Mask Mandate Madness

There is much stupidity on the right. Especially in the media.

Case in point: John Ziegler, writing for the mostly conservative, sometimes liberal website Mediaite.com. John is a conservative with Libertarian tendencies — at least in his writing. I have never agreed with anything he has ever written. And his winning streak is still intact.

In his latest opinion piece for Mediaite entitled “Biden, the Left, and the News Media Have Totally Lost Their Minds on School Mask Mandates,” he manages to pack all the right-wing/Libertarian talking points about how evil mask mandates are in the headline and the lede. That’s some skillful writing there.

According to John, mask mandates — in fact, masks themselves — are “nonsensical, ineffective and counterproductive.” Not to mention they infringe on our liberty, yada, yada, yada.

But think of the poor children!

“There is no better/worse example of this phenomenon than the forced masking of kids in schools, which tens of millions of healthy children — including my own 9-year-old daughter — are about to endure, without even a hint of an exit strategy for how this foolishness ever ends,” he writes.

The fact that his 9-year old daughter is ineligible for a vaccine at this point and has basically no protection from Covid-19 doesn’t seem to matter to him. The fact that she can catch the virus and spread it to other people doesn’t seem to matter to him.

The only thing that matters is that she may be forced to sit in school and wear a mask all day.

Granted, wearing a mask for eight hours is no fun. It’s uncomfortable for sure. And while it does not offer 100% protection from Covid — or any virus for that matter — isn’t it better than no protection at all?

Well, that’s not the point. The point is the government is forcing us to wear them and taking away our freedom of choice. And that’s bad.

He also notes that after more than a year of wearing masks here and around the world, there is zero evidence that they are effective against Covid.

This is not true. Or, putting it another way, this is bullshit.

While there are no clinical trials or in-depth studies to show the effectiveness — or lack thereof — of masks against Covid, there have been a number of small-scale studies to measure this. One study, recently conducted in Bejing, found that face masks were 79% effective in preventing the transmission of Covid to other household members.

John notes that “mask mandates appear to do virtually nothing to slow the spread of Covid.”

This is absolutely true. The government making a rule or enacting a law stating that everyone must wear masks will not do anything to curb the spread of the virus. After all, it’s just words on paper. But people complying with the law will go a long way to helping curb the spread.

“Despite an unprecedented amount of potential data from which to choose, there is still simply no real-world data to justify mask mandates in general, and school mandates in particular (it cannot be overstated how totally overwhelming the real-world evidence in favor of masks would be by now if it actually existed),” John writes.

My favorite part of his piece though, is where he says he been an anti-masker since the beginning, accuses Dr. Anthony Fauci of being anti-mask then flip-flopping, and claiming that pro-maskers are emotional and political and refuse to accept the data, or lack of data.

“To be clear, as someone who was anti-mask from the start (just like Dr. Fauci and many “experts” used to be before the politics changed for them), I would have been thrilled to change my mind if there was actual evidence to support their effectiveness. Sadly, I cannot say the same about the pro-maskers who have conclusively proven they are so emotionally/politically invested in them that literally no amount of data — or even the widely accepted discovery that the virus spreads in a manner which explains WHY “normal” masks do not work–could ever alter the tenets of their religion,” he notes.

Hmmm…where have I heard something like this before. Ever heard of January 6, John? Met any Republicans lately? Heard about what’s going on in Arizona with the audit?

Apparently not.

And as for Dr. Fauci being anti-mask and now being “political,” it’s called science John. It changes. The data changes and you have to adjust your thinking with the facts.

Besides, Dr. Fauci was not anti-mask. He was concerned that the run on mask buying by the general public would have a negative impact on mask availability for doctors and other health professionals. Which it did.

John links to this YouTube video of an interview of Dr. Fauci which he claims proves Fauci was anti-mask from the beginning. But if he was paying attention and actually watched the whole interview, John would realize that Dr. Fauci was not anti-mask (which he clearly states in the interview) but anti-panic buying of masks, which was leading to a shortage for medical professionals.

He also states that mask wearing for children is evil incarnate.

“The common sense reality is that wearing masks — forgetting that in the real world they are not clean — dramatically alter the school experience for the worse,” he writes.

Hey John, if you kid’s mask is not clean maybe you should wash it if it’s a cloth mask. If it’s a disposable paper mask, throw it out and give her a new one.

He also thinks children wearing masks is a Liberal plot to keep them from making friends.

“Secondly, they clearly restrict a child’s basic ability to communicate with both teachers and peers. A simple smile or lack thereof is how a child knows if the teacher approves or disapproves of what they are doing, or if a fellow student wants to be their friend or not (it is absolutely infuriating to know that my child, who currently — partly due to Covid restrictions–has very few friends and desperately wants to make some, will be greatly restricted in communicating with her fellow students, all so that liberals can be made to feel better about having been duped by masks).”

John, ever hear of verbal communication? Teach your kid how to speak to her fellow students instead of just smiling at them and they won’t think she’s a psycho.

He admits his views on masks is a minority one and that forcing kids to wear them is “abusive tyranny.”

Besides, kids are “barely impacted” by Covid-19 and our hospitals are mostly not “overwhelmed.”

Oh, well in that case, it’s ok John.

This stupidity is so tiring.

This article originally appeared on August 23, 2021 in The Duck Refused Medical Treatment.