Posted on 07/03/2020 5:37:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
Anytime things go from widely disputed to sudden, virtually-overnight national scientific consensus, its probably a good idea to be a wee bit skeptical. So it goes with the forced universal masking issue. Weve obviously run quite the gamut on this, from being told not to wear them at all while the pandemic was at its peak -- and everyone and their neighbor was crowding and swapping moisture particles in Lowes and Walmart aisles across America -- to the now almost cultlike, lockstep message from politicians, the media and every leftist still too frightened to come out of their basement that not wearing masks in every possible setting is pretty much the equivalent to stabbing grandma in the heart.
Its all a farce, of course -- absurd theater forced upon us by people who would have probably believed in witches a few centuries ago. Now that the Karen-caucus has managed to browbeat most Republican lawmakers and even President Trump into some degree of at least verbal submission, they apparently expect the rest of us rubes to take their word for it and follow along. They think if they condescendingly say the words I wear the mask to protect you and you wear the mask to protect me enough, everyone will mindlessly obey. And if you dont, they want to use the force of law to punish you severely.
No, the ongoing, relentless, unceasing crusade to force every American to wear masks to stop the spread of coronavirus isnt about to end anytime soon, if ever. Even with deaths declining, they keep the pot stirred up with panic porn about spikes in new cases and hospitalizations in southern and western states. Nevermind the fact that the so-called surge in hospitalizations in Texas turned out to be, as Fox News medical correspondent Dr. Marc Siegel noted, mostly people getting elective surgeries that had long been delayed due to coronavirus. So yeah, if youre a dishonest media hack I guess you could call those coronavirus-related. However, the reality isnt what the media panic-inducers want to convey, which is probably why you thought the hospitals were getting filled with actual, life-threatening COVID-19 cases until you read this.
As far as whether or not masking actually works to stop the spread of coronavirus, I can point to studies (assuming - and this is a big assumption - that Big Tech allows them to remain online), and the masking proponents can as well. We can go back and forth on the potential long-term dangers posed by non-medically trained people wearing, breathing through, touching and constantly fiddling with veritable Petri dishes for several hours a day (Im right, theyre wrong, but whatever ). We can even debate whether forced-masking is truly an infringement on personal freedoms (it is) or discuss the validity of the view, popular among many go-along-to-get-along Christians these days, that masking is somehow the key to loving your neighbor (its not).
Does masking work? (Maybe.) How well? (Hard to say.) Is it 100 percent safe? (Doubt it. Even assuming youre getting enough oxygen, how can breathing in your own germs all the time be safe?) Does God say one must put on a face diaper to properly love your neighbor? (LOL Uh, no.) Should freedom-centric societies force it on their citizens who arent obviously sick? (Hell no!) Certainly, we can argue over any of those issues and maybe never come to an agreement. Ill admit it has become a politicized issue. Either position can sound convincing when considered without looking at the other side, and people generally have by-and-large made up their minds before even weighing the other side of their own view.
However, what most advocates ignore is one key observation that makes forced universal masking an insane and unnecessary policy choice in most situations, and that is this: even if masking worked, wasnt dangerous at all and was not seen by millions as a pernicious tool of social control, I see no valid reason why we would want to stop the spread of the virus at this point.
There, I said it. The most powerful argument against universal masking is that it could in fact work to slow the spread of coronavirus. Please stay with me. Im not saying we shouldnt protect those who are vulnerable to the virus. Had we properly protected those in nursing homes, for example, we could have saved half the people who actually have died from this thing. Nevertheless, the facts are these: the virus is spreading at a rapid rate, but deaths have not spiked and have even decreased. The average age of those who are getting it is significantly younger than it was two months ago. And were not sure about this yet, but it also seems to have mutated into a weaker version that is more transmissible but less lethal than the version we saw in April.
The fact is, for all the suffering COVID-19 has caused among the elderly and immunocompromised, the actual death rate currently stands at less than half a percent and is declining rapidly as antibody studies come to light. The CDC recently estimated that 10 times the known cases have likely had the disease already and recovered. Thats probably a lowball estimate, but it equates to upwards of 10 percent of the U.S. population. As young people spread this seemingly milder version around while older folks take precautions, were ever closer to reaching herd immunity, which one recent study said can be attained with as little as 43 percent contracting the disease. That may still be a few months away, but in all honesty, it could be our only way out of this. They keep talking about vaccines, but no successful coronavirus vaccine has ever been produced and theres little reason to think it will be now, nor that anything they roll out this quickly will be truly safe anyway.
So, if we arent overwhelming hospitals and people arent dying in droves, community spread is actually a good thing, especially when most cases are either mild or asymptomatic. Yes, it would take several months to get any degree of herd immunity, but that would surely be better than living forever like we've been living the past three months, no? Whats the alternative, living with this virus on the prowl for years, even decades? Masks forever? Endless, rotating shutdowns? The end of mass gatherings and sports? And if Democrats win, God forbid, an ever-encroaching police state hellbent on using this virus to torment us and our liberties until their Bolshevik dreams become a reality?
Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanfords Hoover Institution and the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center, also made the case during a recent Fox News appearance: We like the fact that theres a lot of cases in low-risk populations because thats exactly how we are going to get herd immunity, population immunity. When low-risk people with no significant problem handling this virus, which is basically 99% of people, get this and they become immune ... they block the pathways of connectivity to more contagious, older, sicker people.
Truly, is there any logical reason why those who are elderly, immunocompromised or even frightened about the virus couldnt wear a mask that really protects them, like an n95, and let everyone else live their lives? Like it or not, herd immunity could be our only way out of this mess, our only way back to any sense of normalcy. The quicker that arrives, the safer those truly vulnerable to this epidemic will be.
Excellent observation.
Veritable petri dish...
Masks are made of? Cloth. You dry after a shower with? Cloth.
Why?
Cloth is ABSORBENT.
Cloth, especially cotton, absorbs moisture. The material my masks were made of is unknown, to me, maybe not cotton, but definitely absorbent.
Not trying to be gross, but when I wore them, in 2 minutes I was fighting to breathe, getting overheated, and my sinuses draining like faucets. Leave the grocery store and I’d have a large wet spot INSIDE the mask, from sinus drainage. Outside too. (not much fun and a bit embarrassing, when I had to clean it off my face too...4 kleenex to dry my face and beard.)
So anything wet that hits this mask, like these tiny airborne water droplets containing up to hundreds of little virus critters, is absorbed by the mask, ready to invade when I touch it...
Not to mention the fact that it fit so loose it constantly fogged my glasses...
And now my governor, who I liked pretty well until yesterday, says we all have to wear petri dishes on our faces...
I never understood this anyway. Has anyne paid attention to pictures from China the past 10 years or so? They wear masks daily already to filter the incredible smog. Yet their masks did not stop a major epidemic in China before it left their country.
I see people every time I go to town wearing various face coverings, almost all have large gaps on the sides of the nose. Most also have a hump that curves away from the face between tbe straps.
This is what people mean when referring to ill fitting masks. Mine are no different. That’s why my glasses fog. If enough humid air gets OUT to fog my glasses, how much gets IN?
Then there are the dozen or so articles I’ve read (thanks Freepers) that say masks offer little or no protection against viruses, and minimal protection even in surgery, against much larger bacteria...
Yes, on the breath out. But what about the breath in when in an environment with the unmasked? That’s my point and I presume the authors. Even then, your droplets are on the inside of your mask and with every breath out, you expell the virus, albeit not in droplet form. Then there’s the whole issue of mask sanitization and disposal.
A doctor on the radio said that masks are meant to control bacteria, which are much larger than viruses. The masks do nothing to screen a virus.
Well “in an environment with the unmasked” is kind of the problem right? Imagine if there were no “unmasked.”
No, I do not. Even breathing is sufficient. The internal structure of the lungs has many myriads of sharp turns with accelerations and decelerations of gas flow sufficient to break off microdrops. The behavior of fluid flow in micro-channels involved a significant part of my career.
Free online book!
It’s a fascinating short story that aligns with the psychopathic politics of today, and the ending is the best part. :)
The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51233
Texans hate this.
I broke my back last year. I was going to the gym everyday to walk, do water aerobics, and yoga to strengthen my core and reduce my pain. I cannot exercise with a mask on. It makes me feel like I’m going to suffocate. This time of year I can’t walk outside because of the heat and humidity.
So disappointed Gov. Abbot mandated this for Texas.
Don’t confuse the idiot with facts.
The virus travels by droplets, which are larger than mask pores.
Bump
Well said krug. I don’t wear the mask though the Orange county Mayor has ordered us to. I go into stores and everyone is wearing masks and no one says anything to me. I’m a tall dude so maybe that’s why, but I doubt it.
One great point the author makes is that masks are WORSE than not wearing a mask because everyone touches all kinds of surfaces then they invariably put their hands right around their noses and mouths while fiddling with their slave masks.
I am just an honest reporter of the news. It was interesting to see the M.D. freak out about the possibility of triage. As I indicated , he probably has never seen a mass casualty situation that required triage. There is definitely a group within the medical community in Arizona trying to panic people. Last week someone at Banner hospitals said they were at capacity. The Governor held a Covid news conference and it was reported that there was capacity within the Banner group.
Your logic is irrelevant to mask lovers. They want everyone to wear masks because they think it raises the odds they, the mask lovers, stay well. Your beliefs and/or difficulties with the mask wearing is irrelevant them also. This is about them and only them.
Ping
IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T READ IT.
No one forces you to!!!
Well kinda hard to dont read it if you dont like it when it takes 6 paragraphs to get to the inane point of the article, then reread around that point to be convinced the author is in fact that deranged.
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