THE FOLLOWING IS MY LONG REPLY TO PRIMEMUSCLE - IF YOU THINK IT'S TOO LONG, PLEASE DON'T READ IT [TO PRIMEMUSCLE: I WOULD APPRECIATE YOU READ IT]:Definitely fishy enough to give one pause. I doubt any of these Covid-19 will be mandated anytime soon. But, you never know. Many people are panic stricken over this virus. I'm not one of them. I'm just being cautious when I wear a mask in public. It is such an easy step to take. I can see no downside to it. At first, it made me uncomfortable, but I've become so used to it that I forget to take it off after I leave a place requiring one. The other day I drove home and was in the house before I realized I was still wearing the mask. It's still a nuisance because the straps get caught in my hearing aids when I'm removing it and my glasses fog up if it cold outside and specially when entering a heated building.
I agree it's an easy step. Evidence I've read indicates that wearing a mask will reduce droplet size, and thus reduce virus particle transmission - specifically, wearing a new, CLEAN mask, that is replaced after use, and ideally an N95 mask by 3M, which offers the greatest protection, to both for the wearer, and to others.
I see men with giant beards wear thin paper masks, and many people never change their mask. I drove my friend to the liquor store, and asked if I had a mask. I had a filthy one that was collecting bacteria near the cupholder. He put it on, and went in. What good are masks if most people aren't even taking mask hygiene seriously, and most are wearing the cheap slim masks, as opposed to the much more effective N95 masks?
If masks REALLY mattered, wouldn't governments provide unlimited free 3M N95 masks, given how much their spending on COVID? As it is, I could go to the crafts section of the dollar store, hook two elastic bands through a small piece of light blue construction paper with glue, and use it as a mask.
That's why this doesn't make any sense, Prime - and it's not supposed to. It's about the slow demolition of the global economy while making the world's elite billions of dollars richer.: the global economy has sustained over $10 trillion in damage so far, while the 2,604 global billionaires have increased their combined net wealth by over $1 trillion, reaching a combined net wealth of, coincidentally, also over $10 trillion.
Does that sound fair to you?
The thing about centre-leftists like yourself is that you don't weigh the costs with the benefits of any given policy. You support unions [obviously, as a lifetime union worker], yet you're posting from an electronic device made in China from near slave labour, and don't see the contradiction. You care about the environment, yet pollute 4-5x or more than the average global citizen, and don't see the contradiction.
I'm not trying to convince you to favour capitalism - I'm telling you that you already ARE a capitalist and a right-winger without even realizing it. You and I are not unalike - you just don't know it, or won't acknowledge it.
How about this, Prime - do you have any comments on this?:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32335196Or how about this: how do you feel about the case of Nancy Russell, a 90-year-old Canadian woman who chose to be euthanized with her family by her side, because she couldn't face another lockdown?:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/facing-another-retirement-home-lockdown-90-year-old-chooses-medically-assisted-death-1.5197140Or how about this: a grieving mother in England who lost her husband, whose sons were not allowed to hug her during the funeral of her husband [their father]:
^ Is that acceptable to you? I realize that a strict economic argument won't convince you, so I'm forced to make an emotional one.
But speaking economically, how do you feel about Canada reaching $1 billion daily in deficit spending this year, acquiring more debt in one year than in the past 30 years combined? The average person dying of COVID is 84.8 years old, with 2-3 underlying health issues, and according to actuarial statistics, over 50% of those who die of COVID are within the last 6-18 months of their lives. Meanwhile, $1 billion can provide $1 million in healthcare to 1,000 Canadians each day, which could extend the lives of those Canadians by decades through things like organ transplants or state-of-the-art surgeries. Or $1 billion could be used to build 10 new hospitals daily at a cost of $100 million per hospital [or four new much larger hospitals daily at a cost of $250 million per hospital].
Do you see how we could potentially save far more people with the amount of money we are spending on COVID, but instead, we are seeing the biggest wave of bankruptcies and wealth loss in the small and medium enterprise sector, while Jeff Bezos and the Walton family [the founder of Amazon, and the Wal-Mart family], have increased their net wealth by over $100 billion during the greatest recession in history, second only to The Great Depression? Is that fair to you?
You say it's "Just wear a mask", and make it sound like there's nothing more to consider. But in light of the above information, do you see how this matter is much more nuanced than that?
You think right-wingers like me are just refusing to wear masks for no reason, and don't care about others - in reality, ever since age 21 [2003] when my dad's friend told me that his dad died at age 104 in an elderly care home in 2000 because of a flu that circulated, I have self-isolated every time that I got sick, to prevent others from getting sick. Furthermore, I had not gotten sick since 2014, and was worried my immune system was not getting any "exercise", so last February [16th], I decided to expose myself to the sickest person I knew - my girlfriend at the time. Given the symptoms and the length of time I got sick, I strongly believe I had COVID. If so, I would now have COVID antibodies which would benefit society through exposure, and help us reach herd immunity to the virus.
Instead, I had the police called on me for simply asserting my legally protected rights, because apparently even the police [and some lawyers] don't understand the law in Ontario, which is objectively clear on laws surrounding masks.
ONTARIO LAW SURROUNDING FACE MASKS & EXEMPTIONS:LINK #1: Thunder Bay Mask Mandate - and ExemptionsLINK #2: Ontario Government Face Mask ExemptionsLINK #2: Ontario Human Rights Commission [Face Mask Exemptions - See #13]Is that where you want society to head? Arresting people who are not even sick, who [in my case, if I did get COVID, as I suspect] would actually help by spreading COVID antibodies to others?
Do you see no danger in going down a road where we arrest innocent people who aren't even sick, because they could be "asymptomatic carriers"? Do you think it's rational to be afraid of a virus that people need to be tested for to even know they have?
Now that we know that COVID is not the global plague we feared, do you think the response to this pandemic is proportional, or comes without any tradeoffs? Do you see why I don't subscribe to the concept of "Just wear a mask", because I have spent four months researching this virus, its mortality rate, its spread, and have performed a cost/benefit analysis, and think the measures taken to stop COVID are far more damaging than the virus itself?
Rather than stereotype me as a clouded supremacist who is just being belligerent for the sake of it, do you see how I have reasons for feeling as I do?
Also Prime - prior to the controlled mass media, and the new and emerging heavily censored and controlled social media telling you to wear a mask, why didn't you wear one? Why did you circulate potential illness to others for the years - decades even - before the TV told you to start wearing a mask?
Why do you drive a car? Why do you buy products that are produced in factories in China, some of which require nets around its perimeter to prevent workers from jumping to their deaths due to poor working conditions? Every day in our lives, we put others at risk with the actions we take - what makes COVID different, especially after being around for over a year now, when we have firm data on who is dying from it or becoming seriously ill?
Is it wrong of me to think that in light of the information we now have, we should strongly consider the economic damage we are causing by the measures we are taking to deal with COVID, and the problems and deaths those measures will cause?
Is it wrong of me to think that we should direct resources to those most vulnerable to COVID, while allowing the rest of us to carry on with our lives, be economically productive, and thus generate the means and resources necessary to save the people who are actually at risk, rather than continue to peddle fear for people in age demographics who are far more likely to be hit by a car, or even be struck by lightning?
Do you see how not everyone you write off as a Trump-supporting White Supremacist is the stereotype you perceive them to be?
