General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYou don't have to wear a mask to protect yourself.
But you sure as hell have to wear one to protect other people.
Our society has laws to that effect already. We have vaccination laws for schools and health care work. We have restrictions on smoking for Pete's sake.
We know that even if you are fully vaccinated you can contract and spread Covid.
The whole mask mandate should never have been about protecting yourself. It is about protecting others in society. The announcement in May that people not longer needed masks after vaccination was just dumb.
SYFROYH
(34,127 posts)Jakes Progress
(11,121 posts)The data does indeed show that wearing a mask provides some minimal protection for the wearer. It is all we have if stupid people are around. A mask is most effective at stopping the droplets and spew from the wearer. It is less effective (not ineffective) at stopping the minute particles that get around gaps.
I wear a mask to try to avoid the spit that stupid people expel. I wear a mask to protect other people in case I have been infected. I am fully vaccinated. But I can be infected (by the aforementioned stupid people) and asymptomatic. So I wear a mask because I am not an uncaring idiot.
Disaffected
(4,508 posts)Wearing a mask protects others AND yourself. Please consider deleting your post.
Jakes Progress
(11,121 posts)is poor reading. No where does the post say that you shouldn't wear a mask. Not wearing a mask is the sign of an anti-social idiot.
sheshe2
(83,356 posts)The wording was a little awkward, but the meaning is pretty clear...it is not just about me it is about all of us. That is why we wear a mask.
Jakes Progress
(11,121 posts)I did not say that wearing a mask provides no protection for the wearer. Anyone not wearing a mask in public is an idiot.
Demobrat
(8,917 posts)I remember Cuomo saying people should wear masks to protect others. I always wanted to scream at the TV.
That will never work.
The messaging HAS to be wear it or YOU will suffer. YOU will not be allowed in the store. YOU will lose your job.
The French President gets it.
Jakes Progress
(11,121 posts)They are too stupid to get the message.
The message needs to be that if you don't wear a mask you will not be able to get on planes, go to the store, or get in that stadium. The fact that wearing a mask is for public safety is why we can mandate them. As the OP states, we have multiple laws and ordinances that require people to do things because of public safety.
Telling cult-brain idiots that they will suffer if they don't wear a mask is only a trigger for them. They believe they are tough and god-protected. They stupidly say with pride that they will "take their chances".
In France, the president has been quite clear that you wear a mask to protect the public, that you don't get to decide if you want to risk it.
7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)multigraincracker
(32,532 posts)They are great for pollen.
Hugin
(32,784 posts)Masks have changed my life.
Now if I could figure out the eyes. Kind of gummy these days.
Treefrog
(4,170 posts)I suffer from hay fever too, but no way never.
I do wear them indoors around people.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)That was the first tactic tried - appealing to people's altruism. State after state after state tried that before mandating masks. It was a miserable failure. Those not masking are not altruistic.
Even on DU - have you been reading any of the threads here? They are rife with jerks who are insisting that the unvaccinated need to proetect themselves - even those 0-11 need to protect themselves.
Masks are exrtremely effective, especially as an add-on to vaccination. If people understand they they are at personal risk, they are far more lkely to wear masks than if they are being asked to make that teeny tiny sacrifice to protect others they perceive as not deserving (EVEN when some of those who need protecting are completely inocent.) The same discussion happens every time transplants come up - a bunch of people insist that they won't donate organs because, Cheney. Never mnd that my daughter is caught up in them punishing Cheney (or people like him)
What needs to happen is that they need to be honest about the real risk of breakthrogh cases, the real risk of death (both of which are far higher than the CDC has previosly acknowledged). Self interest is (1) accurate - masks are effective and (2) more likely to change behaviro.
Jakes Progress
(11,121 posts)The post doesn't say to wear a mask out of altruism. It says wear one or you will be punished.
You are right that stupid people don't have a care for other people. Your are wrong if you think that they will believe they are at risk. Thinking that people haven't heard about the risks by now is naive. Everyone has heard this. They aren't paying attention or they are actively disagreeing. We have to stop letting stupid try to get smart. They are killing us while we wait for them to decide to wear a mask and get vaccinated.
I am fully vaccinated and I wear a mask whenever I leave my house. I do not want to be infected or infect others. But I am not a stupid person. Anyone not wearing a mask now or not getting vaccinated is stupid.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)I would agree that both mask mandates are needed, and that punishment is needed to enforce masks. There is absolutely no reason to get into the miserably failed messaging of the early pandemic: do it for others.
That messaging left people free to do as they wanted - AND - encouraged them to think of masks as ONLY protecting others, but not for their own safety (which, unfortunately, is a much stronger motivation).
Still - at least twice a day - I have to correct someone who insists masks do not protect the wearer (which is being used to justify not masking, since - as a general rule - the people who are asserting it are ALSO saying - let them all die off; I'm not going to be inconvenienced to save them {since it doesn't protect me - I don't care}).
Jakes Progress
(11,121 posts)It's not wear it to protect me. It's wear a mask, you asshole, because you don't have the right to infect me.
What I want is mandates that will shut up people like our Texas governor and bring him to court for spreading disease.
If you have contact with people who know the virus exists and aren't wearing a mask, you are spending too much time with idiots. You cannot convince them to wear a mask because it will protect themselves. They are already too stupid. Once they get a $500 fine for not wearing one, they will start wearing one. Nothing but punishment will get them to wear a mask.
You can turn your argument around too. If you think a mask is protecting you, why do you care if idiots won't wear one?
Vaccinate and mask. Or stay home in your den watching television for the next five years.
Treefrog
(4,170 posts)You keep persisting, despite so much
Treefrog
(4,170 posts)was so weakened. Im assuming that was to protect HER, right?
I dont understand why people dont get this. Thank you for your efforts.
Raine
(30,540 posts)and that was a mistake .. they should've said it was to protect the wearer not others IMO.
brooklynite
(93,880 posts)...Masks do not, by and large, prevent viruses from coming in; they prevent them from getting out.
Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)when worn properly and consistently at preventing virus from coming in. That's almost as effective as th J&J vaccine.
For anyone motivated to protect themself, the proper and consistent wearing is completely under their control. Please stop discouraging people from protecting themselves by continuing to spread the early, incorrect, information that masks only prevent the virus from getting out.
brooklynite
(93,880 posts)Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)if what one is concerned about is personal safety. That discourages the crowd around here who believes that the unvaccinated should just die off from protecting themselves, since they are so focused on not helping the voluntarily unvaccinated that they are putting themself and others at risk to spite the voluntarily unvaccinated.
Not to mention that what you are stating is not factual. Some people believed it to be true early in the pandemic, unfortunatly some people with a bully pulpit believed it so it was widely disseminated. That makes it even harder to correct
brooklynite
(93,880 posts)Treefrog
(4,170 posts)They were worried because her immune system had been so badly affected by the chemo.
brooklynite
(93,880 posts)Your mask helps protect those around you
COVID-19 spreads mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets travel into the air when you cough, sneeze, talk, shout, or sing. These droplets can then land in the mouths or noses of people who are near you or they may breathe these droplets in.
Masks are a simple barrier to help prevent your respiratory droplets from reaching others. Studies show that masks reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover-guidance.html
Treefrog
(4,170 posts)This was in 2016, and they were worried she was susceptible to infection. She was.
brooklynite
(93,880 posts)My point is that the mask guidance prepared by CDC FOR COVID was defined as preventing YOU from infecting others, not preventing you from becoming infected by someone else.
Treefrog
(4,170 posts)Almost every chemo patient was advised to wear the mask. To protect themselves.
Talking at cross purposes here, so never mind.
AllaN01Bear
(17,384 posts)and a lot of ppl are going half bang stoopid when vaxxed.
11 Bravo
(23,922 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)Even when you protect others you protect yourself. Im always aware of that. Which is why I dont get the anti-maskers.
Tribetime
(4,670 posts)Because I have an upcoming operation and I cannot afford to get sick at this time
Raine
(30,540 posts)because I don't have COVID and don't want to get it. I don't know what other people have or don't have. If they stay safe because I wear mask ... fine. I wear it though for myself, I socially distance and sanitize for myself too.
Jakes Progress
(11,121 posts)Only an idiot would not. It provides the only defense you have against idiots.
But, as the OP says, if you won't wear it to protect yourself, you should be required to wear it to protect other people. If someone is so stupid that they won't wear one for themself, they should be made to wear one to protect others.