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Mask Theater
Today I had to cancel a scheduled medical procedure because I would not wear a mask.
I had no interest in causing a scene in the office (or in driving an hour to the office only to be turned away) so I called in advance and told them I would not be wearing a mask. The receptionist was polite and checked with my primary care provider, who is a Nurse Practitioner and was going to perform the procedure in the office. It was a minor procedure (removing a small cyst on my head that has been there for over ten years, which has not ever grown). The receptionist reported that the NP said I didn’t have to wear a mask in the office with her while she did the procedure, but that I would have to wear a mask in the waiting room and the hallways. So I cancelled the appointment.
I told the receptionist that if the NP thought the procedure was urgent — which was not my impression from the last time I had spoken to her — that she would have to grant me a medical exception to wearing a mask. The exception being, I’m not going to wear a mask. So if she wants me to have the procedure, then it’s medically necessary for me to not wear a mask in the office.
The backdrop of this is that I had my annual checkup with her a month ago and did not wear a mask, despite a sign on the front door that stated masks were required. No one asked me to wear a mask — not any of the receptionists, the lower-level nurses, or my NP herself. During the check up, she checked my cyst, saw that it hadn’t grown, but said if I wanted that she could remove it, so I said sure.
However, since then, the governor of New Hampshire, the ironically dubbed “Live Free or Die” state, issued an emergency order for a mask mandate for any place, public or private, where more than 100 people are at the same time. I thought maybe that the doctor’s office, between staff and patients, might meet the threshold. The governor’s order includes fines for everyone involved and also authorizes law enforcement to “enter private property…including without the consent of the owners” to enforce his dictates. Gov. Chris Sununu is reportedly a Republican, and I may even have voted for him twice, but only because his opponents were insane Leftists. I’m beginning to wonder what the differences are between him and a Democrat, though.
Meanwhile there are currently 12 people hospitalized in our entire state (population 1.3 million) with symptoms of COVID-19, and we have the 5th lowest infection rate (518 per 100,000 population) of all the states. This with no state mask mandate of any kind until the aforementioned order last week. To be clear, I see lots of people wearing masks in stores. That is, lots of people wearing masks incorrectly — under their nose, pulling them down to talk, over giant beards, etc. I saw one women pull into the parking lot at the grocery store, get out, open her trunk, and grab a mask from the floor of her trunk, and put it on. Presumably she takes her trash to the dump in the trunk of her car, as well. (For those of you who are city dwellers — those of us who live in the country take our own trash to the dump.)
So anyway, that’s how I came to have an appointment today and why I called in advance instead of just showing up again. I tried to be as calm and firm as possible. The receptionist told me that the mask was to protect the other patients. I told her I wasn’t interested in debating the issue and that I don’t care about the other patients. This of course is something you’re not supposed to say, but it has the benefit of being true. I have no responsibility for the health of people that I have never met.
So I cancelled the appointment. In the end, mask theater is more important than medical procedures.
Published in General
Your NP is forced to enforce this ridiculous Order; if she doesn’t, they will revoke her breathing privileges. Or else, maybe they will levy a five-figure fine! Or both!
Maybe we need to forget about calling this the Chinese virus and embrace it with our own appellation since we are so attached to it. The masking phenomenon is in stark contrast to the official rejection of HCQ for out patient treatment, although it was temporarily authorized for those in the hospital, I guess so they could accumulate some death numbers to attribute to its use.
It’s your life, of course, if you want to forego a medical procedure, but it makes little sense to me.
And if you openly declare you don’t care about the other patients, is there some reason anyone should care about your personal aversion to masks? And, like it or not, you do have some responsibility for the health of people you’ve never met. That’s why we have things like – the entire theory behind negligence liability…and traffic laws…and who knows what else.
If you have any interest in persuading others to also oppose mask requirements, I would hammer home the scientific studies, rather than engaging in the mask theater, as you call it. If the receptionist did anything other than roll her eyes and go on with her day, I’d be surprised.
Let’s consider a hypothetical…
Suppose there is a firearm. You don’t know if it is loaded or not. But you pick it up, point it out your window and pull the trigger. What is your moral position if the weapon fires and hurts someone? Can you shrug your shoulders and say “it’s not my responsibility to take care of people I’ve never met?”
I agree that the mask issue is maddening. Mostly arbitrary CYA as far as I can tell. However, I also agree that cancelling a medical procedure seems less effective dissidence than talking about “The Science” at town meetings and voting.
We are being constantly inundated with ads/propaganda that we should all where masks to “help each other”. My unpopular opinion is “if you don’t have the virus wearing a mask isn’t helping anyone.” Seriously…..the only time wearing a mask protects anyone else is IF YOU HAVE THE VIRUS. Still…..Biden and Co. seriously want to mandate 24hr mask wearing any time you are out of your home. Sheeze, we are a country of sheep.
Unfortunately, it’s not immediately clear who has the virus. Asymptomatic and Pre-symptomatic spread is a real thing. There was a recent Korean study …
What they found: “Many individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection remained asymptomatic for a prolonged period, and viral load was similar to that in symptomatic patients,” the scientists concluded. “Therefore, isolation of infected persons should be performed regardless of symptoms.”
Another great one from AOSHQ
I took Mom to the ER yesterday, and wore my mask. It is a pretty standard style drywall fitters filter mask, intended to filter out the dust when sanding etc. It has three layers of filter, including a top replaceable paper filter.
The ER doorman said ‘That is a vented mask, you must use this one ” and gave me one of those pleated paper masks that go over the ears.
Is there any chance a loose fitting one ply paper mask is better than my ‘vented’ mask? no. Open on top, sides and bottom, it lets lots of air in and out. Mine is tight against the face, nose and chin, as it would have to be to filter out dust particles.
I put their mask on over mine. They were happy.
It has very little to do with science, or prevention. It has to do with compliance.
Wow.
Yes, if a person turned purple or something the moment they were infected with the virus, there never would have been any need for any lockdowns and this would have been over a long time ago.
I agree and yeah, yeah, I know there’s a principle involved but when it comes to the mask issue, I believe that this isn’t the hill to die on.
Max, I get the annoyance about wearing a mask, about mandates and loss of independence.
But is it really that annoying to wear a mask to make others feel comfortable? It seems like a very minor thing to be so up in arms over, especially in a doctors office environment, where sick people are more likely to be?
I don’t have any faith that my mask is doing anything to prevent me getting the china lung rot. But I wear it because, what the heck.
Max,
This is actually a very important discussion and first of all, it is astounding that we have been in this jam for nearly six months and only now does anybody start seriously questioning this stuff. Fauci isn’t a leader. As I have said before, Fauci is not the man for the job and should be replaced. Even to just ease him out of the limelight would be good. Don’t invite him to press conferences. Send him on a world tour of COVID in other nations. Get rid of him somehow!!!
Let’s get to it. The first premise is that if you are exposed to the virus you are in grave danger. This is nonsense. Anyone under 20 has almost zero risk. Anyone under 50 has a very minimal risk. Anyone between 50 and 70 is starting to run a measurable risk. Anyone who is over 70 is in a true risk category.
So let’s take these simple facts and develop a strategy around them. If there is a tiny number of people in society who are at real risk, does it make sense to expend immense amounts of effort on the other 99.9%? Obviously, the answer is no. Instead of having the entire population wear masks with weak protection, why not give every person in the risk category a free N-95 mask. For those in the significant risk category not only would it be advisable to provide the masks for free but add faceguards and whatever other ingenious transmission stopping technology that was easily available and demand that these high-risk people wear these protections so that the service provider could be free of legal exposure. Cuomo’s failure to grasp this simple wise use of resources for those that needed it probably resulted in at least 30,000 additional deaths in NY.
We aren’t suffering from COVID. We are suffering from leadership so infused with woke idiocy that it has lost the ability to do critical thinking. The media is hanging onto Fauci like they hung onto Mueller. You can’t directly fire Fauci as you couldn’t directly fire Mueller. However, you must find a way to neutralize him. I’m serious, send Fauci on a world tour. Put Dr. Atlas front and center.
No more mask theater.
Regards,
Jim
Yes. And I will not comply.
Because theater. It’s OK, I’m not condemning you. You can do whatever. And please don’t take my statement about compliance as a dig at you either.
I am only stating my personal conviction: I will not wear a mask at any point for any reason and no one can make me.
Quite an image, spitting or sneezing out a bullet at supersonic speeds. Through a window. Maybe his mouth was unloaded.
I say replace the masks with armbands, giving your antibody titer and covid results. Have separate lines and seats for each medical health class. And by the armbands you can know how far to step aside when passing each other on the sidewalk.
I’m sure it’s disconcerting to find yourself on the same side of the issue as folks who know they might have HIV yet continue to have unprotected sex with unknowing partners. Or grocers who bought produce from distributors where salmonella was found but conclude “Eh…Its probably fine“ and put that produce on the shelves.
That is a nonsense hypothetical in the same sense that “do you wear a seatbelt?” is a nonsense comparison.
The answer to your question would be that of course it would be irresponsible to point a firearm out a window and pull the trigger (though, if you cannot tell whether it is loaded, you might be an idiot). But the follow-up is that it is not similarly irresponsible to refrain from wearing a mask, based on everything we know about covid and masks. That is because the two things are very different, and it is the height of dishonest demagoguery to suggest otherwise.
Again, not true. There is significantly more evidence that asymptomatic spread is unlikely. So, we have an infinitesimally small chance of spreading a disease that even people in the highest risk category have an extremely small likelyhood of dying from.
Furthermore, if we wish to be rid of this virus, we’re going to need it to spread. Thankfully, this happens in spite of these idiotic mask mandates, and it has happened in spite of the idiotic lockdowns … because that’s what viruses do. This thing will be done and over with in the US before October, and the bedwetters will still be demanding that we wear masks. If not for this, then for the flu… after all, isn’t 20,000-50,000 deaths each winter justification enough for the inconvenience of everyone wearing masks for the rest of our miserable lives?? Nah – we’ve lost our ability to reason. Fortunately, it is possible to snap out of a temporary insanity.
Hopefully, that happens fast enough for this country to recover from the mess that our collective hypochondria has created.
My favorite is California. The department of Health recently released a statement that said something to the effect of: “while it is still essential that we wear masks to slow the spread of covid … they will not protect you from smoke from the wildfires, so stay indoors!” This … said with a straight face. I love it.
Just out of curiosity, PHenry… when will you stop wearing it? When is enough enough? If CV is gone for 1 month? 2 Months? Are you willing to force your school-aged children to wear masks in school, even knowing that they have to take frequent breaks where teachers escort them outside – socially distanced, of course – so they can take them off and breathe for a while?
When does it become a little bit more than just… “what the heck?”
More false analogies, Ekosj.
… and by pushing for social security reform, you wish to push grandma off a cliff.
… and by opposing open borders, you wish to separate families, leave people to starve, and condemn thousands to death.
… and by supporting gun rights you are individually and personally responsible for every child’s life lost at Sandy Hook, and you desire for hundreds if not thousands more children to suffer the same fate.
This sort of reasoning belongs on one of Bryan’s “… if you don’t like Trump, YOU SUPPORT THIS…” threads.
Well, the simple answer is when the establishments I enter don’t have signs requiring it. I have the right to go barefoot and shirtless, but I refrain from doing so in establishments that say shirt and shoes required. I don’t consider it an imposition, if I really don’t want to wear my shoes and shirt, I don’t go there.
I fully support Max’s decision to avoid the Dr. office so he doesn’t have to wear a mask. I would not support him going there without one and forcing the issue.
All that aside, yes, this mask mania is ridiculous and ineffective, as I said first. But the sight of someone’s uncovered face has become a matter of extreme stress for some, so I would rather just let them have their meaningless sense of security.
Freedoms are slowly chipped away, little by little. We had significantly more freedom 100 years ago and freedoms didn’t just go away overnight. It was death by a million paper cuts.
Some may say “it’s just a mask,” but look at some of these governors. They’re enjoying this power a little too much. If anything, we need more people willing to engage in “mask theater.”
Sorry. You come to see me at the clinic, you wear or mask or you can seek care elsewhere.
I’ve got a life and a family and I’m not willing to increase my risk any higher.
I see about 5-10 Covid positive patients a shift. None with a known diagnosis.
We were also supposed to sanitize everything like crazy because the virus lived on and was transmitted from surfaces…..until they announced that maybe it isn’t transmitted on surf…….anyways. Still seems like the vast majority of people do not have it so everyone wearing a mask every minute of the day is still silly to me. If you will be in close proximity of other people then by all means, knock yourself out. If not then it serves basically no purpose. It still stands that if you don’t have the virus it does no one any good if you do wear a mask. I guess the question is: At this stage do we want to treat the entire nations population like they are infected?
180,000 Americans are dead from Covid in 6 months.
How many have died from GSW’s in the same time period?
To borrow the provocativeness of Ekoj’s analogies, would you similarly refuse to treat gay people because they might have HIV? After all, despite the fact that you have voluntarily and of your own volition decided to have a career in a field in which you are routinely exposed to infectious diseases, you do have a life and a family, therefore really you should only have to treat… healthy people?
🤷♂️
Any mandatory mask orders after the early Spring lockdowns are an encroachment on our freedoms. We flattened the curve, so now the decision on whether or not to wear a mask (or require one in a business) should be left up to individuals and businesses, not the politicians. Instead of making me wear a mask, my neighbor should stay at home if he’s still afraid of the virus . . .
I believe that yellow patches are traditional.