Masks

Why No Mask?

By Thomas Hansen, Ph.D.

While even customers at a Costco in Las Vegas are throwing temper tantrums and refusing to wear masks (https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/costco-karen-goes-viral-she-203104196.html) I have been trying for the last few days to understand how people cannot understand they simply must wear a mask in some public settings.  This includes CTA buses and trains.    

Let’s back up a little bit.  The COVID-19 virus has created what is called a “pandemic.”  This means people all over the world are spreading and contracting a fatal illness.  A great many of the people who contract the virus are dying.  Many people in the USA have died and are others are still dying from the virus. 

By this spring, the virus was coursing uncontrolled through our big cities, our chicken farms, and our little hamlets.  This was true not even in Chicago but even within little houses on the prairie!

These are basic facts most people who have not been living under a rock understand.

Governor Pritzker was madly trying to save the lives of thousands of Illinoisans, and one of the means for clamping down the virus has been to require people wear face coverings.  In this way, it is harder to spread the virus to others and harder to contract it.  True, the virus is not only an air-born disease but in public situations the masks do reduce the risks. 

The stay-at-home order and the mask-while-out-in-public requirement were both meant by J.B. to help keep prairie state folks alive, not trample their constitutional rights (https://www.wifr.com/content/news/Pritzker-masks-now-required-in-public-stay-at-home-order-extended-until-May-31-569896291.html).

So that executive order is technically still in place, and there are fancier multicolor signs and illustrations now on all CTA vehicles and in doorways and billboards.  (The first signs were scary black-and-white drawings done in a hurry.)  It would be hard to miss this requirement unless you had your head up… well, unless you had your head up in the clouds and were not paying attention for the last few months.

Fast forward to the July 4^th weekend.  A few months have gone by, and we have been pretty good at following rules and thereby kept a lot of prairie state people alive.  One of the ways we did this was by wearing masks. 

Congratulations to us.  However, some people on the prairie are not wearing masks or face coverings of any kind, for that matter. 

While traveling around and working, I noticed many people why they were not wearing masks and got a wide range of responses.  I will not judge and will not respond to the comments, just make them available here for you to consider.

Why no mask?  Responses from the no-mask-wearing prairie state patriots:

n  The virus has always been around.  If you don’t have it by now, you’re not going to get it.

n  I have a right to NOT wear a mask because of the US Constitution.

n  The whole virus thing is fake and is an example of our government trying to control us.

n  The whole virus thing is bullshit – people are realizing this now.

n  I am protesting having to wear a mask and want to see who asks me about it and whoever asks me about it will wind up dead on that sidewalk over there.

n  It is a race thing – they want Black people to wear them as a sign we are owned by the White people in the government.

n  You cannot catch the virus from other people through the air  – it has to be spread with germs like in a dirty bathroom.

n  The virus is under control and there is no danger – they’re just trying to harass the poor people who don’t have cars and have to ride the CTA.

n  It is a way to discourage people from riding the trains and busses so much like sleeping on them and drinking beer all day on the CTA.

n  Notice the bus driver is not wearing a mask because there is no real danger.

n  You have no right to ask me about a mask and should respect older people.

n  You cannot tell me I have to wear a mask and treat me like a criminal just because I won’t go along with the nonsense.

n  You better not ask me about a mask ‘cuz I have a whole bus full of my people who will kick your ass if you do.

n  People are tired of being told how to act and what to say and there are some big changes coming to our society – look at how the protests went.

n  The masks do not help protect anyone – they are just meant to “make things look good” because nobody knows how to stop the virus.

n  The virus is basically just another form of the flu, so people need to get a flu shot and they won’t get the virus.

n  The virus is a form of HIV and people being careful about their sex partners will have no risks.

n  They don’t have any idea how to control the virus but they do know it only harms old people.       

In such a big city with big trains and big buses, where have people found so many rocks to hide under?