It’s unclear who, if anyone, needs to hear this, but here it is: The face masks aren’t a big deal.
The liberal media, per usual, have created a controversy out of something most people weren’t bothered by. A CBS poll released Thursday found that about 85% of the public reported wearing a face mask at least “once in a while” when venturing outside the home. A strong majority, 70%, reported wearing one “most of the time.”
Only 11% of respondents said they never wore one, and within that group, only 1 out of every 4 people said they did so out of political protest. That’s about 3% of respondents. Others who said they never wore masks said it was because they didn’t have one or because they simply didn’t want to.
In other words, the likelihood of running into someone who feels personally affronted by the idea of wearing a mask is virtually nil — within the margin of error of zero.
But wait! Liberal New York Times columnist Frank Bruni has seen such a person. Well, not really. He knows someone who has seen such a person. Maybe.
“A friend of mine was cursed by a passing stranger the other day for wearing a protective mask,” he wrote Tuesday.
Bruni never identified his friend, but he swears that she, along with two others, was cursed at and that it was definitely because her aggressor took offense at their wearing masks.
“How did she know their masks were the trigger?” he wrote. “She said that nothing else about the three of them could possibly have drawn any particular notice and judgment and that she’d encountered other evidence of objection to lockdowns, social distancing, and masks in this relatively rural and relatively conservative area.”
That’s brilliant.
As shoddy as Bruni and his friend’s reasoning is, the point Bruni wanted to make was that there are some people out there who aren’t fully grasping the threat — the science! — of the coronavirus.
“Call it civic responsibility,” he wrote in that condescending manner so perfected by the New York Times. “Call it science. But science is no match for tribalism in this dysfunctional country. Truth is whatever validates your prejudices, feeds your sense of grievance and fuels your antipathy toward the people you’ve decided are on some other side.”
Bruni isn’t really upset about the unnamed person who yelled at his unnamed friend. He’s more interested in showing how virtuous he is in his civic responsibility and his in his knowledge about “science.”
But the truth about masks isn’t complicated. The truth is that sometimes they’re useful, and sometimes they’re not.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the virus is most easily spread between people in close proximity and in enclosed spaces. That could mean small stores, public buses and trains, or in churches, bars, and clubs.
People who live in densely populated cities and spaces, such as New York City or in an apartment complex, are at a more sustained, higher risk level than those who might live in a house with a yard in a place like Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
Masks aren’t particularly useful for people who are alone outside walking, running, or sunbathing in a park, given that we know open air and sunlight are the safest conditions to avoid infection.
Bruni didn’t say whether his gaggle of girlfriends was headed somewhere or if they were simply outside getting some air. If it was the latter, they probably didn’t need the masks. If they were going grocery shopping in a city, indications are that it would be safer for them to have the masks on. A mask might calm the nerves of others around them who are susceptible to falling severely ill — that is, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. After all, the virus, just like any germ, can be spread by people who don’t even realize they have it.
In places where there are lower cases of infection and death than the national average, it’s even more understandable that people are comfortable not wearing a mask.
At the start of May, Hawaii was almost at zero new cases of infection per day. Its highest daily total this month was three. The Aloha State has only seen a total of 17 deaths related to the virus. Should everyone there be panicking about masks? Probably not.
Most people are apparently not upset or offended by masks. If any significant number of people actually are, the masks aren’t a big deal. They only serve as a safety precaution for the short term.
And to Bruni — please stop being a mask snob.
