The essay at the link encapsulates my thinking about the ritualized, mandatory masking of great parts of the public areas of our country. Those who insist on masking are self-righteous about it, and viciously hostile to those failing to mask (or, deliberately refusing to mask), to the point of verbally abusing and even physically attacking the non-compliant.
There is no good evidence that masking - of the kind that does not involve N95 PPE - is all that effective. Far more important is washing your damn hands - often.
Let me be clear. Who should be required to wear a mask:
- Those caring for hospitalized, or medically fragile patients (that would include those in nursing homes)
- Those who are providing care for family members who are infected, or who are at high risk of serious complications
- Those with the following conditions - heart problems, lung problems, asthma, diabetes, immunity issues, advanced old age (75+) and morbid obesity
- Those who work in close quarters with others - meat-packing plants, for example
That's it. Other than those, it should be optional. Of course, a business or other organization (as well as individuals) may decide to require use of a mask. They are free to forbid entrance to the unmasked.
But, they should not be required to be the enforcement arm of the state.
Nor should police be brought in to remove people not following the rules. For crying out loud, the police are currently being denounced because of a few situations when they were brought in to arrest people who had broken relatively small laws.
Do we really want them to have the responsibility to put people in handcuffs, taser them, or otherwise use their powers to force compliance because the person won't put the Magic Piece of Cloth over his mouth and nose?
I'm in favor of setting a date for No More Masks (other than in the listed cases of exceptions). Whether or not the epidemic is over, that's the end of the mandates. After that date, people who are germ-phobic are free to mask to their heart's content, but the rest of us are also free to follow our own judgement.
Let's end the mark of COVID Leprosy.
Divide and conquer. Wise words and a tactic being used right now. Woke versus aware, black versus white, religion against religion, citizens versus immigrants. We can easily see how the others are being led. Do we see how we too are being led?
ReplyDeleteWe've had SARS, MERS, Norovirus, Hong Kong Flu, Swine Flu, and goodness knows what else over these last few years. On each occasion the BBC here has breathlessly declared that We're All Going to Die! Nobody paid any attention.IABATO, as in it's all bollocks and that's official (Americans replace bollocks with bullshine, from hat4uk.blogspot [recommended]). This version of the scare du jour is maybe a bit worse than the previous ones, or maybe less so. Whatever, is it so bad that great nations have thrown their economies into the dumpster? They were only teetering on the edge before. Lives lost unnecessarily either by bad practice or cancelled treatments. Livelihoods lost.
It's possible that this is just the start. Digital currency, constant track and trace, compulsory medication or be ostracised from normal commerce. Global population reduction, don't forget that the worst of the eugenicists were all white and called for black people to be culled.
I wonder what their end plan is because everything is going swimmingly for them so far. It won't be nice whatever it is. Probably Biblical, as in Revelations but without a genuine Second Coming.