According to the CDC, the latest science says that no one has to wear a mask outside because outdoor transmission doesn’t occur outside of a crowd. Moreover, they say that people who have been fully vaccinated don’t need to wear a mask at all, indoors or outdoors. The only reason people within these categories are clinging to wearing a mask, therefore, is superstition.
Liberals Ignore Science Too
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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The latest CDC recommendation is what is not based on science — in this case the science of natural selection. Exposing vaccinated people to virus variants is a way of providing a selective advantage to viruses containing mutations that allow the virus to evade the immunity produced by the existing vaccines. The reason for everyone to continue wearing masks is to prevent new variants from gaining this advantage. The CDC recommendation is likely to be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry, as it is likely to result in a situation like that of the seasonal flu, in which new vaccine formulations are needed endlessly.
You’ve mentioned this several times in your essays and comics. It’s inevitable after such a tragedy that there will be a wave of irrationalism. After World War I, there were many who turned to spiritualism and seances to contact their dead; as well, there were red scares and race riots. A hundred years later, after 600,000 dead and a year of intense stress, it’s difficult for people to return to normal in fear that the virus will return. Mask-wearing is truly a minor matter. I’m sure that once COVID vanishes from the front page that people will return to normal. This appears to be a sore point for you. Remember that there are more compelling issues out there now.
I am going to wear my mask when I feel like it.
I am a very attractive male who doesn’t like the negative attention I get from insecure males when their female companions lustfully turn their heads toward me and my big Hollywood smile.
And there is always the asshole who wants to go mano a mano with me to assuage his feelings of inadequacy.
I have regularly been taken for (or mistaken for) a few different charismatic males, much to my annoyance.
Frankly, I tire of people asking to take selfies with me. Or to do an impersonation of whichever personality they think I resemble.
Plus, with a mask on I don’t have to hide the big grin that spontaneously comes to my face when I hear stupid things coming from the mouths of the adoring (and sometimes hostile) strangers I encounter in public.
Wearing a mask has opened up a new world for me.
I think I’m going to miss masking up when there is no anonymous masked crowd to be anonymous in anymore.
In the great tradition of Editorial Cartoon False Equivalent Complaints, Theodore, you are equating vaccinated-mask-wearing with ripping the gore-dripping heart out of a prisoner-of-war? You did your research though, Huitzilopochtli is the right guy for that. The Libtard aztec would be into Quetzalcoatl.
While I understand the point you’re making, it’s thought it just too narrow. For the first time in quite a number of years, I didn’t get a cold or flu this winter. Now I’m sure a lot of that may be due to everyone wearing a mask in public spaces and not just me, but I plan on continuing to wear one to be “better safe than sorry” – but not for COVID reasons or superstition. I enjoy not being sick at all.
Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon
It’s not just science. It’s an alarming repudiation of clear, concise thinking. For instance, right now, the beeg beeg story is how Trump genuinely thinks he’ll be reinstated as president by August.
Trump doesn’t believe that. As we learned in journalism, when it was still populated by journalists, the correct construction is “said he believes” or “said he thinks,” because no one really knows what anyone else is thinking. The importance of this is that the latter form helps to clarify what Trump is actually doing. He’s reinforcing the meme he already started. The election was stolen, the dems are covering up, and his voters have to do everything they can to save the Republic. But the libs and dems grasp for the imbecilic fantasy because it allows them to hate Trump some more and mock him.
They mocked him in 2016 too …