Mask on. Mask off.
In the film The Karate Kid, young Daniel LaRusso finds himself being bullied by some local hooligans from the Cobra Kai dojo. Daniel’s new apartment handyman, Mr. Miyagi, discovers the gang beating up Daniel and intervenes, defeats them thus saving Daniel. Witnessing his karate skills, Daniel asks Mr. Miyagi to teach him, and he reluctantly agrees. To teach him to fend off blows, he has Daniel polish his car. “Wax on. Wax off.” is the repetitive circular motion that Daniel learns. Using this motion prevents someone landing blows.
Fast forward to Joe Biden’s latest pronouncement regarding a new, nascent Covid threat. He’s become the Mr. Miyagi of Covid/flu prevention, running around telling the Nation, “Mask on. Mask off”. This has come about as a result of his wife Jill’s second bout with a minor case of Covid despite being vaccinated and boosted twice. Yup, the regime is ginning up the threat of another pandemic using the President as their poster boy for health safety. Further he’s tub thumping for everyone to get the latest booster shot. Lotta good that did Jill. But Joe says that “mask on” in crowds will prevent the spread of infection.
The Nation is now going to see a lot of scary media Covid news. Covid is now the flu. Jill Biden has, according to her doctors, mild symptoms, whatever they maybe. She can't do her teaching job at Northern Virginia Community College. She has to stay home in Delaware. As a result, the return of the mask is gaining a media driven groundswell of support. Kindergarten students in Maryland are being required to wear M-95 masks because a student tested positive. Kids have a remarkable resistance to the flu virus when compared to adults according to most physicians.
Joe showed up in the White House to award the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam Veteran wearing a mask. The honoree was about the same age as Joe, the most vulnerable age for Covid infection. Nevertheless the President removed his mask, read the citation, and hung the medal around the Captain’s neck. Joe then inexplicably left without his mask on before the concluding benediction.
White House Press Secretary and Chief Propogandist, Karine Jean-Pierre says it "was planned" for Biden to abruptly leave the Medal of Honor ceremony before it was over. She opined that, "He left when there was a pause in the program in order to minimize his close contact with attendees". What happened to “mask on” suggestion he made? Chances are the President was in his normal confused state and wandered off because no one told him to stay for the benediction.
As fall approaches, there is always the usual push for flu shots, as the winter season is when the chances of getting it are greatest. Folks are not that stupid. They don’t need to have the nanny state protect them like children from something they know comes around with regularity every year. States like Arizona are pushing back on mask mandates. The move toward mask-wearing comes as virus rates in the United States are rising by multiple measures, although hospitalizations are far below where they were a year ago because this is a mild virus…like Jill Biden got. It’s the flu.
With the recent polls indicating Joe Biden’s approval ratings are at all-time lows, not great for his reelection prospects, Senator Ted Cruz offered the following observation. “By the way, a year from now we are going to see the most deadly COVID variant ever seen: the ‘election variant,’ and before the election they’re going to need to shut everything down because they want to have mail-in balloting for everyone because they think it helps elect Democrats. Enough is enough is enough. If you want to wear a damn mask, fine, but don’t be a hypocrite, and don’t try to force other people to”.
The results from a recent study conducted by a dozen scientists on the efforts to fight COVID-19/flu were published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Their most eye-opening conclusion was, “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness/COVID‐19-like illness compared to not wearing masks.” In other words, masks didn't do much, if anything. Handwashing was more effective in stopping the spread of these illnesses according to their study.
Those advocating wearing makes in airplanes, buses, anywhere indoors ought to pay attention to this study. If folks are going to feel safer wearing a mask, then by all means let it be an individual choice, not a mandated one. This is about individual freedom not the state controlling one’s right to free choice. Same goes for the vaccine booster advocates. Let people decide for themselves whether or not they want something injected in their bodies that hasn’t been proven to prevent covid. Ask Jill how those booster shots worked for her.
The cold hard facts seem to be that wearing a mask to prevent a covid/flu infection is as effective as using an umbrella in a hurricane to stay dry.
Mask on. Mask off. Make your own decision, but don’t condemn others one way or another on their choice.