To Mask or Not to Mask – Why is this even a question?
***January 12, 2021 Update: Here’s an excellent video detailing the timeline of mask usage. Somehow, within a span of a week or two, the World’s health experts went from decades of evidence of general mask usage to be worse than useless to making them mandatory because of ‘evolving evidence’. Masks are straight placebos, nothing more, nothing less. It makes the public feel ‘safe’ and it makes it appear as if the government is doing something. It’s the same pattern for every useless government measure which the virus has circumvented merely because mankind can only live with a viruses, not defeat them (with the exception of vaccines). Watch the video.***
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. ‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare
The latest flashpoint in Canada’s Covid-19 response relates to the mandatory wearing of face masks. Just like the run on toilet paper, hand sanitizer, flour, garden seeds, and other goods whose demand sky-rocketed, now retailers are running out of elastic for ‘do it at home’ self-made masks. The public has been whipped and beaten with 24/7 virus coverage by their governments and the media and they are desperate to find a solution to end this rollercoaster ride.
Let’s start with a question that is probably too obvious: in all the umpteen decades that surgical masks and the like have been around, has the medical community not thoroughly studied their effectiveness under these type of circumstances? Are doctors and our Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) so grossly incompetent that they cannot with a reasonable certainty declare under what conditions we should be utilizing masks, the frequency they should be changed/washed, and their relative effectiveness? Why are masks going to be touted now as the ultimate panacea when they weren’t back during the spring lockdowns?
If you want a good explanation from a doctor on what masks can and cannot do for you I recommend listening to ZDoggMD’s Mask explanation video along with all his other info and concerns with this pandemic.
There should be zero debate as this simple piece of medical tech should long ago have been figured out. But instead, we have people shaming non-mask wearers in person and on social media. We have Anti-Mask groups protesting and promoting Mask Exemption cards online. Large businesses such as banks, Walmart, Superstore, and other chains are declaring on their own that mask use is mandatory on their premises. Oh, if anyone thinks these large businesses are just ‘protecting their employees and patrons’, well give me a break. They are just protecting their bottom line in the event a case gets linked to a store and they have to shut it down.
So here is my problem with the randomness of mandatory mask wearing: if you’re a CMO who has bona fide reasons to order the wearing of face masks, then fine, that is where you have to balance the needs of society with our personnel rights and freedoms under the Charter, (which happens to be the first paragraph). But if you are some random business or ‘Karen’ who tries shaming or ordering me into wearing a mask just because you say so, then you can FUCK right off. Paragraph 7 of the Charter reads: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.
In general, that means, I do not get to tell you not to wear a mask and you do not get to tell me to wear one.
The whole reason we have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms is to protect our rights and freedoms especially during times of duress when they are most likely to come under pressure. There was a reason the War Measures Act was changed after the 1970 FLQ Crisis. Sweeping powers given to government are never a good thing.
The argument of ‘Well, it’s their business, it’s their rules. Just shop elsewhere.’ comes up as a counter-argument. That does not wash with me. I am old enough to remember the AIDS hysteria. It was a Gay disease and you could catch it from something as simple as a toilet seat. Would it have been proper to make a policy of ‘No Gays Allowed’ in your store? But because the population was scared, homosexuals were persecuted anyways. There are a few Christian bakeries who learned the hard way about turning away certain customers.
In Manitoba, we have already seen how ugly Covid-19 stigmatizing could become. Hutterites are still being persecuted and fear worse to come. Some Winnipeg businesses were demanding ID and/or a negative Covid-19 test to determine if patrons were ‘safe’ to come in. There were reports of several Brandon families being turned away. For now, the negative press has forced these businesses to recant their policies.
Speaking of Brandon, starting on August 24, group sizes of 10 and mandatory mask wearing comes into effect for all indoor/outdoor areas of the Prairie Mountain Health Region. This is ostensibly in response to a slight uptick (there was a ‘jump’ of about 100 cases in the last two weeks) in cases mostly in the Brandon area. The PMH region takes in the entire South West corner of the province and it baffles me as to why citizens up in Swan River should be forced to take the same precautions as people in the ‘hot’ zones. As an aside, when you glean through the government’s numbers for the southern health region and the adjacent city of Winnipeg added together are higher than PMH’s but there is no change in their health policies.
My feeling is that Premier Pallister did not want the blowback of making masks mandatory at this time for Winnipeg. He waffled on mandatory mask use for school children than quickly made them mandatory after a barrage of concern from parents. It will be the same for the rest of the province. Mandatory masks are coming because the public demands them, not because of any concrete, scientific, medical reasoning.
But this is typical for the entire lurching, knee jerk reactions exhibited by our authorities since this whole virus thing started. It was understandable in hindsight that governments got scared and shut everything down. But since then, we have not been stacking the bodies in the streets. Hospitals have never been overwhelmed and we have been learning the true nature of this particular virus. But we have gone massively into debt and there is more and more evidence that the ‘cure’ is worse than the disease.
No government has the balls to declare that they massively screwed the pooch with their response so they keep playing politics and with the aid of the media has kept the population running scared.
As I first opined, there should not be a debate whatsoever about whether we should ‘mask up’ or not. I cannot believe the medical establishment is that inept. All the CMOs have to do is lay out the facts and pass on their best recommendations. Most people are reasonable and if they are treated like adults will follow sound advice. Instead, we have the politicians playing politics with a hot potato and as usual none of them have the fortitude to make a hard decision. As a society, we have become afraid of our own shadows and the sheep are easily panicked.
It is understandable why individuals and businesses want to protect their interests and feel like they must take matters into their own hands. It is after all just a mask. But where does this stop? When do the roadblocks go up with armed police demanding your papers for Covid-19 testing and mandatory vaccinations? When will the citizenry be divided up into ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ zones? When will the masses be forced into more draconian lockdowns?
When you look at the relatively small numbers of sicknesses and deaths in Manitoba and Canada as a whole that are attributed to Covid-19 and compare those with a regular flu season, imagine how far the country would go down the rabbit hole if we had a real crisis.
I spent many years in uniform protecting this country and my actions were governed by the National Defense Act. In the military, especially back during the Cold War, most of your rights and freedoms were stripped. I had the right to vote and that was about it. I did not sacrifice my rights and freedoms for them to be arbitrarily taken away by a bunch of jittery sheep.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.