Covid is not over and probably won’t be over for the next decade.

We can’t just pretend it doesn’t exist, because it infects and kills people anyways. But we also can’t just cancel things because it‘s here for a while and vaccination is very effective at preventing severe cases.

For me, this means getting the vaccines and boosters and wearing masks in essential places e.g. stores and doctor’s offices. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask people to do these things even if it’s for the long-term.

I do think it’s unreasonable to ask people to avoid holiday celebrations and weddings and bars everywhere long-term. I especially think half-assed measures like wearing masks in restaurants “except when eating” and putting carefully-planned events online last-minute is unreasonable.

He didn’t deny this - my other favorite quote from the article

“I don’t mean to deny COVID’s continuing presence. (For the purposes of this piece, I looked up the COVID data for my county and found that the seven-day average for positive tests is as high as it has ever been, and that 136 deaths have been attributed to the virus since June 2020.) What I wish to convey is that the virus simply does not factor into my calculations or those of my neighbors, who have been forgoing masks, tests (unless work imposes them, in which case they are shrugged off as the usual BS from human resources), and other tangible markers of COVID-19’s existence for months—perhaps even longer.“

Wearing masks when not eating is there to stop people from exploiting loopholes.

Like having a bar where everyone is just mingling, but they have some store bought croissants so they are a "restaurant."

this is a bit more controversial but i don’t think people need to wear masks at bars either. Especially if there’s a vaccine passport. 20-30 year olds hanging out are not the ones causing the spread or hospitalizations.

And businesses skirt the rules anyways. Like I remember many places converted their restaurants to “open”, and did other things to get around covid restrictions

> 20-30 year olds hanging out are not the ones causing the spread or hospitalizations.

They're not? Logic would dictate that the cohort which is most sociable and least likely to be symptomatic, would be the most likely to cause spread.

Alternate title: I recklessly ignored health guidelines around a pandemic that has killed 5.3 million people in 2 years.

Many people prefer a risk-filled free existence over a safe constrained one. It's not entirely clear that one is morally superior.

If you wear a mask to prevent unvaccinated people from contracting a potentially lethal contagious disease, that's a clear win for morality.

I can understand a moral argument to be made for pushing back against authoritarian abuse of power. Ignoring the consensus of the entire field of medicine during a global pandemic is not that argument.

So, wearing a mask in certain situations is a restriction to freedom? As a society, we do all kinds of things to take care of each other. We respect traffic laws, we defecate in toilets, we don't litter, etc... I just don't get how a simple act of caution to take care of ourselves and our neighbors is any different (with respect to "freedom") than any of these other actions that we do every day.

> We respect traffic laws, we defecate in toilets, we don't litter, etc

You gaslighting Californians?

With an infectious disease you are putting other people at risk. You wanna smoke or skydive, go nuts. But wear a damn mask.

Masks catch the moisture in your breath. It's like covering your mouth when you sneeze.

Imagine someone walks in a room where you are eating, sits in the seat next to you and starts sneezing without covering their mouth.

"Excuse me" you say, "could you cover your mouth? I'm eating here."

"Sorry," they say "I prefer a risk-filled existence over a safe, constrained one."

Kinda missing the point there, friend.

Nope. Or sure I will wear one if I have the sniffles, or other signs of a cold or flu. Though most likely I’ll just stay home because I’m sick and I don’t want to go anywhere.

Mask mandates are unnecessary. It is a bunch of elitists in urban areas trying to be big brother.

If a store owner is worried about it, they can mandate for their store.

People don’t care, and you can try to guilt them into caring with crap like this, but you will fail to do anything but look like an elitist donkey.

Sorry to break it to you, but you are a selfish person who won't even do the bare minimum to prevent spreading the illness to other at-risk people.

Favorite quote “ I am old enough to remember the good old days when holiday-advice pieces were all variations on “How to Talk to Your Tea Party Uncle About Obamacare.” As Christmas approaches, we can look forward to more of this sort of thing, with the meta-ethical speculation advanced to an impossibly baroque stage of development. Is it okay for our 2-year-old son to hug Grandma at a Christmas party if she received her booster only a few days ago? Should the toddler wear a mask except when he is slopping mashed potatoes all over his booster seat? Our oldest finally attended her first (masked) sleepover with other fully vaccinated 10-year-olds, but one of them had a sibling test positive at day care. Should she stay home or wear a face shield? What about Omicron?

I don’t know how to put this in a way that will not make me sound flippant: No one cares. Literally speaking, I know that isn’t true, because if it were, the articles wouldn’t be commissioned. But outside the world inhabited by the professional and managerial classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many, if not most, Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over, and they have been for a long while.”

I’ve decided to make that word which cannot be named, like Voldemort.

I’m done talking about the thing to help prevent it, the thing itself, and the thing that purportedly helps the thing from spreading but behaves more like a sign of which team you’re on.

Would be curious to read the authors thoughts on terrorism or immigration to see how they align with his thoughts on covid.

He's a prolific writer:

https://theweek.com/authors/matthew-walther

"As far as my wife and I are concerned, an atmosphere of parochialism hangs upon relentless adherence to CDC directives. By European standards, hand-wringing about masks in schools is as silly and absurdly risk-averse as the American medical establishment’s insistence that pregnant women not drink coffee or wine."

By which European standards? Last month we took a vacation to Italy (Naples and Rome), where pretty much everyone in stores wore masks and restaurants were rigorous about checking vaccination cards.

I mean… I suppose “ignore it, and just up morgue and crematorium capacity” is… an approach?