Do Masks Work Against COVID-19?

Maybe.

   According to Nature's account of recent research, they do. I don't accord that much weight--basically because I don't trust Nature anymore when it comes to questions that impinge on culture-war stuff. My general view is what it's been for...well...a long time now: forced to guess, I'd guess that masks have some effect. Forced to guess about how much...I wouldn't know what to say. Maybe: not a whole lot? I have exactly no expertise. I don't even know enough to intelligently evaluate primary research.

   But I do know that, once the progressive left takes a position on something, every progressive institution falls in line and supports the shiny new orthodoxy. And that includes Nature (and Science, for that matter). Science and its publications have turned out to be just about as stupid, irrational and cowardly in the face of the Woketarian onslaught as everything and everyone else.  (e.g.). Since we know that Nature is woke/progressive/converged, and we know that the official progressive position is that masks are a sacrament--or a shibboleth--we know that it would be foolish to believe the story at the link. We have to treat such reports as something like suggestions for further inquiry--and I mean: to a greater extent than we normally would.