People, Please Don’t Throw Your Masks Away

Good news has a way of making people do stupid things — particularly amid the coronavirus pandemic. Infection data looking better? Let’s open bars, restaurants, schools, colleges, even the opera! The result: rising cases wherever people let their guard down and gather in ways that facilitate the spread of the virus.

In other words, the feedback loop of human behavior can turn good news very bad. Which is why I think that Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had a point when he said that face masks might provide more protection against Covid-19 than any future vaccine.