Another great article, Shin Jie Yong! Your writing is a breath of fresh air to this scientist looking hard for objective writing on Medium. It reads like it could be published in a top-tier journal.

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Wearing masks is a social courtesy in Asian nations long before COVID-19. I noticed in Japan, people turn off their headlights when passing a car on a lonely highway at night as respect for all fellow drivers. I doubt this behavior is reflexive in Western nations. I'm not pointing fingers by any means. We have to learn from those nations that can keep their citizens safe and alive. We need to discard some of our cultural identity to save our nation, like the motto "Don't tread on me." But, your graph, "Country by country: how coronavirus case trajectories compare", has no source to why they circled Western nations as "No masks" and Asian nations as "Masks". Perhaps you can clear this up or provide clear references? However misleading this graph is, it tells a morbid tale of two cultures, West & East.

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In order for us to tame this virus, we must work as a united community then as a united states then as a united planet. It does no good to blame the West for being the viral pool for the East. Or blame NY for spreading the virus from Europe to sister States. It just is. It's in Western culture to be cavalier while the Eastern cultures are obedient as a gross stereotype. The sun has already set on English colonialism, but now China is taking over the world through backdoor channels like a mirror to their respective cultures. What does this have to do with wearing masks? Just like lightning, a voltage is needed for a virus to propagate. Nations that don't wear masks and don't provide their citizens proper protection become the negative node to the positive nations that flatline their infection rate. Then the cycle repeats in a spiral of infection and death.

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If you look at the D614G mutation spread from France to England to America, you can see that the United Kingdom's transition is pretty similar from region to region. But, when D614G arrived in America, its dominance is patchworked throughout the 50 States. This indicates poor social planning, poor governing, and lack of direction by policy-makers. It's a perfect breeding ground for D614G coronavirus strain. Citizens are not all scientists. Most are hard-working average people getting by. If Trump says everyone should wear a mask, that would have been a game-changer in this fight. But there is no clear message from anyone of authority in America, imho.

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Here is my clear message. Like sex, if you wear a condom, you protect both you and your partner from disease and pregnancy. If it has holes, it is better than nothing at all. The mask is no different. It goes both ways, yes.

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Lastly, this reminds me of the story of two countries, Lilliput and Blefuscu in Gulliver's Travels. One country believed in breaking an egg on the larger end while the other had faith in the smaller end. In the end, they went to war and hell soon followed. I hope we can end this debate, strap on these ridiculous masks that make everyone look like bandits, and start acting as good citizens even if our government and health organizations are still debating which end it truly right. It's not too late to reverse America's course. I don't have much hope considering the patchwork of school re-openings State by State. I predict children will become the next breeding ground for D614G SARS-COV-2. Winter is indeed coming.

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Amen.