I have gone out more in the last two weeks than in the previous two months and quite frankly I think I need another break. I had to pick up a prescription at Kroger, so I decided why not grab a few things we need while there. So as I walked down a handful of aisles I found about half the people not wearing masks and the most interesting thing was a mother with her child. The child having her mouth on the shopping cart handle. Now this isn't a good idea in the best of times but in a pandemic I would think this is a risk not worth taking if I knew better, she didn't, but some are doing things just as bad and should know better.
I thought a lot about that child this week as I watched people outraged by being asked to wear a mask to enter into private businesses. It seems this child's actions would be suited for a small child but it reminds me of the actions of many adults I have seen and heard of on the internet. Only the child's innocent abandon and mouthing of the cart can be excused. Those who seem to be trying to suggest that they don't need to follow public safety rules can't. They are horrible people and a threat to many. The current rate of escalation and nonsense is disturbing and I fear could lead to some serious results.
I don't understand the anger of those asked to wear a mask into a store. Some have taken to coughing or even spitting on the employee who asked them to put one on. This is criminal assault and I hope some District Attorney brings a charge of attempted murder on these people or at least assault with a deadly weapon. I truly believe their lives should be made miserable for doing stuff like this. It is sickening. I also wonder how this would play out if the person being spit on is armed in a stand your ground state.
One thing I keep hearing is that forcing a mask on someone in a store violates your rights. This is pure nonsense. Requirements to enter both private and public buildings that restrict your actions are almost never a violation of your rights. Private businesses for sure can require all kinds of things from dress codes to appropriate language. Public buildings make you surrender weapons. In the case of masks, it is no real difference to requiring shirts and shoes because this is a public health issue. Your right to go shirtless as well as without a mask extends right up the property of the business. Then the public good and the property rights come into play.
Some people argue that if a baker has to serve gay people (or a lunch counter black people) then how can they require a mask. This is not a fair comparison. Denying a public accommodation because of a trait of a group of people violates the law. Requiring a behavior is not the same thing. Again, blatant discrimination is different from maintaining health and safety standards in a public setting.
There are those arguing that wearing a masks gives them some kind of toxic build-up of CO2. Cloth and disposable surgical masks won't do this and any CO2 build up would be mild. Since once away from people you can remove the mask, except for those doing long shifts in hospitals the idea that a mask will make you sick in nonsense. Some claim a respiratory problem makes wearing masks difficult, well I would suggest staying home since you have the very comorbidity that will likely mean if you get Covid 19 you will at least be in the hospital for months, if not the morgue.
There are more and more videos of people either saying that the Americans with Disabilities Acts (ADA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws requires stores to let people in without a mask and cannot ask what medical condition they have. First the ADA requires appropriate accommodations, offering to shop for a person who says they can't wear a mask meets that standard. As does curbside pick up and ordering online. While it is not always clear what ADA requires, I do know that it doesn't require that every public place do what the customer asks. For example, people with PTSD can't stop public fireworks displays nor gun shots in plays. Besides, like noted earlier, someone with a serious enough breathing condition to make a mask dangerous probably shouldn't put themselves at risk. As for HIPAA, that is simply a garbage argument. HIPAA doesn't apply here at a grocery store. I don't think I can go into just how dumb this argument is, so I won't. What I can say is that it is dangerous to many people to try to use these two important laws in a weaponized fashion because of one's own arrogance and ignorance. The ADA has opened the world to many people with disabilities that had been shut out. Nonsense claims like this that could result in frivolous lawsuits could have businesses simply not looking to comply if everything that people want is challenged. HIPAA is a law that has saved people because it keeps people with access to sensitive information about a medical condition from getting to people who can use it to harm others. Making these kinds of claims muddies the water and makes it less likely that people will support such laws and their needed renewals in the future.
Finally, there are those who keep saying that wearing a mask makes you a sheep and scared. I am not sure how to say this but wearing a mask is not about protecting myself. I do other things, like washing my hands, avoiding touching my face, avoiding large crowds, and following guidelines even as they change. I wear a mask because I could have a disease that is deadly to many people and not know it. A mask, while not perfect, does create an additional barrier to the virus reaching another person. You wear a mask to inhibit the spread of the disease. It may not be perfect but for the person standing next to you who might have a lung issue or diabetes the fact that your mask may stop enough virus to not infect them could save their life. And one more thing, yes exposure to bacteria and viruses do give your body an opportunity to create anti-bodies to fight future infection. People who say they want to build up their immunity basically saying they want to get exposed to the disease. So I suggest if that is what they want to volunteer at a hospital then isolate yourself for a while until the virus has run its course. If you live then we can test to see if your theory worked. But not wearing a mask isn't there to protect you so your argument is silly.
Look, we are a free country, but we have always had restrictions on our freedom for the greater good. We are in a worldwide crisis and the United States appears to be at the bottom of working to control it. That can change. Wear a mask, don't gather in large crowds, stay home when you can, enjoy the outdoors with physical distancing and for the love of God listen to the doctors not a President that looks into an eclipse and thinks scientific facts have two sides. Save a life. Humanity deserves it.
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