Indeed. Throughout all of this, I keep asking “what’s the endgame?” Covid is never going away — vaccine or no, it will always be out there, because you can’t vaccinate everyone with 100% success and 100% permanency. So the at-risk types (like my ex) can claim “OMG you’re trying to kill us” forever. So when do we get to stop and get our lives back?

It’s feeling like the answer is “never”, barring a revolution.

Also, the 30-something demographic of women panicking over Covid reminds me so strongly of my ex’s experience on pregnancy forums when she was pregnant with our daughter 12 years ago when she was in that demographic herself. My joking characterization of it was “somebody smoked a cigarette in the next county, does that mean MY BABY WILL DIE?!!” We both rolled our eyes hard at that, but now with Covid she’s doing the same thing: “Anyone I see not wearing a mask is telling me they don’t care if they kill me.” (That’s verbatim, btw. She legitimately is at risk due to lung damage from bad pneumonia, but there’s nothing wrong with her immune system.)

I read most of your link, and I believe they were not using N95 masks but instead were using three layer disposable surgical masks. I believe that other hospital setting mask studies have shown N95 masks to have positive preventative results for bacterial infections, but little or none for viral infections.

After ignoring the study or doing all to discredit the science the fall back will be:

“Yes they don’t help, but, if they save just one life it will be worth it. You don’t want to kill Grandma (or little puppies). You will comply (and you will be punished)!”

The goal is obedience and acceptance of coercion.

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/M20-6817

Suicides, robberies, murder, riots, mistakes, accidents, negligence.

For one thing, you can’t hear a mask wearer as clearly, especially if one has even mild hearing loss. Plus one misses many of the visual cues in reading someone’s face.

So it measurably detracts from having a regular conversation, but I’ll bet there are people dead or injured from missing some bit of crucial information said by a mask wearer.

I also wonder if robberies are up because mask wearing is standard now in convenience stores.

There are always trade-offs.

That is all good and you are entitled to your understanding. When I made several trips to visit my son in Europe in 2014, being the germophobe I am, I investigated what mask I should buy for these flights with a willingness to part with considerable cash for the best one. After my research I ended up with no mask at all because they were all deemed ineffective against viral/bacterial exposure. There is no mention of masks or lockdowns in ANY of the written record of the CDC regarding pandemic response prior to and up to this Sars CoV-2 occurence.

The mask happens to be implicated in my suffering extended issues with COVID-19 after having been perfectly fine after 3 days. It only took 20 minutes of wearing an N95 mask to put me into a tailspin resulting in 2 weeks of unnecessary suffering prior to being perfectly well post-relapse infection. It turns out that breathing the refuse of my respiration is bad for me. Maybe some can manage it better and if they want to take that chance for unproven protection that is their right. But on the basis of science and personal experience I refute it. For me personally, I have to don the mask to go to the bank, the store and get my nails done. I call it the “pre 666”. My husband and I have the antibodies and I believe that the lockdowns are keeping us from natural herd immunity. If we come to the place where one has to have the vaccine (something people involved in some of our government positions–Dr. Fauci being one, make a lot of $$ on) in order to work, buy and sell we may have to find a place where we can relocate, if such an possibility would be available.

There are always trade-offs.

I would like to see much more open discussion on the trade-offs of Covid restrictions. Covid is not the flu, but it’s not Ebola or the Black Death either.

The Covid restrictions have their downsides — increased mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, suicide, home loss, evictions, poverty, deaths and illness due to missed medical testing and treatment plus the blighting of normal life and education at all levels.

Those are real deaths and harms too. Where do we draw the lines?

If Covid goes away, should we keep wearing masks because of flu? If not, why not?

It is interesting during election season how much credibility is given to polls in predicting outcomes. Most of these polls have a sample set of a couple thousand people. With Diamond Princess, you have a real world sample set with a reasonable mix of age groups and large enough size to provide useful analysis. Yet that data is routinely ignored and discounted, while being pretty accurate in forecasting where we are today. Compare Diamond Princess data with Huxley’s data from the CDC, and then look at Imperial College’s forecasting back in March. Lockdown’s were based on Imperial College’s forecast.

This is really the issue. If you decide to take precautions, fine. If the government forces you to take precautions, then that is a bit too far. There were similar push backs to wearing a seat belt, yet driving a car was considered a privilege. Now the government (if under Biden) is demanding wearing a mask to be in public at all. That’s a restriction of liberty.

If they can demand a mask, they can demand other things under the name of precaution. For instance, no room can have more than 4 people in it to prevent the easy spread of germs. And this isn’t a slippery slope argument, because they already are demanding these new precautions be implemented in our homes. This may fail on court challenge, but only because our constitution codes that our homes are our property and not the governments.

And on this hero talk. If you wear a mask because the government tells you to do so; you are no hero. You are a passive follower. If wearing a mask is optional, and you suffer to wear one because it protects your love ones; then you can call yourself a hero, because you are making an active choice to do for others. Otherwise, can the hero talk when your actions are only in compliance.