# The pro-mask side needs to step up its influencing game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [July 20, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842 "2020-07-20T15:21:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/121 "2020-07-21T23:20:26Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > He thinks that the news should incessantly show clips of all those refrigerator trucks parked in hospital parking lots, including video of the dead bodies inside all neatly stacked in body bags. Show interviews with the survivors who are left disabled. Show the people in ICUs enwrapped in tubes and wires. Worse still, show the ones who are conscious and gasping to breathe. Grind the gruesome scenes into everybody’s consciousness relentlessly. The best contemporary “disturbing movie” directors, like Ari Aster, David Cronenberg, Darren Aronofsky, should be enlisted to create a series of commercials about the body-horror of a debilitating respiratory virus. I am deadly serious. If I were in charge of some government task force, I would give those guys a budget of 300 million dollars and tell them to get to work making the darkest and most disgusting PSAs that you’ll never forget for as long as you live. I am TOTALLY serious. Never, ever, ever underestimate the power of the moving picture. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/122 "2020-07-21T23:31:00Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > I’m living in a 99percent virus-free area of the country so the odds that I will pick it up are slim. Should I pick it up the odds that I will pass it along to some rando in another part of the country are even slimmer than the odds that I will pass it along to someone I actually live with. “Odds” have _absolutely zero zilch nada to do with anything_ about whether or not **you** get the virus or whether or not **you** pass it on. Odds offer no assurances regarding individuals. > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Furthermore I have stated more than once that where they are required, if I have to be there, I wear one. But I resent the hell out of it, I think it’s stupid overkill and more theater than anything else, and I think those who believe otherwise are not thinking it through. I cannot believe that a rational adult would make such a thoroughly immature declaration. I blush in embarrassment on your behalf, since it seems that you aren’t aware of how juvenile this “resentment” is. Your irritation is completely out of proportion to what is being asked of you, but I’m guessing you aren’t aware of that either or you’d be mortified to admit it. I’d laugh if it didn’t involved people’s health and possibly lives. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![agzem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@agzem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agzem)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/123 "2020-07-21T23:45:19Z")
> [@Tfletch1](#): > > _the paper conceded that cloth masks may be better than no masks at all_ Where was that in the study? ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/124 "2020-07-21T23:59:42Z")
Just saw a news report that Costa Mesa (in rich, conservative Orange County) is going to start fining anyone not wearing a mask in public (including in stores), with tickets and fines starting at $100 for a first offense and escalating quickly to as much as $1,000. Since the police are paid from revenue sources such as these fines, I don’t foresee a problem with enforcement. (The only issue I had was that the mayor of Costa Mesa was interviewed as part of the report and while her mask covered both her mouth and nose, it was resting on the very tip of her nose and I spent that portion of the report staring in fascination as I waited for her nose to pop out.) ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/125 "2020-07-22T00:05:57Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > > > Furthermore I have stated more than once that where they are required, if I have to be there, I wear one. But I resent the hell out of it, I think it’s stupid overkill and more theater than anything else, and I think those who believe otherwise are not thinking it through. > > I cannot believe that a rational adult would make such a thoroughly immature declaration. I blush in embarrassment on your behalf, since it seems that you aren’t aware of how juvenile this “resentment” is. Your irritation is completely out of proportion to what is being asked of you, but I’m guessing you aren’t aware of that either or you’d be mortified to admit it. I’d laugh if it didn’t involved people’s health and possibly lives. Carry on. Since there is no “Like” button any more, let me say emphatically: +1. Or maybe that should be +100. Where I live in southern Ontario, masks are mandatory by law by the unanimous consent of all the contiguous municipalities that make up the GTHA (Greater Toronto Hamilton Area), an area containing almost 7 million people, and joined by many other major cities. Virtually no one “resents” it or thinks “it’s stupid overkill and more theater than anything else”. As for “thinking it through”, our government leaders have been listening to medical professionals who have thought it through pretty damn well, TQVM. As a result, the pandemic is well contained and we are in Stage 3 of re-opening businesses and getting the economy going again, while hospitals are becoming increasingly available for all manner of lesser ailments that were formerly displaced by COVID emergencies. And the USA? Let’s just say that the Canadian border remains closed for non-essential travel\*, and the EU has opened up to many countries but not to Americans. So yes, @Hilarity_N.Suze, do carry on, and expect more of the same. \* Totally off-topic, but on the subject of closed borders, this was a heart-warming conclusion to a recent border incident: > **[Canadian-American couple reunited after compiling 250-page binder proving...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cbsa-canada-u-s-border-restrictions-common-law-couple-1.5651128)** > > Two weeks after being separated at the border, Canadian Stephen Barkey and American Cathy Kolsch finally convinced Canadian border officials they were common-law by presenting them with a 250-page binder detailing their lives together. ---
**Author:** ![Tfletch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tfletch1/32/5340_2.png) [@Tfletch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tfletch1)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/126 "2020-07-22T01:10:31Z")
> [@agzem](#): > > Where was that in the study? Exactly my point. Everyone wore masks so how would anyone know whether masks were better than no masks at all. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/127 "2020-07-22T01:27:29Z")
I want to be perfectly clear here. I did not say you were idiotic. I said your example was idiotic. The thing about analogies is that they’re supposed to make sense. As long as you’re wearing masks when you’re supposed to, complain away! And, 99% free of the virus in your community is still pretty high – the whole country just passed 1% in total known infections. Since there are vast swaths of the country with essentially zero, your 1% is likely on the higher end. Keep wearing those masks when required and I’ll have no beef with you. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/128 "2020-07-22T01:29:07Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > I’m living in a 99percent virus-free area of the country so the odds that I will pick it up are slim. 1% odds seem awfully high, actually. Much, much higher than here where 17 people were diagnosed today, out of 1.3 million. With a whole percent chance you’re statistically likely to contract it between now and late October. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/129 "2020-07-22T02:54:36Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > 1% odds seem awfully high, actually. Much, much higher than here where 17 people were diagnosed today, out of 1.3 million. With a whole percent chance you’re statistically likely to contract it between now and late October. 1% infected does not mean 1% chance of catching it. But it is pretty high. Around here, there’s about one case in 230 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/130 "2020-07-22T03:59:02Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I cannot believe that a rational adult would make such a thoroughly immature declaration. I blush in embarrassment on your behalf, since it seems that you aren’t aware of how juvenile this “resentment” is. Your irritation is completely out of proportion to what is being asked of you, but I’m guessing you aren’t aware of that either or you’d be mortified to admit it. I’d laugh if it didn’t involved people’s health and possibly lives. Carry on. Way to step up the old influencing game. Any second now you’ll have me convinced to change my vote to Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/131 "2020-07-22T04:02:45Z")
It’s not a whole percent chance today. It’s a whole percent from the first statistic in March, through today. And this is just “tested positive” and not “actually sick.” ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/132 "2020-07-22T04:07:39Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Furthermore I have stated more than once that where they are required, if I have to be there, I wear one. But I resent the hell out of it, I think it’s stupid overkill and more theater than anything else, and I think those who believe otherwise are not thinking it through Once it hits your area, it’ll feel real. Don’t think of it as theater. Think of it as dress rehearsal. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/133 "2020-07-22T04:07:42Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I cannot believe that a rational adult would make such a thoroughly immature declaration. I blush in embarrassment on your behalf, since it seems that you aren’t aware of how juvenile this “resentment” is. Your irritation is completely out of proportion to what is being asked of you, but I’m guessing you aren’t aware of that either or you’d be mortified to admit it. I’d laugh if it didn’t involved people’s health and possibly lives. Carry on. It’s my opinion. Not embarrassing to me. In a year let’s see whose statement looks more juvenile. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/134 "2020-07-22T04:11:49Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > It’s my opinion. Not embarrassing to me. In a year let’s see whose statement looks more juvenile Those of us who are older and with risk factors have to take it more seriously. I might survive it. But my 74-year-old boss I could pass it to if we came to the office - probably not. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/135 "2020-07-22T12:44:03Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Way to step up the old influencing game. Any second now you’ll have me convinced to change my vote to Trump. > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > It’s my opinion. Not embarrassing to me. In a year let’s see whose statement looks more juvenile. Is that your final answer? Do you want to call a friend? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/136 "2020-07-22T18:59:23Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Way to step up the old influencing game. Any second now you’ll have me convinced to change my vote to Trump. Trump always has the knack to toss even casual supporters of his under the bus. > **[Echoing Fauci’s message, Trump has change of heart on face masks: ‘If you’re...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/in-apparent-u-turn-trump-tweets-photo-of-himself-wearing-a-face-mask-many-people-say-that-it-is-patriotic-to-wear-a-face-mask-2020-07-20)** > > Three months ago, Trump said he would resist doing so: ‘Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens — I just don’t... > [Trump’s tweet] > We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President! But never fear, chances are that he is doing a ‘do what I say, not what I do’ move; still, it is a signal for conservative or weird local governments and businesses to follow. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/137 "2020-07-23T01:10:23Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > You people have got to quit thinking that anti-mask = proTrump. The renegade nonmaskers I hang around with are some of the most anti-Trump people you will ever see, and the only Trumpist I know IRL is masking like a motherfucker. It is not a party alignment thing. This is true. Here in ultra-liberal brownstone Brooklyn, we have plenty of [insert Pit-appropriate epithet]s who won’t wear masks. Sometimes it’s about “freedom.” Sometimes it’s some pseudo-scientific borderline conspiracy bullshit (remember, brownstone Brooklyn is a hotbed of anti-vaxxers). Some of them really just want to push peoples buttons and start fights. That’s not unique to Trumpists. Some of them are incomprehensible. For example, the Fire Department has a floor in an office building in which I have to spend a fair amount of time. The floor houses fire inspectors (so they don’t need firehouses). A large majority of them refuse to wear masks. And get really, really pissed off, and vocal about it, to the point of threatening violence, when I refuse to get on an elevator with them. Okay, that bunch seems like Trumpists. But the rest? They’d never, never vote for Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/138 "2020-07-23T01:28:14Z")
I should have pointed out that the Fire Department mask-refusers are incomprehensible to me because NYC’s EMTs (at least some of them – a lot of them) are part of the Fire Department. In the worst days of the pandemic here, the EMTs were working double and triple shifts, sleeping in the ambulances, and seeing exactly what this thing could do to people. So it amazes me that anyone in the department would think twice about wearing a mask. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/139 "2020-07-23T01:55:33Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > So it amazes me that anyone in the department would think twice about wearing a mask. This amazes me as well. I live just outside of Detroit and when they took me to the hospital for DKA on April 7th they were wearing hazmat suits. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842/140 "2020-07-23T12:10:11Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > [Trump’s tweet] > > > We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President! > > But never fear, chances are that he is doing a ‘do what I say, not what I do’ move; still, it is a signal for conservative or weird local governments and businesses to follow. Cross-posted from “Is Trump Posturing for a Convention Surprise” thread: > [@Is Trump is Posturing for a Convention Surprise to Invigorate the Base?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-is-posturing-for-a-convention-surprise-to-invigorate-the-base/916010/24): > > Well, that didn’t last long. > > [https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/508300-trump-seen-at-dc-fundraiser-without-mask-just-hours-after-saying-its](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/508300-trump-seen-at-dc-fundraiser-without-mask-just-hours-after-saying-its) [https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/508300-trump-seen-at-dc-fundraiser-without-mask-just-hours-after-saying-its](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/508300-trump-seen-at-dc-fundraiser-without-mask-just-hours-after-saying-its) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pro-mask-side-needs-to-step-up-its-influencing-game/915842.md?page=8)