I know what cognitive dissonance is, and still it confuses me when I see it. Why do the number of cases and deaths look the same across countries whether authoritarian measures are imposed or not? Cloth masks, lock downs, social distancing, vaccines; anything newly introduced that didn't exist in "medical science" until last year have the same numbers as countries and jurisdictions that have chose to do nothing.

I distance because I've always been a germaphobe and the efficacy is obvious and scientifically proven in controlled environments;these other measures are not. But even "social distancing" has negligible effect on case numbers in statistical analysis in broad populations.