I respectfully disagree. IMO, masks will be commonplace until a vaccination is developed, distributed, and most of the public has been inoculated. I would say absolute minimum time frame is a year from now, and likely quite a bit longer.
Okay. I have been a lurker for sometimes, and I've read this entire posting on here at dinner to my wife, who is a physician at the 2nd largest hospital in Charlotte, NC. They had a meeting today about this "mask" issue, and you want to know something about masks, and this is coming from not only my wife, but all her colleagues at the hospital (aka, people smarter and more informed than ANYONE commenting here)
Masks, cloth masks, is something that is being pushed to show solidarity. That is it. They basically do next to nothing. Argue all you want, but that is what it is. There are so many moving aspects to masks right now, so believe what you want, but what it comes down to is the psychological affect of making people feel like they have control... or some form of control. Much like hording toilet paper was the form of control 2 months ago, this is the new one. People need something to believe in, and it's been attached to masks. It's actually rather sad imo. And for anyone talking about Asian culture, I lived in Hong Kong for 6 months years ago. As I toured China for my job, masks were worn largely for pollution. Not because of germs.
Here are some other tidbits to think about.
A 2017 study, showing the affects of wearing cloth masks and the spread of the flu, showed that people were 20% more likely to get the flu than those in the control group (no masks).
People are more likely to touch their mask and face due to having a mask on. Basically, you will touch you mask, and your dirty hands will get germs all over it. You will breath them in because cloth masks have spacing between the fabric much larger than viruses.
Masks, like the ones Disney is selling, are not tested. There is no guidelines or government quality control in how they are made, or with what material they are using. Different manufacturers use different material, and they are all not the same. n95 masks have strict manufacturing guidelines they have to follow. And every user has to be trained in how to wear the mask, and goes under spray tests to make sure the fit is accurate.
Basically, for those playing at home, cloth masks have none of those standards, and with no standards, you cannot make any claims about how affective they are. Because everyone is different.
So, argue. Get mad. Shame people all you want. The truth is, in about 5 years when this is well passed us, and we look at this virus (which will probably have a mortality rate of about 0.3% (as the CDC is now saying)), this entire mask thing will looked at the same way kids in the 50s and 60s look back at their duck and cover drills.
And for those holding out hope for the first ever coronavirus vaccine. LOL. Okay..... I could go into statistics about the flu vaccine and how affective that is, and the percent of people who get it. But I won't.
Also, good luck getting a 2 year old to wear a mask. I am fully expecting reports of children getting heat stroke in strollers because of what is happening. I mean, I've already read about 2 kids dying in China from wearing masks (AND THEY WEAR MASKS THERE ALL THE TIME according to posters here), as well as a runner having a collapsed lung from wearing a mask. Good luck heros... good luck.