One very real hypothesis was that masking was gonna make things worse, because we weren’t sure if it was airborne or not yet, and that masking might make people touch their faces more often
well I’m sure someone somewhere might have thought that but it was never a credible argument being made by anyone worth listening to.
if COVID wasn’t airborne,
COVID was obviously an airborne disease immediately. It is a quickly spreading resp disease. which has characteristics of being airborne. the only question was what the role of other mechanisms might have been. which is why we were all washing our hands and wiping down the cereal boxes. But the idea that it was not airborne at all I am sorry to say: totally ludicrous.
Anyway this comment bring to the front of my mind a major moderation problem; I am at a loss as to how to address it.
My understanding was that it was genuinely uncertain early on whether it was being spread in large respiratory droplets, and therefore whether there was a higher chance of spread via surfaces/touch, or if it was being spread via aerosolized droplets. These are two different transmission vectors that would react differently to masking by the general public. On the other hand, my understanding is that some governments were slow to recommend masking even as it became clear that Covid was airborne and that masking would decrease transmission, because of concerns about supply.
I’m a little fuzzy on timelines, though, and I don’t have any sources so take this comment with an enormous grain of salt.
