Absolutely!
Courtesy of ADN:
More than 200 physicians and health care workers across Alaska have signed a letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, urging him to mandate the wearing of masks in businesses where social distancing is difficult to maintain.
“We are concerned about the recent and rapid increase in COVID-19 case counts in Alaska,” says the letter, written by Anchorage doctors Megan Ritter and Sarah Murphy.
“Recent medical studies and real-world evidence supports the use of masks to prevent the spread of the virus,” the letter says.
The letter stipulates that mask wearing should be required in businesses open to the public “where 6-foot distancing is unrealistic.”
“The takeaway is this,” the letter says. “A sick person wearing a mask will spread fewer viral particles. A healthy person wearing a mask will have some protection from sick people around them. The combination of both people wearing masks provides the greatest amount of protection.”
The plea comes during a recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the state, just weeks after restrictions on businesses were lifted in response to low case counts. On Wednesday, the state reported 20 new cases among Alaska residents, and virus clusters have been documented in Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula. The state also confirmed its 11th death associated with the virus on Tuesday.
Despite the surge we are currently seeing all over the state there are still large numbers of Alaskans who are refusing to wear masks around other people.
This is both disrespectful and ignorant, and I agree that masks should be mandatory and that those who refuse to wear them should be barred from entering businesses.
I am actually okay with people not wearing masks while outdoors as long as they respect social distancing, but while inside of buildings they put all of us at risk.
I can tell you that in our little town up here I would guess that at least 85% of the people are NOT wearing masks. In fact, I may be the only male I have seen in the past few weeks that is wearing one. We have people from all over the state here and some out of state visitors and nobody is wearing masks. It’s outrageous. The selfishness required to go out and say I don’t give a fuck if I give other people a fatal illness or not is just shocking. These are awful, awful people and I just shun them. I refuse to engage or even be near these pernicious reprobates. Who the fuck do you think you are, that you’re so special you can run around like typhoid Mary? Pure human scum is what these people are and they should be treated accordingly!
I agree wholeheartedly.
One of my best friends that is on the opposite side of politics than me has just jumped the shark. Our rule was to not talk politics because our friendship would surely end.
Last weekend when he came down to help out on a project, he proudly announced that he has boycotted Costco because of their mask rule. It just turned worse from there. He stated that he won’t wear a mask because (insert all the right wing bullshit here). This is a man with his wife in her sixties with multiple debilitating health conditions and a grand daughter with serious life threatening health issues without proper care.
No use to argue because it would be a waste of time.When he left, my easy going spouse that wouldn’t say shit if she had a mouthful, exclaimed that she would no longer associate with him until this whole thing is resolved.
(that’s the cleaned up version).
WTF is wrong with people. So fucking sad.
As someone said here earlier, if there’s one thing all this has taught me it’s how entitled some people are.
May I add misguided.
To 430 and 505 –
You obviously speak of the “god fearing” christians. They do that.
I’ve mentioned it here before, 5:45 pm, but in my youth the sign
No Shirt
No Shoes
No Service
And we didn’t think twice about it. Common sense is a lost art.
Important to note that since there is very little data on the effectiveness of anything less than a well-fitted N95, social distancing and frequent hand washing are still the best policies.
Where that is not possible, masks – even cloth masks – are better than wearing nothing even if cloth masks are only something like 3% effective (based on very limited data) compared to an N95.
That DOESN’T mean DOING NOTHING besides the mask, we STILL have to DO the other things. They are not an excuse to skip the other things.
We have to recognize they have limitations and emphasize doing MUCH MORE than just wearing the cloth mask.
This is a podcast on masks from CIDRAP: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/podcasts-webinars/special-ep-masks
and the transcript of the podcast: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/default/files/public/downloads/special_episode_masks_6.2.20_0.pdf
No masks because: : freedom!! Murica!! Brain dead!! Tiny penises!! Ignorant as hell!! Pointy headed experts suck!! Trump’s America.