[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/these-are-t...
Stephen Petty, one of the top industrial hygienist in the world does an excellent job of covering all aspects of this: https://rumble.com/c/PettyPodcasts
That's not true. Here is a lit review that shows you multiple avenues of evidence that show masks are effective: http://files.fast.ai/papers/masks_lit_review.pdf
> Real world data from Florida shows schools with and without mandates had the same rates of infection which mirrored the general communities.
Again, mask wearing is effective. Mask mandates may not be. There is a difference, and the difference is compliance. If people don't actually wear masks, that's not evidence that masks don't work.
Vaccination rates yes maybe we can now start pointing fingers as they undoubtedly keep people out of hospital, but Texas and Florida have been unfairly criticised all year.
Where tiny COVID hotspots start is basically a matter of luck. A few people acting like idiots is enough to start a local cluster. It's what happens after those local clusters pop up that dictates the real results.
Masks are part of the equation, the real frustrating is the lack of vaccination and the lack of masking. Massachusetts has a population of 7 million people, had 2 deaths yesterday and has ~500 people currently hospitalized with COVID. Louisiana, a similar sized state, has a population of 5 million and has nearly 5k people in the hospital and has a 7 day rolling average of 110 deaths. Texas and Florida are both worse than Louisiana. This includes the fact that Cape Cod had a massive 1000+ person outbreak July 4th which resulted in, as far as I'm aware, no deaths and relatively few hospitalizations.
Tell me what state you'd rather live in?
The whole "But but California was worse at one point schtick isn't going to work when you see Southern states with double as many people per capita dying as the Northern state who've had most of their deaths occur very early in the pandemic when we didn't have treatments or even effective testing.