We’re entering another Covid wave. Peak will probably come in mid-January. In the meantime there’s a lot more Covid in the U.S. We can see that in case numbers, but most cases go undetected. Perhaps the best data source is wastewater measures.
The good news is that hospitalizations and deaths no longer follow the way they used to. Infection fatality has declined markedly. Some of that is because the virus itself has become less deadly as it spreads faster. Some of it is because of background immunity, both from vaccination and higher infection, that at least primes the immune system even if it only reduces the likelihood of getting sick. And some of it is because so many of the most vulnerable people have already died.
Bottom-line, Covid-19 is with us and rising again, but it’s no longer as dangerous. Masking isn’t required on public transportation any longer in the U.S., however the CDC is back to recommending masking. Most people won’t listen.
Indeed, most of the masks I do see in airports and on planes are cloth or cheap paper masks. That I do not understand.
- Low quality masks made sense as a strategy to meet the requirements in place without providing protection.
- If you’re going to mask when it’s not required, the whole point seems like actual protection so you should wear a good mask.
Still, the CDC’s point – which seems right – is that you can protect yourself and others (from you) not just from Covid-19 but also flu and RSV which are spreading at high levels as well.
Long before the pandemic I wanted to wear masks on planes, the way it’s been common in Asia for years, as a way of avoiding the flu when that’s prevalent. I just hate getting sick. I don’t like feeling sick and I don’t have time for the reduced productivity it brings. I do feel like I have social permission to do so now.
I’m not particularly high risk for Covid-19. I’ve had it once, I didn’t love it, but it was fine. I’m up to date on my boosters. And if I get it again I’ll tell my doctor I want Paxlovid, just in case.
I still carry N95, KN95, and KF94 masks in my laptop bag. Maybe it’s time to put one on again in crowded indoor spaces when frankly I’m not looking for any kind of social interaction anyway?
To be clear I see little reason to mandate masks. That’s because
- delaying infection has little public health benefit to the extent that we’re not using that as a bridge to vaccines and better treatments
- we’re not currently facing a collapsing health care system the way we risked one at other points during the pandemic.
Instead I see it as a personal choice to protect oneself, either as someone especially vulnerable or just because it sucks worse to get sick than to wear a mask. I wouldn’t wear one inflight in a premium cabin on a transoceanic trip, by the way. Relative risk is lower, and personal cost to wearing one higher, than just in the airport or during boarding and deplaning.
Is masking up for flu, RSV, and Covid during peaks something you would consider?
Masks don’t work and FJB.
I like wearing a cheap mask on a plane when I sleep merely for the fact that it makes my nasal passages less dry and is more comfortable. Let people determine their own preferences and risk etc. I can’t stand the n95’s but would wear them if my health and risk dictated it.
@ Samuel — Grow up.
@Samuel
Masks works and worked for me. I’ve taken 2 roundtrips from SFO to SYD within the past 2 months and no COVID. I have not contracted COVID since the pandemic started. And also I’m not vaccinated. Masks don’t guarantee that you won’t get COVID, flu..etc but it helps to lessen the chance. Just like wearing a seat belt. Does it guarantee you from not dying?
Per a previous comment, in a Randomized Control Trial of 1009 health care workers in 4 countries treating COVID patients, they were given either N95 respirators or medical masks and tracked for 9 weeks. The study was not able to “blind” the participants due to the visible differences in the masks.
In other words, N95 respirators might make you feel safer, but they don’t seem to do anything for Covid. So, requiring them is illogical and evil.
Here is the link to the RCT results in the Annals of Internal Medicine:
thttps://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-1966
@Samuel: it’s interesting how in one sentence you have proven the ignorance of Trump supporters.
I still wear one until I’m up in the air. If I am sitting next to someone on a flight (less often than you’d think with my particular schedule), I’ll wear it then as well.
I wear one because I don’t know the reasons for people traveling around me. If I’m in a bar, people choose to be there. If someone is on public transportation or on a flight, I have no idea why someone is there, so I mask. Just seems like the nice thing to do to help protect others, particularly with COVID, RSV, and the flu going around.
Decades of immunological research demonstrates that widespread public masking has no statistical impact on viral spread. You can protect yourself with a properly fitted (there are different sizes!), properly worn (no facial hair!), regularly changed (damp masks don’t work!) N95 mask. Anything else is basically useless.
Some of us masks for a third reason: to protect other people who are more vulnerable. Many people don’t have resistance and the less transmission there is the safer they are. Yes, a desire to protect other people is a possibility and some Americans still have communitarian values.
There is a tripledemic right now and part of it is probably due to the lack of contact among many people worldwide; now all those diseases are mixing througout society.
The best course of action, as it was during covid, is for people who are genuinely at high risk for respiratory issues is to stay out of high public contact settings.
United did a study early in the pandemic that shows that aircraft air filtration systems – which existed long before covid – are very effective at minimizing virus transmission – and that is still true.
People act as if commercial aircraft are the risk and then don’t take protective measures in other places.
Please PLEASE stop with the useless and toxic mask propaganda! The never worked against viruses. This was known and knowable long before the coronascam. Just stop already.
Well-articulated. The responses/comments, not so much. It’s interesting reading the other blogs on boardingarea that VFTW generally gets way more polarized responses and comments no matter if the topic Gary posts about is benign. Not sure why.
Is Gary @Samual? How else does the wingnut always get the first comment? Mask stories make the best clickbait. Worked on me.
When will people follow the science that masks DO NOT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!! Air travel is bad enough and made worse wearing face diapers that study after study have shown have little if any effect on covid, yet they do have proven health concerns by breathing in your own CO2 for hours!
If people are stupid enough to wear them then let them, but don’t mandate it to the vast majority who hate them and know they don’t do shit.
So STOP with the STUPID MASK mandate talk!
Everyone is a medical expert now. Much like the slogan “If it isn’t Boeing I’m not going”…”If I gotta wear a mask, I’m not flying”. Not the same ring to it but it is not worth the price. I have bad asthma and wearing even a light mask for more than a few minutes causes me a lot of issues. My wife is deaf and primarily reads lips which are too taxing on her. I don’t have to fly to travel. I also have to ask myself if covid is so dangerous that we need to wear a mask and get vaccinated then why would I risk my life to go on vacation?
Why won’t people just follow the science, nothing but a properly fitted n-95 (not discussing other dual filtered masks, etc) has any effect on virus transmission. Well documented in peer reviewed medical journals, including the NEJM. Stop the nonsense.
Look orange man lost so the media doesn’t report on Covid any more. Covid served it purpose to steal the election from orange man bad
Anyone who thinks mask made a difference is not smart. Masking is faith-based, quasi religious virtue signaling.
Gary bots all over this board. @Samual, Koggerj, ect. Auto-response within 30 seconds on my post. Need to get Elon on this.
I contracted RSV from my 7-year old grandson while visiting him in Wisconsin and subsequently had to take two flights to get back home to Washington, DC. As I read about the number of cases of RSV, flu and COVID rising, I thought it prudent to mask up, as much to preclude my spreading RSV to anyone else as to keep anyone else from sharing their germs with me. Yes, it’s a tad inconvenient but having lost a cousin to COVID in a matter of two short weeks, it’s a small price to pay. Let’s be empathic and consider how we may impact other’s lives and health, especially at this time when we are all looking forward to spending the holidays with family (and that’s best done when one is not sick or contagious). By the way, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many others were also wearing masks, and appreciative of their consideration. Safe travels everyone and happy holidays.
N95 masks work. They are not hard to put on. With a little practice, you can get a tight seal. They offer more protection that car seat belts but most use car seat belts. The number of people dead from car accidents is roughly 50,000 per year, not 500,000 as with Covid.
My partner (3xvax,2xbooster, COVID tested negative before boarding) just caught breakthrough COVID on Day 0-1 of our cruise and went symptomatic and into quarantine on Day 3. She has it bad with sore throat, muscle aches, throwing up, etc. by Day 5 and is still sick 4 days after the cruise ended. COVID is still with us, folks, and cruise lines, etc. dropping vaccination proof, proctored COVID tests prior to boarding or masking while waiting in ques prior to boarding are putting passengers at risk. Masks and increased room ventilation have kept me from getting COVID while in very close proximity to my partner for the last week or so. Having asthma, I have used masks for 30+ years and know firsthand that they are useful. Sorry, DaninMCI, but I find that masks can stop asthma flares rather than impair breathing and often find it easier to sleep with one on, especially during pollen season. Biden, Fauci, and the collusion involved between the FBI and media to influence the election outcome may be bad, but masks are good.
@Chris
The study you cited is not able to conclude (and does not conclude) that N95s do nothing to prevent COVID infections. All the study can conclude, if you read all their results and limitations, is that *in a hospital setting*, that they do not have a large measurable difference between a surgical mask and an N95 in terms of PCR-confirmed COVID infections.
Why is that relevant? Because hospitals have several unique features: they have higher levels of air filtration and ventilation, and a good number, if not most patients may also be wearing surgical masks at a minimum.
Also, this did not control for infections that were likely to have occurred outside the hospital at home, in restaurants, etc.
Several other studies have shown a measurable and significant difference (reduced infections) in populations that used masks and those that didn’t. (The Bangladesh study and the Massachusetts schools study)
Dyson (vacuums etc) has a mask. Can’t say exactly how it works but for $900+ it better deliver the best air you’ve experienced! I believe in a good, well fitted mask. They work. But the Dyson might be a bridge to far. However the trolls are just going to love its dorkiness!
A significant difference? Really? in the Bangladesh study there were 620 less cases in the intervention group (masked) vs the control group. There were 178,000 people in the control group and about the same in the intervention group, I’m not seeing a “significant difference”. Furthermore the study was all based on self reporting. Not sure how scientifically valid that was at the end of the day.
Ray what is YOUR PROBLEM!!!!
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7106e1.htm
CDC: Effectiveness of masks in preventing COVID-19 infection:
No Mask 0%
Cloth 56%
Surgical: 66%
(K)N95 83%
@ paul o’brien — Would you prefer that I sneeze in your direction with or without a mask on? Think for a second. I know it is hard.
Would you prefer I punch you in the face if you were that ignorant and cannot remember to cover your mouth and nose?
As we fly off to Finland for the holidays, we will again be wearing our masks on flights (four of them). As well as on the public transportation systems in Finland, Sweden and Estonia. And, we will also be wearing them on the overnight ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm and back. And on the 2 hour ferry ride from Helsinki to Tallinn. And, most importantly, we will wear our masks on the ten hour train ride from Helsinki to Roveniemi (the North Pole) to make last minute suggestions to the big guy at the real North Pole.
Let’s face it. The holiday season is just mass crowds everywhere you go. Will it prevent us from getting Covid: maybe. Will we get it if we don’t wear masks: possibly. One thing that I am absolutely positive about is the fact that many people are CONVINCED that masks don’t work, and that they do work. As none of the above respondents are experts in their own minds, we will go on our own way, fully convinced that no one has the answer for each of us as individuals.
With that out of the way, we would like to wish each and every one of you, a very happy holiday and a healthy, successful and prosperous new year.
there’s no point of arguing mask usage…. it’s like asking people: do you think having sex with condom, or, driving with seat belt, will protect you?
I heard so many people saying: “…I am 40 and I never wear a condom, I am perfectly fine now….”; or, “…I am 40’s and I never wear a seat belt while driving, see I am still alive…”
Well, all it takes is just ONCE, you’ll regret for the rest of your life. So let those NA sayers deny the medical science, if they want to take a chance with their own health or life, let it be.
But I don’t know about you, I want to stay alive and be healthy. When I travel, being sick is not an option…. So I wear mask in closed quarters indoor. Who care what the Trump supporters say, let them choose their own destiny… I choose mine….
I guess you better not take your mask off to eat and drink. Oh ya the virus or any virus stops when the food service is on.
I don’t trust morons like Samuel so I never stopped wearing masks. There’s too many selfish assholes like that in the world to believe that the stranger sharing my air isn’t the kind of person that would knowingly give someone a disease to own the libs
@ David Szerfag — Seems you are the ignorant one if you think putting my hand over my face is as effective as a mask.
If anyone is forced to wear masks it SHOULD be the easily brainwashed sheep who were dumb enough to take the clot shots…. there is AMPLE evidence showing that THEY are the ones getting sick and spreading it. In fact, they should all be forced to PERMANTLY quarantine themselves as they are just too stupid to be outside unsupervised.
Would never wear. And if, god forbid, it became mandated again (don’t think legally let’s go Brandon can do so) I would just wear my fake mask, which is basically two layers of pantyhose. If YOU want to wear a mask, by all means, do so. You look like an idiot, but have at it.
haha, point well taken!
Viral particles are much, MUCH too small to be stopped by any mask. It’s equivalent to putting up a chain-link fence to keep out mosquitoes. Masks are only used to contain gross droplets. This has been proven time and time again and anyone who thinks any differently has a huge steaming pile of sh!t for brains. You can wear your oxygen-blocking face diapers if you’re “special” enough, but I WILL NOT!!! Oh, and just TRY getting in face about it, you’ll wind up bloody for it. I guarantee it.
You know-it-alls are the worst.
Still waiting to see those stats showing incidence of CV19 taking off after the airline mask mandate was lifted on 4/18. Anyone care to post it?
The 3M Aura N95 mask is comfortable and easy to wear. You can get it at your local Home Depot.
Good job @Gary, that title worked to get views and comments. Gold star for blogging 101. 🙂
On masks: Honestly it really should be chacun a son gout by now. If you want to wear a mask, have at it. If you don’t, fine too, just don’t sit next to me and cough and sneeze all over me.
I was wearing masks on long-haul flights for some years before the pandemic for one singular reason — aerotoxic syndrome. I have quite sensitive lungs and on some ‘planes, if the engine seals weren’t good I would develop nasty coughs after flying. Sometimes you can smell it, sometimes you can’t. [The only aircraft that never uses engine bleed air for the cabin is a 787. Some A350s use external air but it’s a purchaser option and I don’t know how to tell which A350 is which.]
Sooooo… now we are back to flying again I will be wearing my charcoal-lined masks on long-hauls . I’m sure they do a good job on other nasties too, but that’s not why I’m wearing them.
FWIW, I spent a lot of time in Hong Kong pre-pandemic where memories of SARS were still raw, and mask wearing was commonplace. Hence I don’t find it that odd.
I just think it’s sad that mask wearing has become a political issue, wen in fact, it’s just a matter of courtesy, personal choice and common sense.
Gene you simply aren’t too bright based on your comments ! Not sure why this is still a topic. It is personal choice to mask or not mask up. I have had both shots, two boosters ( Moderna) and still got Covid. It was a NON event. It is no longer my job to protect others who choose not to get vaccinated and I won’t be wearing a mask just to appease those who won’t get vaccinated. Anyone in the US can get vaccinated for free. There choice not to do so my choice not to wear a mask. SIMPLE!
@ Woofie
Thank you for the explanation about engine seals. I am sensitive to odors (like a bloodhound). Over the years there I’ve smelled both fuel & exhaust at times. And various opinions but yours makes the most sense.
I too had worn masks in asia pre covid and am comfortable continuing to do so. It’s just an easy healthy practice.
I always like the argument that “people in Asia wear masks during flu season” as if it somehow proves something. Some people in Asia believe that rhino horns can be used to improve sexual prowess, which btw almost drove rhinos to extinction due to pouching. How can you be sure that belief in masks is any different? If anything, more and more evidence points to the fact that recent mass masking have done significantly more harm than rhino hunting.
@ CMorgan — It is a requirement that you follow federal and local rules when using public transportation. You are “free” to rent your own car or plane or mule or whatever, but if the mask rule returns, you would have no choice but to wear one if you want to fly on a commercail airline. Too bad for you.
I am going to go fry up some bacon.
Mmmm bacon
If the person who has COVID (and probably doesn’t know) isn’t wearing a mask to capture the exhaled virus particles, the efficacy of masks is reduced by 60-70%. This is the end result: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2211029 Wearing masks works WELL when EVERYONE wears them; otherwise, not as much.
Lifting of universal masking has cost the US dearly, with millions of people unable to work due to long COVID or having to care for someone with it (labor shortage) and 1.2 million already in the grave (more shortages).
An interesting cross section of opinions reflecting the politics of this country more than its science. I got 4 vacs and dropped the mask as fast as possible, my older son (3 vacs) is a judge, not a scientist, but has small children and is very nervous about them getting RSV, flu or COVID so is pro-mask I don’t see the government bringing them back as a requirement short of a massive plague though. What I find fascinating is how the etiquette around them has developed. People seem to have reached the point of ignoring whether one is or is not wearing one and generally don’t comment either way. It’s a bit like not mentioning to another person what their ethnic group, religion, sexual orientation or whatever is unless there’s a legitimate reason to bring it up.
No, not happening. I did not fly at all during the mandate but have returned to flying once or twice a month since it was lifted. If others want to mask that is their right but no mandates. I would simply quit flying again if a mandate was reimposed.
It is hard to think of a public health measure that is cheaper and easier than wearing a mask in public. In airports, on planes and in other situations where people are crowded together, you never know the health status of those with whom you will be in close contact. Not only do I wish to avoid getting sick, I’d hate to be responsible for getting someone else sick, knowingly or unknowingly.
Too bad it is usually impossible to identify the person who infects another. Otherwise there could be legal liability (economic losses, pain and suffering etc.) for causing injury or death in others just like in a traffic accident or cases involving TB or HIV transmission. Failing to wear a mask in certain situations could equate to negligent or reckless conduct.
Thinking of others is contrary to the natural inclinations of many. Those folks might behave differently if they risked personal consequences for their conduct.
@Vv
Great points about the limitations of the study.
Good heavens Gary. You and your silly masks. Let me put it in terms that are true and that you will appreciate:
Masks = TSA
Can we please drop all this mask discussion and get back to politics?
Gary — you don’t seem like a stupid man. But if masks somehow work against respiratory viruses — something experts NEVER believed prior to Covid — why does all the evidence show they don’t work? For starters, if you don’t want to rely on your lived experience, you could look at the thousands of charts @ianmsc has published on twitter (or read his book). Masks have never stopped a single Covid wave anywhere in the world. You might as well wear garlic around your neck — masking is no better than witchcraft. It’s long past time to stop being hystericial, much less encouraging others to share this mental illness.
Anyone who tells me to wear a mask can stick said mask where the sun doesn’t shine.
the obvious question for all of those who believe that masking did such a great job is why widespread masking never was suggested, let alone imposed, even though respiratory diseases including the flu have killed far more people than covid ever did or will.
N95 masks weren’t invented in 2020.
If they were so successful, why did nobody figure out their validity in just the last 2 years?
Or are masks really not any more successful than the “safe vaccines” that are being shown to have killed perfectly healthy people while legitimate sicientists that warned exactly of those risks were silenced?
@ Tim Dunn — Wow, stick to the other subjects that you dont know either, like accouting.
Being shown where? What evidence do you have?
If they were silenced, how did you hear about them?
Ever hear of fractions? You got the numerator down. The denominator seems to be missing.
This is demonstrably correct.
You need me to hold your hand on PubMed?
@Weight loss
There has been a 30% increase in clot related deaths this year alone.
People are falling over and dying because of the vax
@ chad — The clots are cuased by COVID itself way more than the vaccines. As suggested by Weight loss, have a look around PubMed. You know all of those COVID-realted strokes and heart attacks? Many are caused BY CLOTS. A very high percentage of deaths are catually caused by clots, with varying underlying causes, such as heart failure, kideny faileure, liver failure, cancer, etc.
Covid doesnt cause clots… But the mRna shots do.
Stop gaslighting the public and get a clue.
It’s not normal for young people to fall over for no apparent reason.
Never again on the masks as its evident Fauci and rhe CDC lied about how dangerous Covid was.
Someone on the thread wondered if Gary was a stupid man. I can attest, that in fact, he is ignorant on this subject. He has been wrong about everything since the start of this scam and the fact that he still promotes masks, Paxlovid and the gene-altering shots, tells me he’s learned nothing in the past three years.
Unfortunately, we are facing a collapsing healthcare system. See this letter written by the American College of Emergency Physicians to the Biden Administration: https://www.acep.org/globalassets/new-pdfs/advocacy/emergency-department-boarding-crisis-sign-on-letter-11.07.22.pdf
Please, please wear a mask and get your booster.
Signed,
A weary ER doctor and frequent flyer
“people” who still wear masks whole be ridiculed.
You’re easily manipulated sheep
@Gene
Wrong they are caused by the vax
Masks have never had any scientific basis. Can we please stop discussing this nonsense for good?!
How about You go live in China?!
“…where masking was common before the “plan”demic”! If you think the Chinese people love and are ok with being Forced to Comply you are as bad as “Brandon” ignoring their fight against the CCP!
You have the Personal Choice to mask up or not, AS IT SHOULD BE! Mind your own F’king business! I’m so sick of Tyrants!
I WILL NOT COMPLY!
#TheConstitution #ReadItRedpectIt
@ Chad — If so, then it seems you took said vax and a have few clots in your brain.
@ John L — Try turning off FoxNews and actually reading. COVID cuases clots. It has ever since the first cases were reported in China, long before any vaccines.
@ Mat — Thank you for your service.
What a ridiculous suggestion! Masks have been proven over and over to not be effective at all. In fact many more negative effects than positive! Come on, wake up and smell the coffee!
Yes, I’ll wear a mask in the airport and on some flights if cases are high. Good masks do work.
@ Chris / @ Samuel / @ Doug / @ Manuel / @ reggie lee / @ paul o’brien / @ Andy (the other one) / @ chopsticks / @ Tim Dunn / @ Masha / @ Jim Rydell
Now all of you covidiot anti-maskers can either accept the science or not. Your choice (unless mask wearing is mandated in which case you wear the masks or don’t travel – per my recent flights and taxi rides in Spain).
Here is the definitive science – a real-world study of about 300,000 individuals in Bangladesh concluded that masks do work to reduce the transmission of COVID19, notably in older people (more vulnerable).
Case closed.
@ Tim Dunn
Discriminating against / disenfranchising vulnerable people is not an ethical solution to offset the selfish and self-entitled idiocy of some when simple health options are available (masks).
Oh, and the application of masks varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction – fester in your own personal belief system all you want – it doesn’t alter the science.
Amazing how your logical self goes MIA when your belief system kicks in (c’mon, mate, you’re normally one of the brightest on this blog).
@ Vv / @ Derek / @ Nor4 / @ Gene / @ Eddie / @ john / @ weight loss
Too smart for the audience of this blog…;)
@ David Szerlag
“A significant difference? Really?”
Significant difference is determined / defined by very commonly used and accepted statistical analysis, which I why you’ll see data quoted to a confidence interval (e.g. +/- 95%) in the original peer reviewed literature.
Such is not determined by the ignorant personal perceptions of yourself or others!
“Would you prefer I punch you in the face if you were that ignorant and cannot remember to cover your mouth and nose?”
Actually, on my recent SIN-FRA flight the guy across the aisle in the back of the business class cabin was hacking his lungs out for the whole 13-hour flight. He wore no mask, and made absolutely no attempt to cover his mouth at any time, just coughed into the air. Luckily, the crew accommodated my request to move to a vacant seat on the opposite side of the cabin. Oh, and yes, he was an arrogant, dumb, self-entitled American, typical of the sort of attitude of many on this blog.
@ Jefferson Souza
Oh, how wonderful it would be to deny health care treatment to the hypocritical conspiracy clot covidiots herein.
@ Flying.While.High.Again
I hope it’s unsmoked British bacon and not that American shit posing as bacon – had the real stuff in the Concorde Room LHR the other day – yummy!
@ libtard attitude adjuster
Ok, it’s dumbtard adjuster time, folks
Viral particles in the air are not viral particles in the air. They come attached to airborne droplets and particles. In other words, it’s not the size of the virus that matters.
@ CMorgan
COVID19 is not a “non-event” for everyone, buddy. And the extent of long term effects are still being discovered.
@ Chad / @ John L
Try applying your admittedly miniscule cognitive ability. There are four groups of people:
1) No vaccine / never had covid
2) Vaccine / never had covid
3) No vaccine / had covid
4) Vaccine / had covid
Now, fella, a basic intelligence test to tease out your (apparently absent) inner scientist – explain how your theory (clots are caused by vaccines not covid) would apply to the above groups.
Now give us the differential data to prove your conspiracy theories are correct.
@ Mat
Trying to educate many on this blog is an apparently fruitless exercise. Friends are high flying ER / first response medics who travelled to the world’s hotspots for COVID (From Iran to NY) – they shake their heads in disbelief when I report the ignorance exhibited by many on this and other travel blogs…
First, no on the suggestion…I’ll stick with my immune system and remedies that have served me well. For those of us with medical conditions that can’t wear a mask, this suggestion is troubling because it tells me that people haven’t learned anything in the past year. I always chuckle when the announcement comes on to respect each other’s mask decisions …a little late airlines…I also don’t think at least in the US that the courts or legislature are going to lead us back to mandates. They were not effective and as others have pointed out, neither were the masks themselves. So I wonder why bring it up?
What really struck me are the comments once again denigrating those with an opposing position …one thing for sure I’ve learned in the past couple years is that there are some people that think far too highly of themselves and their knowledge and how they are absolutely correct in their thinking. Typically, these same people come across at the same time with an attitude that thinks far too lowly of others. To suggest denial of healthcare to those who have an opposing position regarding anything is just absurd. This line of thinking was circulating for some time but I had hoped many who subscribed to this thinking would have by now retired it to the trash bin along with all of the other irrational overreactions we witness in daily life.
@ Mark Rascio
“To suggest denial of healthcare to those who have an opposing position regarding anything is just absurd.’
For clarity, the mention of such (in my own post) was indeed intended to be absurd – an illustration of the hypocrisy of some for attaching to certain conspiracy theories about medical science on the one hand only to seek treatments derived from medical science on the other (when it suits them).
Certain folk herein have an established track record of claiming in extremis that the whole medical science community is in league in a mass conspiracy across dozens of countries.
Now please consider that, regardless of any individuals’ perceptions or opinions, that the pertaining medical science is available to ANYONE and EVERYONE.
You simply go to the website “PubMed” and use that as a specialist browser (just like Google) to look up the original literature.
With such access at your fingertips, nobody else’s opinion actually matters at all. You have access to all of the current science and medicine.
Some commentary is definitive since it can be supported by scientific / medical evidence (rather than some fake news story misquoting or misrepresenting the original science).
Once so empowered, you might find the uninformed opinions ceaselessly repeated (typically along political and religious lines) to be increasingly tiresome….;)
@platly
Well, I’ll take your explanation at face value but there are many, many people that literally as well as figuratively make the statement that those who are not vaccinated should not be treated and so forth…I maintain this is wrongheaded and inconsistent with how medicine treats cancer patients that have smoked for instance or those …or should I say most, that don’t eat right and pay a medical price later.
While the embargo against any perceived negative coverage of vaccines and / or masks has someone relented, there is no doubt those that questioned the narrative during the pandemic were silenced using many methods. Studies actually taking on issues such as vaccine injury that could lead to a doctor recommending against a vaccine are plentiful…although only recently have some of the more prestigious journals allowed anything perceived as potentially negative to leak out. But, science being what it is, involves many scientists and doctors doing research and publishing various opinions and hypotheses…the very idea that something so new of mRNA technology can be fully understood is to misunderstand science. My concern is the silencing legitimate alternative medical hypothesis and opinion while some unfamiliar with the scientific process claim certain facts are ‘settled’. There have been.many hundreds of studies on the efficacy of masks as well which seem to confirm that during the height of a pandemic mask usage did not have the dramatic desired impact some like to claim. Clearly, logic proves this as well since in many areas where these precautions were sparsely used and not enforced , the numbers didn’t skyrocket. In fact many studies of schools showed in some cases the numbers were worse in heavily masked schools. Logically, if they were significantly effective, where they were not used there would have been substantive increases in viral transmission. While many will find their own isolated cases to prove their opinion one way or another and fact there are so many factors that can skew the numbers one way or another. Coincidence never proves causality…