Am I The Only One Around Here

no

That’s... what an anti-masker is.

100% agreed.

I haven't put a mask on a single time yet. I live in rural Idaho where many of us are standing together. Most of us reopened May 1 defying the Governor. It gets a little tougher when in Boise but I have refused to go in businesses a few times that required masks. Well stocked at home but fresh fruits and vegetables are the biggest challenge. I refuse to be a conspirator to suspend the US Constitution without irrefutable proof that it is necessary.

We Must All Hang Together, or Most Assuredly, We Will All Hang Separately - Benjamin Franklin

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery - Thomas Jefferson

Yeaahhh...
BUT...
If you just wear a mask, the pandemic will take shorter to go away. As soon as it finally passes, you can go out without a mask without breaking the rules! It’s much easier to do something when you do it guilt free.

The government is not having us wear masks to make us slaves or to control us or whatever; it’s so that we can clear away the pandemic away sooner. It’s not government tyranny, it’s an order that will help save hundreds of thousands of people. Get that into your head.

If you don’t wear a mask when you go out, you put many people at risk of contracting the virus, and you can too. Would you rather give yourself the liberty of not wearing a piece of cloth on your face and put other people in danger or wear it for 10 minutes and save lives? Big no brainer, unless you care more about your comfort than other people.

When you think about us living in a free country, and it’s your right to not wear a mask, just remember that stores have rights too, and they can choose not to serve you if you don’t follow their rules. If a store doesn’t let you in because you don’t have a mask, you have no valid reason to get angry, because they have as many rights as you do.

Please just wear a mask. We’re tired of staying at home and not being allowed to visit other people. You don’t look like a freedom fighter for defying the rules, but rather a nasty infested rat from the sewers. We want to have legitimate freedom, and if you and your fellow antimaskers would just wear a darn mask, we’d all have it by now. Save lives and help yourself and everyone else have freedom of not wearing a mask without breaking the rules. Please.

Is this just another emotional position that is devoid of any facts or data? Generally speaking, once you have called someone a "nasty rat from the sewers" it is a little late to let the word "please" have much impact.

Here are a couple of positions that Fox News and MSNBC don't seem to care about. 8000 people per day die in the US in normal times. According to the Idaho Government website, 7091 people died in the first half of 2019. In the first half of 2020 we have lost 7079. I wish I could find national statistics on this as I think they may be similar. This virus has infected about 1.5% of the US population (far less worldwide, maybe due to lack of testing?) with a mortality rate of less than .5%. Of the .5% that have died many have been shown to have actually succumbed to other causes as the economic benefits steer unscrupulous hospitals in the wrong direction.

There are 1000's of doctors that dispute the use of masks however their positions are deleted quickly. In fact Dr. Jensen in Minneapolis is currently be censured because of his views. Dr. Pam Poppers, Dr. Andrew Kaufman and Dr. Rashid Buttar are all probably worth a listen. Health care workers are being laid off and furloughed in record numbers. At the hospital my son in law works at they just laid off thirty more employees two weeks ago. Why do they not let Fauci and scarf lady Birx debate one of these doctors on the other side so Fauci can make them look foolish in thirty minutes or so and resolve this?

Where is the conversation about obesity, vitamin D deficiency, exercise and eating processed foods? 42% of the US population is labeled obese. I am carrying an extra 30 pounds myself. My grandson has not been able to interact with his best friend since early March as his parents have not let him out of the house in over five months. Elderly people with terminal issues are hospitalized and denied any visitation from their children or even spouses and left to spend their last days with strangers. Children with terminal cancer are hospitalized and left to die without spending their last days with parents.

According to the CDC the Covid virus particle is .06 microns in size while the pores in a surgical mask are .3 microns. It seems that an N 95 mask is able to stop spread by up to 95% but anything short of that is completely ineffective. Please be safe. Think for yourself. Masks and lockdowns are NOT harmless. I sincerely wish the best for you and all of us as this is just getting started.

I am aware that you did not your info in your last paragraph from the CDC, but rather from a facebook page. N95 masks don’t work by sieving out larger particles. In fact, they are worse at collecting large particles than smaller ones. COVID particles don’t travel alone; rather, they need to travel on miniscule droplets of saliva about a micron in size, which can then get on other people’s faces and contaminate them. Masks keep you from inhaling those particles, not with 100% accuracy, but just enough to almost guarantee that you won’t contract the virus. If the person who talked or coughed towards you was wearing a mask, then your chances of contraction are even lower.
N95 masks work because of some factors. One is a phenomenon known as brownian motion, in which small particles chaotically move everywhere. This makes particles smaller than 0.3 microns actually more prone to being caught by the mask.
Second, the mask itself uses electrostatic absorption, which attracts and traps smaller particles instead of just letting them pass through. Third, it’s much more efficient than no mask at all.
N95 masks aren’t called that just as an item code, it defines a 95% efficiency for stopping particles from being inhaled. It’s impossible to make a mask with 100% efficiency, as there’s no guarantee that all particles will be caught by the mask. That’s why the government wants mask wearing, which will decrease contraction chances to 1.5%, which, combined with six feet and the lockdown, will make the best possible way to control the virus.
The anti mask debate is a very biased and selfish argument which derives its information from facebook pages and unreliable research. Other maskers and I derive our information from experts. If the info that we hear isn’t reliable or from reliable sources, then we likely wouldn’t be hearing it. Science does have flaws, but it’s better to trust it than a social media page, as long as it is backed by controlled research and logic and evidence.
The government’s compulsory order to wear masks is not tyranny. It’s an effort to control and hopefully eventually end the pandemic. If the experts are right, then wearing a mask can save lives and protect you. If not, the worst of it is having an uncomfortable piece of cloth on your face. If you’re willing to put other people at risk just for self comfort, then that’s very selfish. I wish the best for you too, and I hope you will be a good citizen who cares about others. Thanks.🙏

NONE of my info comes from FB or social media as I am not on ANY social media nor have I ever been. This is my first internet debate and will probably be my last.

Two short months ago, Fauci, Birx and SG Adams all agreed healthy people should not wear masks. When they caved to politics Fauci said he lied because he didn't want the citizenry to buy the PPE that the medical pros needed. At that time the CDC was also anti mask and that was their position.

There are thousands of doctors worldwide on the no mask, herd immunity side. Unfortunately they are getting censored as fast as they take a stand. Why no meaningful debate?

The average American has gained 15 pounds, to add to our obesity, since this started. Alcohol sales are up 200 to 300% depending on the source. Calls to suicide hotlines have increased over 20 fold. Opioid overdoses are up over 40%. Our children are having interaction with no one other than parents for five months now. Soon we will see the damage caused from replacing little league with video games. I am afraid the financial impact will soon be evident also. Poverty kills! According to Unicef, over 10,000 children are dying monthly worldwide due to food shortages caused by the virus while over 500,000 more are suffering from "wasting". The cure is worse than the disease. Of the .04% of the people that have supposedly died from Covid, over 40% were in nursing homes. The average person passes away within six months of entering a nursing home.

I live in a small town where NONE of us wear masks. No business encourages masks. Our 40 hotel rooms are packed with people coming in from all over the west to drink in our bars and remember freedom. I closed one of the bars down last night. We have been completely reopened since May 1. So far so good. Again, here in Idaho, 12 fewer people have died of all causes in the first half of 2020 as compared to 2019 according to our Idaho.gov website. Why can we not get national stats on this?

I am a good citizen! As a father of four and grandfather of four I care deeply about the world we are leaving for our children. My wife and I run businesses and interact with the public daily. I do not go anywhere I am not welcome and I am NEVER rude to anyone over the mask issue. I understand that many people are living in fear and I feel bad for them. Fortunately, with the exception of one trip to Lowes a few weeks ago, I have never been anywhere that us crazy non mask people were outnumbered.

Stay safe!!!

However, in many places, people really do support mask wearing. We trust the research that’s been done with masks and the virus, because it sounds reasonable and logical, and we had educations off of which we could deduct that it’s true. We do truly hope to return to a normal life someday.
I genuinely have no idea how “Please wear a mask to protect the health of yourself and other people” was translated into “Please wear a mask so that we can profit off of your mask purchases and see how many of you will succumb to government control”. According to the experts, the pandemic could have been over many months ago, and by then we could stop wearing masks without rule breaking. Instead, some anti mask “patriots” came along and started conning everyone into believing that masks are bad and that we shouldn’t wear them.
The COVID cases started skyrocketing, even though they didn’t have to. It’s similar to when the anti vaxx study was published. Preventable disease rates started going up. Anti maskers threaten to do the same with COVID.
The anti mask scientists were censored because if the (definitely invalid) information that they share becomes popular, then we may never be able to get the virus under control, and the pandemic may last for a few more years. Several countries are already done with COVID, and meanwhile we’re still wrangling with people who think that a helpful suggestion from the government is breaking constitutional rights.
No, not wearing a mask will not help to herd immunity. That likely would’ve worked several months ago, but back then, it was a really big gamble, so we decided to go with masks and a lockdown instead. That’s why we have the six feet rule. It will have us contract only the smallest amount of the virus, which our bodies can kill and produce antibodies for. Without all the guidelines in place, however, we would be taking in too much virus for our bodies to kill all at once. The six feet and masks are here for a reason. No one wants you to get sick, you know? If you’ve got people coming in from all over the west, then you might be in danger of getting the virus from someone who unknowingly has the virus. You can have the virus and not know it, as the symptoms can take 2 weeks to show up. That’s why you have to wear a mask, even if you aren’t noticeably sick.
Please wear a mask and protect everybody. As soon as the pandemic is over, nobody will have to wear a mask. Stay safe! 👍

[image deleted]Thanks for being cordial. This will be my last reply as I will gladly give you the last word.

In 2020 overall death rates seem to be down and almost a million health care workers have been laid off. Not what I would expect in a pandemic. What "expert" says this should be over?

I am not sure anyone should be labeling any doctor as "definitely invalid" without listening to their specific position and data. I think we should be very careful accepting the censorship we have watched ramp up in the last 18 months or so. MSM doctors are telling us "Netflix and chill" is the new healthy lifestyle while the "definitely invalid" doctors I am listening to the most are emphasizing obesity, diabetes and Vitamin D deficiency as the biggest mortality factors. The way we have compromised our immune systems is also discussed at length. I don't think anyone knows for certain all of the answers including you and I.

If they announce they have the vaccine tomorrow would you really take it?

"No one wants you to get sick"...Really? Sickness is big business. 20 years ago fruits and vegetables in this country were dirt cheap. Processed food and sodas were expensive. Now a bacon cheeseburger on a value menu is often cheaper than a good quality apple. The US consumes 80% of the world's Opioids while we are < 5% of the population. We have a chemical solution for everything. No one in the world consumes anti anxiety, anti depression or mood altering drugs the way we do. Most places in the world rely on family and faith to combat anxiety. Western medicine is best at keeping people sick while covering symptoms! And now we are going to listen to the bureaucrat Fauci who has accumulated over $500 million in personal wealth on a government paycheck for over 50 years. Wow.

Remember, in March the WHO released a terrifying graph showing how long the bug lived on each surface. People were wiping down groceries and quarantining packages. Two months later they announced that it did not live on inanimate surfaces. On June 8 they said asymptomatic transfer was "very rare" if it happened at all.

If 0.5% of the population has to pass away from this (especially us old folks) so we can leave a somewhat normal world for our grandkids then so be it. The price we are about to pay is going to be much higher.

My wife and I are hosting a prime rib dinner for 12 Wednesday. If you are anywhere near Idaho...

I sincerely wish you a safe journey.