That includes chiefly masks of various types and hand-washing.
