Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:59 pm
I will say that wearing a mask does seem to help. My family and I have been wearing them pretty consistently and this past season is one of the few cold and flu seasons that none of us came down with any kind of virus or infection. Knock on wood, hope it stays that way.
Well, coating us all in lexan would also "help." Never travelling or being in groups would "help." Or never speaking to anyone or touching anyone again...that might well cure almost all communcable diseases.
The question, though, has to be "What is a reasonable 'help,' and what is too costly a strategy to warrant the risk-reduction involved?" Masks are certainly alienating -- depriving us humans of what we need in order to read the emotions of others, communicate with them humanly, and enjoy normal human interactions. They're certainly psychologically harmful...damaging to social relationships. And they're uncomfortable, interfere with breathing, fog up eyeglasses, and can actually become very dirty and germ-laden themselves, if not washed very promptly and very often.
At what point do we then say, "Yes, there's a risk if we don't wear them; but the risk is necessary and worth it?" We used to do that with the flu all the time -- it was always around, and evey year, some people died of complications from it. But that never caused us to behave in inhuman ways. We just accepted the risk, and even the potential loss of life, and went on. The same happens every time we drive a car: cars kill far more poeple than COVID ever did or could. But we think driving is important, so we still do it. We reduce the risks as best we can, but we don't go to the extreme of banning cars, or driving around in a cloud of bubble wrap.
When is it enough? Do we want to spend the rest of our lives masked? Is that natural? Is it sociable? Is it worth it? That's an assessment we need to make.