It seems like every day we have a new record for COVID-19. A new daily high. A new demographic. New deaths. The numbers just keep going up. I had to use the Walmart bathroom the other day. You have to wait in line to get into the store because of COVID precautions. They have markers everywhere -- "Stay 6' apart." You have to wear a mask. In the bathroom they logically removed the paper towels to avoid contact transfer ... and left the air dryers so you could blow that stuff all over the room. Unclear on the concept.
We're all running around careful and cautious and completely confused. Take gloves. What are they for? Gloves provide a barrier between your hands and the outside world. They do not prevent the outside of your gloves from picking up any viruses laying about. Nor do they keep you from touching your face with said viruses. Nor do they keep fast food workers from spreading said viruses to the food packaging they just prepared for you ... meticulously with gloves to keep you safe. Only they don't. And we have a false sense of security because "She wore gloves when she served us."
Take the COVID prevention measure, "Don't touch your face." Do you have any idea how many times a day you touch your face? Of course you don't. Because we do it unconsciously. By reflex. Scratch an itch. Brush away a hair or a bug. Adjust our glasses. One study said the average person touches their face 3,000 times a day. A recent report in March said that medical professionals touched their faces an average of 19 times in a 2 hour period. I mean, sure, it's a no-brainer. Don't touch your face. But just try to comply.
Take masks. Seriously. I mean, take masks seriously. The primary purpose of wearing masks is not to keep you from inhaling someone else's viruses. They're not that good. And you have too many gaps to prevent them from coming around. They might filter some, but that's not the primary point. The primary point is that your nose and mouth are covered so that any particles leaving your nose and mouth will be stopped at your mask. Yes, close to your face. That's okay; it's coming from you anyway. Your microdroplets of spittle infested (theoretically) with coronavirus will be caught in the face covering before it departs and others will be safe. It doesn't work in reverse very well because, as it turns out, the virus itself is smaller than almost all mask holes on the market. Only the N95 or better is small enough. But for those to be effective in protecting you, they would have to be fitted to eliminate gaps, and they're begging us not to buy those, but to leave them for medical people. Fair enough. So if you want to keep yourself from being infected, all you have to do is wear one of those hazmat-type body suits where you're completely enclosed with your own oxygen supply and all that. Oh, you have one of those? Good! Except when you go to get out of it, be careful. The outside is possibly infested. Oh, you don't have one of those? Too bad. That cloth face mask isn't going to protect you. It was never intended to.
Understand what I'm saying. They're not pointless. They're fairly effective for others around you. They are helpful especially because so many COVID carriers are asymptomatic and never even become symptomatic. Because, as it turns out, this virus is much more benign to the everyday everyman who is generally healthy than we've been led to believe. But that's because we are unclear on the concept. Unclear on the reporting methods. Unclear on the reports' purposes. Unclear on the danger or lack thereof. Unclear on the impact of being unclear. Do nothing? No! Wear your mask for the sake of others. Wash your hands often for your own sake. Do what you can to avoid touching your face. But you have to know that quarantining yourself with other people and doing all these masks and gloves and such -- all good things to do -- still don't put you out of harm's way. That's not in your purview. You'll have to find Help elsewhere.
9 comments:
You're suggesting that the virus knows which way it's being blown about...that for the mask wearer nothing comes in? Or is it that nothing goes out? The reality is no mask stops a virus because no mask is designed to stop something that small. It's like fleas through a chain link fence small. I have a link I could share that shows that even surgeons don't have science supporting wearing a mask during surgical operations. It's simply become a symbol of safety that reassures, but falsely. So no. I won't bother wearing something that's useless unless I absolutely need to get into a place that won't allow entry without one. Don't mean to sound accusatory, but I'm really fed up with all the pointless exercises we're forced to suffer.
I just read an article that made a great point:
Fauci recently said the reason they initially said masks weren't worthy the effort was because they didn't want a run on them thereby depriving hospitals who needed them. Now he says we need to wear them, though he isn't one to wear them at all times himself. Anyway, the point was, if he (and the WHO) were lying to us back then, how many people got sick and died because of that lie? If masks were necessary after all, then lying made him responsible for deaths from those who contracted the disease because they didn't wear the masks. Or perhaps he's lying now in saying we need to wear them. The data shows that it just simply doesn't make any difference when comparing those areas that never mandated them with those that did. Same as the lockdowns.
Here's the concept about which there is no confusion: They will say whatever they feel is necessary to say for reasons having little to do with protecting anyone.
No, I clearly said that the mask doesn't protect you from incoming. It's not about your protection. On the other hand, while the virus is too small to be stopped by masks, the virus is not airborne alone. It comes out of your mouth in microglobules of your spit. Those are big enough to be caught in almost all masks. (Months ago I linked to a doctor's article who was originally, "Masks are useless because the virus is too small to be blocked" but changed his tune when he realized the virus was not airborne by itself.)
The lie continues to be the massive hospitalizations and deaths over this virus. According to the site I checked hospitalization is around 7% and deaths around 2% and 90% of those deaths are in the 65 and above crowd. We're being lied to, for sure. (A headline this morning was about Australia's "deadly day" -- 6 deaths. "Um, Australia ... how many died in car accidents on that day? How is 6 a 'deadly day'?")
I wear a mask, not because I think they're effective, or am worried about catching this bug. I wear it because the government says I have to (in my state its a mandate, not a suggestion), and it is my biblical duty to obey that rule because God put that government there, and they haven't told me to disobey Him by wearing a mask. Effective or not is not the argument for a Christian. And I pray for repentance for all those believers that are getting all bent out of shape for being required to wear a "useless" mask. It's not harming you to wear it, it's being courteous to others, and if the government mandates it, the Bible says to obey it. Christians should never be the loud voices against something so inconsequential as wearing a mask.
I wear a mask because my workplace says, "Wear a mask or don't work here." I wear a mask because our state says, "Wear a mask or don't go into any place of business." I heard someone say, "I won't wear a mask because I'm made in the image of God and that would be covering the image of God." Making a religious, even Christian argument like that is nonsense. (I wanted to ask, "So, why do you wear clothes?") On the other hand, I do know people who are physically harmed by wearing a mask, but, admittedly, they are the exception. Oh, and I hate wearing a mask. But it's not, as you pointed out, a conflict between government and God.
All I was trying to say is, "People, be aware of what you're doing here. Don't panic where you need not panic. Do seek to do what is effective." Most are just not paying attention.
My comment was more directed at Art. He seems pretty riled by this whole mask thing.
Yes, David. I'm riled. And with good reason. It's one thing to say, "we're taught to obey civil authorities". It's quite another to say there is no limit and that we must do so without criticism or complaint. The rule is stupid. It is pointless and the greater good is not served by forcing compliance. In the normal course of living life, the wearing of a mask does no more good than not sneezing or spitting in someone's face.
Disagreeing with the rule is different than being mad about the rule. People make such a huge fuss about these masks like they're strangling you or something. It is the mildest of inconveniences. Get over it. And both sides can present data arguing their side, so in the end it's just your opinion. Let the unbelievers deepen their sin by getting angry over nothing. I doubt that when we were told to obey the civil authority, it meant to do so in loud protest and with much anger, seeing as elsewhere we're to be peacekeepers. Getting angry over this nothing and shouting down those that disagree is definitely not peacekeeping.
David. We ARE the civil authority. Our form of government is by the consent of the governed. Thus, I have every right, and in fact the duty, to loudly oppose that which is wrong, harmful or simply inconvenient...especially such unnecessarily inconvenient mandates as masks.
"by the consent of the governed"? I call bull. The way you are saying it, everyone had the right to obey only those laws they agree with. It is not by the consent of the governed, but the majority. And again, opposing an inconvenient rule loudly and angrily is not being a peacekeeper. How does loud and angry reflect well on Christ. Whenever I hear people getting mad about having to wear a mask, a MASK, they sound selfish and petulant. It certainly doesn't reflect the love of Christ. I agree that if we disagree with something we should speak out against it, but with patience, love, and obedience, not anger and hostility. That way is for the nonbelieving masses, not for those that are too be the light of the Word. In most (almost all) cases in life, anger is a selfish response, and we are commanded to be selfless. And again, your belief that they are unnecessary is your opinion based on one set of data, while they believe in another set of data, and in this case, I doubt either will ever be proven to be true. As the example in the post points out, even the scientists are flip flopping. They don't actually know everything about how it's transmitted, so they could be right, or wrong. My point is that as a Christian, our response should not look like the response of the world, should be measured by love. Do you believe that your anger about masks is based on love of others, or yourself? I don't know what you thought about Stan's post on that topic, but love of God and others should be our motivation. Opposing abortion loudly is love of others (the unborn and their mothers), opposing masks loudly is love of self.
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