Apparently it is a significant “right” to some people that they not be required to wear a mask. They feel that wearing a mask is a form of oppression, that it impinges on their freedom.
Do those people feel the same way about driving drunk? Do they long for the freedom to get blasted and then cruise around the highways and streets?
These people seem to think that not wearing the mask only provides risk to themselves. This is wrong. Sure, masks provide some level of protection to the wearer, and I’m certainly wearing mine to keep me safe, regardless of those around me wearing them or not. But a significant part of wearing a mask is not to protect the wearer, but to protect others from the wearer. We’ve all heard by now about the “asymptomatic carrier”, i.e. a person who is infected but having mild or even no discernable symptoms but spreading the virus. It is this that the blanket directive to wear masks is meant to combat. You get infected, but don’t feel bad and go out in public and infect a dozen people all around you. However, they might not be so lucky and get a hard case that sends them to the hospital or the morgue.
Now it might be difficult to contact trace that individual back specifically to you, so you don’t necessarily see the direct consequence of your choice to not wear a mask. But the consequence is there. No, it’s not a guarantee that everyone not wearing a mask will infect someone, much less lead to someone’s death. But in the aggregate, it is definitely the case that some people not wearing masks are spreading the disease, and people getting the disease are dying. Or having life-altering consequences.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation now projects that 33,000 lives could be saved by universal mask wearing.
So the people out there clamoring for their right to not wear a mask are like if people were out there clamoring for their right to drive drunk. Innocents are at risk because of the action.
Wear a damn mask! (And not a chinstrap or a mouthguard.)
Why don’t you wear a spacesuit or an N-95 mask 24/7? If you don’t then your full of shit. There is risk for any act you partake in, at any given time. Only if you are 100% free of sin can you cast stones. Nobody doesn’t risk the lives of somebody when they go outside.
I wear a mask when I go through crowded places or visit indoor spaces that are not my home. I don’t even mind driving with the mask on. I have stayed mostly indoors for the past three months.
I don’t wear a mask, myself, but would have no problems doing so anywhere that required it. You don’t see a lot of mask-wearers here in this part of Wyoming.
The OP is, itself, the reductio ad absurdum. It’s equating a vague statistical risk with deliberate murder, and exaggerating the supposed crime by citing total numbers of deaths in a way that makes them seem like the result of a single person.
You might quibble with the throwing stones framing, but it’s still a very legitimate point. It’s misleading and looks disingenuous to focus on one single behavior without the context of scale or system to ground it.
Yeah, it’s better to wear a mask, but these sorts of lazy yellow arguments are likely a key root cause for the situation we are currently in with resistance to the idea. So congratulations on making it worse, I guess?
I dont wear a mask unless the establishment I’m entering has a “must wear a mask” rule. Then I wear a mask. No big deal, IMHO.
I’m so glad to know that you can only spread the coronavirus in places that have “must wear a mask” signs, and everywhere else, nobody can catch what you’ve got.
Please let Dr. Fauci know about this breakthrough ASAP.
It’s the ‘vague statistical risk’ of Russian roulette. You don’t know if there’s a bullet in the chamber, but when you go out without a mask, you’re pulling the trigger anyway.
“Yeah, it’s better to wear a mask, but these sorts of lazy yellow arguments are likely a key root cause for the situation we are currently in with resistance to the idea. So congratulations on making it worse, I guess?”
The key root cause of the resistance to the idea has nothing to do with arguments from those who either are medical professionals, don’t want to die from Covid, or both. It has to do with the astonishing intransigence of the reactionary right wing in this country, which consists of those would rather die an agonizing death, infect all their friends and relatives, and cause the country to collapse, rather than do something that the government tells them to do for their own safety.
And this is no longer theoretical.
The fact that you call these arguments “yellow” (cowardly, I assume) means that for you, bravery consists of putting others at terrible risk; trying to help your fellow human beings equates to cowardice.
Remarkably this nation has devolved from a population of people all of whom are capable of modifying their behavior for the common good to a population of single selfish non-citizens.
I mean citizens in the classic Roman sense. During WWII people blacked out their homes and apartments. People were able to forego all manner of material goods for the war effort. People dealt with food rationing and fuel rationing and what they did not do is stand on streetcorners ( the 1941 equivalent of raging on the Internet ) decrying the loss of their personal freedoms as Americans.
Why? Because the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.
Who, exactly, will Texans sue when there’s not enough body bags? Who do they get to threaten with their precious AR-15s to make them not suffocate and die of COVID-19?
Of you mean it is no big deal for you to wear a mask, you are not hung up on your “rights”, then OK. Though I disagree with you’re limiting it just to locations that require it. You should be wearing a mask any time you are around other people outside your living group, regardless of whether it is required by some policy or government directive. COVID-19 doesn’t limit itself to places that require a mask. It is a civic duty to wear one, just like not driving drunk.
What a ridiculous and obnoxious statement. Yes, life is filed with risk, and lots of daily activities could harm others. Like driving a car.
But there is reasonable risk and there is unreasonable risk, and not mask wearing falls in the unreasonable level right now.
To be clear, I don’t mean you have to wear a mask around your family at home. Y’all are a small group that are co-exposed. And maybe it makes sense to have a small group at work where you all share a space with the same people every day. I can see an argument for small pools of people of they are limited in number of people to a consistent set.
Also, if you are outside and not around people, social distancing, that’s great. But being in large crowds, even outside, is a spreadable event. And being indoors even more so.
Maybe you are in an area where the infection rate is low, the hospitals are running fine, and there is a low population density. That doesn’t mean the
disease is not present, and not able to cause lasting injury or death. It just means an overwhelmed hospital won’t cause secondary deaths from lack of resources.
But people are acting like it is no big deal, as of they are only risking themselves.
If you drive drunk, there is a vague statistical risk you will kill somebody. If you text and drive, there is a vague statistical risk you will kill somebody.
If you are HIV positive and have unprotected sex, there is a vague statistical chance you will infect someone who will die from it. That doesn’t prevent us from holding people accountable for their actions, and legalizing controls to minimize the risks.
Say a church holds a big worship service and most people who attend don’t wear masks. After the fact, a number of attendees are diagnosed with COVID-19. In all likelihood they were all infected by one initial host. If any of them get seriously ill or die, they bear responsibility for their own action of attending and not mask wearing. But that initial host also bears responsibility.
Horsepucky. The reason we are in this mess is too many people don’t take the virus seriously, don’t think it can happen to them or believe they are healthy and won’t get a bad case. Too many people are more interested in socializing and having fun without regards to consequences. And too many people think it is somehow tyranny for the government to impose some minimal restrictions on actions to fight a deadly pandemic.
And too many people have this conspiracist notion that the virus isn’t even real, it’s all some liberal plot to oppress the people.
