Tag: face masks

Beware The Permanent Pandemic And The Promise Of Vaccines As A Return To Normal

It’s no secret powerful interests have handsomely benefitted from coronavirus lockdowns of the last 14 months, as experimental restrictions implemented under the pledge of “two weeks to slow the spread” morphed into a seemingly endless draconian suspension of life. Now, politicization of the return to normal combined with influential interests invested in lockdown extensions have jeopardized its true return.

Last week, MSNBC’s Joy Reid celebrated wearing two masks while jogging in spite of even the restriction-crazed CDC guidance updated to recommend otherwise.

“I am among the fully vaccinated,” Reid said gleaming in prime time. “I did go jogging today, in the park. This is the mask I wore, with a doctor’s mask under it… There are people who are getting really upset about that.”

Reid can do anything she wants, of course, since engaging in this form of performative theater doesn’t directly hurt anybody but herself. Her on-air grandstanding in contradiction to scientific findings, however, illustrates how masks have become political markers as opposed to effective tools of viral mitigation.

Reid’s self-imposed mask-wearing might be harmless. After all, it’s a personal choice with no consequences to others besides the example of a woman with a large media platform.

Mask-wearing however, a majority of which is compulsive either due to government edict or corporate enforcement, is only the tip of the iceberg in politicized pandemic policies, many of which do infringe on the freedoms of others. Schools remain closed for full in-class instruction at a devastating cost under the orders of the teachers unions, businesses across the nation remain handicapped with capacity limits, beaches in parts of the country will remain closed through the summer, and even playgrounds are off limits despite the low risk to children, let alone outside transmission.

Have plans to send your kids to summer camp? Don’t count on the real experience.

No small part of the population has become comfortable living in a world in lockdown. In fact, many demand it regardless of the cost to their neighbors, motivated by either an act of political expression featuring aggressive virtue signaling or an obsession with living life with zero risk, overestimating danger of the Chinese virus. A survey out last month revealed majorities of Americans across the political spectrum believed the probability of ending up in the hospital if infected by COVID-19 is dramatically higher than the factual reality.

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52 Charts Show Mask Mandates Have No Effect on COVID Cases

There is hardly a more divisive issue in the country than mask mandates. Interestingly, the nation is split in half on the issue: half the states currently have mask mandates; the other half doesn’t.

This article is a statistical overview that is going to do something that experts and most of the mainstream media refuse to do: Assume you can look at the data and come to your own conclusions.

It is important to note that this study is not about mask compliance. It is about mask mandates. The following chart of mask compliance in the United States in 2020 comes via the New York Times. It bears out that mask mandates and compliance are two different concepts.

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White House COVID Team Struggles to Explain Why We Need Masks Outside

As the nation passes President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal of 200 million vaccinations in his first hundred days in office with more than a week to spare, and as the “dark winter” the president forewarned gives way to summer, more and more vaccinated Americans are itching to get back to some imitation of normalcy. And for many of them, “normal” looks like being able to go outside without wearing a mask.

But despite a growing scientific consensus that the risk of infection outdoors is negligible in most realistic settings, the White House’s COVID-19 task force has remained publicly adamant that the public keep wearing masks outside—at least for now.

“Let’s get to the 100 days,” Andy Slavitt, the White House’s senior advisor for COVID-19 response, told reporters on Monday when asked whether the president’s call for 100 days of mask-wearing might be reconsidered anytime soon. “You know one thing about President Biden: He follows the science, he listens to his scientists, and we’ve got 12 more days to go until we get there. So please mask up, everybody, because it does save lives.”

At this point, nearly all of us have thought it. It’s first thing in the morning or late in the evening. After a brutal winter and an unending March 2020, you’re enjoying a break from the inside of your home by taking a stroll outside, enjoying the increasingly tempting spring weather by walking your dog or sipping a “walktail.” Slowly, you realize two things: there’s hardly a person in sight, much less within six feet of you, and that you’re still, somehow, wearing a mask.

Twenty-six states require people to wear masks in public to one degree or another, as well as the District of Columbia, where the National Park Service has recently erected all-caps signs in public parks tut-tutting residents for gathering outside without masking up. But the public health consensus has shifted around how and where a person is most likely to contract the not-so-novel coronavirus—the days of spraying takeout pizza boxes with Everclear are mercifully behind us—and outdoor spread is extremely unlikely.

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Oscars: Masks Not Required When Cameras Roll, But Required During Commercial Breaks

Attendees at the primary venue of this year’s Academy Awards ceremony won’t be required to wear masks when the cameras are rolling but will have to mask up during commercial breaks, according to reports.

Sunday’s 93rd annual Academy Awards on ABC will take place primarily at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, with some aspects of the evening unfolding at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and at remote locations around the world.

Attendees at Union Station won’t have to wear face masks while they are seated in the main show room and on camera. But masks will have to go on during commercial breaks and when guests move into one of two adjacent courtyards, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

While the Academy didn’t offer an official explanation for its mask policy, the Reporter noted that under current Hollywood production guidelines, masks are not required for people on camera.

The mask policy was reportedly unveiled Monday during a virtual meeting with publicists and nominees. It remains unclear if masks will be required for attendees at the Dolby or remote locations. The move comes amid President Joe Biden’s public and persistent appeal that Americans wear masks “until everyone is in fact vaccinated” — which is a modified request of his original plea of 100 days.

The year’s ceremony is being produced by Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.

At a separate press conference on Sunday, Soderbergh reportedly hinted that masks would be visible during the telecast.

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