Interesting

[Jolly]

Therefore...The only real studies we have available have data for protection of the wearer, but no data for whether any disease is transmitted by the wearer.

Again, let me beat on this some more...Mask efficacy is hugely impacted by mask fit and proper wearing of the mask. If many masks are worn incorrectly, or worn past the saturation point, wonder what the transmission stats look like?

[Jolly]

@loki said in Interesting:

When you can’t wear a mask after 500,000 plus people have died, you really shouldn’t participate in society.

I have no problem with freedom lovers staying home.

I just can’t stomach the arguments anymore and it’s likely to impact the way I vote.

Which is fine. Vote any way you wish.

I'm not a one-issue voter (although abortion and the Second Amendment come pretty close).

[Loki]

@jolly said in Interesting:

@loki said in Interesting:

When you can’t wear a mask after 500,000 plus people have died, you really shouldn’t participate in society.

I have no problem with freedom lovers staying home.

I just can’t stomach the arguments anymore and it’s likely to impact the way I vote.

Which is fine. Vote any way you wish.

I'm not a one-issue voter (although abortion and the Second Amendment come pretty close).

For me the January 6 assault on the Capitol was a pivotal moment. I could even get passed that except when people still say no to masks and vaccines I personally came to the conclusion that there is no reasoning with this group and I can’t carry their water anymore. One vote is meaningless but I think I represent enough of a chunk of people that if lost so will be all the various GOP seats.

[Jolly]

@loki said in Interesting:

@jolly said in Interesting:

@loki said in Interesting:

When you can’t wear a mask after 500,000 plus people have died, you really shouldn’t participate in society.

I have no problem with freedom lovers staying home.

I just can’t stomach the arguments anymore and it’s likely to impact the way I vote.

Which is fine. Vote any way you wish.

I'm not a one-issue voter (although abortion and the Second Amendment come pretty close).

For me the January 6 assault on the Capitol was a pivotal moment. I could even get passed that except when people still say no to masks and vaccines I personally came to the conclusion that there is no reasoning with this group and I can’t carry their water anymore. One vote is meaningless but I think I represent enough of a chunk of people that if lost so will be all the various GOP seats.

I don't carry water for anybody. I know a bit about politics; I swam in those waters for 34 years. If you want 100% agreement with your views, you're screwed, blued and tatooed. Ain't happening.

Politics is the art of the possible. One never gets a whole loaf, you settle for what you can get that dovetails with your ideaology.

I look at the Capitol stuff like this:

1. The crowd was not told by Trump to go riot. Anybody who says otherwise is a damn liar. With an agenda.
2. When a minority of the crowd went into riot mode, what were they rioting about? Were they rioting to overturn the Constitution? Were they rioting against the rule of law? Were they rioting to kill babies? Maybe to pack SCOTUS? Or maybe they wanted total anarchy in society, was that it?

No, the idiots who rioted were mad because they thought that an election had been stolen and not every legal vote had been counted properly. They were mad because they thought their rights were being taken away from them.

You know what, turns out they were right about the votes. Maybe they were right about the election...I dunno...Over half of the U.S. public feel that cheating went on during the election. Count me in that majority.

And color me skeptical of government.

Back to the mask argument...

I may be the only one of y'all to walk in a BSL-3 lab. I'm damn sure the only one of us to work in one. I know that level of infection protocol.

I have seen so much shit done wrong in a grocery store during the height of the pandemic, it would probably send you screaming for the exits in terror. I simply prefer not to live my life in fear.

The problem with infection control, is that you can be very, very good and still screw up. Sometimes the screw-up means nothing. Sometimes it does. They used to tell us that a needlestick from an AIDS case presented about 1:200 chance of contracting the disease. Comforting, until you think about flipping a light switch 200 times and one of the times will kill you. But when it's your job, you suit up and you go in the room with a pathogen that has no cure if you screw up.

Or, you get a bit sloppy or give in to societal pressure. That's what I did when I caught COVID. But I did so knowing the risks, and sometimes seeing family you never see, outweighs the known risks. Unlucky me.

I do wear a mask when going in most businesses, even though I've had COVID and both shots. I tend to wear one a bit less nowadays, simply because in most of the places where I shop, most of the people do not have masks on or are wearing them improperly.

At least in my part of the world, people have decided to move on. We may get another spike. We may not. I do know we are looking at a disease (unless one of the variants is a lot different) where better than 98% survive and the highest mortality rates are among the elderly with multiple co-morbidities.

Some common sense is in order. Maybe the masking issue needs a good going-over, with an eye for better data collection.

I do know things have changed a lot in a year. I think they are going to change a lot more. I think we are going to have to live with COVID. I think people will eventually refuse to wear masks. I think a lot of them will simply refuse to be vaccinated, will not have a vaccine card and if you think you are going to keep them away from sporting events, traveling or any of a lot of regular life activities, good luck.

So, figure out what you are going to do and how you are going to live your life. Me? Shucks, I'm on borrowed time, anyway. I'm comfortable with my belief system and I shall not live in fear...I simply do not have enough time left in my life to cower.

[Loki]

For the most part I am completely with you. Heck I never had much of an opinion as to whether the masks really made much difference. Actively not wearing one which makes other people feel unsafe is a bright red line for me.

You also probably know the illiberalism and the lying media (and that is not rhetorical) are additional bright red lines for me.

Respecting respectful people from all walks of life is important to me.

As far as voting goes I should say the only stand I have taken is I will not vote for people who won’t affirm that masks and vaccine are top initiatives for this country at this time. Honestly I would be single issue on that because if you can’t empathize with others (masks) and if you don’t see that vaccines at this time are the best path, I have no use for anything else you say.

[George K]

About a year ago, I went grocery shopping. I wore a masks and gloves. Everyone looked at me like I was from Mars.

I no longer wear gloves.

[Doctor Phibes]

I wore a mask and gloves two years ago, and was asked to leave the funeral home. Quite rudely, if memory serves.

[George K]

@doctor-phibes said in Interesting:

I wore a mask and gloves two years ago, and was asked to leave the funeral home. Quite rudely, if memory serves.

You wore them rudely, or you were asked rudely?

Just wondering...

[Jolly]

@doctor-phibes said in Interesting:

I wore a mask and gloves two years ago, and was asked to leave the funeral home. Quite rudely, if memory serves.

I don't care for that, either. If somebody is wearing a mask, that's their perogative. If they are high risk, I think it highly prudent to do so.

I don't think people should be shamed or have societal pressure placed upon them if they wish to mask.

[Doctor Phibes]

Two years ago. I should probably have mentioned it was a Richard Nixon mask.

[George K]

@doctor-phibes said in Interesting:

I should probably have mentioned it was a Richard Nixon mask.

Had it been an Obama mask, you might have lost your job.

[Copper]

I wear the mask in public.

I wish we could agree on criteria to drop the use of masks entirely.

The lack of this measurable criteria allows emotion to rule.

That makes me think that the experts-in-charge want emotion to rule. It certainly does here.