SRS - Thanks for your response but I'm not sure what you are getting at. As far as I can see, there is nothing in my post which contradicts yours. If there is, I'm sorry to say I'm missing it, so perhaps you could point it out and I will reply if I can, or apologise if I need to.

I should say though that it was not my intention to deliver a "vote of no-confidence" per se. In a situation like this there is likely to be a lot of misinformaton circulating, or at least a great many misconceptions, and I only intended to present some facts as opposed to opinions. Only evidence-based strategies will have any affect on the spread of Covid-19.

I note that the CDC (sorry, don't know who or what that is) says "cloth face coverings may slow the spread of the virus". I would put a lot of emphasis on "may", and suggest that this sort of advice is designed more to allay fears than actually do anything useful. I posted "If you can feel your breath on the other side of it [a cotton mask]then you are still breathing bugs into the atmosphere." Do you have a criticism of that, or can you refute it?

Note: CDC says "Cloth face coverings are NOT surgical masks". Surgical masks (I called them hospital-grade masks) ARE designed to prevent the spread of bacteria (but not necessarily viruses - it's very important to realise that bacteria and viruses are completely different). I don't know whether the average surgical mask will stop Covid-19 spreading from someone's nose or mouth, and I don't know if anyone else does either. Viruses are all unbelieveably tiny, but nevertheless some are much bigger than others. I have to admit that I don't know where Covid-19 comes on this scale. If you can give me some relevant information on that I would be grateful. But if a surgical mask doesn't stop a virus, what use do you think a cloth mask would be?

Let me put it this way. Imagine you are shrunk to microscopic size. You see a mesh the size of a garden trellis. This is the filter in a surgical mask. Something the size of a pidgeon flies into it and gets stuck. This is a bacterium. Then something the size of a bee buzzes straight through. This is a virus, perhaps a Covid-19 virus. But a cloth mask isn't even designed to stop a bacterium. Actually, I don't think it's designed for anything other than making people feel better.

My background is 25+ years as a NHS healthcare professional. NHS means the British National Health Service, and I assure you that neither I nor the NHS take no notice of anything Mr Trump might pronounce upon.