The case against masks at school

> condemning everyone as sick with zero evidence isn't how a free society works.

That is like saying that seatbelts and speed limits condemn you as a bad driver.

A free society protects everyone's rights. What people tend to forget is that every right has a price, in the form of an obligation. For example: You have the right to private property, and the price is that you must respect other's private property.

One of the things that is difficult to get about Covid is that you can simultaneously be infectious (able to transmit it to others) and asymptomatic (no headhache, no fever, not even sore throat). That is not something we are used to deal with, our other infectious illnesses aren't that stealthy. There are other things that are atypical about this virus (the kind of vaccine we used is new, the amount of infected is unusually high, it transmits via air...). Treating this illness with the knowledge and techniques that we have learned from other illnesses is simply not enough, there are too many differences.

The free society is protecting your rights. In particular, your right to not be infected by another person might have no other chance but to get into close contact with. The price of that right is that both of you wear a mask.

Even if the mask is terribly uncomfortable for you, you must endure it because other people also have rights. The same way that just because you are hot, you are not allowed to take off all your clothes in front of everyone.

> being strangled

You might just need a better mask.

My head is big compared to the heads in China. Most of the masks I have access to locally for cheap are made there. They tend to be quite uncomfortable for me.

I splurged ~60 bucks into buying several from different makers and found a model that works for me (Adidas Made For Sport, I wear it at the gym and do cardio with it. Comfortable and makes you look like Bane). When I'm going to use the public transport or visit a hospital I wear an FP2 mask with an ear protector. It is not comfortable, but at least my ears don't hurt a the end.

You could also try inventing a better mask.

There are a couple of things happening.

This 'they don't 100% work so we shouldn't even bother' bullshit .. is just that. Bullshit.

What is the cost of masked students, it's the cost of the masks. Now granted our schools are, frankly, criminally underfunded. However that PPE could be supplied from outside the school's budget for those students that don't take care of the costs themselves.

The other problem that i've been hearing from my public school teacher friends is that there are so many staff absences due to covid that more and more students are stuffed into the classrooms of those teachers that are there. So if you, as a teacher, have a class that is down 50% of students due to an outbreak but somehow you managed to avoid it. Well your 50% empty class that allows for better distancing will not last, you will be at 100% or grater capacity simply because another teacher is out, there are no available substitutes and you can't leave kids unsupervised.

I'd argue it in a more adult way than just punishing those who are different from you. Just do away with the masking and social distancing regardless. As soon as we were throwing out the first doses of expired vaccine, the choice by every american to get vaccinated or not had been made. If the hospitals are overrun, it will be the unvaccinated, so they'll be punished anyway - no need to legally do it.

Also you need to update your Sam Harris stats, its not 40% unvaccinated anymore like some outlets continue to harp on, check CDC numbers, its closer to only 20% of the population remaining.

The kids are not allowed to interact at school. Their schools are closed arbitrarily. They are taught that they are a vector of disease. We make them eat outside on cold sidewalks in freezing temperatures. The risk to children is very low.

Meanwhile, adults are going to crowded restaurants, bars, concerts without masks in the same cities.

It is all a joke at the expense of our children.

When these kids are running our government and we are the retirees dependent upon them etc. then the bill will come due and we will deserve it.

> Who is it directed towards?

I imagine toward the people who behave as if vaccines aren't effective, which are nonzero.

> In my opinion, that line is the equivalent of saying "gosh, maybe black people should just stop committing crimes if they don't want to go to jail" or "gosh, maybe gay people should just stop having unprotected sex if they don't want HIV."

I mean. The latter statement is a thing gay people actually DID say, long before the government told them to. Gay people noticed that it was spread through sex and that condoms work. Not even going to touch the former statement since I don't feel like wading into the criminalization of black people. Suffice to say, not convinced by either of these comparisons.

> I am begging you, and everyone else, PLEASE, if you want to make a point, please do it in a respectful way that doesn't assume anyone who disagrees is stupid. If you need to be snarky, go do it on the-site-that-must-not-be-named.

I'd label your preceding statement to be snarky, fwiw.