By David Iwinski
We hear constant, ominous rumblings from the Biden administration that we are about to be forced by the federal government into mandatory mask-wearing and possible lockdowns, because of the threat of COVID-19 and its delta variant. There are a great many factors that argue against this course of action by the federal government, let’s take a look at a few.
The scientific evidence for mask efficacy in preventing the spread of COVID is widely varied and even within the CDC and other senior officials, for the entirety of the last 18 months, we have heard wildly contradictory reports on whether masks actually do anything at all. What they do, however, is create a pervasive sense of fear, social isolation and a perception that day-to-day life is simply not safe.
We hear all the time this senseless blather about “two weeks to eradicate the risk” when we dang well know that it won’t happen because the last time, we heard that it had been well over a year and counting, with no end in sight. What evidence of any concrete validity should cause us to believe that another period of mass isolation will somehow eradicate the risk?
Numerous experts have said the size of the virus and the nature of the masks means that they will not stop the exhalation or inhalation of the coronavirus. Further, there is contradictory evidence that continual breathing of droplets normally aspirated might lead to respiratory disease, particularly in children. We should add to that the simple reality that many, many Americans are not going to wear the masks, no matter what.
I have seen the angry denunciations by hysterical people demanding utter compliance and that they will take matters into their own hands if they see people not wearing a mask. Of course, this is not going to work and only heightens the distance between those consumed with fear and those who simply want a little evidence that masks have even a minimal positive effect before they put them on their children and their own faces, indoor and outdoor, every single day.
Add to that the inevitable downturn in the economy and what that will mean to people’s ability to keep their homes, keep their savings and keep their livelihoods. There is emerging some clinical data that depression, social isolation and suicide are on the rise. Do we really need to push these trends even harder?
Some may say that these negatives can be offset by adding so-called “stimulus payments” but are we really so naïve to think that the trillions of dollars poured into the country -- often earmarked for expensive programs in a particular legislator’s district -- are never going to have to be repaid and that that debt will not be a burden on the country for decades, if not centuries? Have we really come to believe that we can get something for nothing?
No one is denying that COVID has dangers. Many things in life do. The problem with government enforced mask mandates is that they require acceptance of an enormous range of guaranteed negative effects including social isolation, depression, suicide, bankruptcy, loss of income and loss of homes as well as potentially other respiratory diseases, not to mention the massive disruption in the education process. We are all supposed to absorb these negative effects without question based on a premise that poorly designed, ill-fitting and ineffective masks will somehow prevent infection even after a significant percentage of the population are too fed up to ever wear them again.
This is nonsense masquerading as government care. This is the erosion of civil liberties based on a dubious and unproven premise that government officials themselves have reversed dozens of times. It is the function of what government does best: Some highly visible and nonfunctioning action they take simply to convince people that they “care” and that they are “doing something” as a way to preserve high-paying jobs controlling our lives. Note how many officials demanding we mask-up rarely wear masks themselves when on camera. Former President Obama just cancelled his big 60th birthday party on Martha’s Vineyard, but only after public outcry.
If we continue to give in to this erosion of our civil liberties and our ability to exercise our own judgment, we will soon have no personal liberties left, and every action or thought will require government approval.
Americans are not going to let that happen.