I refuse to wear a stupid mask. I find them hard to breathe in and I think they are of dubious utility. From a nurse commenting at Instapundit:
As a nurse I am now required to wear a mask through my entire 12 hour shift. I go home every day I work with a headache, pretty sure I now have a sinus infection, the masks makes my sinuses extremely stuffy and yet are so inefficient that when I am talking to my patients it pulls down on my face exposing my nose, talking about the ones with loops that go around your ears. The only way to stop that is to have buttons on the, mostly handmade, surgical caps or head covering most of us are wearing so you can put the loops on the buttons to tighten the mask enough to make it worthwhile. Monday I hope to be able to speak to my provider and get a script for what I am positive is a sinus infection directly brought about by 12 plus hours of mask wearing. It is very debatable if they significantly help a thing, when even people in the health care field are constantly fiddling with them because we can’t breathe. Outside of surgery masks were meant to reduce risk for droplet isolation, going in the room for the necessary care, then back out where mask was removed. Wearing them constantly for 12 plus hours is hell. And WHO doesn’t recommend mask wearing unless you are sick, the same position the CDC took until it was politically correct not to. Neither agency has covered itself in glory, but the reality is if masks are not worn by the general public appropriately and washed if cloth with every use, or disposed with every use and you can’t keep your hands off of it, then the mask us doing very, very little to prevent any spread of disease.
Stopped to get coffee on my way to work the other day, went to walk in and a sign on the door says you MUST wear a mask. I turned around and left. I just can’t do it when I have to do it for those 12 hours. I have an N95 and a cloth mask in my car but i just couldn’t wear one just for a cup of coffee. Outside of grocery shopping guess I just won’t shop and can save money. Oh wait, I live in Michigan where the Governor has decided most businesses are non essential anyway. I strongly supported the initial stop so we had time to figure out things, but we are well past all that. And to me the data that masks do much for the general public wearing ill fitting cloth masks, or ear looped surgical masks while constantly touching them, is just not there. If there is science driven data otherwise I will reconsider. I get why people are doing it, even gave my kids N95 masks, had a box left over from a bathroom remodel. But I am still skeptical if useful by the general public.
The current reaction to the virus is superstitious scientism, giving credence to idiocy because it is, wrongly, called science, rather than actual science.
I keep telling my wife that if I have to wear a mask it will be like Robin’s from the Batman tv show. No one has qualified what kind of mask is reqired.
When I was a resident, an ER doc would say, “Don’t just do something, stand there.” His point was that there is a natural impulse to want to “do something.” However, sometimes the best intervention was to not intervene – at least until more data was available.
Masks fall under the “do something” category. We have to “do something” to stop the spread of Covid and this masks are it. But science does not support this “something.”
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data
I live in Michigan, too, and just wear a scarf like it’s winter-(my crocheted one was a fail). My youngest son uses a bandana. My oldest son, going into the medical field, has trouble remembering his N95 (which gets reused without sanitation)
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I only wear my scarf because I don’t want my coffee shops to get in trouble, and I like my grocery store employees.
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We could probably stop a lot of the snitch nonsense if 1) people had to sign their name to a public document, 2) the names of accuser and the accused were published, 3) and both had to appear at public hearing.
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We could also stop a lot of this idiocy if the governors knew they would be dismissed from their cushy jobs and forbidden from public office if the courts found their lockdown orders to be unconstitutional or against State law.
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Fascinating link Phillip. It reminds me of a pro se Defendant who moved to dismiss a complaint that I filed because of some procedural defect that she doubtless read about on the internet. She was overjoyed when the Judge granted her motion and then, immediately, was dismayed when the Judge gave me 30 days to refile. The Judge patiently explained that the procedural defect was easily cured and then the case would proceed and address the substance of the complaint at the eventual trial. She then cried out, “Well, what good was my motion?” Masks, like motions to dismiss on procedural grounds in the law, have their place for professionals. Seizing upon them as totems that will fix a substantive problem by the public at large, is to simply not understand the substance of what is going on.
How is depriving oneself of oxygen at all helpful?
It’s amazing how people seem eager to be herded. Mask is a kind of protection from reality and the eternal.
Link to the Instapundit article?
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/371821/#respond
I, too, find masks a bit uncomfortable and a touch difficult to breathe while wearing one. However, I think we might be a little too dismissive of the usefulness of basic masks for the general public (front line medical folks need a higher level of protection). I am NOT saying wearing one should be mandatory; I do think wearing them in public should be highly encouraged for the three reasons shown in this video from 3 April which I offer for consideration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkN8yCWSGus
If the compromise between hysterical people and normal people is wearing a mask, fine. Forget it.
For those interested:
the Dr. Kellogg quoted is Wilfred Harvey Kellogg, not the corn flake guy.
Have purchased something like this mask via Amazon – am getting two with a set of replaceable filters:
https://www.amazon.com/WISREMT-Dust-Proof-Lightweight-Breathable-Sportswear/dp/B08681ZQY2
Am awaiting its arrival. Chose this kind of mask because of the integral check valves on either side of the face that allow free and obstructed passageway of exhalation while closing during inhalation. Mask is designed to protect the wearer from the environment, not the environment (or other people) from the wearer. Absolutely hate the typical surgeon’s mask I see many wearing. Causes blow back of humid exhalation onto cool glasses, fogging them up, and is exceedingly uncomfortable, resulting in counterproductive constant fidgeting with face mask fit. Useless and worthless as far as I am concerned. But it does give an appearance of what is now considered proper decorum in stores and other facilities.
I’m with you, Don. Not wearing one. Unfortunately, my wife had to take a job at Walmart as a personal shopper to help pay for my son’s first year of college next year after her substitute teaching gig came to an abrupt halt with the overreaction of schools closings. She has to wear a mask, and comes home complaining of headaches and sinus issues every day.
If wearing one makes others FEEL “safe”, then more power to them. But those of us who don’t want to should continue to resist.
Said it before and I’ll say it again:
I hate security theater.
Ernst-
Amen.
I might feel differently is this was the killer the control freak masterminds in government, spurred on by the media’s if it bleeds it leads mentality, have led others to believe. But after two months, it’s increasingly obvious that it isn’t.
Say a freaking horrifying stat.
Heck, it may have been you who shared the article, I can’t keep it straight any more.
“The State of New Jersey has direct regulatory oversight over these nursing facilities. Although the population of nursing homes makes up less than 0.7% of the Garden State’s population, the 4,151 deaths in these facilities accounts for half of all New Jersey’s COVID-19 deaths,” concluded Senator Pennacchio.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bad-state-decisions-about-nursing-homes-are-heavily-driving-the-coronavirus-outbreak/
Some people call it Covid19, others WuFlu, or CCP
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Maybe we should call it the Medicaid killer.