Sweet Gummi Mary! I think I've missed my calling. All those years wasted on smartening up the future generation of our nation, when I could have been in sales. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
With so much time on my arthritic retired hands, I spend hours perusing the innernets. Of course one of the main news stories (about 8 of every 10 stories on a local TV station's Facebook page) is the VIRUS. The thing about the VIRUS is that people have their own viewpoint, set in stone, nary to be modified. Not that there's anything wrong with that. People are entitled to their own opinions. Of all the lengthy comments sections, I've never seen one person have their mind changed. No matter how heated the back-and-forth gets.
Of course I never comment on the innernets. Except for the blogs of my cronies. I don't even have a Facebook account. A real one, anyway. Just a skeleton version, to have access to pages that like to exclude anybody without an account.
Here's the thing. Some people are delusional! I know! Who would have ever seen THAT one coming? But they are. They think a little flap of cloth across their face will keep them from catching a virus. That the only way they can get it is if their mask is off. Like it makes them invincible.
Or others think the mask only works one way: that it hold back cooties from going OUT, yet lets them IN all willy-nilly. But we're not talking about the MY MASK PROTECTS YOU people today!
If you've read anything about the VIRUS, you know about quarantine times. You've probably seen that most people catch it between 2-4 days after exposure. Sure, it could take up to 14 days, but I'm suspicious of that long.
Anyhoo... this lady was telling her tale of the sickness. She felt pretty bad while she had it, but was not hospitalized. I don't wish anyone to be ill, but I like to hear of the differences in people's experiences. We'll call this lady "Haircut." Here is a summary of her account.
"I know exactly when I caught it. I always wear my mask whenever I go out. But I needed a haircut, and I took off my mask. I'm sure I caught it from the lady who cut my hair. That's the ONLY time I was unmasked.
I'd been feeling like I was coming down with a cold for two or three days. Just a sore throat and the sniffles. I stopped to get my hair cut, and took off my mask so it would be easier. Wouldn't you know it, two days later, I had COVID! My haircutter was an asymptomatic carrier. She never did get sick. I sure wish I'd left my mask on that day!"
Okay. Screech the phonograph needle here! Does anyone else see something wrong with this story? It is obvious to me that Haircut was ALREADY SICK when she went to get her hair cut! She'd had symptoms of some kind of virus for two or three days! And then got really sick two days later! Yet the lady she accused of giving it to her never got sick! [Also, Haircut never mentioned if she went to a salon, or to somebody's house. I'm guessing it was NOT a salon, because they require masks on both the haircutter and the haircuttee.]
Here's one more. We'll call her Driver.
"Wear your mask, people. I got COVID, and it's because I didn't wear my mask. I was giving my friend a ride, and didn't have it on in the car. Two days later, I had COVID. My friend and her roommate never had any symptoms. But I couldn't have gotten it anywhere else. I always wear my mask."
Again, here Driver is accusing somebody who NEVER HAD ANY SYMPTOMS of giving HER the VIRUS! Try as you might, you'll never convince me of the ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIER. This isn't typhoid, with a bunch of Marys out there spreading it. It's a VIRUS. From the coronavirus family. With siblings like the common cold, and influenza. You don't catch THOSE illnesses from somebody without symptoms!
I COULD be convinced of PRE-SYMPTOMATIC CARRIERS. People who are starting to shed the virus, but haven't noticed their symptoms yet. Maybe a few hours later, they spike a fever. They might have given it to you before you could tell they were sick, but THEY DEVELOP SYMPTOMS. A fever, sniffles, a sneeze, a cough, a sore throat. You have to get their infected fluids in you or on your mucus membranes. Whether they blast it in your face, or you pick it up on your hands and do it yourself.
Anyhoo... my point is... that people either don't care or don't investigate or don't understand how a virus is spread. They just want to shout in capital letters, IT'S A NOVEL VIRUS! WE DON'T KNOW HOW IT WORKS!
I think we DO know how it works, but that's not the way it's being presented in the media. Otherwise, they would call this type of transmission PRE-SYMPTOMATIC. So people could understand, and not blame healthy people for giving it to them, rather than admit that they might have rubbed their eye without washing their hands, or picked their nose, or licked their fingers after eating a treat upon leaving the grocery store.
You can try to convince me otherwise, but GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!
Meanwhile, with some people on the innernets so gullible, I think I could make a fortune in sales. I could sell them swampland in Florida, oceanfront property in Arizona, and the London Bridge. I might even sell the last two as a package deal, since the buyer would have them together there in one state.
3 comments:
Yeah, there are lots of erroneous information when it comes to the masks and the virus.
Are you going to start holding workshops to educate people? For their entrance fee, they could get a squirt of hand sanitizer, a cheap mask and a useless face shield...
I agree with all the virus points, but have issues with your final sentence. Does Arizona have oceanfront land? And isn't the London Bridge in a whole different country? Then again, you might find someone with a big wad of spare cash who also doesn't know much about Arizona and bridges. Just make sure he/she understands there are no "backsies" on the deal.
Sioux,
NOT-HEAVEN, NO! I don't want to be around filthy mask-breathers! I'm sure some people keep their mask clean, and don't touch it with their hands. But around here... I'd say they're in the minority.
I wouldn't be surprised if the big panic over hospital bed "shortages" is due to BACTERIAL PNEUMONIA, from huffing in all the bacteria trapped in the masks. More on that story with a full blog post.
I think the face shield would be as effective as a face mask. All it does is trap the splatter on the inside for the wearer, and on the outside from a close-sneezer. Same as a mask does. I don't think those droplets are like a MAGIC LOOGIE that makes a turn mid-air, as Jerry, Kramer, and NEWMAN hypothesized. The virus itself can fit through a face mask weave, and drift around a face shield if it's aerosolized. Which I'm not sure it is.
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River,
Arizona does NOT have oceanfront property. Even I know that. I'm good with US geography! It's the whole rest of the world that stumps me. There's a song by George Strait with that title.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioPa1URjZ_Y
I guess I could have used his lyrics, and referred to the Golden Gate Bridge, but it's not in Arizona. However, the LONDON BRIDGE IS! I think it's at Lake Havasu. Somebody bought it and had it shipped over in pieces and put it back together.
I will be sure to include "no backsies" in the fine print of my contract!
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