I am not okay, I miss my relatives, I miss my friends. This isn't a whine for attention, we know more suitable online spaces for attention-pleading exist. I should not be berated for treating online people badly, especially by people to whom I have mailed via international postage my deceased husband's books.
The more I read and hear from retired immunology and infectious diseases professors, the less I believe that covering my nose and mouth with what I have available will save others. I am a shut-in right now because I believe social distancing works, and works well without face coverings. My husband's T-cells are fighting two serious battles, I have to socially distance to keep him going. My immune system is robust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBRcK-od50Q
"Ep91 Emeritus Professor of Immunology...Reveals Crucial Viral Immunity Reality"
Above is an Ivor Cummins interview, 1h24m with retired Swiss immunology professor Beda M. Stadler. I listened to the entire thing, and I disagree with the professor on the subject of lockdowns and their effectiveness. Sure, being locked in without fresh air is not good, it may be the air conditioning systems in hot and humid climates circulating COVID-19 droplets, but staying away from large populations and opting for fresh air instead of stale air has kept the coronavirus away from us.
In an interview with Infection Control Today®, Lisa Brousseau, ScD, expert on infectious diseases said that the CDC’s suggestion that cloth masks offer any kind of protection flies in the face of the data. “It was clear that even surgical masks weren’t working in healthcare settings or controlling COVID-19,” Brousseau said.
What chafes me is the magical thinking that cloth masks, and mandating people to wear them in public, will protect adequately against coronavirus. Masks are, it is believed, to protect others from one's virus-laden droplets. One may be asymptomatic, probably 80% of virus-infected (not the entire population) are asymptomatic. If I had the virus but was asymptomatic, my spouse would be much worse off than he is. Governments are under political pressure to open business to keep economies going, so mandating face coverings is something observable that, if 95% (good luck!) comply, can reduce transmission of droplets by 35%. Oh boy! Meanwhile people flip out on social media because at a gas station five people pumping gas, 4 metres minimum distance, in the outdoors, aren't wearing masks. They should be wearing disposable gloves or plastic bags, as I do, when using a gas pump nozzle, and not worry about what outdoor people who aren't within 2 meters of them and aren't even talking to [facing] them, are doing, unless they're dry coughing.
Wearing a cloth mask tells others you may be infected with the virus, a mask is to keep your viral droplets to yourself, and not all masks keep in the micron-sized viral droplets. Wearing a cloth mask gives people a false sense of security, emboldening them to ignore social distancing with strangers, whose immunity conditions are unknown. I stay away from those people wearing masks. I don't care what someone over 15 feet away thinks about me not wearing a face covering. I do believe that when the low risk-reduction rate (30%) only slows the arrival of confirmed cases with serious symptoms to the hospital, the magical thinkers will point at those who don't wear face coverings when they should be pointing fingers at people who don't socially distance, who go to restaurants, bars, enclosed areas, crowded beaches, or any crowds, and at government officials urging kids to physically return to school. Children DO live with immunosuppressed people, and others (metabolic disorder, Vitamin D-deficient, elderly) at risk for the disease.
The magical thinkers imagine if one isn't wearing a mask, one is a sociopathic asshole or a believer the coronavirus is a hoax. I am a counterexample. I would be milling about in high-population areas, unconcerned about reducing transmission vectors, if I were a sociopathic asshole. The fact I am socially distancing and limiting my social bubble to immediate family plus one (that person I meet in outdoors only, and we're 2 metres apart) proves I do not buy into the hoax myth. I wash my hands, sanitize where shops provide, wear gloves where they don't, STAY AWAY FROM CROWDS, and never browse. I opt for curbside pickup and contact-free delivery. I have no viral loads to infect others with. My Vitamin D3 and sunshine regimen are adequate at maintaining my immune system. Hoax-believers don't attempt to minimize risk, they don't care about slowing the spread and giving hospital workers consideration.
Every country (and in large countries, every part of the country) is going to have their surge where the most vulnerable population, the elderly and immune compromised, are going to get hit hard. Places like Texas, Florida, and California are likely just having their surge later than NYC, as per Ivor Cummins' charts in his video on the seasonality of viruses. It's why Australia now, in their winter, has enough cases where some cities are mandating masks in public, yet six months ago were smug about how lockdowns in summer made their confirmed cases low, and in their opinion, certainly nothing to do with sunny 34C-40C weather in the southern hemisphere, contrasted with 0C - -20C weather in northern hemisphere metropolitan centers. Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto had elder care residents in the thousands being killed off due to Vitamin D3 deficiency, poor health, no fresh air due to frigid temperatures in winter, air conditioners in summer, poorly run for-profit eldercare home policies, and the federal government's outmoded nutritional guideline that 600-1000 IU a day should be good enough for anyone living from 46 to 60 degrees north year-round. Why isn't Vancouver as bad, given how many residents travel to China, the most populous nation on the planet, and home to Wuhan, where the virus first occurred? Winter temperatures aren't terrible at 45 degrees away from the equator, fresh air, and relatively low population density.