You’re citing the national review and GG in advancing a goal of no mask mandates and no vaccine mandates. Awesome.
We actually have real time data about what happens with no mandates. It’s called most repub states. Take MS for example - 1 in 312 Mississippians is dead of Covid. Or Alabama - more people died in Alabama last year than were born. Maybe Florida is the way to go. Is it classist that the hardest hit areas are in the poorest areas of the north and panhandle? How bout them cowboys?! 43 Texas school districts closed due to Covid last week. No masks allowed though.
Well over a hundred thousand children have lost their primary caregiver to Covid. Tens of thousands are completely orphaned. Get those kids some bootstraps so they can practice a little self reliance.
Remember everybody! You wear a mask for me. And I wear a mask for you. That’s community.
The masked "servants" and unmasked "elites" is looking a lot like The Hunger Games. This power grab is so over the top, I don't see how it can sustain itself for very long...but I thought rap was a fad, so what do I know.
The risk to children is obviously lower than other groups. However:
- ICUs are starting to fill up in some states (children are the largest unvaccinated group)
- It's easier for Europe to allow unmasked children because AFAIK in many of the countries a) they don't have a huge amount of adults who are vaccine holdouts and b) they have invested in free/cheap rapid at home tests, so parents can keep their kids at home: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/briefing/rapid-testing-covid-us.html
- We don't fully know the extent of what long-haul COVID could mean for children or how often they can get it
My 5-year old is currently masked at school, and while it's not ideal, it adds a small amount of protection until the vaccine is approved within the next couple of months.
Once vaccine is approved for all groups, I do agree that we need an "endgame" for COVID where it is treated partially like the flu (we'll likely need yearly, variant-specific shots & it will kill a certain # of people per year) and partially like measles/polio (govt-funded institutions, schools, etc) should require vaccinations or constant negative tests. And yes, the masks should then be totally optional on a per-person basis.
Thank you so much for posting this - I follow you for your walking dead posts, but it's great to see this opinion finally expressed. I live in a wealthy NJ town and feel like the only objecting to their 2 and 4yo kids spending 30hrs a week effectively muzzled. I think that two major factors are economic and legal: economically, it costs more to test, so the government advocates the cheaper option and gets to seem like it cares. Legally, places are terrified of being sued for allowing infection, so it's in their interest to be as cautious as possible. Human and children's rights don't stand a chance against such arguments.
Neither they use here in Argentina. We are not the wisest nation, neither i like the current goverment, but so far it doesn't seem schools have been a big factor on the spread of the virus. Teachers, fathers and older kids use masks.
I would seriously question anyone who thinks coverage of Covid-19 is hysteria if they’re not actually “in the shit,” as they say. If ICUs and hospitals are full of Covid patients then it’s because they need to be there medically. It’s a scary situation to have an ICU full of patients with one illness as opposed to a bunch of people with differing illnesses and ailments which is what used to happen.
It’s hysteria up until the point that you’re put on a ventilator - then it’s truly a crisis. That’s what I’ve seen.
I think the picture of AOC has more to do with irrational hate than mask mandates and or classism. Any restaurant (or place where the guests would be eating and drinking) does not require the guests to wear masks but the servers do because presumably, they are not eating and drinking. Now it may be classist to have any person, even someone designated as a 'server' bring food and drink to another person, even if that person is a guest in an establishment but that's a debate for another time (with someone a little less 'angry-as-a resting-state').
You’re citing the national review and GG in advancing a goal of no mask mandates and no vaccine mandates. Awesome.
We actually have real time data about what happens with no mandates. It’s called most repub states. Take MS for example - 1 in 312 Mississippians is dead of Covid. Or Alabama - more people died in Alabama last year than were born. Maybe Florida is the way to go. Is it classist that the hardest hit areas are in the poorest areas of the north and panhandle? How bout them cowboys?! 43 Texas school districts closed due to Covid last week. No masks allowed though.
Well over a hundred thousand children have lost their primary caregiver to Covid. Tens of thousands are completely orphaned. Get those kids some bootstraps so they can practice a little self reliance.
Remember everybody! You wear a mask for me. And I wear a mask for you. That’s community.
The masked "servants" and unmasked "elites" is looking a lot like The Hunger Games. This power grab is so over the top, I don't see how it can sustain itself for very long...but I thought rap was a fad, so what do I know.
I cannot think of any other public emergency that has been characterized by so much misinformation, disinformation, and outright deception.
The behavior of our glorious "leaders" has for the most part been despicable.
The long term consequences are unknowable, but the erosion of public trust is material.
One of the benefits of this public policy failure is the recognition that the individual is responsible for his own well-being.
In the end, if we relearn self reliance, we all benefit.
The risk to children is obviously lower than other groups. However:
- ICUs are starting to fill up in some states (children are the largest unvaccinated group)
- It's easier for Europe to allow unmasked children because AFAIK in many of the countries a) they don't have a huge amount of adults who are vaccine holdouts and b) they have invested in free/cheap rapid at home tests, so parents can keep their kids at home: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/briefing/rapid-testing-covid-us.html
- We don't fully know the extent of what long-haul COVID could mean for children or how often they can get it
My 5-year old is currently masked at school, and while it's not ideal, it adds a small amount of protection until the vaccine is approved within the next couple of months.
Once vaccine is approved for all groups, I do agree that we need an "endgame" for COVID where it is treated partially like the flu (we'll likely need yearly, variant-specific shots & it will kill a certain # of people per year) and partially like measles/polio (govt-funded institutions, schools, etc) should require vaccinations or constant negative tests. And yes, the masks should then be totally optional on a per-person basis.
Thank you so much for posting this - I follow you for your walking dead posts, but it's great to see this opinion finally expressed. I live in a wealthy NJ town and feel like the only objecting to their 2 and 4yo kids spending 30hrs a week effectively muzzled. I think that two major factors are economic and legal: economically, it costs more to test, so the government advocates the cheaper option and gets to seem like it cares. Legally, places are terrified of being sued for allowing infection, so it's in their interest to be as cautious as possible. Human and children's rights don't stand a chance against such arguments.
Neither they use here in Argentina. We are not the wisest nation, neither i like the current goverment, but so far it doesn't seem schools have been a big factor on the spread of the virus. Teachers, fathers and older kids use masks.
I would seriously question anyone who thinks coverage of Covid-19 is hysteria if they’re not actually “in the shit,” as they say. If ICUs and hospitals are full of Covid patients then it’s because they need to be there medically. It’s a scary situation to have an ICU full of patients with one illness as opposed to a bunch of people with differing illnesses and ailments which is what used to happen.
It’s hysteria up until the point that you’re put on a ventilator - then it’s truly a crisis. That’s what I’ve seen.
I think the picture of AOC has more to do with irrational hate than mask mandates and or classism. Any restaurant (or place where the guests would be eating and drinking) does not require the guests to wear masks but the servers do because presumably, they are not eating and drinking. Now it may be classist to have any person, even someone designated as a 'server' bring food and drink to another person, even if that person is a guest in an establishment but that's a debate for another time (with someone a little less 'angry-as-a resting-state').