Ted Rall for October 12, 2020

Even though this is a subtle dig at Biden, I agree with that some people take the mask wearing too far. They are several feet from anyone else, or in a car by themselves, or even riding a bike. It is better to be over cautious than just plain sloppy about mask wearing. And, did you know that the nose is connected to the lungs?

I guess it’s no surprise that since Ted will complain non-stop about Biden, he’s also willing to complain about his neighbors being too conscientious. It could be worse. You could live in a neighborhood where all your neighbors are in a Spraytanic cult.

Common sense is an oxymoron. I’ll step out of the car and put the mask on as I’m walking to the store. I’ll step out of the store and take it off as I walk to the car. If the parking lot is crowded (as they can be on weekends) my behavior changes. Thinking is not that hard; why do so many people act like it is?

It’s probably best to just go w/ the flow. I wear a mask quite a lot of the time these days because I finally found one that fits comfortably and doesn’t fog my glasses. And because it seems likely to help me avoid the flu, common cold, and (some) hay fever. People who over-react have been always with us, it’s just that these days they seem to do it about masks and distancing.

Ted, you should live in the White House.

You would never have to worry about wearing a mask.

And you could help achieve herd mentality.

I’m sure over reaction to wearing masks is the number one problem somewhere. /s

I might have already mentioned this, but last year one morning as I was walking my neighbor’s dog (she was laid up), I encountered a woman who exercised every day early in the morning by making a circuit around the buildings. She saw me and wigged out “you should be wearing a mask, and don’t you know you should stay 6 feet from other people?” We were already about 20- feet apart, but she moved further away as she scolded me. Not someone with a good sense of distance. Or proportion.

I wonder if collectively we all thought, from the get-go, that wearing a mask was a good idea and wanted to pitch in and do our part, would this whole epidemic have been minimized until the vaccine was available.

From Sam Smith at Progressive Review (he’s a Biden voter):

ELECTION UPDATE: Biden slips slightly in electoral voteAccording to the latest poll averages, Biden retains a 10% lead over Trump nationally. In our last poll average, Biden had the 270 he needs to win. Our latest figure finds that down to 265 with another 26 votest leaning his way (down from 54 in our last check).

Meanwhile, in electoral votes, Trump is down from 115 to 102 highly likely and those leaning his way down from 65 to 12.

The number of tied votes has gone from 110 to 125.

There are a thousand million reasons to wear a mask from a public safety standpoint, but really, if more people would just realize how truly ugly they really are, they would happily wear a mask. (Gee, I sound a little like Ted!)

What?

On top of things, as usual, Ted. This became an issue when, March 13? Now you dain to chime in.

In several SE Asian nations, mask wearing was already widely practiced due to air pollution, fear of other respiratory viruses, etc. This might have been a factor in their much lower rates of infection.

I’d take that neighborhood over the one where I live, in which no-one wears a mark ever at all except in places where it’s required by law (and then they wear it only halfway). Kind of stupid to complain of people being conscientious about protecting their neighbors and themselves, don’t you think?

You still live in the Peoples Republic of Cambridge?

It was the Maga’s listening to idiot Trump who spread the deadly disease all around the USA.

On one level tRall must be happy – even though he doesn’t get a lot of likes, he gets lots of comments ;)

My wife went for a walk and some woman actually pulled her car over to yell at my wife for not wearing a mask. My wife was carrying her mask, which she explained to Karen that she wears when there are people in her vicinity, even showing the mask to Karen. But was Karen appeased by the presence of the mask and the common sense approach as explained by my wife? Hell, NO! She kicked her rant in to high gear, literally screaming at my wife…and no, Karen was NOT wearing a mask. When my wife asked Karen why she was spewing obscenities and driving with her windows down and not wearing a mask, Karen yelled one more insult and drove on. My wife saw her pull into her driveway a ways down the street. This very woke mask nazi had not one, but two BLM signs and a Biden sign in front of her white privilege McMansion. People need to calm the hell down.

Well, who knew Ted Rall would be an anti-masker as well?

I really do not appreciate any attack on mask wearing. I work in retail part-time in an area with a lot of people who don’t believe in mask wearing. It is very frustrating when they come in without masks and give lame excuses for not helping to protect everyone from what is still a very dangerous disease. Governments and corporations are too scared to enforce masks given the nut jobs emboldened by Trump. A local police officer even walked into our store without a mask the other day. Ted, I often like your dark humor but I am very tired of your lame and stupid attacks on Democrats, Biden, et al. In our current system, whether one likes it or not, they are the only way to stop the chaos and genocide generated by the “death cult” in the White House and Republican controlled Senate. I will readily admit that Democrats are not pure or innocent, and not perfect but I haven’t seen a better alternative that is actually able to get votes. But have your way and be pure and attack Democrats, Republicans and the powers-that-be, just please help us stop this disease. I have a child with immune system problems and relatives over 60, who are very vulnerable. I would appreciate your help in protecting them until there is a safe and effective vaccine. Thanks for your time

I’m guessing — admittedly it’s a guess — that none of Ted Rall’s acquaintances has died of covid-19… maybe even that he doesn’t know anyone who has gotten sick from it.

The same is not true of myself. I don’t wear masks always and everywhere, but I do wear them in many places where others don’t. I also look for approaching traffic before crossing the street… even if the light is in my favor.

Meanwhile, various “authorities” are recommending getting tested every two weeks. Huh? A negative test does not protect you from becoming infected… not for the next two weeks, and not at all.

Damn…poor fellow. I’d recommend moving to the real world, but there are no unicorns there.

If anyone had ever told me that someday, we would have a pandemic during which we should be wearing masks, I would have thought they were crazy. Further, if someone had told me that some people would beat up others who asked them to wear a mask, I would have said, “Well, that’s never going to happen.” Then, the insanity began, and I was proven wrong. I’ll continue to wear a mask and keep my distance, but I’m not going to risk getting physically harmed by someone who thinks he/she is immune. I’m just trying to hold out until a safe, effective vaccine becomes available.

The nerve! Caring for themselves and others too!

Which one of these annoys you the most?

Rall belittles wearing masks, then says people are unifying around “science denial.” Who’s first on that list, Ted?

Ted the curmudgeon, doing what curmudgeon’s do: carping about how the world just doesn’t “get it”.

The Overmasked? This cartoon has no relevance to my life at all, and that’s the first time I have said that about a Rall cartoon.

Ted is still trying to make masks political. TO THE EXTENT HE CAN COMMUNICATE THE GUY IS CAUSING DEATH.

I’ve never run into the over-masked, with one possible exception of some (few) people who think it’s wrong for me to walk outside alone without my mask or to not wear gloves in a store. I’ve always got at least 2 masks with me (in case I drop or lose one on my long walks) and deploy one when I go inside any building or get into an outdoor situation with a lot of people milling around.

What I’ve seen a lot of lately is people wearing a washable “fashion” mask over a disposable one, which makes some sense (so long as breathing isn’t overly impaired). The disposable “undermask” can be replaced as it gets damp or smelly, allowing the “outerwear” mask to last longer. It’s like wearing the same blue jeans for a week while changing your underwear every day.

Rall just likes trying to piss off everybody.

I admit to thinking it is a bit weird when I see someone driving alone in their car with a mask on. Are they protecting themselves from the diseases they already have?

FALSE DICHOTOMY and a blatantly silly one.

Mr. Rall, you don’t seem to understand the way this works. No readily available method is perfect. All we can do is try to reduce the odds. The more ways we reduce the odds of infection, the better.

- Wearing a mask: a good mask can reduce your risk from 90-95%. But that’s still one chance in 10 or 20. If you sit in a unmasked crowd, your odds of getting COVID-19 may still approach 100%.

- If you don’t cover your nose, it is virtually as bad as no mask at all. COVID-19 infects the nasal cavity. See reference below.

- Maintaining social distance. The farther you are, the less likely it is that a given droplet containing a droplet will reach you. Because spread over an area increases rapidly, 2 meters is much better than 1 meter (think of the spread of a flashlight beam). But, again, let’s say someone sneezes at you – that can easily cross 2 meters.

The more you use, the lower your odds. But your odds are not zero if you go around people.

You may think your neighbors are being overly cautious – but that is NOT SCIENCE DENIAL, and it is really not right to equate the idiots who think manliness or Godliness requires no mask with people who are extremely worried about infection and follow ALL the rules, perhaps too strictly.

It may be an overreaction – but then again, it might not!

Here’s an article in The Lancet which did a meta-analysis of multiple studies on the effectiveness of masks and social distancing: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673620311429

Here’s an article in the BMJ on risk factors (also recommending 2 meters or more) which provides a handy chart for combining occupancy, face covering, indoor/outdoor risk: https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3223

Article on why you should cover your nose: https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/covid-19/question-of-the-day-what-if-my-mask-doesnt-cover-my-nose/article_d7e32650-faaf-11ea-9439-03c3f6d2a4b1.html

Sometimes, Ted, I wonder how Covid would have played out in the US if Hillary Clinton was President instead of Trump. I firmly believe she would have instituted a nationwide lockdown (similar to China, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Italy, etc.) back in March and would have followed the experts advice, she DEFINITELY wouldn’t have cut funding to the CDC, like Trump did. She might even have heeded China’s warning back in December that Covid was a serious problem and needed to be prepared for ASAP! All we can do now, is to mask up, social distance, and to hope things turn around quickly on Covid once we put the grownups back in charge in January.

Rall is complaining about people being too liberal? Surprising things happen every day.