To wear a mask or not? That is the question.

While shopping in Kohls I witnessed an older lady berating a younger group along with their mother for not wearing their masks properly. “It’s not doing any good if it’s not on your nose. You might as well not be wearing one!” She exclaimed. Her loud talking in the direction of other customers in the store actually made their situation worse. She engaged in confrontational behavior which could have resulted in even closer contact from the group than she desired. The group ignored her and immediately removed their masks when clear of the door.

But is it true that wearing a mask only on your mouth without covering your nose is akin to not wearing one at all? No. Did this woman bully other customers in the store because she felt superior to them? Yes. It’s not lost on me that the same people who feel moral superiority and recoil when kids are bullied in school are the same individuals who are bullying people and mask shaming.

I was wearing a face covering (not a mask because they don’t keep people from getting sick) only because store employees will quickly tell me to leave if I don’t have one on. I encourage everyone to do your research online about the Coronavirus and how long it has really been circulating. The reason so many people have antibodies is because that cold you had last year or even two years ago was likely a Coronavirus that is triggering a “positive’ test result for COVID-19. I’m still surprised that many people aren’t aware that the COVID-19 test is actually designed to pick up several varieties of virus.

Do masks prevent you from getting COVID? No. Should you have to wear a mask when in public? No. But humans aren’t the best at doing the right thing, and the right thing has always been: 1. Stay at home when you are sick. 2. Cover your nose and mouth if you sneeze or cough. 3. Wash your hands often. But since you can’t mandate common sense, the Governor has mandated mask wearing. Conform or be cast out is the new tag line of Virginia these days.

Another question is why are so many people waiting in line to get tested for COVID-19? Is it because they are really sick and need hospitalization? If so, go to the hospital. Do you line up to get tested for the flu each year? No. Do people get critically ill from the flu and have to be hospitalized? Yes. What is the end game with all this testing? We don’t develop herd immunity from the flu but we don’t stop our lives each year when it rolls around.

There is also a question of false positives while testing for COVID-19. Here is a case of a PGA golfer and how he tested positive, then five days later tested negative three times. “If a person is infected with another type of coronavirus, their antibodies can make them look like they have positive Covid-19 antibodies, resulting in a false positive test result.”