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Mask-Wearing Represents Fear and Blind Obedience, Not Science
Townhall.com ^ | April 6, 2021 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 04/06/2021 4:36:51 AM PDT by Kaslin

When I see people walking outside, often alone with no one anywhere near them, wearing a mask, my primary reactions are disappointment and sadness.

I am disappointed because I expected better from my fellow Americans. I never thought most Americans would be governed by irrational fears and unquestioning obedience to authority. I have come to realize that I had a somewhat romanticized view of my countrymen.

Had you told me a year ago that nearly every American in nearly every metropolitan area would cover their faces for over a year because one man, one political party and the media told them to, I would have responded that you underestimate the strength of the American character.

But here we are, over a year later, and where I live (the Los Angeles area), I am usually the only person on the street not wearing a mask. (For the record, I wear a mask in stores and when entering the building in which I work, out of courtesy to those who think a person not wearing a mask poses a lethal threat.)

On the rare occasions I pass people not wearing a mask, I thank and praise them. They are invariably enthused by my reaction.

You do not need medical or scientific expertise to understand the foolishness of outdoor mask-wearing. Common sense, that great unused guide to life, suffices.

If you wear a mask, you do so in the belief that you are protecting yourself (and others) from COVID-19. So, then, why do you care if I don't wear a mask? Doesn't your mask protect you? If it does, my not wearing a mask may irritate you because you resent my assertion of freedom, my obvious lack of respect for government and medical authorities, and my alleged selfishness, but there would be no rational medical -- that is, "science-based" -- reason for your objecting to my not wearing a mask.

And if masks protect us and others, why have people been refused the right to visit a loved one as he or she lay dying alone? Why couldn't a person -- wearing the same mask a doctor, nurse or any health care worker wears when entering your parent's room -- enter that room? There are two possible answers: One is it's a tacit admission that masks are essentially useless. You were prevented from visiting your dying father because the hospital believes your loved one or others in the hospital might contract the virus from you, even though you were wearing a mask. Which means those running the hospital don't believe masks actually work. The other is that the medical establishment and lay authorities have abandoned elementary human decency in the name of AOC, or "Abundance of Caution." Forcing hundreds of thousands of people to die alone will go down as one of the cruelest policies ever adopted by American medical and political authorities.

The problem is most Americans who went to college learned to unquestioningly obey "experts." This is why common sense, logic and reason mean little to the well-educated -- and, increasingly, to everyone else, because everyone is taught by the well-educated. All we need to know is what the "experts" say. That plus a fanatical adherence to the rule of AOC have crushed logic and reason.

The irony, however, is that "the science" doesn't justify the fanatical commitment to mask-wearing. There are plenty of experts with evidence-based views to the contrary. Here are but a few examples:

Dr. Anthony Fauci himself told the truth about the uselessness of mask-wearing on "60 Minutes" on March 8, 2020: "Right now, in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks. ... There's no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you're in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet, but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences: People keep fiddling with the mask, and they keep touching their face."

Dr. Ramin Oskoui, a cardiologist in Washington at a Senate hearing in December 2020, testified under oath: "Masks do not work." (The New York Times, Dec. 8, 2020.)

The Wall Street Journal reported on Nov. 11, 2020: "The projected number of lives saved, and the implied case for a mask mandate, are based on a faulty statistic."

Dr. Paul E. Alexander, a Canadian epidemiologist, wrote: "Surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are, have absolutely no impact on controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus, and current evidence implies that face masks can be actually harmful." (American Institute for Economic Research, Feb. 11, 2021.)

Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Riverside, wrote: "A 'mask,' and that term usually refers to either a SURGICAL mask or N95 mask, has no benefit in the general population and is only useful in controlled clinical settings. Further, it has been considered a greater transmission risk than a benefit in the general population. ... In the open environment, no one should be wearing face coverings." (American Institute for Economic Research, Oct. 16, 2020.)

Finally, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on May 21, 2020, concluded: "We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic."

Contrary to mainstream media misinformation, the doctors who wrote that report did not later retract anything they wrote.

People say they "follow the science." They rarely do. They follow the scientists the media tell them to follow.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: appypappy; coronavirus; covid19; dennisprager; fauci; followthescience; mask; masks; maskwhining; prager; reaganez; talkradio; viewreplies
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To: who knows what evil?
Even as COVID winds down

COVID comes in waves and each wave "winds down" before the next wave. The 1918 pandemic did the same thing, before people got immunity and the virus mutated to less lethal forms.

41 posted on 04/06/2021 6:35:57 AM PDT by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: SamAdams76
A large segment of our population is obviously greatly enjoying all the masking up and the huddling indoors.

Many of the women (and some cucks) now consider them fashion accessories.

42 posted on 04/06/2021 6:36:29 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (Yehovah saved more animals than people on the ark...siameserescue.org)
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To: AppyPappy
Yeah, I assume there are a number of people who think that shooting the schiff with someone who goes to bars a lot is not a big risk. Yeah, he would never get COVID, he never even has a cold.

The eyeopener for me was reading the meat plant story from Germany. We had it in our meat plants too. But in theirs they had temperature checks, hand washing, sanitized surfaces, mandatory masks and distancing. And they had one or two superspreaders (possibly just one). In the end they said the single layer masks were no good but in reality they have no idea how to stop it.

43 posted on 04/06/2021 6:41:28 AM PDT by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: Kaslin

If “social distancing” “works” why do we “need” masks?
If masks “work”, why do we “need” “social distancing”?

If the vaccines works why do we “need” either of those?


44 posted on 04/06/2021 6:44:02 AM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: Kaslin

“Please pull your mask down...I want to build up MY immune system by breathing your exhale!”


45 posted on 04/06/2021 6:46:00 AM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: Kaslin

The problem is not ‘science.’

And the liberal scientists are correct when they state the propagandist, ‘science is not a liberal conspiracy theory.’

The problem is politicized science.

And to you liberal ‘scientists’: politicized science is not a conspiracy theory, it is an obvious Statist/Marxist/Communist/Socialist/Progressive tactic in the ongoing political war against the freedom of the people.


46 posted on 04/06/2021 7:00:40 AM PDT by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Prepare to survive.)
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To: SamAdams76

The propaganda media operated by the State has done a successful job in showing the Struggle Sessions and public shaming BY citizens AGAINST their fellow citizens for not wearing a mask — up to and including actual physical assault.

I’m sure that some wear the mask so that they won’t be hassled by the Mask Fascists.

I wear a mask in stores not for this reason, but because I’d rather save fighting for the real fighting...which is coming.


47 posted on 04/06/2021 7:03:12 AM PDT by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Prepare to survive.)
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To: Reaganez

And U.S. states that have imposed the most restrictive measures in this pandemic still have the worst track record by every objective measure.


48 posted on 04/06/2021 7:03:34 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And once in a night I dreamed you were there; I canceled my flight from going nowhere.")
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To: Kaslin

I too am bemused by people wearing masks outdoors especially when they are distant from other people. I also find it asinine for those of us who have been fully vaccinated to wear masks at all. The reason I have been given for masking after vaccination is that somehow I might be harboring the dreaded COVID on my person and by mechanisms unknown still transmit it to others. This of course is ridiculous and there is absolutely no “science” to back it up. The very contemplation of a vaccine passport would be moot if the vaccinated could actually still transmit COVID. Now we are being bombarded with stories in the media about new strains of COVID which of course we are told are infinitely more dangerous and certainly are resistant to the vaccine. The plunging COVID death rate shows this too to be a media lie.

I will join the legions who go about their business maskless and mask only when entering a business. I don my mask then not out of obedience to our idiot Governor’s order, but to keep already struggling businesses from being hassled by the mask Nazis and critical Karen’s. It is still more or less a free country and if some timid soul wants to lead their life at all times masked and trembling at the remote prospect of some new COVID menace, they get neither my pity nor my respect.


49 posted on 04/06/2021 7:56:26 AM PDT by The Great RJ ("Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher)
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To: Bulwyf

You’re implying masks work?

...............................................

Not only that but you and I are “retarded dumbasses”(his/her words, not mine.)


50 posted on 04/06/2021 7:57:09 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (The China virus doesn't scare me, Venezuelaism does.)
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To: Graybeard58

I cannot wear a mask, not will not but cannot. If I could wear one I would be tempted to wear one out doors and not from fear of the China virus but from fear of pollen.

That stuff’s a b***h!


51 posted on 04/06/2021 8:14:10 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (The China virus doesn't scare me, Venezuelaism does.)
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To: Graybeard58

I might be a retarded dumb arse, but I’m still miles ahead of anyone who thinks masks do anything except have a negative affect on health and on mental health heh.

It amazes me how many sheep out there have lost their minds. They ought to stop posting and get back to bleating in the field. Let the sheepdogs (adults) converse.


52 posted on 04/06/2021 8:40:32 AM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: Graybeard58; Bulwyf; Reaganez
Not only that but you and I are “retarded dumbasses”(his/her words, not mine.)

Another proud “retarded dumbass” chiming in.

Because I certainly am not party to a...how did he/she say it?...”culture of mask wearing.” :eyeroll:

53 posted on 04/06/2021 12:53:44 PM PDT by Allegra
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To: Theophilous Meatyard III
The other day, I saw a guy cutting his lawn wearing a mask. I should have stopped the car and taken a photo. An image of crazy times, or something like that.

Last summer, neighbor in the next house over was sitting in her backyard sunning herself, wearing a freakin' mask. I'm sooo sick of seeing people in their cars, alone, wearing a mask. There's a woman in the neighborhood who walks her dog every morning, she goes by my house around 7:00 - 7:15am and you can hear her a mile away yakking on the phone because she's wearing a freakin' mask and the person she's talking to can't hear her, SMH!

54 posted on 04/06/2021 3:48:06 PM PDT by rockabyebaby (THE BEST IS YET TO COME - (PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP)
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I have lost patience with those who help perpetuate the pandemic abuse by wearing masks, unless in the OR or for helping filter out dust and pollen. It doesn’t work for viruses, not matter how hard we click our ruby slippers and wish for it to.


55 posted on 04/06/2021 7:31:11 PM PDT by SuzyQue
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