Social distancing, hand washing, and basic hygiene are all superior to mask wearing. Masks have been pushed as being the only thing one needs to do to prevent contagion. This was for political reasons as it allowed for unlimited mass riots that could be promoted by the media was being good for containment rather than an infection vector because the participants most had a mask somewhere in their possession. Social distancing would have been complete poison to this summer's riots so it was discarded and labeled as an inferior containment method to that of wearing a piece of tissue on your mouth and under your nose.
