Remember they days when we saw the “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” signs in stores and restaurants ‘back in the day?’ Well, at least in the U.S. that was the case, particularly in areas near beaches and other recreational facilities. Of course, that reminds me of the shock I still remember more than 40 years later, when I was in a supermarket in Soulac-sur-Mer off Bordeaux in France, when a stark naked woman in flip flops with a shopping basket ambled toward me in the milk isle. I still wonder where she kept her wallet?
But back to the U.S. in 2020. Now we’re seeing conservatives complain that their “freedom is impeded” by the requirements of stores to wear masks. And the conservative media supports this.
Seriously?
It’s okay to require shoes in the store, but somehow it’s not okay to require a mask in the middle of a pandemic? I am not sure how I can pick up athlete’s foot if I am wearing shoes myself. But I know I can pick up a virus just from a droplet, a virus that kills 3 to 10 percent of those it infects.
And speaking about restricted freedom and individual rights: Remember when people supported the religious baker who refused to sell a cake to a gay couple? That was acceptable. Now, when a store requires masks, they say you can’t deny people service? Maybe we need to call health “religion” and we’re good?
And finally, we now have reports of establishments that do not allow masks and ask patrons to go elsewhere. WHAT? Darwin’s law will make sure those businesses don’t survive, I guess. Make a stand. Drive your customers away. Get yourself infected with a deadly virus while you’re at it. But don’t ask society to bail out your business or pay for your emergency room bills!
Hypocrisy, all!
Hypocrisy writ large.
YES. LARGE.
Why do you say that the coronavirus kills 3 to 10 percent of those it infects?
It’s a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation. As of today, we have 3,858,686 known infections and 141,426 deaths in the US per Johns Hopkins University. That’s 3.6 percent.
Its across all ages, of course, and all populations. No age statistics are available that I could find. So I would assume that due to my being over 60, my own chance of death would be higher than 3.6 percent.
We know when somebody dies and that’s a pretty certain number. We don’t know how many people are infected but don’t know it or are not identified. If it’s a number of any significance, of course, the rate of death would go down.
So for my own behavior and lifestyle, I take it to be Russian Roulette with one bullet per 30 chambers.