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Anti-maskers explain themselves

JacksinPA

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“If I’m going to get Covid and die from it, then so be it.”


At the outset of the pandemic, Amy, a 48-year-old mother of two from Ohio, was afraid. When the government began recommending people wear masks, she not only complied but also made masks for others. “I was like, oh, this is scary, this could be really bad,” she said.

But when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state would extend its lockdown for the month of May, she’d had it. Pandemic over or not, she was done. After that, Amy became vehemently anti-mask and began to doubt whether the coronavirus was really that big of a deal. Her mother unfollowed her on Facebook over her “anger posts” about masks, and she hasn’t heard from her in a month. She carries a homemade mask with her, just in case, but she doesn’t believe in them.

“It’s a violation of my freedom, I think, and then also I just don’t think they work,” Amy said. “A lot of stuff says it does, but then some doesn’t.”

Masks have become an extremely heated point of contention during the Covid-19 outbreak. Viral videos of people having meltdowns over masks are commonplace, and in many parts of the country, it’s not abnormal for strangers to confront each other publicly over the issue. A small but vocal segment of the population has dug in and ignored the growing evidence that masks make a difference in combating the coronavirus. For those who believe that at the very least wearing a mask can’t hurt, it’s hard to not develop some animosity toward those who refuse. The question I keep hearing from pro-mask friends and family is always the same: What are these people thinking?

In recent weeks, I spoke with nearly a dozen people who consider themselves anti-mask to find out just that. What I discovered is that there is certainly a broad spectrum of reasons — some find wearing a mask annoying or just aren’t convinced they work, and others have gone down a rabbit hole of conspiracies that often involve vaccines, Big Pharma, YouTube, and Bill Gates. One man told me he wears a mask when he goes to the store to be polite. A woman got kicked out of a Menards store for refusing to wear a mask amid what she calls the “Covid scam garbage.”
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People have changed quite a bit since 1918. But the Spanish Flu was very different. You could eat breakfast & be dead by nightfall.
 
Good pos

“If I’m going to get Covid and die from it, then so be it.”


At the outset of the pandemic, Amy, a 48-year-old mother of two from Ohio, was afraid. When the government began recommending people wear masks, she not only complied but also made masks for others. “I was like, oh, this is scary, this could be really bad,” she said.

But when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state would extend its lockdown for the month of May, she’d had it. Pandemic over or not, she was done. After that, Amy became vehemently anti-mask and began to doubt whether the coronavirus was really that big of a deal. Her mother unfollowed her on Facebook over her “anger posts” about masks, and she hasn’t heard from her in a month. She carries a homemade mask with her, just in case, but she doesn’t believe in them.

“It’s a violation of my freedom, I think, and then also I just don’t think they work,” Amy said. “A lot of stuff says it does, but then some doesn’t.”

Masks have become an extremely heated point of contention during the Covid-19 outbreak. Viral videos of people having meltdowns over masks are commonplace, and in many parts of the country, it’s not abnormal for strangers to confront each other publicly over the issue. A small but vocal segment of the population has dug in and ignored the growing evidence that masks make a difference in combating the coronavirus. For those who believe that at the very least wearing a mask can’t hurt, it’s hard to not develop some animosity toward those who refuse. The question I keep hearing from pro-mask friends and family is always the same: What are these people thinking?

In recent weeks, I spoke with nearly a dozen people who consider themselves anti-mask to find out just that. What I discovered is that there is certainly a broad spectrum of reasons — some find wearing a mask annoying or just aren’t convinced they work, and others have gone down a rabbit hole of conspiracies that often involve vaccines, Big Pharma, YouTube, and Bill Gates. One man told me he wears a mask when he goes to the store to be polite. A woman got kicked out of a Menards store for refusing to wear a mask amid what she calls the “Covid scam garbage.”
==============================================================
People have changed quite a bit since 1918. But the Spanish Flu was very different. You could eat breakfast & be dead by nightfall.
Good post. My daughter is one of those anti-mask people. Her family was recently exposed to a possible contagious person. When she wanted to come over with the grandkids to visit I told her she and the kids would have to wear masks. She wanted to argue with me. I had to tell her to just stay home then. That’s not easy to do.
 
Good pos

Good post. My daughter is one of those anti-mask people. Her family was recently exposed to a possible contagious person. When she wanted to come over with the grandkids to visit I told her she and the kids would have to wear masks. She wanted to argue with me. I had to tell her to just stay home then. That’s not easy to do.
If masks work, you can wear yours and leave the kids alone. Putting a mask on a child is child abuse. Your daughter is right.
 
If masks work, you can wear yours and leave the kids alone. Putting a mask on a child is child abuse. Your daughter is right.
I agree with my daughter about many things but her knowledge of masks usefulness is left wanting. Kids can learn to tie their shoes in kindergarten. I imagine they can handle a mask. Of course there will be a need to shorten some of their time in close proximity to others. Social distancing is effective.
 
I agree with my daughter about many things but her knowledge of masks usefulness is left wanting. Kids can learn to tie their shoes in kindergarten. I imagine they can handle a mask. Of course there will be a need to shorten some of their time in close proximity to others. Social distancing is effective.
Show me one scientific study - replicated by other scientists - that quantifies the effectiveness of masks we wear. Do not insult me with "masks work". Or, "masks are better than nothing."
I hope that that study will show how masks hurt the wearers by forcing the wearer to inhale his own exhausts, plus very humid CO2. In numbers.

No numbers, don't bother.
 
Show me one scientific study - replicated by other scientists - that quantifies the effectiveness of masks we wear. Do not insult me with "masks work". Or, "masks are better than nothing."
I hope that that study will show how masks hurt the wearers by forcing the wearer to inhale his own exhausts, plus very humid CO2. In numbers.

No numbers, don't bother.
I posted that info elsewhere. I don’t disagree that masks are not 100% effective against any virus. The studies I’ve read shows that. The studies (I’ve read list the effectiveness of each type) with cloth masks being on the low side of efficacy. But their general conclusion is that any mask is better than none. You disagree?
 
I posted that info elsewhere. I don’t disagree that masks are not 100% effective against any virus. The studies I’ve read shows that. The studies (I’ve read list the effectiveness of each type) with cloth masks being on the low side of efficacy. But their general conclusion is that any mask is better than none. You disagree?
I want numbers how they filter and how they affect the wearers negatively - short and long term. The headaches are the first proof that the masks have a negative effect on many.
We demand that everything - including cockroaches and rats - must be studied before we build another dam. Do you know a study that would numerically document what effects masks have on the wearers, in general, and, specifically, on those with compromised blood circulation? Was it published?

BTW, science does not use adjectives. When you see adjectives, it's not science.
 
I want numbers how they filter and how they affect the wearers negatively - short and long term. The headaches are the first proof that the masks have a negative effect on many.
We demand that everything - including ****roaches and rats - must be studied before we build another dam. Do you know a study that would numerically document what effects masks have on the wearers, in general, and, specifically, on those with compromised blood circulation? Was it published?

BTW, science does not use adjectives. When you see adjectives, it's not science.

You ever talk to someone and they accidentally spit on you? If they were wearing a mask you wouldn't have been spit on. Do you realize how much spit comes out of peoples mouths that you don't even know about?
 
I want numbers how they filter and how they affect the wearers negatively - short and long term. The headaches are the first proof that the masks have a negative effect on many.
We demand that everything - including ****roaches and rats - must be studied before we build another dam. Do you know a study that would numerically document what effects masks have on the wearers, in general, and, specifically, on those with compromised blood circulation? Was it published?

BTW, science does not use adjectives. When you see adjectives, it's not science.

Why don’t you just give up on this nonsense? People have been wearing masks for decades and they aren’t falling over dead from it. On the other hand in country after country and in the US, in state after state or city after city, people stop falling over dead as fast from COVID-19 when mask mandates are put in place.

They’ve even figured this out in one of the brightest red states:

“South Carolina has no statewide mask requirements, leaving 11 jurisdictions with mask mandates and 61 without. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s latest findings, from mid-August, report that communities with mask mandates saw a drop of 34 cases per 100,000 people for the four weeks after the requirements were implemented, compared to before the orders took effect. In the same period, jurisdictions without mask requirements saw a rise of 24 cases per 100,000 people.

“Our South Carolina mask analysis data shows us what we already knew, wearing face masks works,” Dr. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist at the South Carolina health department, told NBC News in an email.”


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Why don’t you just give up on this nonsense? People have been wearing masks for decades and they aren’t falling over dead from it. On the other hand in country after country and in the US, in state after state or city after city, people stop falling over dead as fast from COVID-19 when mask mandates are put in place.

They’ve even figured this out in one of the brightest red states:

“South Carolina has no statewide mask requirements, leaving 11 jurisdictions with mask mandates and 61 without. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s latest findings, from mid-August, report that communities with mask mandates saw a drop of 34 cases per 100,000 people for the four weeks after the requirements were implemented, compared to before the orders took effect. In the same period, jurisdictions without mask requirements saw a rise of 24 cases per 100,000 people.

“Our South Carolina mask analysis data shows us what we already knew, wearing face masks works,” Dr. Linda Bell, an epidemiologist at the South Carolina health department, told NBC News in an email.”

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Why don’t you just give up on this nonsense with "cases". "Cases" are a case of bs. The only things that count are hospitalizations and deaths.

Even NY Times had an article that 90% of cases are bs because the method used to detect "cases" magnifies data and detects the virus that is "clinically" insignificant.

Many kids under 18 are "cases", but the number of dead is like 30 for the entire country since the beginning of that liedemic. When in the nation of 330,000,000, 200,000 old guys die, it's sad but it's not "pandemic". It's called "life". Life is a terminal disease.

The fearmongers have been looking for a case of a student passing this "horrible" virus to a teacher in Europe and they didn't find any.

Do you know that 75% of those who died in Europe, died in nursing homes? This shows what a bs lockdowns are. In the US, of the 200,000 dead, the median age is 78. Only 20% were under 65. What a load of crap - I mean the lockdowns.

BTW, I cited Europe because Europe (Belgium, Spain, and the UK) has higher death rates than the US. At least 3 countries there. Sweden, that smartly didn't lockdown, has a LOWER death rate than the UK, the US, and Italy that did. Duh!
 
If someone can find another way to ensure that they are not littering with their saliva, I will be happy to consider it. I don't want to walk through some strangers spit particles. I don't want them landing on my stuff. Its rude and selfish not to contain your saliva. Stay home and pout and sulk all you want, and pound your laptop keys as hard and long as you want about science, but contain your spit mist in something and take it all home with you.
 
If someone can find another way to ensure that they are not littering with their saliva, I will be happy to consider it. I don't want to walk through some strangers spit particles. I don't want them landing on my stuff. Its rude and selfish not to contain your saliva. Stay home and pout and sulk all you want, and pound your laptop keys as hard and long as you want about science, but contain your spit mist in something and take it all home with you.
Your mask and the eye goggles will keep you alive just find. Your health is your problem, not mine.
Don't you know that masks work?
 
Your mask and the eye goggles will keep you alive just find. Your health is your problem, not mine.
Don't you know that masks work?
You are too used to responding with platitudes. I did not make a medical argument. This is essentially no different than leaving your plastic cup, or your McDonald's burger wrap, or your dog's pile behind you. Its tacky. Its crass. Its littering. You are leaving stuff behind that you should be taking with you and you can reasonably take with you. Take your damn saliva particles with you, or stay out of the public. I really don't care if you throw your cigarettes or garbage around your own home and I don't care if your poodle craps in your house. You can create as much spit mist as you want at home too. Its a new civic and social expectation in public spaces that has legal force behind it in some jurisdiction. In most there is also a civic and social expectation that you wear clothing too.
 
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Show me one scientific study - replicated by other scientists - that quantifies the effectiveness of masks we wear. Do not insult me with "masks work". Or, "masks are better than nothing."
I hope that that study will show how masks hurt the wearers by forcing the wearer to inhale his own exhausts, plus very humid CO2. In numbers.

No numbers, don't bother.
Masks alone won't solve the problem of avoiding infection, but they are a part of the solution. Don't insult the forum with ignorant posts. Everywhere which has either mandated or strongly enforced wearing masks in Europe has seen dramatic reductions in rates of infection. This cannot be argued with.
 
Why don’t you just give up on this nonsense with "cases". "Cases" are a case of bs. The only things that count are hospitalizations and deaths.

Even NY Times had an article that 90% of cases are bs because the method used to detect "cases" magnifies data and detects the virus that is "clinically" insignificant.

Many kids under 18 are "cases", but the number of dead is like 30 for the entire country since the beginning of that liedemic. When in the nation of 330,000,000, 200,000 old guys die, it's sad but it's not "pandemic". It's called "life". Life is a terminal disease.

The fearmongers have been looking for a case of a student passing this "horrible" virus to a teacher in Europe and they didn't find any.

Do you know that 75% of those who died in Europe, died in nursing homes? This shows what a bs lockdowns are. In the US, of the 200,000 dead, the median age is 78. Only 20% were under 65. What a load of crap - I mean the lockdowns.

BTW, I cited Europe because Europe (Belgium, Spain, and the UK) has higher death rates than the US. At least 3 countries there. Sweden, that smartly didn't lockdown, has a LOWER death rate than the UK, the US, and Italy that did. Duh!
There is so much ignorance in your post that I don't know where to begin. Sweden, for example, has a much higher death rate than any of its Scandinavian neighbours. Nobody is immune to this disease, not even you with your dismissive attitude.

 
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the militant maskless can explain themselves from their homes. if they want to go out, however, they should mask up.
Shouldn't the germophobes be the ones hiding at home since you are the ones afraid of the earth we live on? Surely you wont get sick if you shelter at home and put aluminum foil over your windows.
 
the militant maskless can explain themselves from their homes. if they want to go out, however, they should mask up.
Better still, they not be allowed out.
 
Shouldn't the germophobes be the ones hiding at home since you are the ones afraid of the earth we live on? Surely you wont get sick if you shelter at home and put aluminum foil over your windows.
You can be as smugly dismissive as no doubt 200,000 dead Americans were. You are as vulnerable to infection and serious illness as everyone else, and don't think for a second that macho posturing is a barrier to infection.
 
You can be as smugly dismissive as no doubt 200,000 dead Americans were. You are as vulnerable to infection and serious illness as everyone else, and don't think for a second that macho posturing is a barrier to infection.
False. Those of us who have not hidden from germs have built up a much higher immunity than germophobes. It's why you always see it's the germophobes that are the ones who are constantly sick. Humans have evolved alongside germs. Your mask isnt going to help you. Cloth doesn't stop viruses. All you are going to donis give people lung infections from forcing them to breath through dirty masks. If you are afraid you should stay home and seal the windows with foil. It will keep the aliens from finding you as well. Right?
 
False. Those of us who have not hidden from germs have built up a much higher immunity than germophobes. It's why you always see it's the germophobes that are the ones who are constantly sick. Humans have evolved alongside germs. Your mask isnt going to help you. Cloth doesn't stop viruses. All you are going to donis give people lung infections from forcing them to breath through dirty masks. If you are afraid you should stay home and seal the windows with foil. It will keep the aliens from finding you as well. Right?
You really are clueless on this. There is NO evidence of any conferred immunity post-infection, either short-term or long-term, and the older you are the more likely it is that your antibody reaction won't be anywhere near as strong as when you were a kid.

 
You really are clueless on this. There is NO evidence of any conferred immunity post-infection, either short-term or long-term, and the older you are the more likely it is that your antibody reaction won't be anywhere near as strong as when you were a kid.
Why cant you hide at home since you are the germophobe?
 
Shouldn't the germophobes be the ones hiding at home since you are the ones afraid of the earth we live on? Surely you wont get sick if you shelter at home and put aluminum foil over your windows.

no. the militant maskless should mask up or stay home. stores that cater to them should be fined.
 
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