As to the no mask policy of Trump and his base, is that not the real cause

[applegrove]

of more than half of the main street business and main street jobs stress right now. Trump made it way worse.

[Hoyt]

1. No question in my mind. Thing is, if Fauci and CDC had come out strongly in favor of masks early,

trump would have had a hard time not wearing them. There were a lot of people -- including esteemed institutions and supposed experts -- who screwed up early on. But the buck stops with trump.

[applegrove]

2. After a month of the covid crisis, when health care workers had enough masks,

the team came out strongly in favour of masks. Trump even said he would sell masks with his brand on them. They the nuts on the extreme right blogosphere started the anti mask movement, the base liked it and Trump followed his base into no mask wearing stance. Only one in that group was President. It was his job to lead. He didn't do it.

[Hoyt]

4. Unfortunately, Fauci -- supposedly using science-- said there was no evidence masks

helped early on. That was a big mistake, especially with CDC saying same.

[applegrove]

5. My understanding was that was because they didn't want a run on masks that would take them away from

healthcare workers. Notice how the healthcare workers all wore masks when doing their jobs during that period. I read that somewhere. It could be wrong.

[Hoyt]

6. That was speculation and I concurred at time. But when you read what

he said, he was saying there is no scientific evidence it would help, even though masks have helped for just about every virus.

Even if he did it, as speculated to prevent a run on masks, he was wrong. People could have improvised and they could have leveraged the original fear of the virus into more mask usage, even among rubes.

[tymorial]

3. It isn't even just the Trump supporters

It's truly amazing the intelligent people out there who absolutely believe that masks either don't work, spread covid, create superspreading events or some other mindless conspiracy theory.

And I mean it when I say intelligent. There was a YouTube guy I watched who is a brilliant electrician and engineer. He repairs amps and guitars. The guy believes masks cause covid and create superspreader events. He absolutely believes covid isn't a huge problem and it's all hype, deaths are overblown etc. I challenged him by questioning how he could possibly believe that. He "researched" it himself. I am sitting there thinking, so YOU researched it and YOU are right but the entire scientific and medical community is wrong?

Needless to say I won't watch again and that is a shame because he is talented and extremely intelligent. Conspiracy theories man, you just never know who is willing to believe in bullshit. What kills me the most are the people who go after flat earthers while at the same time denying covid. Like Wtf?