What’s the problem with getting vaccinated and wearing a mask?
While OSHA mandates are all the rage, MSHA actually does safety and did not mandate. Wearing a bacteria-breeding mask becomes unhealthy and is dangerous to wear because it blocks vision down. In general, people would learn a lot about safety and prevention by working under MSHA rules for awhile. I did.
No cases of SARS-CoV-1 have been reported worldwide since 2004
I suppose in the present case we could try to slaughter all of the potentially infected animals. Some humans would likely resist.
We've never had a coronavirus get as widespread and to persist as long as to require a vaccine to combat it.
So the problem with masks and vaccines is that it is quite profitable for people to turn it into a battleground and not so much to help people understand risks and rewards of various strategies and choose their own risks. Not to mention the huge sense of satisfaction many humans get from being “right” and letting everyone know how right they are.
The more you exaggerate and the harder you squeeze, the more opposition you get. The conclusion that comes from this is apparently that more exaggeration and authoritarianism is the solution.
Sometimes I wonder if a certain subset of the population is just naturally like this. The more authority applied the more people resist, even if they intended to do the action they authoritarian insists they do to begin with.
If you tell me to do something my automatic reaction is to say no. Childish I guess and find myself having to evaluate why I have this impulse from time to time.
One has to wonder if the media/social media shut the fuck up about the vaccines/mask arguments compliance rates would be actually higher…
If you find yourself in the position of stubbornly refusing to do what people insist you do, the good thought process is realizing they aren’t the boss of you whether you’re making your choices to go along or against what they want.
If you do exactly the opposite of everything someone wants you to do, they’re still controlling you.
Q: "Why won't people just get the vaccine?" A: "Fear of Democrats."
Back in 2020 when this was all new, I encouraged them to wear masks while shopping, because that's what I saw people in asian countries doing and figured it wasn't unreasonable. They wanted none of it!
Them: "The CDC says we shouldn't wear masks." Me: "Fuck the CDC! They don't know what's going on any better than we do. Wear masks, they will probably help"
Now, they conveniently have no memory of that exchange and regularly evaluate others on whether or not they're properly 'masking'.
After all the BS around this, I don't at all begrudge people their choice to not get vaccinated, even though I recognize that is probably responsible for hospitals hitting capacity.
I'm aware this isn't perfect and I'm not invulnerable - it's not a bunny suit with PAPR. I coast on my glasses taking care of most face droplets (similar to how I coast using many power tools), and admittedly haven't done the work to go beyond that.
It's definitely an impediment to appearance and speaking, and in medium-engagement social situations I do have an N95 I fall back on to not be too obtuse.
Close friends and family I've come around to wearing no face covering (vaxxed) - you're kind of already committed by being in each others' homes - and separating such visits by time. I agree that heavyweight masks don't really work for medium social engagements (like say a hobby group, or incidental conversation when picking something up from someone, etc), which is why I've moved towards the N95 on that front. I hate their small tight bands though. At least it's not a KN95 with the over-the-ear straps.
I got vaccinated and boosted, but had I known it would have become such a political virtue signalling game, I might have opted out.