I said most consumer grade masks and you know it. I never said masks in general don't work. Don't pull a cb on me and misrepresent what I said. I have N95s. I continued to wear mine around crowds. The bigger problem is that the CDC gave people a false sense of hope. They essentially told the entire country it was safe to have large gatherings, not distance, and not mask if vaccinated and that's exactly what people started doing. It was the packed venues and large gatherings becoming acceptable that had a bigger impact. Even with masks, we still shouldn't be jamming a bunch of people indoors yet.
Half the country isn't vaccinated and a new variant, far more infectious than the last, was emerging. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how this was going to play out. A simple math equation tells us how much it was going to grow. Yet, the CDC relaxed guidelines, essentially telling everyone to stop putting out the fire knowing full well it was only going to grow larger. Unless they're incompetent.
I don't really blame people who don't wear masks. I blame people who are having huge parties, WEDDINGS, and generally being reckless. That's where the biggest risk comes from since it's a numbers game at the end of the day. But, again the CDC knows this is going to happen if you make people think we're in the clear.