Masks Off

There's a David Frum article going around about how pissed off the vaccinated are. Now I better not see anyone with ostensibly good politics sharing that warmongering little Nazi's shit. But he does have a good point (though he's using it as he uses all of his Trump-era "good points," to ingratiate himself with the Democrats and move them even further to the right while his actual party goes full fascist, but I digress).

I am done wearing masks, and I'm entirely done because I don't value the lives of people who refuse to be vaccinated. This pandemic at this point is entirely theirs, and I hope they choke on it, literally gasping in a hospital, their modified death bed confession a belated plea for a vaccine. 

The most frustrating thing about the situation is that those who are expected to still mask up and be careful are the ones who are already vaccinated and have taken this seriously all along. Because 40% of the country absolutely sucks, we're supposed to maintain an idiotic illusion that doesn't actually protect us (because we virtually can't die from it) and is unnecessary (because the vaccinated are far less likely to spread the virus). It's security theater.

But what about the children?! I've seen people whose opinions I actually trust wail to the heavens about a coming DISASTER if children are allowed to go back to regular school. Let's all settle the fuck down and look at science. First off, teachers must absolutely be vaccinated, and if they're not, they're fired. That's simple, and local governments are well within their rights to do that. We require children to be vaccinated to go to school, the teachers should be, too. Don't like it? Tough. Homeschool your little genetic mistake. A recent study has confirmed how vanishingly small the risks are to children, this study out of England, a country which basically made all of the same mistakes America did. I mean infinitesimally small. Continue to socially distance classrooms, remote learning when necessary, better ventilation, and, sure, wear masks. But screeching about a coming disaster indicates an unwillingness to properly analyze risk, something harkening back to when we used to cross the street to avoid passing someone. True ignorance.

These people howling about disasters are the same ones saying reopening stores in the US was a disaster (it wasn't) and that the CDC removing mask guidance was a disaster (it wasn't). Yes, infection numbers are up, stemming largely from breakthrough cases which are either asymptomatic or akin to a mild cold.

If you were paying attention during the vaccine rollout, the idea was never to prevent people from getting sick. It was to prevent people from dying and to allow us to go back to living. And that's what I'm doing.