Ethics of mandates aside, there’s no strong evidence that universal cloth masking in a community setting reduces transmissions, and many theoretical mechanisms by which they could worsen transmission (increased aerosol generation, deeper breaths to maintain o2 homeostasis leading to more absolute aerosols, improper handling->contamination, altered social behavior, having to speak louder or closer).

So, I would argue that you don’t have to wear a mask now because of the pandemic, you choose to wear one despite a lack of scientific evidence (or are mandated to wear one of course).

SARS-2 is a zoonotic, endemic respiratory virus. If you’re tired of it, you need to accept that it’s here to stay and realize that we can’t put life on hold indefinitely and trigger a global food shortage that will end up eclipsing COVID-19 deaths anyway (oops).

Anyway, it is your right to decide that you would like totalitarian measures enacted upon you and your family. But you shouldn’t be able to make that decision for me, and unfortunately your “side” has already won and enacted [a half-assed version of] those very failed policies that you continue to venerate across most of the globe.

If people put risk in perspective the average person would be less (or equally) afraid of COVID-19 personally than the flu, and your average elderly person would be 5-10x as afraid as the flu but not the current level of fear (feels like 100x IMO). Oh, and schools would be open worldwide with no masks nor social distancing because children are rarely harmed by COVID-19 and are frequently harmed by lockdown measures.

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