Why face masks became political in the US

[ThinkingSapien]

Why face masks became political in the US​

Vox​

How America [messed] up its messaging on masks.

The message from public health experts is clear: Wearing a mask can help stop the spread of coronavirus. But that message hasn’t completely gotten through; many Americans still simply don’t believe it. It’s a major failure of communication, one that has almost certainly cost lives. But the US government actually had a plan to prevent almost this exact situation from happening: A written set of rules to communicating in a public health crisis, including how to make sure that public health information doesn’t get mixed up with politics. But then, when the biggest health crisis in a century arrived, they ignored it completely. Read the CERC for yourself: https://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/manual… And read the full story of how masks became a political issue in the US:

https://www.vox.com/2020/7/21/21331310/mask-masks-trump-covid19-rule-georgia-alabama

 

[F_Marturana]

This to me is so weird, considering that so many people were shunned when AIDS became more widespread. People were concerned that they could catch it through casual contact.

Now a deadly disease is transmissible through casual contact, and is deadly within weeks of contact, people are so cavalier.

Masks are annoying, they take away freedom, they fog up glasses, the government can’t tell anyone what to do.

Yada, yada, yada.

Wear the mask.

 

[ProVobis]

well people do not have to wear masks.

Well people can easily become unwell. That is why the NBA cancelled a game in progress when it was discovered a player tested positive. This no doubt lead to all the hype you seem to be so critical of.

 

[Frank92]

You dont understand the difference between asymptomatic and symptomatic do you?

The point I am making is that it is veyr rare that asymptomatic people can spread it. Hence, there should not be a mask mandate that forces well people to wear masks.

Any law that is unjust must be disobeyed. An unjust law is not a law at all, and the Christian has an obligation to disobey it. This is a St. Augustine principle.

Next time you are out, dont wear your mask. If you are arrested for truth, so be it. Let the chips fall where they may. It is an exciting time to be a Christian. We have the opportunity to be persecuted for the truth.

 

[ProVobis]

As it is, they spent months claiming that masks had basically no effectiveness,

Total unpreparedness. They probably needed time to get some for everyone.

 

[Pattylt]

Before this, public health officials have never advocated for quaranting of people who are well, this has never been a public health practice. We just made it up.

Correction. We most certainly did quarantine people for polio. In fact, entire towns were quarantined. Having the ability to quarantine not just the ill but also healthy contacts is vital to control in a public health crisis.

 

[ndsolt]

My understanding is that they were afraid people would hoard them.

 

[Peeps]

they fog up glasses

Perhaps this doesn’t bother you, but for me, it’s dangerous.

I have some balance issues because of a bad knee (which is getting replaced at the end of September–yay!) and a bad foot (which is usable due to a five-hour surgery back in 2007, but outside of the foot is permanently numb and leaves me feeling unsteady at times).

It is essential that I see well.

Fogged-up glasses are not just annoying to me, they’re dangerous.

I wear a mask when I am required to, but I don’t pull it over my nose because all the types of masks I have tried (and am allowed to wear at work in the hospital) fog up my glasses. I’m truly scared of falling and either becoming disabled or even dying (e.g., falling down stairs and breaking my neck).

 

[Frank92]

Correction. We most certainly did quarantine people for polio. In fact, entire towns were quarantined. Having the ability to quarantine not just the ill but also healthy contacts is vital to control in a public health crisis.

Actually Patti, this is the problem with Partisanship. You are misrepresenting what happened in Polio. Children were to stay at home, only Children, for a designated period of time. If a child is not at school, where should he be? At home. So this is a nothing change. School’s primary rationale is to act as a daycare center for parents. Qurantining for high risk populations is the same type of encouragement elderly are given during flu season. Polio had detrimental effects against children. So here (with polio) we are dealing with a certain high risk population that largely targets a group. It has never been encouraged that an entire population of people quarantine in place. No one does nor has it ever been advocated for. We made that up.

It seems like someone needs to seperate their Catholicism from the democratic party. You cant serve two masters. You must choose one.,

I am a Certified Health Education Specialist.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

Any law that is unjust must be disobeyed. An unjust law is not a law at all, and the Christian has an obligation to disobey it. This is a St. Augustine principle.

You are seriously misunderstanding Augustine. He never said a Christian has an obligation to disobey a law one thinks is unjust. That is a terrible distortion. But it sounds believable because it is similar to a real Christian principle, which is this: A Christian need not obey a law if in so doing he is commiting evil. That is all. That’s what Church teaching says. There is no way anyone could think that they could not wear a mask because wearing one is an evil act. It isn’t evil. It is just inconvenient.

I suppose if they pass a law saying that I must drive less than 30 miles an hour down a certain stretch of road, and if I think that law is unjust, I am obliged to drive 35? That is crazy nonsense.

 

[Pattylt]

Perhaps my memory is incorrect. I did find this statement in this article below but it may have only applied to children and pregnant women.

The quote… As a number of commentators have noted, the COVID-19 pandemic brings back memories of the 1918 influenza epidemic, a moment when millions of Americans—including thousands of Milwaukee residents—were ordered by government officials to remain in their homes to avoid spreading the deadly disease.

From here… When the Polio Epidemic Forced Milwaukeeans to Stay at Home - Shepherd Express

So, parents were permitted to go to work when an outbreak was occurring in their neighborhood? I’m old enough to remember polio quarantines though I was still a child. I recall having to stay at home and my mother had to take a leave of absence to care for me but my father was still allowed to work but this was in Ohio.

Btw, I’m a retired Medical Technologist.

 

[Frank92]

My personal feeling is, if you don’t want to wear a mask, don’t bother saluting the flag, saying the Pledge of Allegiance or talking about how patriotic you are. Unfortunately, for some people, patriotism seems to be a good thing as long as it involves shooting at people in other countries while safely “honoring America” at the local football game. Today, some Americans are flunking a somewhat simple personal sacrifice test–a test that The Greatest Generation aced during WW II (when that test really demanded a lot more from its American citizens.)

The science does not support your conlclusion. You do not have the authority to come to a conclusion on this.

Patriotism to you seems to be allegiance to the Democratic party. Which it isn’t. It quite the opposite in fact. Sorry.

 

[Frank92]

Perhaps my memory is incorrect. I did find this statement in this article below but it may have only applied to children and pregnant women.

It definitely did. If a child cant be in school. Then he must be at home. That is how it works anyway as the primary rationale for schooling is to act as a daycare center. It changes nothing. The coronavirus quarantine is pure political theatre. If Americans don’t wake up, we will lose our country.

Our country is having its back crushed by democratic governors who are more concerned with winning the election and making America a dystopia by crushing the economy.

 

[Pattylt]

Our country is having its back crushed by democratic governors who are more concerned with winning the election and making America a dystopia by crushing the economy.

I know we will never agree with each other but I just want to point out that this is my fear with Trump. He seems to only care about his re-election rather than take necessary steps to actually contain it. I’ll leave you with the last word…

 

[Frank92]

I know we will never agree with each other but I just want to point out that this is my fear with Trump. He seems to only care about his re-election rather than take necessary steps to actually contain it. I’ll leave you with the last word…

Your fear is unfounded and unrational. There is nothing to contain. Did you read what I was talking about with Asymptomatic symptoms and it not being able to spread as admitted by WHO?

Why is it that all of the democrat led states have the most severe restrictions and enforcement of those restrictions? The answer is obvious. They want to destroy the economy and make America a dystopia by election day. Unfortunately, their manipulation is working on you.

Dont go with the flow. Satan controls this world. You have to rise above it as a Christian and go upstream, regarldess of the harm it causes you. It will make you realize the need for Lord Jesus Christ in this world.

Have you thought about the irony of the world we live in? You cant order a woman not to kill her child, but you can order her to wear a mask. The woman in the front of the youtube video in the original post of this message chain brings up a very sad irony.

How much longer Lord Jesus Christ? How much longer? When will You come and exact Your justice upon this wicked world?

 

[umamibella]

The point I am making is that it is veyr rare that asymptomatic people can spread it. Hence, there should not be a mask mandate that forces well people to wear masks.

What uninformed idiotic source did you get that from.
The Munich cluster, the very first community transmission proved that wrong.

This virus multiplies in the upper respiratory system, it can then and does very effectively spread while people are and remain asymptomatic as well as pre-symptomatic.

Stop spreading dangerous wrong medical information. This virus kills and causes disabilities long term in some survivors

Do you know the difference betweeb asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic?

 

[FrankFletcher]

Pattylt:

Correction. We most certainly did quarantine people for polio. In fact, entire towns were quarantined. Having the ability to quarantine not just the ill but also healthy contacts is vital to control in a public health crisis.

Actually Patti, this is the problem with Partisanship. You are misrepresenting what happened in Polio. Children were to stay at home, only Children, for a designated period of time. If a child is not at school, where should he be? At home. So this is a nothing change. School’s primary rationale is to act as a daycare center for parents. Qurantining for high risk populations is the same type of encouragement elderly are given during flu season. Polio had detrimental effects against children. So here (with polio) we are dealing with a certain high risk population that largely targets a group. It has never been encouraged that an entire population of people quarantine in place. No one does nor has it ever been advocated for. We made that up.

It seems like someone needs to seperate their Catholicism from the democratic party. You cant serve two masters. You must choose one.,

The irony here is awesome.

 

[Peeps]

Stop spreading dangerous wrong medical information. This virus kills and causes disabilities long term in some survivors

Around 96% of the people who test positive for COVID-19 manifest no symptoms, or mild symptoms, or experience debilitating symptoms (high fever, aches, respiratory issues)–and recover fully with little or no lingering maladies.

Although there are incidences of people with no apparent risk factors experiencing COVID-19 symptoms serious enough to warrant hospitalization, and advancing to intubation and sadly, death, the vast majority of the people who become seriously ill with COVID-19 have an underlying condition such as Type II Diabetes, obesity, compromised immune system (e.g., HIV positive, cancer patient), or compromised respiration (e.g., asthma, smokers, emphysema, pneumonia, etc.). Also, African Americans and Hispanic Americans seem to be more at risk for serious sequelae of COVID-19–this could be because of the higher rate of Type II Diabetes, obesity, and smoking/other poor health habits among these ethnic groups, or it could be because of poverty/stress/lack of access to health care.

Senior citizens seem to be at higher risk, but there are many senior citizens who test positive for COVID-19 and fully recover from any resulting illness. And there is great variation between senior citizens and health–due to healthy habits and lifestyles (and retirement! woo hoo!), some seniors are healthier in their 70s than younger people!

That’s the science to date. Obviously, it’s not static–as we learn more about coronavirses and COVID, we will have to update our data base.

But my point is, the huge majority of people who catch COVID don’t experience a serious illness (no more so than the flu), and don’t die. The masks are helpful, and I’m guessing they will become a permanent part of American culture, as they also help prevent transmission of many other viruses (e.g., flu). Hopefully hand-washing will also become more prevalent in the U.S., as this practice is effective in lessening transmission of many of the intestinal viruses and bacteria.

And I’m guessing that the masks (and the indoor quarantines!) will help prevent skin cancer!

We may all come out of this healthier–except of the weight gain that many are experiencing. Oh, well.

 

[F_Marturana]

I wear glasses. I’ve worn them since I was 11.

I find if I wear a mask with the wire on top and pinch it on my nose, then put my glasses on after that, my glasses don’t fog.

Obviously, no one should get hurt wearing a mask.

I accompany a person close to me often to a cancer center for treatments.

Everyone is masked, patients, doctors, nurses, security guards, administrators.

 

[Peeps]

I find if I wear a mask with the wire on top and pinch it on my nose, then put my glasses on after that, my glasses don’t fog.

I’ve tried this with multiple types of masks. No luck.

I also have problems with panic-breathing–I’ve tried hundreds of times over the last few months to pull the mask over my nose, but within around 4-8 breaths, I start gasping. The hot, steamy air is awful to breath, and I feel like I’m smothering.

I’m not the only one in my hospital lab who walks around with the mask beneath my nose. My supervisor does the same thing, and many of us pull the mask down when we talk on the phone, or when we talk to each other. Also, when we are in our tiny break room eating lunch, all the masks are off. And…so far, no one has contracted COVID-19 yet, except for two of our phlebotomists–these are the people who are up on the floors and in the ED drawing blood from patients, so they are at much higher risk than us. Both of the phlebotomists have made full recoveries. Both are African American and obese.

I think researchers need to be scrupulously honest. COVID=19 does not affect all human beings the same way. It is not an equal opportunity vector of infection. It seems to attack certain people more relentlessly–why? We need to know the answers to that" why". Those answers could affect our civilization and culture. If only certain groups are at risk, then perhaps the rest of us can go back to living normal lives. Or…it’s possible that the virus could mutate and put more groups at risk. Who knows? And as long as we aren’t honest in our science, we will never know.

We need to stop politicizing COVID-19, stop blaming the polticians that we don’t agree with, stop making this into a behavioral issue, stop making conclusions about our research before all the studies are completed. We need to be scientists and tell the politicians, entertainers, journalists, and all the others who are using this virus to promote their own agendas and fortunes to butt out!