Thanks for putting this together. Sad that the platform you use (or the blockchain itself?) limits posts to such a small size. Not that there isn't a lot of info here, of course, just saying a full article should be able to fit into a post!
I'll check out part 2 later. Lots here to digest already! One thing that came to mind...
"Until 2020, universal societal masking was an entirely foreign concept to most"
How about certain asian regions of the planet where almost all of the population masks in public? I lived in Vancouver for decades, and saw masks come into style among the asian community. Over time, it rose to about 50% of Chinese people masking in public, and since 50% of Vancouver is Chinese, it resulted in about 1 in 4 people being fully masked at all times. Surely some data exists on health issues this has caused.
Also, how about muslim regions? In some cases, for thousands of years, the entire populace has used cloth face coverings in public (or, half the populace has). What is the incidence of bacterial pneumonia and other health issues in these populations? What else can we learn from these examples of widespread masking?
You’re very welcome, it was quite a time-consuming project but feels good to have all the info in one place and up for people to see and be able to dive deeper into all the attached research.
The post limit is blockchain limit, 64,000 characters or something I believe, although this is only the 2nd time I’ve had to break up a long post because of it. I still wish it were a bit bigger, and maybe a word limit so it would be easier to know when one has reached the limit as opposed to only knowing for sure when going to post...
Good points you bring up, especially in regards to Asians, I wonder if there is any research done on pneumonia incidents per capita in China and countries where masking has become more prevalent since SARS, and western countries where it was mostly nonexistent until now (besides 1918 of course).
My quote you reference was in regards to America specifically, but your points are certainly valid and it would be worth looking for more info about any differences, if any, due to this influx in masking by Asians in particular.
As an aside, I went to boarding school with many Koreans I was friends with in Africa growing up, and none of them wore masks, so it seems that even for this culture, it is somewhat of a new phenomenon. I also think that a lot of the masking in China and what not has more to due with protection from pollution and dust than stopping viruses, as the air quality is so bad in the big cities over there (Japan, too), that this would seem to be the case.
Thanks for the interaction and have a great week!