If you’re well

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title: "If you’re well" claim: "If you're well, and are not caring for a person with COVID-19, the answer is probably no." caption: "March: probably no. July: a scarf, or a $200 fine. Same virus. Same verb." status: featured example: false published: 2026-08-15T09:33:00+10:00 person: Daniel Andrews claimType: no-evidence-required year: 2020 tags: [covid, masks, andrews, abc, "2020"] source: url: https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-03-25/coronavirus-covid-19-face-mask-surgical-mask-protection/12088314 date: "2020-03-25" publisher: ABC News title: "Face masks not recommended for healthy individuals, but essential for health workers and sick people" quote: "If you're well, and are not caring for a person with COVID-19, the answer is probably no." evidence: path: 2020/if-youre-well/source.md kind: note captured: "2026-08-14"

ABC Health, 25 March 2020: community spreading. Do you need a mask? “If you're well… the answer is probably no.” Headline: not recommended for healthy individuals.

23 July 2020, same city: a face covering in public or a $200 fine. Surgical, cloth, or a scarf. Daniel Andrews: deeply grateful to Victorians wearing masks and “making sacrifices” to stop the spread.

This card files that U-turn. It does not file “masks never worked.”

What did have a receipt:

• Four months. Same virus. Official Australia went from “probably no” to a scarf as a legal instrument.
• Healthdirect still says cloth gives “the least protection” from droplets and aerosols — “but they can still help stop the spread.” Least, and stop: two verbs on one page.
• A fitted respirator and a tea towel are not the same meter. The slogan treated them as one covering.

Grammar: well / not well, March. Logic: a scarf is not a P2. Rhetoric: stop the spread, or $200.