You’re too coy here, Marcie. What is your take from the Czech Republic?
A quick google and a bunch of random CNN articles tells me that they were winning when they had the mandate (and lockdown) in Spring.
Then in July to show the world their wonderful and beautiful hubris, held a giant party to celebrate not wearing masks anymore:
Then in late October they reinstated the mask-mandate and went back to lockdown.
Then in December they decided to partially reopen before Christmas.
And then locked back down during Christmastime proper.
And in accordance with all these policy flops, their cases do look like an insane rollercoaster of good-times and bad-times.
So… I don’t know… I actually didn’t have a horse in this one, and was (and still am) ready to see where you’re going with this, but you seemed to have picked a country that’s weirdly illustrative of the notion that masks and/or shutdowns worked.
They work to the extent the population is willing to follow the guidance. People like Marcie who point to examples of where populations don’t follow the guidance to justify the pointlessness of a mandate are really a part of the problem, along with Trump and all the republican leaders who constantly question how effective masks are. All that does is further lower rates of compliance and increase the spread of the virus and deaths it causes.