Ok, let's follow the science.
First, let's start with masks. From the Annals of Internal Medicine: "In conclusion, both surgical and cotton masks seem to be ineffective in preventing the dissemination of SARS–CoV-2 from the coughs of patients with COVID-19 to the environment and external mask surface."
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1342 Now, let's move on to the mortality rate. I agree with other posters that COVID-19 appears to be highly transmissible, but it also appears to be much less deadly than the "modeling" predicted (So I guess in a way your COVID-19/climate change comparison was valid). Several antibody studies have recently been completed and the results suggest the infection rate has been much higher (to be expected given the R factor) and the true mortality rate much lower.
Link to the Stanford antibody study:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.20062463v2 Link to report regarding the joint USC and LA County Health Department antibody study results:
https://news.usc.edu/168987/antibody-testing-results-covid-19-infections-los-angeles-county/ And link to LA County's formal press release on the antibody study:
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/media/mediapubhpdetail.cfm?prid=2328 Furthermore, the science indicates that nearly everyone who recovers from COVID-19 develops antibodies:
https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/05/07...rus-antibodies/ And with respect to "at risk" populations, 40% of all COVID-19 deaths in the US have been in nursing home and assisted living populations:
https://freopp.org/the-covid-19-nursing-home-crisis-by-the-numbers-3a47433c3f70 In fact, it appears the actions of the governors in our nation's "hot zones" (California, New York, New Jersey) have actually inflated the COVID-19 death toll by seeding the virus among our most vulnerable:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/us/nursing-homes-coronavirus.html A common sense and science-based response to a virus that we know is highly contagious yet not particularly dangerous to young/healthy populations would be to isolate those most vulnerable (i.e. nursing home, assisted living, and 80+ year old individuals) and allow the rest of us to go about our lives and develop herd immunity to this new illness.
But of course, we are in an election season so I'm not holding my breath.
