With respect, I find the ruction over masks interesting. Here in Tokyo, as previously noted, almost all, but not all, are wearing them. It has always been a common accessory prior to WuFlu and is absolutely no big deal for reasons I discussed earlier. This is normal throughout Asia.

The symbolic value masks have taken and the emotions arising strike me as not too dissimilar from the headscarf controversy or even the MAGA hat.

The claim that one is selfish if wearing a mask that could be used in a medical facility is also interesting. Personally, watching feeds from PRC in January and with a trip to the US, including NYC starting in late February, and being in an age risk cadre, simple prudence advised that I order from a medical supply store adequate PPE. It was waiting for me when I hit the USA. Selfish? More selfish would have been to get sick and infect a medical facility or go there and increase viral load exponentially.

As for PCR test validity, agreed, certainly not perfect. That is why a 14 day quarantine period was required after returning to Japan. That is probably not perfect either.

Of interest, two studies released on risk models, one from AMA, the other from PCR published in Nature.

AMA
Development and Validation of a Clinical Risk Score to Predict the Occurrence of Critical Illness in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaint....

NATURE
An interpretable mortality prediction model for COVID-19 patients
"biomarkers that can predict whether a coronavirus patient will die within 10 days, with more than 90 percent accuracy"
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-0....