To Mask, or Not To Mask…That Is The Question About COVID.

The world is a much different place now than it was just a few short months ago. Changed by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Just like it changed after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, our way of life may never quite be the same as it was before. And, as happened before, there are clearly different lines politically, and socially that have been drawn. Around:

• what happened to cause it and what our response to it should be.
• Whether we are being lied to or being told the truth.
• How bad it “actually” is.
• What works to stop the spread and what we should do about it.
• Or if it really is a big deal, or just giant hoax.

Conspiracy theories on all sides abound, and there are a lot of differing opinions and people telling us what we should think and how we should feel about it. It is sometimes hard to wade through it all, but we have a duty to the truth. The truth is what is most important and it is imperative that we seek it, in times such as these.

One of these arguments centers around the COVID-19 current infection and death tole numbers. It seems, that just to share these numbers on social media is highly offensive to some people. There are those that believe the numbers are true, and believe the agencies gathering and dispencing the information. And then there are those who believe that the powerful people in our Government and their co-conspirators in the media are lying to us about these numbers.

Some believe they are lying to cause panic and fear, trying to frighten people into submission and captivity. And still others who believe they are lying to us about just how bad things really are; and that they are not telling us how many infections and deaths there are, so that it does not cause people to panic. Just like the reasons people say the Government hides the truth of UFO’s and aliens. I fear that only time and history will tell us the real truth of the matter.

There are many theories and sides of this issue, and these different sides don’t always simply follow political lines. Leftists and Conservatives both have very different views of the world around them; they tend to stick to their own sides around people who have the same political leanings, and we each have very hard stances that are mostly umbendable about these issues. However, even in one’s own political or party lines, there are branches of what people believe about this COVID-19 pandemic. Which is deviding us as a people even more than ever before.

There are people in this country and around the world, who thrive in these conditions of devision. Preying on the vulnerable and undereducated amoung us; in order to take advantage of this crisis, for the only two things that really matter to some people…

…Money and Power.

And so, there are a million and one videos and articles out there, “proof” for every side of every political and social issue; attempting to change your mind, or convince you to follow their beliefs and ideas and they will smack you down if you don’t agree. This article has no such intentions.

The First Amendment is first for a reason. The free and open exchange of ideas, the freedom to express yourself and your opinions through speech, is one of America’s greatest achievements. And is why the founders added the Second Amendment in order to protect it. So even when we disagree with eachother we have a platform in which we are free to argue and debate these ideas. That is one of the major reasons of how, and why, our country has prospered for 244 years.

The debate about how to effectively fight this pandemic, without killing our economy, has come to blows recently. And it is getting worse by the minute. With Governors, who are overreaching with their power and control; demanding lockdowns and closures. There are also people fighting over one’s right to self protection and self reliance and responsibility. Even debating whether or not to send our teachers and children back to their classrooms, it has become an ugly afair.

And on top of all that you have outside third-party’s trying to stir it all up for the distruction of our country, for more power over us, and for political gain. There are power-hungry leftists who want to take over the country and put Socialism, and eventually Communism, in place of our capitalist economic system. They want the Government to control everything so that they can be the ones in control.

They saw a clear and present opportunity within this pandemic, and then added to it when George Floyd was killed, in order to instill chaos into our society and devide us even more. When they seperate us into small political and social groups and then pit those groups against one another, the population becomes easier to control. And they own the majority of the country’s means of communication, education, news and entertainment. We have made it easy on them.

When the Governors started closing down private businesses and public places such as parks, lakes, beaches and so on; it was said to be a “temporary” measure. And so, “We the People” went along with it. After all, Government gets all of its powers of Governance from the people right? And then, like always, some of these leftist politicians began to take these lockdowns way too far. They began telling people they could no longer go fishing, golfing, let their children play at their favorite parks, or go swimming. And even no longer attend their church services.

One example was the case of the drive-up or drive-in church service. Where the pastor stood out on an outside patio, to give his sermin to those parked and sitting alone in their cars. They were all ticketed and fined and forced to go back home or they would be arrested. After all of this began to happen more and more, the people had finally had enough, and began to protest. The big-government leftist politicians and mainstream media of course were all against these protests saying they were unsafe. And then would turn around and glorify, and even join, the George Floyd protests themselves. Hypocrites, the lot of ’em.

But not all of the health and safety rules and regulations are wrong or ineffective. But one of them has had quite a bit of controversy and debate: Whether or Not, we should wear a mask when out in public.

Personally, I always wear a mask when I go out, shopping at the grocery or department stores, whenever I pick up my prescriptions from the pharmacy, or if I am aroumd a large group of people, where it is difficult to social distance. I do this for a couple of different reasons.

For one, I believe masks work to slow the spread of a virus. They keep the virus particles that are trapped in molicules of moisture, from traveling as far as they normally would without a mask. They impeed the velocity of these particles, they decrease and slow them down enough, that they don’t fly as long of distances when we caugh or sneeze. And even if someome is sick but hasn’t shown any signs or symptoms, that person can still spread the virus. At one time the W.H.O said that asymptomatic spread was rare, but they later walked that statement back. I feel as if I have a duty of respect and care to those people around me. As I have always tried to live by the golden rule, and treat others as I would like to be treated.

Secondly, because it does also help to keep me safe as well. When added with the other common sense stuff like washing your hands often, and keeping them away from your eyes, nose, and mouth. And practicing social distancing when you can. Whether or not the numbers they are giving us are accurate, or if the symptoms are or aren’t horrific when you get it, or if you would just get cold-like symptoms, this is a real disease, and I don’t want to get sick from it. So I personally want to do whatever I can to ensure that that doesn’t happen to me.

We can argue about the accuracies of the information we are given, until we are all blue in the face. Those are valid concerns. Most of us on the right, do not want big Governmen controlling what we do. So we don’t believe the government should be forcing people to wear masks. But we all should try and be intellectually honest with ourselves, take a look around a bit and we’ll see that there are people getting very sick and some are dying. That is a fact.

Someone very close to me and her three little children have contracted COVID. Of course the children were able to get over it a lot quicker than she did, but they still got very sick and suffered because of it. And she was extremely sick. Now, I don’t write about that because I want to cause a panic, or want to try to convince anyone of anything.

However, because I have now had first-hand experience of someone I know, catching it and getting severely ill from it, I believe that it is a real threat. Also because the city I live in has seen a spike in diagnosed cases in recent weeks. Because of those facts, and because of the research I have read, I believe that wearing a mask will “help” to keep myself and others safe. I do it for the same reason that I wear a helmet everytime I ride my motorcycle. Do I think that should be a law? That someone I didn’t vote for should be able to tell me that I have to wear it, or else?

No, of course not. I wear it because I know it will help to protect my head if some idiot piles into my bike with his car. Some people don’t like to wear one and refuse to. Some do wear one if it is the law of the land, even if they don’t like it. Personally, I think as long as we are not hurting anyone else, we should be able to risk our own lives if we want to, and it’s no ones business but our own.

It should be your choice. I also wear my seatbelt when I am in the car. My point is, I do these things because I choose to, not because I am being forced to. And so, I did see this short video below on The Daily Wire site from a YouTube channel called “It’s Okay To Be Smart“, it helps to explain why wearing a mask is a good idea.

Here is some more information and the sources they used for that video:

References:

• We’re not using umbrellas as they were originally intended – https://qz.com/quartzy/1707271/americans-are-not-using-umbrellas-as-they-were-intended/
• World Health Organization – Q&A about masks https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-answers-hub/q-a-detail/q-a-on-covid-19-and-masks
• Stanford scientists on mask guidelines
• American Society for Microbiology – COVID-19 Transmission Dynamics
• Oran, Daniel P., and Eric J. Topol. “Prevalence of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Narrative Review.” Annals of Internal Medicine (2020). https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-3012
• Chu, Derek K., et al. “Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” The Lancet (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31142-9
• Dhama, Kuldeep, et al. “Coronavirus disease 2019–COVID-19.” Clinical Microbiology Reviews (2020) https://cmr.asm.org/content/33/4/e00028-20
• Stadnytskyi, Valentyn, et al. “The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117.22 (2020): 11875-11877. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2006874117
• Cheng, Vincent CC, et al. “The role of community-wide wearing of face mask for control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic due to SARS-CoV-2.” Journal of Infection (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2020.04.024
• Eikenberry, Steffen E., et al. “To mask or not to mask: Modeling the potential for face mask use by the general public to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic.” Infectious Disease Modelling (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idm.2020.04.001
• Greenhalgh, Trisha, et al. “Face masks for the public during the covid-19 crisis.” Bmj 369 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1435
• Cheng, Kar Keung, Tai Hing Lam, and Chi Chiu Leung. “Wearing face masks in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic: altruism and solidarity.” The Lancet (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30918-1
• Davies, Anna, et al. “Testing the efficacy of homemade masks: would they protect in an influenza pandemic?.” Disaster medicine and public health preparedness 7.4 (2013): 413-418. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017%2Fdmp.2013.43

We are being told that the latest infections here in the US have now reached more than 3.1 million people. We can argue and say as much as 30% of those are false positives or incorrect diagnosis. But that still leaves around 2.2 million sick from coronavirus. To me, that is a lot of people.

And yet, others feel that as a percentage of the total population, 2.2 million people sick is not a very significant number. I am perfectly okay with someone disagreeing with me about whether that is a big number or not. But either way, some people are still getting sick and I don’t want to. That is the bottom line.

There have been at least 133,000 COVID-related deaths reported here in the united states, in just the last 6 months. And if that number is off by even 10% that would still be 120,000 people who have died in that short time, who may have not died otherwise. Again by percentage maybe you feel like that isn’t very many, but how many deaths is too many then? I think we should do what we can personally to help stop the spread of the desease.

And that is really what I am afraid of. No, not dying myself, but getting sick from it and bringing it home to my mother who I take care of, because she is in the “high risk” of death catagory. I would never forgive myself if she died because I didn’t do everything I could to help keep her and the rest of my family safe. So, I choose to wear a mask.

This does not make me a traitor to my conservative roots. It certainly doesn’t mean I have been fooled by liberal propagandists, or that I am an uneducated follower. It just means I am doing every thing that I possibly can do to keep myself and my family safe. The same reason I own and carry a weapon, for self and family protection.

Everyone has different ideas, life experiences, and thoughts on how to do that. I would never disparage anyone for how they decide to protect themselves or their families. So agree with me on this or not it doesn’t really matter to me. But don’t try to make me feel foolish for wearing a mask in public and don’t try to force me to follow your beliefs either.

A close friend of mine, who has had to wear medical masks even before this pandemic, sent me some good information of a couple different masks, that she has tried; which ones she likes, are effective, and where you can buy them.

There are a lot of people and companies out there promoting the wearing of masks and making a fortune selling them for a huge profit. It is hard to know for sure what will work for you and your family. So no, we don’t own any stock in any mask manufacturing companies… we just wanted to share these options with you, in case you wanted to do some research on your own:

Having completed much research into the area, including trying several brands both disposable and reusable. Two face masks made the top of my list.

• #2, The Vogmask (vogmask.com) is extremely comfortable, hand-washable, and stylish. They come in various colors/patterns, and can now be purchased with or without a respirator. Many immune compromised individuals choose the Vogmask. Not only for its comfort, but because it works well, goes on easily, and isn’t bulky. Since the pandemic, the Vogmask has been difficult to find. You can check their website, as they update it frequently.
• #1, Another non-bulky but very effective face mask is the Cambridge mask. The Cambridge mask (Cambridgemask.com) is also quite comfortable, and uses military grade technology for added protection. You can order an N99 Cambridge mask that comes with a filter system using silver nano particles. Silver is known for its anti-microbial benefits. This mask is adjustable for an excellent seal. It can be used with or without a respirator (respirator block included), and is easily hand-washable.

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