Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Masks … a Contrary Opinion


Last week I was briefly talking to my next store neighbor, and I asked him if his two little ones were back at “school.” The two little twins are about two and a half years old and “school” is actually daycare as both he and his wife work. His initial comment was that they “tested negative,” and had gone back just that morning. Now this guy had always impressed me as being fairly intelligent until that balloon burst with his next string of comments. “Lucky the masks protect them.” My initial instinct was to laugh, but in trying to be neighborly, I merely said something to the effect that the pre-school masking didn’t work so well for the twins. When I further said that I didn’t think that masks worked very well at all, he responded that they wore masks in hospitals. When it then became apparent that his level of basic scientific knowledge concerning masks, bacteria, viruses, etcetera, was minimal, I ended the conversation … “Have a nice day.”

The more I thought about masks and Covid, the more convinced I became that … (get ready for some pure heresy!) … the more I became convinced that masks and the push to wear them just about everywhere, has indeed made this pandemic worse. Follow me logically here.

Forget the fact that in the beginning we were told that masks didn’t work for Covid, and then suddenly they did. Forget the fact that we are now being told that cloth masks are of no value. Forget the fact that some of those in the know are recommending double and triple masking. Forget the fact that N95s are now being recommended instead of the surgical masks that have been worn in hospitals. 

When you put this string of “forget the facts” together, logically, it means that the mask recommendations changed and evolved because the prior advice did not work. For example why advise double and triple masking if single masking worked just fine?

To my way of thinking, what these mask mandates (with what are now being acknowledged are substandard and inefficient masks) has done is to encourage a misplaced sense of individual confidence that as long as a mask is being worn, the individual is safe.

If you have any doubt that this has occurred, go to Costco where everybody is masked and standing relatively close together, especially in the six feet or so around the chickens. I believe that it is because of the false sense of security that the wearing of a mask provides. Consequently most everyone feels comfortable crowding together … as long as masks are being worn.

Now this contrary opinion of mine on masking is without pointing out how a significant number of adults wear masks wrong. Why would anyone think that the wearing and the mis-wearing of inefficient masks that do not form tight seals would be expected to work any better than the masking of preschool aged children?

BTW: Surprise, surprise, the twins are home again with another cold.

2/4/22

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