The Case for Wearing Masks Forever

Why did we ever just accept colds and flus being so common? Many places have a general social expectation of masking if you have any symptoms of anything.

Do we know what the long term cumulative effects of normal seasonal illness is? What would happen if we were able to get rid of them?

> and try to get back to where they were before covid

I’m only one person, but… I don’t want to get back to where I was before covid. I really like not getting sick. I really like limiting my social engagements to those I will especially enjoy—particularly those which are one-on-one, a preference I’ve been pleased to rediscover after a few years as a miserable barfly and a brief stint in much more severe social isolation (unhealthy relationship in a place with no other friends and godawful weather).

I’m sure the old normal is a much more appealing prospect to others, and I don’t begrudge them that, but I like my quieter life and my years without infectious disease. And if that means wearing a mask whenever I go into public buildings, that’s fine! I’m not doing it very often, it’s just a mild personal annoyance that harms no one.

It is very much normal for millions of people to get infected with all kinds of mild to moderate illnesses each year. What bubble of cleanliness and isolation to you think most people should live in? During a pandemic, I can see the need for certain carefully considered (major emphasis on carefully) protective measures being applied. Outside of said pandemic, I can't, for practical and moral reasons of basic freedoms, government authority and absurd paranoias about something that's clearly not going away, not controllable through masks or quarantines and for which many remedies now exist.

This article is absurd hyperbole trying to reclaim a bit of flagging COVID hysteria for the sake of clicks and attention, and it uses arguments that are less valid than ever to do so..

Nope. Not gonna give up another second of my life or ounce of my freedom. Thankfully virtually everyone has woken up and agrees with this sanity

>No amount of covid is safe, and no number of shots can protect you

The irrational, terrified logic of this could also be applied to so many other things that inevitably carry some risk. Take it to the point where you futilely try yo stamp all types of activities and habits out of existence based on a silly notion that nothing can be 100% guaranteed to work and "even one death is too much". Again, absurd and suffocating logic.

Is that different from other diseases? It sounds similar to flus, colds, etc. A flu shot can improve the odds but they're never perfect. No amount of flu is safe, and the more times you get the flu the more likely you are to die.

> Should the government be able to force people to wear a mask?

The government runs some institutions like schools, which are even mandatory. If people can be forced to go to school wearing a mask is a rather mild requirement

>Should the government be able to force people to wear a mask?

All the time? No. During a pandemic? Absolutely, yes. One of the legitimate purposes of government is to manage emergency situations that affect the public at large, by marshaling resources, coordinating response systems and, yes, sometimes forcing people to give up individual liberties for the greater good. Being forced to wear a mask during a pandemic, all things considered, is a small ask and it baffles me how many people consider even that small thing to be an unacceptable, unforgivable violation of their very being.

>Iran's currently hanging people for not wearing government mandated head coverings. I personally don't regard that as positive or something I want to be implemented in any country where I live.

That isn't really the same thing. Governments weren't mandating the use of masks for religious reasons, but to stop the spread of COVID.

> It seems reasonable to suggest that masks reduce disease and save lives. This may be a scientifically provable fact.

When masks are worn correctly by trained people as intended (form fitted N95s used for one short task in one room and then safely discarded), there seems to be a reasonable argument that masks are somewhat effective for reducing the spread of disease.

But in the real world; the masks are the wrong types and aren't form-fitted, people are constantly adjusting them and moving them around and touching them, many people are basically walking around half the time with their nose hanging out, people wear them not only for many hours at a time but often for days/weeks at a time without being washed and breathing in their own moist bacteria colonies, etc. I'm not sure if real-world mask usage results in a significant net-positive: they could actually have a net-negative effect when you consider the amount of bacteria people are inhaling from their own mask.

> Where does this weird assumption that political propositions can be "proved" objectively by "science" come from?

Regular science can not do it. They have "THE science", though.

In Japan people wear masks when they have a cold, out of kindness towards others. Being kind to others is certainly something we should strive for.

France passed some anti-mask laws about a decade ago as a reaction to Muslim immigration. [0] (Amusingly, the statute also prescribes a €30,000 fine to anyone forcing someone to wear a mask). Other countries also have a history of anti-mask laws. [1]

Pre-covid, it was quite unusual in Western nations to see anyone wearing a mask. Most would probably assume anyone wearing one was carrying some highly communicable disease and would give them a wide berth.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ban_on_face_covering

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-mask_law

Of course doing something yourself isn’t good enough so masks only work to protect others from your disease, not you from the diseases of others.

Depending on where you live, it can be against the law. In Virginia, it's a Class 6 felony. There are exceptions and for medical reasons:

        "(iv) wearing a mask, hood or other device for bona fide medical reasons upon (a) the advice of a licensed physician or osteopath and carrying on his person an affidavit from the physician or osteopath specifying the medical necessity for wearing the device and the date on which the wearing of the device will no longer be necessary and providing a brief description of the device, or (b) the declaration of a disaster or state of emergency by the Governor in response to a public health emergency where the emergency declaration expressly waives this section, defines the mask appropriate for the emergency, and provides for the duration of the waiver." 

So, you can't simply wear one if you want, you need a note from your doctor. (When masks were required, during the pandemic, the Governor declared a waiver.)