A Few Points About Covid Masks
Point #1: It's a health device, not a campaign poster. I'm so libertarian I make myself uncomfortable at times, but when I go into a business, I wear a mask. As far as I am aware, Wyoming residents are not required by law to wear them. That means you aren't gaining any anti-big-government/libertarian/rebel/tough guy cred for going face-commando. It's just a choice you make.
Point #2: The mask isn't to protect you; it's to protect people around you. If you wear a mask it doesn't mean you're scared, and if you don't it doesn't mean you're brave. Recent research suggests that a lot of people might be spreading Covid 19 without showing symptoms. You might have it and not know it, and wearing a mask is a way of keeping your germs to yourself.
When I go into a business, I don't wear a mask because I'm afraid. I wear a mask because I'm trying to be courteous to others. Do you wash your hands after you take a dump? Same thing. It isn't about you.
Point #3: Masks are a pain in the butt. They look stupid, and they feel awkward, and they're hot, and they make it hard to understand verbal and non-verbal communication. Mine is pretty cool as masks go (thanks to my mother in law), but I hate it. And I wear it anyway. See Point #2.
Point #4: My family is considered high risk, and the overall consensus of the medical experts is that your wearing a mask might help them stay healthy. My daughter, despite being an otherwise robust and healthy kid, is asthmatic, and she goes down with pneumonia every couple years or so. I'm a reasonably healthy, reasonably brave guy with a great set of lungs, and if it were just me, I would deep-down be wishing that I'd just catch the thing and get it over with. It's a risk, sure, but one I'd be willing to take. But it isn't just me.
Still, you're entitled to your opinion. Maybe the pundits and conspiracy theorists are right, and this is all a big scam to take away still more of our freedoms, or to keep third-party candidates down, or to reduce American sovereignty, or to make rich people richer, or to make the president look bad in an election year, or whatever. A brief reading of history shows that conspiracy theories aren't always crazy: Governments are often dishonest in their dealings, and powerful people will sometimes go to appalling lengths to stay that way. These things happen. There is even some information out there that suggests that maybe masks don't really help that much.
But I don't know that yet. Neither do you. The best info we have to go on right now says that masks help keep this thing from spreading. If that changes, I will be delighted to light the match at the great neighborhood mask burning party.
But until that happens, I'm going to wear a mask, for one simple reason: Maybe your kids are prone to pneumonia. I'm not willing to risk their safety to make some sort of statement about how tough or rebellious or anti-government--or simply thoughtless--I am.
I sure wish you'd show me the same courtesy.
Point #2: The mask isn't to protect you; it's to protect people around you. If you wear a mask it doesn't mean you're scared, and if you don't it doesn't mean you're brave. Recent research suggests that a lot of people might be spreading Covid 19 without showing symptoms. You might have it and not know it, and wearing a mask is a way of keeping your germs to yourself.
When I go into a business, I don't wear a mask because I'm afraid. I wear a mask because I'm trying to be courteous to others. Do you wash your hands after you take a dump? Same thing. It isn't about you.
Point #3: Masks are a pain in the butt. They look stupid, and they feel awkward, and they're hot, and they make it hard to understand verbal and non-verbal communication. Mine is pretty cool as masks go (thanks to my mother in law), but I hate it. And I wear it anyway. See Point #2.
Point #4: My family is considered high risk, and the overall consensus of the medical experts is that your wearing a mask might help them stay healthy. My daughter, despite being an otherwise robust and healthy kid, is asthmatic, and she goes down with pneumonia every couple years or so. I'm a reasonably healthy, reasonably brave guy with a great set of lungs, and if it were just me, I would deep-down be wishing that I'd just catch the thing and get it over with. It's a risk, sure, but one I'd be willing to take. But it isn't just me.
Still, you're entitled to your opinion. Maybe the pundits and conspiracy theorists are right, and this is all a big scam to take away still more of our freedoms, or to keep third-party candidates down, or to reduce American sovereignty, or to make rich people richer, or to make the president look bad in an election year, or whatever. A brief reading of history shows that conspiracy theories aren't always crazy: Governments are often dishonest in their dealings, and powerful people will sometimes go to appalling lengths to stay that way. These things happen. There is even some information out there that suggests that maybe masks don't really help that much.
But I don't know that yet. Neither do you. The best info we have to go on right now says that masks help keep this thing from spreading. If that changes, I will be delighted to light the match at the great neighborhood mask burning party.
But until that happens, I'm going to wear a mask, for one simple reason: Maybe your kids are prone to pneumonia. I'm not willing to risk their safety to make some sort of statement about how tough or rebellious or anti-government--or simply thoughtless--I am.
I sure wish you'd show me the same courtesy.
Yes, that's all there is to it.
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