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> from nations where masks and vaccines were championed by opposite political sides I think it's so strange how political masks and vaccines became. I'm not su

> from nations where masks and vaccines were championed by opposite political sides I think it's so strange how political masks and vaccines became. I'm not sure many people remember, but there was a brief period (February or March 2020?) where wearing masks was frowned on in the Bay Area — if I recall correctly, I think it was initially widely claimed that masks were not helpful against Covid and that a run on masks would take away supply from medical workers who use them as part of their daily work. I already had a box of N99 masks that I bought for the wildfires, so I wore one out anyway and got dirty looks. A short while later, everyone in the Bay Area was wearing them, and I no longer got those looks. But then I moved to the southeast and got dirty looks again for wearing a mask, because the politics of that region were different.

mwigdahl 3y ago
This was due in part to the Surgeon General, who tweeted (forcefully) that masks didn't prevent the spread of COVID and anyway you shouldn't wear them to conserve them for the health workers who needed them to prevent the spread of COVID. The original tweet has been taken down (I wonder why?) but you can see it here: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/surgeon-general-americans-stop-buying-face-masks.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/surgeon-general-...
- galangalalgol 3y ago
  There was a good npr special on how the well meant deception that masks didn't work, and later that it wasn't a pandemic yet and we could still stop it, decreased trust in a way that ultimately backfired. I'd also add that they have been exaggerating the severity of most flu years (there have been some truly bad flu years) to get vaccinations up, which lead people to compare covid to those exaggerated numbers. Treating citizens like children that must be managed and given limited access to truth will lead to more and more truth management being necessary due to both mistrust and no practice at handling truth responsibly. But it wasn't just the mask statement. The whole narrative of minimizing the severity of the virus vs stop breathing and stay inside, swapped parties early on in the US. Almost like they said "nah I'm shirts this time and you are skins look at the polls". And much later fox news silently swapped again to support vaccines. It was said the latter was to have Murdoch's properties in the US and UK have a common story, but it could have been lobbying, or just management shifts. In the US antivax has either been right wing faith healing stuff or more commonly left leaning woo medicine stuff. In several countries it was the left against vaccines and masks the whole time. I think it may come down to which party is more individualistic and which is more cooperative in which countries. In the US the right has recently been more individual, but that wasn't always the case, and it isn't the case elsewhere.
dfxm12 3y ago
Politicizing tiny issues is straight out of the News Corp. playbook, and I'm sure they took it from somewhere else. Make a mountain out of a molehill and instill fear into people to create a divide. It's getting exhausting trying to keep up with the supposed existential threats to our liberty that they bring up: masking during a pandemic of an airborne disease, CRT, the 3 trans kids in highschool sports, etc.
- hinsi 3y ago
  It's not just high-school sports, and it's an awful message to send girls at such an early age: that they just have to accept male incursion where it's not wanted, and that not only will no-one in authority care, they'll even enable it and punish those who complain. Society owes women and girls better than this.
billy99k 3y ago
[flagged]
jlokier 3y ago
I live in Oxford, UK, and there was plenty of mask wearing here. I did't notice dirty looks, but one time someone actually lunged for my face in the street to pull my mask off and I had to defend myslf. Another time someone in a restaurant asked in a challenging manner why I was wearing a mask. Personally I found them comforting to wear. Recently I'm seeing a slight uptick in other people wearing masks locally (yes in September 2023), and I find that comforting too. It shows people care a little. Having caught Covid earlier this year (May 2023) the only time I travelled into London, then gave it to my family before we realised, I'm not eager to do that repeatedly, as the risk of Long Covid is said to be a new roll of the dice for all of us each time.

mwigdahl 3y ago

This was due in part to the Surgeon General, who tweeted (forcefully) that masks didn't prevent the spread of COVID and anyway you shouldn't wear them to conserve them for the health workers who needed them to prevent the spread of COVID. The original tweet has been taken down (I wonder why?) but you can see it here: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/surgeon-general-americans-stop-buying-face-masks.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/surgeon-general-...

galangalalgol 3y ago
There was a good npr special on how the well meant deception that masks didn't work, and later that it wasn't a pandemic yet and we could still stop it, decreased trust in a way that ultimately backfired. I'd also add that they have been exaggerating the severity of most flu years (there have been some truly bad flu years) to get vaccinations up, which lead people to compare covid to those exaggerated numbers. Treating citizens like children that must be managed and given limited access to truth will lead to more and more truth management being necessary due to both mistrust and no practice at handling truth responsibly. But it wasn't just the mask statement. The whole narrative of minimizing the severity of the virus vs stop breathing and stay inside, swapped parties early on in the US. Almost like they said "nah I'm shirts this time and you are skins look at the polls". And much later fox news silently swapped again to support vaccines. It was said the latter was to have Murdoch's properties in the US and UK have a common story, but it could have been lobbying, or just management shifts. In the US antivax has either been right wing faith healing stuff or more commonly left leaning woo medicine stuff. In several countries it was the left against vaccines and masks the whole time. I think it may come down to which party is more individualistic and which is more cooperative in which countries. In the US the right has recently been more individual, but that wasn't always the case, and it isn't the case elsewhere.

dfxm12 3y ago

Politicizing tiny issues is straight out of the News Corp. playbook, and I'm sure they took it from somewhere else. Make a mountain out of a molehill and instill fear into people to create a divide. It's getting exhausting trying to keep up with the supposed existential threats to our liberty that they bring up: masking during a pandemic of an airborne disease, CRT, the 3 trans kids in highschool sports, etc.

hinsi 3y ago
It's not just high-school sports, and it's an awful message to send girls at such an early age: that they just have to accept male incursion where it's not wanted, and that not only will no-one in authority care, they'll even enable it and punish those who complain. Society owes women and girls better than this.

billy99k 3y ago

[flagged]

jlokier 3y ago

I live in Oxford, UK, and there was plenty of mask wearing here. I did't notice dirty looks, but one time someone actually lunged for my face in the street to pull my mask off and I had to defend myslf. Another time someone in a restaurant asked in a challenging manner why I was wearing a mask. Personally I found them comforting to wear. Recently I'm seeing a slight uptick in other people wearing masks locally (yes in September 2023), and I find that comforting too. It shows people care a little. Having caught Covid earlier this year (May 2023) the only time I travelled into London, then gave it to my family before we realised, I'm not eager to do that repeatedly, as the risk of Long Covid is said to be a new roll of the dice for all of us each time.