Are Mask Mandates Returning? Twitter Turns into Battleground as 'BringBackMasks' Trends, Setting Off

[pstokely]

https://celebmagazine.com/p/twitter-bring-back-mask-mandates-trends-battleground/

Both sides are impassioned by their arguments, with comments filling with people in support of or arguing vehemently against points, proving that even 2.5 years into a post-COVID world, people can not seem to agree on whether or not masking helps. According to official recommendations, it does.

That doesn't mean everyone thinks it's worth it though, and the argument raging on Twitter proves that everyone is still fired up over issues that kept the world at odds during the pandemic, when the world should have been most in accord over keeping others safe.

[dalton99a]

1. No elected politician will touch this with a 10-foot pole

unless they see stacked corpses and mass burials on TV

[Dorian Gray]

8. exactly

no way, no how.

[PSPS]

2. Russia's too-many-to-count fake social media accounts are at it again for the midterms.

[BigmanPigman]

3. How true!!!!

[chowder66]

4. I'll continue to listen to the experts.

[MiniMe]

5. I'm still wearing a mask

I went to get my Covid Booster/Flu shot today and I was the only one in sight that had a mask on. I don't care, I did what is right for me.

[Ms. Toad]

6. It is nonsense to say people cannot seem to agree on whether masking helps.

That is like saying people can't agree on whether antibiotics help recover from bacterial infections. Facts are facts, and no amount of opinion will change the facts.

What is the subject of disagreement (i.e. a difference of opinions) is what we should do about the fact that masks help prevent the spread of COVID.

[Dorian Gray]

9. You are absolutely right

that the science behind masks is absolute and what most people are arguing is whether mandates SHOULD be instituted. (I am against mandates right now, but I am for normalizing mask wearing.)

There are people, however, who deny that they do any good. There are also some people who may acknowledge the good they do but insist the harm they impose on 2-6 year olds and children with speech delays in a school setting is more problematic than the spread of covid for them.

But those are very specific subsets of the population.

I do think the time for mandates is over. We need to promote mask wearing in surges and vaccines/boosters.

[Ms. Toad]

10. The biggest problem in promoting masking during surges

Is that they are burying the information about community prevalence (community transmission rate), and touting only the rate which indicates whether or hospitals can stay functional at the current prevalence.

By the standards which were most prevalent until last February, all of Ohio is red hot right now. By the only levels found easily now, about a third of Ohio is green. The fact that 2/3 is not green use pretty alarming since that means that 2/3 of Ohio is in the midst of a major surge, and barely anyone is batting an eye.

Of course, the fact that we're in the middle of a surge no one knows about wouldn't bode well for mandatory masking, either.

[Dorian Gray]

11. THat's very true too

They need to be honest about cases, deaths, etc. in order for people to make informed choices.

[Ms. Toad]

12. They are honest -

Just deliberately hiding the lede.

Here is the community transmission rate map for Ohio (based solely on # of cases)

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=Ohio&data-type=Risk

(You may need to scroll down to the map)

Here is the map they are most widely publicizing (requiring a transmission rate 4 x higher to turn red, based on # of cases in the community - since it is just hunky dory if tons of people get COVID, as long as the hospitals can handle them)

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=Ohio&data-type=CommunityLevels

I find it interesting that they are more up front with their links than they are with their data (more the one labeled risk is the one which is bright red)

[Dorian Gray]

7. It's not happening

unless deaths start mounting like crazy, so the argument it pointless.

(Yes, there are obvious indications that masking helps. Yes, you should wear a mask if you are so inclined. Yes, I will continue to mask in crowded indoor places and while traveling. No, mandating them will not come back now.)