[someone123]

I think if Donald Trump had kept up a message like "everybody wear masks, they'll stop the virus dead in its tracks, it's gonna be great!" in the spring of 2020 opinions wouldn't have flipped (since there is so much wiggle room since the data is poor) so much and focusing on limitations of masks like the efficacy of cloth mask in preventing aerosol transmission would feel more reasonable to more people. To most people this is mostly sentiment based, with the covid interventions they do or don't like being like picking a sports team (and it's social/tribal in the same way you might want to follow the local sports team).

Like I said I do think the masks have some effect and it depends on the person. So maybe if you are older and worried you should wear an N95 (cloth not being good enough) while if you're low risk and vaccinated cloth is okay (just to satisfy the mandate, but it's probably not doing much).

I agree as usual the end goal is not really clear. Just as most people pick their preferred regime based on sentiment, politicians monitor public sentiment to decide what to do, and there is not necessarily much rhyme or reason to how it will evolve. Some people seem to want indefinite mask wearing, others argue it should be done while we are in crisis mode and we seem to be in perpetual crisis. Not sure what the cutoff should be here but I don't think it makes sense to wait for 0 covid because there is no clear path to 0 covid and it may never happen.