2mo ago

Banning masks means banning (a subset) of disabled people from public places without great risk to their health

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It’s important to note that the mask is far more effective in stopping the wearer from transmitting a virus than it is in stopping the wearer from contracting a virus.
High risk individuals rely on others wearing their mask to protect them from infection. Those people will effectively be relegated to their homes through the virus season if they want to remain safe. Hopefully they have the money to pay for deliveries for the season.
- I can't believe we are you still have to explain this in 2024. I have zero faith in humanity left, aside from Luigi ofc.
- The reason they want you to not wear masks is, facial recognition that is literally everywhere doesn't work if your masked. You can help protect the vulnerable and yourself from invasive tracking with this one simple trick.
  
  That may be a side effect but it's not the reason.
  The reason is that they don't want to be told what to do by the government. They want to use the government to tell other people what to do.
  "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
  This is about wielding power.
  
  Just to pile on to that thought, it's also a wedge issue that makes stupid people very angry, and angry people are motivated to be politically active. They will shout down reasonable people, commit acts of violence, and vote in reliable numbers. Polite society tends to avoid political debate, in part because the angry morons show up to disrupt the quiet.
  
  Government: "wear a mask to protect others"
  Conservatives: "Nuh uh! You can't tell me what to do! Hurr durr honk honk muh freedumbs!!"
  Government: "wearing a mask is strictly prohibited"
  Conservatives: "As you wish, my sire, whose boot shall I lick?"
  
  facial recognition that is literally everywhere doesn't work if your masked.
  Afaik that's illegal within the EU. Also, there's more than just facial recognition. They can even learn the way you walk.
  
  Yeah there is way more digital human recognition going on than we all like to acknowledge here in the states.
  I must admit I'm super jealous of you Europeans. I'm very happy that you ladies and gents over there have a more formed and functional governance and your not yet in our predicament.
  Watching a documentary of the first peoples of Ireland and wish I could be there instead of here right now.
  
  The EU can be extremely bipolar unfortunately, see the chat control debate currently. I'm actually surprised with how many decent shit gets through sometimes, considering how most of the EU parliaments are mostly made up of conservatives or worse.
  
  Just be thankful that your right wing is the equivalent of our left wing here in the states. We don't even have a left wing, just right and batshit crazy. I do follow as much European news as I can and I do see we are exporting our specific brand of batshit. I hope it never gets its footing.
  
  The reason I don’t want you to wear masks is I don’t like being surrounded by faces I can’t read.
- Yep I’ve had a cold all last week and have been masking up for my grocery runs. It’s just about being a decent human being.
  
  The people who ban masks are so self centered that they think a masked person assumes that they are sick, or dirty. They never even comprehend that it might be to help them, because they don't understand helping people
- It’s important to note that the mask is far more effective in stopping the wearer from transmitting a virus than it is in stopping the wearer from contracting a virus.
  While this is generally true, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that a properly-fitted respirator provides very good protection. Even more so if it's an elastomeric with P100 filters (99.97% PFE with absurdly high fit factors).
  But...
  You're absolutely right, if everyone would consistently wear at least an earloop respirator like a KF94 or KN95 — even if the quality is a bit sketchy and even if the fit is less than ideal — that would cut down on viral particulate emissions a great deal and task your own respirator with orders of magnitude less particulate to filter out.
  
  I wear a P100 because I can't trust my fellow Americans to wear so much as a scarf.
- It’s important to note that the mask is far more effective in stopping the wearer from transmitting a virus than it is in stopping the wearer from contracting a virus.
  It's more effective for others to wear them than for you to wear them. But it is still beneficial to wear a mask outside when you're at risk of contagion, assuming you pair it with hand sanitizer and other preventative measures.
  Those people will effectively be relegated to their homes through the virus season if they want to remain safe.
  At some point, telling people not to leave their homes if they want any kind of safety, but denying them access to medical equipment because it makes you feel unsafe only serves to deflect responsibility from the able-bodied to the vulnerable.
  It would be like telling people in wheelchairs that ramps make me feel clumsy so you just shouldn't leave your house if you want full mobility.
- Exactly. I find it strange that someone who's immune system is compromised to the point where a 'common cold' can kill them has been just hanging out in public and it's only a problem now. Masks weren't invented in 2020. Op is likely farming Internet points.
  I've had a compromised immune system before. Going out in public and trusting a mask to protect me would be like wearing safety goggles when you jump into a wood chipper.
  
  An N95 mask protects the wearer too.
  
  It does, and you should wear it. But if you are immunocompromised (like me) you also need to protect your eyes, and wash your clothes, skin, and hair following a trip out in public. The days when people were wearing masks were wonderful.
  
  All true! But it's not all-or-nothing either - reducing the viral load of the initial infection actually reduces the severity of the symptoms by reducing the load on the immune system. An infection picked up from clothes will be much less severe than one directly inhaled into the lungs.
  
  Sometimes going out in public is necessary, such as to the doctor, or to get food if there's not someone to help with that. And sometimes it requires passing through other public spaces, such as public transportation. A person can have no illusions about the degree to which masks help, but still depend on them because what else is there?
  As the spouse and caregiver of a compromised person, I wear a KN95 anytime I go into a store or other indoor public space, to try to avoid catching and bringing home anything that might land him in the hospital again.
  
  Yeah. Clearly, they should just stay inside their plastic bubbles and never see the sun so that the rest of us don't have to worry about coughing in other people's faces.

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