That headline, itself, is enough to turn many of us off. Most of us are up to here with experts, TV pundits and just about anybody who can put a noun and a verb together on the subject of masks and mandates. But reading this might just be worth your time though I'm not so bold as to say it will save your life.
I'm sick of looking like a doctor at the Mayo Clinic who's about to operate on a patient or a visitor entering an Intel clean room. I can't breathe well with something covering my mouth AND my nose at the same time and I suspect many of you have the same problem, but our leaders in Washington and in many states are sure that they know that masks save lives. Truth is they might in some cases, but not always when it comes to certain airborne transmissible diseases.
What they DO do is inhibit our ability to breathe normally and that worries me especially when it comes to the millions of little urchins about to enter our schools all masked up…by law. Masks also prevent others from seeing us exhibit normal human facial expressions like smiles or frowns, and THAT my friends is a clear case of FBLS (facial body language supremacy) at work! I'm also sick of being separated from my fellow man and woman behind sheets of plexiglass or some other sickness inhibiting material like we're all potential carriers of death or actors in an updated version of the film, Outbreak.
Before you report me to the COVID-19 Police or call 911 and demand that I be carried away in a hermetically-sealed box to the loony bin by EMTs in hazmat suits, stop for a moment. Find your center and maybe a bit of compassion for a fellow human that has lost his faith in what our leaders are calling "settled science" about the COVID vaccines being pushed at us today by more knowledgeable people without medical degrees and who have all signed on as first mates on the good ship JABberwockey.
I must say, at this point, that I believe that the coronavirus is a real virus and that it has caused or contributed to the deaths of millions of people around the globe. "Caused or contributed" are important words in that sentence because many deaths, especially those of older people, have happened because of underlying medical conditions where the virus has served to push them over the immunological cliff. I often hear about deaths in news reports that go something like this, "Thousands of new people have died from the coronavirus or the new variant, the delta virus." I seriously wonder what their death certificates state as the true cause of death. Was it congestive heart failure, respiratory deficiencies or was it solely the coronavirus? Would they have died from their underlying illnesses without the coronavirus tipping the balance – later in a week or a month or a year or more as many of these people are in their late 70s or 80s and approaching the national life expectancy average? Would pneumonia have taken them or a compromised immune system that couldn't handle a bad case of influenza?
How many died solely because of the coronavirus and were these people wearing masks when they got it? Were they practicing social distancing at the time? No question we are suffering mightily from the virus, but I would also say that we are suffering from a lack of adequate testing of patients, of accurate analyses of their deaths and a paucity of information about the true efficacy of the vaccines and their long-term side effects. Several of my friends have been bullied by our government into getting the vaccines. Others have done so because they don't want to be ostracized from the rest of society and a third group just wants to travel to faraway places – and without the vaccine surging in their bodies they would not be allowed beyond our U.S. borders.
Last week I heard Mr. Geraldo Rivera, a participant on a television talk show say that he doesn't want to be near ANYONE who hasn’t been vaccinated. He went on to say that he "thought less of other people who refused to be vaccinated" and found it "reprehensible that they were ALLOWED to refuse the vaccine." I wasn't shocked at what Rivera said because I always suspected him to be a closet collectivist that was okay with taking away a person's individual rights to choose to be medicated or not.
His comments were, to his credit, an honest expression of his beliefs and it was strangely refreshing to hear them as they probably represent the unspoken feelings of many of my fellow citizens who, if left to decide for the rest of us, would demand that we succumb to vaccinations.
We have crossed the Rubicon of personal freedoms and found ourselves on the other side of the river. The Biden Administration and many governors (especially in 'Blue' states) are ramping up their efforts to make us a two-tiered society of vaxxed and unvaxxed people and will not be satisfied until ALL of us have bowed to the pressure to accept what they believe to be the inevitable – a country where coercion has become the norm. Some of us (maybe as many as half the country) don't want our government to be our GPs because we know that once we accept that demand for vaccinations and masks and God knows what else we would become a nation of serfs under their thumb. The Constitution be damned.
So, what are we to do now that the delta variant is increasing the number of cases and hospitalizations? We are already seeing mask mandates return in our schools and vaccinations become a requirement to work in some private companies. I suspect that "Vaccine Passports" are on the way in America (they are already being discussed in the European Union and elsewhere). These discussions are giving rise to groups opposed to mandated vaccinations and Corona Passports in large and small countries. The tiny nation of Denmark (population 5.5 million) has seen one such 'freedom of choice' group created that calls itself "Men in Black" (MIB) that is becoming vocal with protests against forced vaccinations or mandated vaccination passports. MIB was started as a Facebook group back in late 2020 and has grown exponentially since then. A recent quote from one of its leaders was, "If we think it's only about Corona then we are missing the point."
I couldn't agree more. Mask mandates and other restrictions are ALSO about personal freedom and personal choices and we should be focusing on ALL the issues surrounding the Coronavirus AND about how our countries' leaders are dealing with our personal freedoms AND our collective health as nations. An old Chinese proverb states, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." It may be time to start thinking about the source of our problems (where the virus originated and how it was allowed to spread) along with the consequences of that action as we all continue on this perilous journey.
Stephan Helgesen is a former U.S. diplomat and author of four books on American politics. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com.
