There’s a scary lack of humility plaguing posts about the “evils of not wearing masks” including claims of fellow citizens ‘murdering’ others or having a nonchalant intention to ‘murder’ others.
First, most authors claiming that ‘anti-maskers’ (cute label) are primary spreaders and therefore primary ‘killers’ aren’t scientists or even paying attention, IMO. They’re borderline hysterical. No courtroom trial could prove what they’re charging others with, yet, they deem themselves judges and juries at a time we ought to be united.
Try answering these questions, then decide whether the charge of murder holds up beyond a reasonable doubt. [That is still the standard for such a vile charge, isn’t it?]
1. Did the scientists first encountering this virus wear masks? Was it still able to spread?
2. Did nursing home staff, where the majority of lethal cases centered, wear masks?
3. Can the small size of this virus pass through the ‘everyday’ masks of ‘maskers’? (Hint: Yes.)
4. Are masks universally expected to stop the spread? How about people who keep adjusting their masks with bare hands or ones wearing bandanas? Are bandanas anti-masks or masks?
5. Does the virus infect people through the eyes or in ways yet to be detected? (some totally house bound people have gotten it and many unmasked people haven’t, in documented cases)
6. Are frequent hand washing and ‘social distancing’ more or less effective than masks? If more, then does a frequently hand washing, socially distant, person serve as less of a risk than a masked person not observing those measures? Who really knows how careful others are about exposure, cleanliness, or the reusing of dirty masks? Might masks just be visible signals not foolproof protections?
7. Are these ‘anti-masker spreaders’ helping expedite herd immunity which will keep everyone safer? Far more people, who have gotten the virus, have lived than died.
8. Once vaccinated, people are asked to still wear masks. Why? Who are they protecting in that case?
I don’t directly know the answers to any of those questions and could ask dozens more without reaching a guilty verdict of murder for anyone.
Two choices available…
We can take precautions that we deem best for ourselves and leave others to the freedom of choosing theirs. We can stop the constant labeling of our fellow citizens as stupid, or worse, evil, when we don’t agree and have some humility about what we don’t actual know,
Or, we can keep posting about ‘murders’ in our midst who are not wearing masks thus exposing more about the lack of humility of those accusers than any credible evidence to convict those accused.