Poll: Vast Majority of U. S. Voters Support a Nationwide Mask Mandate

Well over three-quarters of Americans would support a nationwide mask mandate, a Hill-HarrisX survey revealed on Monday.

The survey, taken July 26-27 among 948 registered voters, asked, “Would you support or oppose a national mandate to wear a face mask?”

A hefty majority, 82 percent, said they would support such a mandate. Only 18 percent opposed. Of the 82 percent, 61 percent said they would “strongly” support the measure, and 21 percent said they would “somewhat” support it.

Voters appear to be united on the issue across various age groups, races, and party lines. A majority of Republicans, 66 percent, indicated they would support a nationwide mask mandate, as did 85 percent of independents and 93 percent of Democrats.

‘Are you refused service in a store for no shirt or no shoes? In most cases, the answer is a hearty YEP.’

is that mandate followed because of government decree...? a hearty NOPE...

‘Do restaurant employees have to wash their hands after using the bathroom and preparing your food? YEP.’

did I state that I was an employee of any of these stores...? a hearty NOPE...

‘Are they required to cook your food to a certain temp so that you don’t get food poisoning? YEP.’

I am a customer, not an employee, which you seem to have trouble understanding...

How is that any of THAT OK and not an “assault on freedom”?’

it is part of their employment contract, which is nothing that I’ve entered into with these stores when I am a customer...

‘let’s all keep arguing about masks so the cases continue to grow by 10,000+/day, we lose north of 1,400 or so American lives every single day...’

I don’t know how to break it to you, but most of these ‘cases’ have to be tested to even know they have the bug, and the sad fact is that a large percentage of the deaths are people facing the endgame in the first place...you are apparently making the argument that perfectly healthy people, walking down the street, suddenly inhale virus droplets and two weeks later die in a hospital bed attached to a breathing device; if that were actually happening, wearing masks would be the least of the mandates imposed upon us...

‘and Trump gets crushed in November - which at this point, he will.’

if Trump gets crushed in November, he gets crushed...my arguing against masks won’t offset my vote, will it...?

I’ve been reading story after story after story of PERFECTLY HEALTHY, YOUNG people who have either been killed by the virus or have had serious health complications- in many cases (like in the story linked below), extreme side effects lasting months.

Here’s one from just yesterday. I could post others all day long.

“Previously healthy Clinton Township woman (age 41) battles severe COVID-19 symptoms for 131 days

Joleen Nelson says seizures, hallucinations, brain fog, electrical shocks among symptoms”

https://www.clickondetroit.com/health/2020/08/04/previously-healthy-clinton-township-woman-battles-severe-covid-19-symptoms-for-131-days/

Masks reduce spread of the virus by reducing excretions (spittle, coughs, sneezes, etc) and virus particles that you exhale - which are most often attached to “droplets” that masks can stop, as the droplets are considerably larger than the virus particle itself and larger than the ‘weave’ of most masks. Well made masks with good filters also help protect the wearer from getting exposed, especially to droplets. “Medical Grade” (eg: N95) masks reduce exposure significantly, whereas decent masks can reduce exposure a good (but less than N95 of course) amount.

When you make this assertion you must ultimately assume that every healthy person walking around is infected with the virus, or that there’s such a thing as “super-spreaders” which of course is absurd on its face. But for the sake of argument, let’s make that assumption. Since transmission and expression of a viral infection is proportionate to the amount of viral load a person carries, an asymptomatic carrier would have a low viral load. What happens to that viral load when you force that person to wear a mask and constantly exhale and re-inhale those viral droplets? It stands to reason that it would increase the viral load making that person more infectious and symptomatic. Invariably, at some point in time that person is going to remove that mask or touch their face while wearing the mask, thus making that individual highly infectious. Remember, hand hygiene is the #1 recommendation to reduce the spread of infection.

I realize that’s all but sacrilegious heresy here on FR and many / most will (perhaps vehemently) disagree, but every country that has worn masks (Hong Kong, Czech Republic, China, ...) has reduced the spread of the virus significantly.

Of the three countries you just mentioned, the only one on the list of top 30 countries with the highest rates of testing is China, with 62,814/million of population. The lowest rate of the top 30 is Egypt with 1,317/million. Hong Kong and Czech Republic do not even show up, which means they are testing <1300/million (most likely only symptomatic patients). The US is 3rd with 186,055/million. Bottom line, the more you test the more “cases” you get. How many positive flu results do you think there would be if we tested everyone, whether symptomatic or not, during cold/flu season? How many would be positive for other coronaviruses?

Also, many of these so-called “cases” are actually repeat testing on the same patient. I know this for a fact as I work in a hospital laboratory that processes these tests. We have patients who are transferred in from smaller hospitals or assisted care/nursing homes who have tested positive at those facilities and are retested when admitted to us in order to receive covid convalescent plasma which requires a confirmed positive at our facility. Each swab from a single patient is sent to the reference lab as a specimen, not as an individual case. So 3 positive Covid tests on the same patient are falsely counted as 3 “cases”.

Bottom line your assertion that mask-wearing countries have less infections doesn’t hold water and in no way is proof that masks are effective in preventing spread of the virus. Even if might be true are you prepared to wear the mask for the rest of your life? At some point in time we have got to move on with living and realize that as much as we’d like to believe it, we mortals are NOT in control.

Democrats and the fake news attacking Trump early on saying he can’t dictate our response which is why his administration has released guidelines and put the onus on governors & local communities to do the right thing. He then got attacked for not taking responsibility. (Of course.)
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I know you know this, but it needs repeating:

They need POTUS to do something like announce a national mandate to take the heat off them and give them a chance to scream:”Dictator”.

Declaration of National Emergency
Defense Production Act
Task Force
PPE
Ventilators
Field hospitals
Medical personnel
Testing
Contact tracing
National Guard
Let states handle supplementary unemployment
Therapeutics
Vaccines
Mandate masks
Mass mail-in voting
Delay election

It’s a pattern and they repeat it, because it’s all they’ve got.

Fortunately, POTUS must know by now.

A) How on Earth does wearing a mask dehumanize you? If you’re visiting someone who’s seriously ill or has a compromised immune system in the hospital, they’ll make you mask up there. They’ve done so for a long time. Last I checked, I’m still human.
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You are not allowed in-person or close physical proximity to hospital patients or to nursing home residents. SOMETIMES, *compassionate visits* to the terminal, but that’s not universal.

B) I haven’t demanded a damn thing from anyone. Neither has President Trump. What has President Trump done? He’s ASKED that people where a mask where appropriate.
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REQUESTED, NOT MANDATED AND EMPHASIS ON *APPROPRIATE*, WHICH IS CLOSED ROOM AND NO WAY TO DISTANCE (EVEN THOUGH THE 6’ RULE WAS MADE UP.)

[capitals just for clarity.]

And he’s MAKING AVAILABLE a vaccine that will save hundreds of thousands of American lives. Take it, don’t take it, do whatever you want. I’m against mandates for masks and against mandates for vaccines. I would urge you to make use of both for the sake of those around you if not for yourself, but I don’t like government mandates and neither does President Trump.
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AMEN!

Caveat: We have no idea if the vaccine will save even one life of the .03% who have a serious reaction to the virus.

...a deadly disease (the worst pandemic in 100 years)...
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We do not know this. All the numbers have been admitted to be massaged and in some cases, outright fraudulent in every country.

It appears that .03% are at risk, assuming other factors like age and comorbidities.

We aren’t even assured that asymptomatic transmission exists and some researchers doubt it is possible.

The same researchers found that exposures to other coronaviruses like those causing colds,can create a positive test or even impart immunity.

And, if people wash their hands in food prep (no cameras or observers in the bathrooms, so who knows if they do or not?) and if the kitchen is clean and without vermin, _some_ final temperature requirements are more about lawsuits than about presenting food poisoning.

I have been cooking for people for over 50 years. I never cook ground beef patties to the consistency of hockey pucks. No one has ever been poisoned in my home. Europeans have been eating pink pork for generations and they do not have mass cases of poisoning. Asians eat raw fish routinely and are fine (as long as you trust the chef). Chicken needs to be cooked until the juices run clear. I personally eat steak with a red, warm center and have been know to eat good steak just well-seared with a cool red, bloody center (has to be an exceptional piece of beef or venison processed by someone I know & trust).

In fact, most food-borne illness comes from people not tested for known transmissible disease like hepatitis (illegal workers) or from bagged salad.

The above, however, is not an assault and the comparison is apples and oranges because:

Masks do not work to stop disease and the packages themselves so state.

Wash hands.

Turn your head, use a tissue or your elbow.

Trump will not be crushed and the mask issue is not what might do that, even if he might lose. If Trump issued a mask mandate, the progs would be taking theirs off in resistance and screaming “Hitler! Not your call!”

And many of us would be disappointed, but we’d understand he got snookered and vote for him anyway.

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