NOT IF WE’RE FOLLOWING THE REAL SCIENCE: Do We Need Mask Mandates? Connor Harris takes a deep dive into the research on masks and epidemics, from the 1910 Manchurian Plague and 1918 Spanish flu through Covid-19. After surveying the reported benefits and harms – including the possibility that some face masks make fatal infections more likely — he concludes that Dr. Fauci’s version of “the science” bears little resemblance to the scientific literature.

It would be an overstatement to say that cloth and surgical masks are unambiguously ineffective or harmful. But neither is there a firm case that they provide any meaningful benefit. Limited mask mandates may be justified in circumstances with unavoidable face-to-face contact within the range of droplet spread, such as public transport, and private businesses should be free to require masks if they like. Citizens at high risk should be free to wear effective N95 masks for their own protection, and federal regulators should clear away barriers to domestic production.

But mandates of cloth and surgical masks impose major inconveniences and potentially serious health risks on citizens, for no clear benefit either to themselves or to others. Leaders who pride themselves on following the science should consider ending them and letting citizens protect their health as they see fit.

But then what would that leave for our leaders to do?