Ten Things about COVID-19: Number Five

5.) Masking the Issue

The global medical community has been all over the map with advice to us poor contagious peons on how to slow the spread of COVID-19, and keep ourselves from catching it. 

It started out with, “Wash your hands and don’t touch your face.”  From there, it quickly jumped to “Shut everything down, stay home, don’t go out in public unless absolutely necessary.”  Early on, the mask question came up, and the experts scoffed and told us wearing masks would not be beneficial, so don’t bother. 

As time went on and infection raged, it turned out societies that were masking up were actually having success controlling spread.  So…uh-oh. We were wrong.  Masks are good.  Masks are great.  Wear a mask.

Now, I understand that dealing with a new contagion is a learn-on-the-fly sort of thing.  As time goes by and we learn more about the virus, its action and how it spreads, advice to the public on how to stay safe is going to change.  Unfortunately, this process is corrupted by our 21^st-century. instantaneous-but-not-necessarily-vetted-or-true method of broadcasting “news.”  Every entity on the planet charged with passing information on to the public is more interested in clicks and “views” than in getting the info straight.  The goal is to get eyes on THEIR medium.  Not to make sure the information sent out is good or useful or even safe.  And if it produces controversy, even better.  More clicks.

So, in the space of five months, we’ve gone from, “No need for masks” to “You HAVE to wear a mask” coming from the “expert” scientific community. Very fertile ground for the modern American “choose your own reality” crowd.   

And you have a POTUS whose policy on this nasty virus (that China sent over by way of the Democrats, to sabotage his reelection chances) amounts to “It will disappear.”  And, as such, refuses to wear a mask, and even goes so far as to say on camera that people wear masks to show their opposition to HIM. 

Now we have solidly politicized the wearing of masks; as even the smallest, least significant issue in this country has been politicized since the rise of the Tea Party and the Evangelical Right. There’s no such thing as quiet opposition.  Every god damn thing has to be a reason for us to hate and bully and smear each other.  It has to be loud and rude and ugly.

So Americans are beating the crap out of each other for wearing/not wearing masks.

And since mask-wearing has to be close to universal for it to really be effective… Case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths are experiencing a meteoric rise in the USA as we ignore any scientific advice we don't like and indulge in our ill-advised “re-opening” to save our crappy consumer economy and make sure we can keep the flow of $$$ into the pockets and off-shore bank accounts of the rich.  While we peons grovel in the trenches, intent on butchering each other, using the virus or any other means available.  No matter.  As long as those cash registers start to ring again.

Which leads me to wonder...how many ways can one pandemic kill us?