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Notes -
Biden: Pandemic is over
Of course, for all important purposes, pandemic has been over in most of the Western world for most of this year - ie. sure, there's a disease going around, but the "pandemic mentality" is gone, and so have at least the most visible and onerous restrictions - but this sort of a declaration, offhand and qualified as it is, seems like a point in the general development.
It's already evident in social media that COVID doomers - the ones who would still want to mask up, keep up restrictions etc. - are angry and frustrated, as they've been for months, but I also wonder how the sort of "reverse doomers" who declared a year ago that Western world is never going to declare the pandemic over and give up restrictions, either out of stupidity or out of a malignant conspiracy, are interpreting it.
One thing that I think (or at least hope) comes from this is for the people who were more moderate to see that when the anti-lockdown people said "for how long?" and the Covid-cautious replied "as long as it takes", they really meant it. There have been a bunch of sardonic exchanges that opened with something like, "are you going to wear a mask the rest of your life?" and the answer is apparently that this is exactly the plan for people that take continue to take Covid seriously. Their retorts seem to be along the lines of "I also intend to continue wearing bike helmets and seatbelts", which is consistent with this just being something that they think should be a permanent feature of society going forward.
My hope is that this looks crazy enough to the median person that it is effectively politically impossible to mandate masks any time in the foreseeable future. Biden's statement that it's over seems consistent with that, but I tend to think politicians give whatever answer is consistent with the timing of elections rather than generally held principles.
I remain disappointed that so many people have huddled around mask wearing as such a significant political symbol. I was hoping the US would adopt a mask culture similar to what Japan has, where wearing a mask is common for people that have the sniffles but need to go out and get groceries, and its not weird to put a mask on when you are on the train with a bunch of gross randos.
Instead we are getting kindof the opposite, where its mainly hypochondriacs wearing masks in public and sick people wont wear them because they dont wanna look like a pussy. pretty lame all around.
Do you think it’s a coincidence that those same asian countries also got bogged down into a forever masking and forever state intervention loop at this point? China and Hong Kong is obviously the worst examples but most of East Asia seem to be utterly unable to move on. Have you considered that maybe the masks themselves play a big role in this as you turn an abstract threat of an invisible virus into a clothing ritual everyone has to partake every single day or otherwise face social scorn and state sanctions?
Say what you want, when I see a group of American kids who continue their regular life at this point vs a group of Japanese kids wearing a mask most of the day every single day, I know which society is healthier.
"i know which society is healthier" is the type of appeal to common sense i would expect to see on reddit, not here where we can ostensibly say what we really mean. I didn't bring up China because i think their pandemic response was ridiculous and draconian. Their ability to move on is not something that has crossed my mind, as i don't live in an east asian country and "moving on from covid" has literally already happened in every sense that practically matters to me (other than the fact that it still like, exists). Ive been going to concerts and shit since like, october last year.
my guy, my whole comment was about how i wished that stupid people didn't perceive masks as some sort of satanic ritual designed to make their lives worse. Sadly they do and the idea seems to have bled into the fucking water table of social opinions.
If people believe that the masks don't help against the spread of covid, and spent 2 years constantly harassed to put one on, I don't think this is such a weird conclusion to arrive at.
Where I live, the public health authorities stayed very adamant that masks don't work until Fall of 2020. At that point when corona returned the political pressure to do "something" was so great that they had to concede and advise to the cabinet that mask mandates might help, with the side note that "they don't work directly but they might make people obey other rules better". Of course in the end for whatever reason the masks didn't have any visible affect on the numbers and we ended up with a total lockdown and national curfew for months. But that is another story.
What am I supposed to conclude from this episode with the masks? They were quite clearly admitting that the reason I had to go around with a mask on my face 8+ hours a day was that it would make me more obsessive about the virus, and avoid human contact. Now does it make me "stupid" to perceive as some sort of ritual designed to make my life worse?
P.S. I know we aren't on reddit anymore, but I don't think calling people you disagree with stupid is fitting to this place in any case.
idunno, probably that public health services are inefficient and worried about appearances more than results. and yeah im sorry for calling my strawman stupid, though i have to wonder why it caused you any offense.
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