Go around with a UV light at night do you?
No. If I had a UV light in my house ....
:shudder:
Point is, just being outside, everyone is exposed to many coronavirus'. From the little field mouse, to the squirrel, opossum, raccoon, sparrow, etc.. You are not going to see those droppings. The coronavirus, a coronavirus, is not just transmitted from overseas. It is picked up everyday here at home, wherever home is anywhere in this Nation.
Yeah - I'm aware of that - but there are things you can do to mitigate your risk of catching an infection or a virus. Such as walking on sidewalks instead of through dog park grass, or through areas with a lot of questionable possibilities. And if you must walk through such areas, wear shoes. And if you bring your filthy shoes indoors, take them off instead of tracking them around the house, avoid licking the soles, and wash your hands after you handle them. Seems that mom was pretty wise old bird.
And yes, I know you're going to point out that there are myriad chinks in that armor, and nothing can 100% protect you from streptococcus, and rhinovirus and fasciitis all the nasty germs that will someday worm their way through my delicate snowflake immune system. And masks are not going to prevent or stop the coronavirus. You could force everyone at gunpoint to wear ventilators, and someone will still catch the damned thing.
The point is mitigating risk.
Were you wearing a mask during every flu season every year of your like?
No.
I never even had a shot. I never caught it, and I never worried about catching it, and I blithely lived my life for decades thinking I was immune to that ****.
Then one December I learned that I was not.
One of the physically worst weeks of my life. I thought my body was turning itself inside-out.
I have not missed a flu-shot since, and I never will again if I can help it. Furthermore, you will recall that before wearing masks in stores was mandatory, it was forbidden. But, I'll tell you right now that if we could have worn masks all flu season, I would have.
The reason not all bacteria and virus' aren't killers is because of our body's innate immune system. Have a weak immune system, get sick from any, and possibly die.
Yeah - well, I've read enough papers by biologists and microbiologists over the past year, and half of them say one thing, and half of them say another thing. Either way, there's not much that you're going to say to me that I haven't already heard about, read about or thought of myself. Contrary to popular belief, even though I'm not an anti-masker, I'm not a ****ing idiot.
Now, normally, when you read opposing viewpoints between SME's, the result is that you have an interesting dilemma which you can use to debate with yourself while sitting in traffic, or washing your taint in the shower, and it ultimately has very little real actual impact on your life. In this case, unfortunately, the contradictory viewpoints actively affect the behavior of the population, many of whom, including myself, simply do not have the education or even the intelligence to accurately determine who is telling the truth, or whoever is just right.
If it was a computer virus, I could tell you definitively what's what. Unfortunately, I skipped all of my Microbiology classes at University.
I don't know you, but I'm guessing the odds of you being an expert in the field are pretty low. So please forgive me for not taking everything you say at face value. Nothing personal, I don't take anything I've read on the subject at face value. Because of the fact that everyone on the right seems to agree that the pro-mask scientists are left-wing megalomaniacs bent on controlling your behavior, and everyone on the left thinks that anti-mask (or mask-agnostic) scientists are right-wing maniacs bent on genocide.
Being that I think both right and left wing ideologues are brainwashed, kool-aid drinking, blinders-wearing, echo-chamber shouting, tunnel-vision having, stubborn, dumbass assing-ass asses, I won't take anything at face value because it's all political and therefore
anything
anyone says on the subject is unreliable and biased. So, my ultimate decision comes down to the fact that if I wear a mask:
- There is very little impact to my routine. Minimal impact. Negligible imact.
- My face-fluid output is minimized. My proclivity for touching my face with my hands is reduced. Is it 100% stopped? No. Can I still catch something if I touch a doorknob? Yes. I'm aware of that. However, based on #1, I find this to be a reasonable precaution.
- I am in favor of Promoting the General Welfare.
- You can wear cool masks with video game logos and memes on them. Make it a fashion statement instead of wallowing in self-loathing for capitulating to The Man.
For the record, in Japan in past years, some wore masks due to pollution, to filter the air they are breathing, not to filter a virus. Big difference.
Again, I'm not an expert in this field, but I'm thinking that the difference is not as big as one may think. Depending on the mask and how big the particulates in question are. I don't know, really.
If you're going to go do research on the subject to prove me wrong, please be warned: I don't much care either.