Good thread on the Cochrane Review on masks and Covid.

[Sympthsical]

5. It feels like we've crossed a cultural Rubicon

And I keep getting Leo Spaceman stuck in my head.

It feels more and more that "trust the science" is coming with an asterisk.

Trust the Science!*

*as long as it reinforces a narrative.

Like, I've seen people get mad if empirical evidence doesn't show worst case scenarios for things. As if anxiety and panic are moral goods that require validation.

I haven't read the study just yet (however, I have seen a few articles about it). I'll make plans to today. I do know, as someone currently in school to go into medicine, I've had more than one medical professional take a look at my double layered cloth mask and say, "You know that does nothing, right?"

Intellectually, I know this. Emotionally, I find the mask comforting. As long as I know this is more of a self-soothing thing at this point, who cares. It's when science gets bent and contorted to justify the emotional components that we run into problems.

We can't run science as just another political narrative where things are or aren't true based on whatever narrative need is required in the moment. This development in our culture bothers me a great deal.