around for years. Flatly stating that "masks have not been effective" is a pretty bold statement as you can find studies and experiments that run the spectrum in terms of results. I hate the "chicken wire to stop mosquitoes" analogy because it's both inaccurate and an oversimplification. Yes the virus itself is going to be small enough to pass through almost any mask. But a mask will block droplets and such that can potentially carry the virus. So I definitely disagree that masks "have not been effective" and are a "waste of time" particularly in crowded indoor settings. There are definitely ones that work better for sure and there are plenty of people who don't wear the masks properly to maximize the protection regardless of the material. But I definitely would not say "masks don't work". I don't think that's remotely accurate.

Even with the vaccine the risk formula hasn't really changed.

Location - inside is more risky than outside
Duration - longer is more risky than shorter
Mitigation - not wearing masks is more risky than wearing them
Separation - closer is more risky than farther away
Population - more people is more risky than fewer people

And yes it's very possible we don't eradicate the virus. But the fact is we'd be in a better position now both in terms of dealing with mutations and with containing outbreaks if more people had gotten the vaccine. We had a perfect window where cases were down and vaccines were widely available and we really could have boosted the overall % of vaccinated adults and it didn't happen and now we're dealing with a variant spreading rapidly and there's not a whole lot we can do about it.