As I have said many times, there was no data to back mass mask mandates in April 2020. What data there was was that cited by the New England Journal of Medicine, which shared in passing, without initially realizing the political consequences, the medical truism that masks don’t help with viruses. No one had argued otherwise in a long time in the medical community. It was just in the air, assumed. That whole article was just trying to decide if wider mask wearing in medical settings made sense.
But people have become ATTACHED to masks.
Here is a exercise for your imagination: what if, instead of recommending universal mask wearing, Fauci had done something which perhaps made sense, which is tell all Americans to consume half a cup of Apple Cider Vinegar a day. Lots of people swear by the stuff.
I don’t have the faintest idea if it would help or not, but masks clearly haven’t. The best that can be said is that in conditions of slow spread, they seem to slow it a LITTLE, at least in some populations. In conditions of fast spread, there is no measurable effect.
But nobody in the press is talking about this. Nobody cares.
Now, if the chosen bullshit nostrum had been Apple Cider Vinegar, nobody is getting addicted to that shit. And you drink it–or SAY you drank it–at home.
Go into the office and your boss asks you “did you take your apple cider vinegar?” You answer “sure thing, boss”, even though you had a shot of vodka. It gets added to the list of questions you have to answer. You answer yes or no, as appropriate, even though you had a slice of cold pizza for breakfast with a root beer.
My point is that masks are PUBLIC. They are visible. They are a way that people have been taught to say they don’t want grandma to die. They are ALMOST like an act of heroic sacrifice. They are ALMOST like running into a burning building. You never know, you just don’t, whose life you may save by wearing one.
Private remedies–even good ones like Vitamin D and Zinc–have nothing like the same potential for teaching rote conformity, and for rewarding it as a virtuous, selfless act, of the sort people really DO want to undertake, but which they usually don’t. Why? Well, because they don’t. How the hell should I know?
A private remedy would have been embraced by some, and forgotten and ignored by most. That is why I see no way not to see this whole shit show as psychological manipulation that by and large has been working. I personally have worn a mask maybe twice in the last six months, both times for work.
I think there is a good point here, but I’m not entirely sure I’ve made it. I’ll throw it against the wall and let you decide if it is dry pasta, or cooked pasta.