Math is very hard

pic.twitter.com/lVcVLZ8pEU

— Phuong Le (@huynhphuong1982) April 12, 2020

These people don't understand the basic reproduction number: R₀. So, of course, they don't get that reducing that number, even by a small amount, has HUGE benefits. Let's take a simple example in which a virus spreads very quickly every day. Let's say a person returns from travel with this virus. He spreads it into the local community by visiting family, friends, and various markets. In this case, R₀ is 3. After one week, a staggering 2,187 people would be infected.

Days after infection	R0 = 2	R0 = 3
1	2	3
2	4	9
3	8	27
4	16	81
5	32	243
6	64	729
7	128	2,187

Now, let's say, a similar city a few hours away implements a mask protocol. The masks reduce the risk of transmission by only 33%. Then, the R₀ would be 2. One infected person who visits that city would end up infecting only 128 people after one week.

So, a 33% reduction in R₀ improves the situation by 94% in ONE WEEK. A month or a year later, the reductions would be even more staggering.