The 'Freedom Fighters' Who Won’t Wear Masks, Unmasked
All you ‘I don’t need a stinkin face mask’ types might want to rethink your position. Your ‘freedom’ is imposing on my freedom not to get sick. And your bare face means we will all pay a price, which should mean something if re-opening the economy is important to you.
In case it isn’t obvious, we’re headed into coronavirus phase 1.1. If people paid attention to history (Google Spanish Flu), they’d know that getting too loose about taking precautions will make a lot more people sick.
Here’s the big news: A major study has found the act of wearing face masks is vital in limiting the spread of COVID-19.
The study investigated how easily the COVID-19 virus can pass from person to person. Using mitigation procedures in New York, Italy, and China, the team discovered that using a face mask reduced the number of infections by 78,000 in Italy and 66,000 in New York from April 6 to May 9.
Co-author Mario Molina, Professor at the University of California San Diego, was quoted saying, “Our study establishes very clearly that using a face mask is not only useful to prevent infected coughing droplets from reaching uninfected persons but is also crucial for these uninfected persons to avoid breathing the minute atmospheric particles (aerosols) that infected people emit when talking and that can remain in the atmosphere tens of minutes and can travel tens of feet.”
I doubt that science will get in the way of the anti-vaccination and far right types who have sought to undermine public health policies enacted in response to the pandemic.
Not wearing a mask has become an article of faith for many right wing types, inspired by the President’s refusal to do so.
During the Q&A session, a reporter—wearing a boldly patterned face mask—tried to ask the president a question. Trump replied by asking him to remove his mask. (“I cannot hear you,” the president explained, though he had answered a previous question from the same journalist with no evident problem.) The reporter declined; he said instead that he would speak more loudly. “Oh, okay, you want to be politically correct,” Trump replied.
In addition to laying the groundwork for people refusing to accept an COVID-19 vaccine when and if it is developed, vaxxer types have also spread misinformation about wearing face masks.
Judy Mikovits, a former scientific researcher popular among anti-vaccine supporters, makes wrong-headed claims about wearing face masks “activating” the coronavirus that have been spread far and wide through social media.
For certain business-types loosening restrictions on public gatherings and mandates for social distancing is all about putting dollars over people. Even as San Diego has loosened restrictions on dining there are operators who have willfully ignored social distancing guidelines.
A drive through of commercial centers like Ocean Beach and the Gaslamp proves what I assume to be willful defiance on the part of both businesses and patrons.
San Diego County’s Republican Supervisors couldn’t be persuaded to hold off on opening restaurant and retail restrictions without waiting to see if earlier efforts were having a negative impact. Only Democrat Nathan Fletcher spoke up against the rush to re-open.
https://twitter.com/nathanfletcher/status/1271976554969485314?s=20
Once upon a time in the United States we had political leaders who believed in setting a good example by their own behavior in times of crisis. Now, the President of the United States is holding a mask-optional campaign rally in a Tulsa Oklahoma indoor facility seating 19,000 people.
Attendees are being asked to sign a waiver absolving the Trump campaign of any legal responsibility should they contract the COVID-19 virus.
Complimentary hand sanitizer and masks will be available at the door. Not wearing a mask is considered a point of honor among Trump supporters, so there aren’t likely to be many takers.
Denying the influence of scientists and academics is a crucial part of a campaign to remake the United States into an authoritarian state. Yelling “Fake News,” isn’t enough for the hard core supporters of the president.
Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press found at least 27 state and local health leaders who have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13 states.
Dr. Nichole Quick, Orange county’s chief health officer, resigned last week following personal threats.
From CNBC:
In Orange County, in late May, nearly 100 people attended a county supervisors meeting, waiting hours to speak against an order requiring face coverings. One person suggested that the order might make it necessary to invoke Second Amendment rights to bear arms, while another read aloud the home address of the order’s author, the county’s chief health officer, Dr. Nichole Quick, as well as the name of her boyfriend.
Quick, attending by phone, left the meeting. In a statement, the sheriff’s office later said Quick had expressed concern for her safety following “several threatening statements both in public comment and online.” She was given personal protection by the sheriff.
On Thursday, Ohio’s state health director, who had armed protesters come to her house, resigned.
In Omaha, Nebraska, a former communications director for the mayor was arrested after he allegedly threatened via ten emails to lynch or slit the throat of Douglas County Health Director Dr. Adi Pour.
A Colorado County Health director was summarily fired by the board of supervisors for insisting on maintaining safety protocols. A survey of local health directors in that state revealed that 80% said they or their personal property had been threatened since the pandemic began.
Locally, the campaign against San Diego County Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten has been more subtle. KUSI and conservative social media accounts now refer to Dr. Wooten, as an “unelected.” official, implying that her guidelines were somehow not in the public interest.
A San Diego law firm has filed a federal lawsuit against Dr. Wilma Wooten over her face covering mandate, asserting that the requirement to wear a facial covering when in public violates both U.S and California Constitutional rights.
That lawsuit will go exactly nowhere, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged the power of local governments to institute drastic measures during crises. But winning isn’t the point here; it’s about undermining the credibility of expertise and science in general.
Whether they know it or not, the unmasked are extending the restrictions the rest of us who believe in a common good have chosen to live with.
As Elie Mystal in You Can’t Mask the Stupid points out:
...the people most likely to congregate in large groups without wearing a mask are also the people most likely to show up at your local grocery store or Costco without wearing a mask, sneeze on your potential purchases, and then amble off in search of more “freedom” while leaving sickness and death in their wake.
Quite simply: It’s the people who are most vocal about wanting the country to reopen who are making it too dangerous to reopen the country. It’s the people who are least concerned about their own health who are putting everybody else’s health at risk.
The only rational response to these people who refuse to abide by social distancing guidelines is for people who want to protect themselves to shelter in place even longer.
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