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.
“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.
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.
Where was that in the study?
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.)
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:
Exactly my point. Everyone wore masks so how would anyone know whether masks were better than no masks at all.
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.
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.
Way to step up the old influencing game. Any second now you’ll have me convinced to change my vote to Trump.
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.”
Once it hits your area, it’ll feel real. Don’t think of it as theater. Think of it as dress rehearsal.
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.
Is that your final answer? Do you want to call a friend? 
Trump always has the knack to toss even casual supporters of his under the bus.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
Cross-posted from “Is Trump Posturing for a Convention Surprise” thread: