Are masks good or bad?  Why do people wear masks?

There are times when a person may choose to wear a mask as during war, riot, and fire.  World War I saw masks to protect against poison gas.  During riots, the police and National Guard often wear shields over their faces for protection; a shield is a kind of mask, too.  On an airplane, a mask will drop down if the cabin hits turbulence or depressurizes; the mask will provide the much needed oxygen to survive.

During a fire, smoke inhalation is a great danger.  Firemen wearing a mask are thus provided an extra measure of safety in fighting a fire; they can enter a building and rescue trapped people whereas, without a mask, they would not be able to do so.  Masks with oxygen save lives.  A fireman can tell the resident of a house “Put on this mask!  It’s your only chance!”

There are recreational uses as well, such as scuba diving.  At Halloween kids (and even some adults) often wear costumes that involve a mask as part of that night’s special fantasy make-believe.  Astronauts in their space-going suits and hi-tech helmets are really wearing a very sophisticated mask.  In places where the incidence of mosquito-borne malaria is high, residents and travelers often use mosquito masks and bed-netting at night.

There are dirty jobs that use masks; coal miners may don masks for their protection as do construction workers who tear down old houses insulated with asbestos, known to be extremely dangerous to healthy lungs.  Wherever dust or fibers or tiny particles are involved, masking may very well be the answer.  Companies that produce computers and other electronic devices rely on masks; computer assembly requires such dust-free cleanliness that workers wear masks.

Dentists and dental assistants wear masks.  Doctors and assistants wear masks during surgery.  Doctors and nurses who treat patients who have infectious diseases are especially careful to wear masks and other protective clothing.   During an epidemic, a mask can help protect patients and people by preventing or slowing the spread of a disease.  The same is true for a global pandemic, of course.

Now I am aware some people have a lot of money which they think will protect them from whatever is happening in the world.  I do believe some of them do not wish to wear a mask because it’s too ordinary.  What we need is for somebody to produce really expensive masks so the rich people will feel challenged to afford it, maybe one made with silver or gold threads.

I think a mask that cost between $2,000 and $3,000 should do the trick.  Tell rich people not to shell out two or three grand for a mask and you know they’ll do it in a heartbeat (Heck, some are willing to pay $250,000 for a ten minute ride into space!)  Raising the price of masks no doubt would help reduce the number of super rich among the anti-vaxxers.

Other people who wear masks include catchers and home plate umpires in baseball games.  They do so to prevent a hard foul-tip off the batter’s bat from breaking their nose and other facial features.  Masks were even used in dancing; did you know people wore masks at dances?  (See Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”).

Of course all these examples involve the good guys.  We shouldn’t forget to mention that in olden times stagecoach bandits wore a bandanna (a kind of mask) to hide their identity.  Even today some criminals may wear silk-stocking or bandanna-type masks so people can’t see their faces.  I suppose the mask is not intrinsically good or bad but depends on its intended purpose.

For people who have a basic grasp of scientific principles, it makes perfect sense to wear a mask during a pandemic to protect against microscopic organisms a human cannot see, called viruses.  I well remember a science class in high school; the teacher gave us a glass of water that looked clear but unbeknownst to us it was water taken from a stream.  Under the microscope, we looked at a drop of water.  We could see microscopic organisms moving!  It was a special “gotcha!” moment in a student’s science education like none other: microscopic organisms exist that are not visible to the naked eye!

Since the days of Louis Pasteur, scientists have known that tiny micro-organisms exist and are the underlying cause of many diseases.[1]  I think, though, the anti-vaxxers never got this far in school; either that or they flunked high school biology.  Only an ignoramus could fail to understand that viruses exist, that they spread disease, and that a good mask can help slow down or stop entirely the transmission of airborne droplets that come from a person’s moist breath.

Is there anything really all that complicated about a factual understanding of how infectious diseases spread?  How is wearing a mask to protect one’s personal safety, one’s very life, a threat to anyone’s freedom?  Good lord, think about all the other examples:

  • Try telling a catcher he doesn’t need a catcher’s mask; if the ball is foul-tipped into his face it won’t hurt that much. Tell him it’s better not to wear a catcher’s mask because he’s giving up too much “freedom” (which is “worse” than a foul-tipped fastball smashing into his face!)
  • Imagine being surrounded by flames in a burning house and telling the fire-fighter “No thanks, I don’t want a mask for oxygen. I’ll just do without and, if the worst happens, I’ll let my lungs fill with smoke.  I might die of smoke inhalation but at least I won’t be giving up any of my personal freedom!”

Is there any substantial difference between wearing an oxygen mask in a fire and wearing a mask in a pandemic, surrounded by tiny particles of an airborne virus that can infect and kill?  Are not masks in both situations a necessary form of protection to keep alive?

Should firemen never wear masks?  Should we tell astronauts, miners, and scuba divers it is a bad thing to wear a mask—that there is no need and wearing one does more harm than good?  Shall we tell people, in short, that nobody ever needs to wear a mask?  Or shall we discuss, calmly and rationally, the advisability and timely necessity of wearing a mask?

If we were to list the various conditions that warrant the wearing of a mask in order to save lives, wearing a mask during a pandemic would come in at #1!

As for vaccines, they have been around for a long time and have saved countless lives.  Millions of children are routinely vaccinated for school.  Just what is it exactly that anti-vaxxers think is dangerous or unreliable when scientists develop–and the medical profession approves–a vaccine?  To borrow a quote from the past: their argument against getting vaccinated is, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death.”

Good Lord, at any other time the reasoning of the anti-vaxxers might have been worthy of debate BUT NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF A LIFE AND DEATH PANDEMIC!

Let them go back to high school or college and take a class in Science.  Perhaps there is still time for them to learn the difference between genuine science and unsubstantiated assertions not based in reality.  I guess some of these poor unfortunate souls are carrying a double burden of fiction and fantasy: they erroneously believed the ex-president’s Big Lie about the 2020 election and then fell victim to the next big falsehood: that the Covid-19 is not a deadly killer, even for the unmasked and unvaccinated.   They are now learning their lesson the hard way.

Well, Darwin’s rules of evolution are hard at work.  The southern states with the highest number of new cases are experiencing the sharpest rise in hospitalizations and, predictably, ICU intubations and deaths.  They are thinning their own ranks, are they not?  Sad but true!

Today a television journalist presented the story of Republican legislators from around the country who railed against wearing a mask, caught Covid-19, became very ill and died!  Can anything be simpler to understand why science defeats ignorance?  Darwinism is presenting another example of evolutionary change right before our eyes!  Viruses can mutate and become ever more deadly, so naturally the lethal risk to the unvaccinated grows exponentially.

Truth to tell, sometimes I feel sorry for the anti-vaxxers who, for whatever reason, are determined not to wear masks or get the vaccine even after the deadly Delta variant appeared. The nation has seen plenty of sick people in the hospital, interviewed while still in bed, who regret not getting the vaccine and who beg others not to make the same mistake they did!

And yet there are Americans who appear unable to understand the reality of what is happening and stick blindly to rumor and nonsensical drivel.  I hope this won’t sound too harsh; we are all humans and in the same boat together—but their thinking is simply appalling.

The ignorance and stubbornness of the anti-vaxxers are costing too many people their lives, so pardon me if I don’t try patiently to sweet talk them into moving toward a point of greater understanding.  If they despise me for believing that wearing a mask during a pandemic is a good idea, so be it: I can live with their ridicule and scorn!

I’m glad of it, truly, for I’d much rather be a rational man—factual and scientific—than a member of a crazy mob “any day of the week and twice on Sunday”.  If they think wearing a mask to protect oneself against a deadly virus is foolish, they only expose their own foolishness.  If they think my choice to wear a mask means I’m giving up too much of my “personal” freedom, then I welcome the accusation and exult in its repudiation.

As far as I am concerned they are all a bunch of goddamn fools and deserve whatever fate befalls them.  They are a shameful disgrace to themselves and our country!!!

[1] The four major types of germs are bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa.