What are your stances on personal and imposed masking and vaccines

[Hammy]

Since this has become a controversy lately I thought this might be a good topic to discuss.

I am fully vaccinated and personally am going to continue wearing a mask for a variety of personal reasons, the most prominent being to keep myself from irrationally dwelling on worst case scenarios while out (as I haven't even left the house much and the last year and a half has taken a significant toll with regards to my anxiety disorder) as well as reducing general factors that can cause coughing, as my rib and sternum joints have been in increasing pain over the last several months, something that seems to have started after a significant bout of the flu in early 2017.

I don't feel masks should be mandated--while I would prefer to prevent further spread of covid, a mandate would not do anything but essentially punish those who got vaccinated (especially for the purpose of finally taking masks off) as the people refusing to vaccinate are the same people who would simply ignore the mandates. Businesses however should enact and enforce mask mandates for the unvaccinated since most people carry their vaccine card with them.

I do feel a vaccine mandate is desperately need, if nothing else one that would simply exclude those refusing to vaccinate from participating in society since they clearly don't care enough about the people around them to stop spreading a deadly virus.

I am hesitant to completely oppose school masking policies, at least until under 12 are able to be vaccinated.

Public sector or health workers who have not yet vaccinated should be given paid 30 day leave to vaccinate, and if they refuse, be fired on the spot.

[Dr. MB]

I'm strongly against any mask mandate. It's ridiculous to expect people who are fully vaccinated to have to wear a mask (or start wearing them again) because of the stupidity of other people who refuse to get a vaccine - especially because vaccines actually work and do their job and making vaccinated people wear masks is reinforcing the fake idea that they don't. If you want to wear a mask for whatever reason go ahead, but I won't and I don't want it to be a mandatory thing anywhere anymore (also most of the counties and cities which are reinstating mask mandates now are liberal areas with very high vaccination rates, and the places which are being hit the hardest aren't gonna ever do anything).

I don't mind mandating vaccines because it's pretty obvious a lot of people aren't going to get them on their own now. Literally the only way to end Covid completely unless we're an island nation is to get as many people as possible vaccinated and if the only way is making it a requirement (or say, making it a requirement to go to school/work/airport/anywhere) then of course it isn't ideal but it might have to be done. Also hurry the f**k up and 1) approve the vaccines fully by the FDA and 2) approve them for kids under 12.

[dead0man]

I'm against govts mandating masks or vaccines.  Businesses and individuals should be able to do what they want with their own things (within reason).

Businesses however should enact and enforce mask mandates for the unvaccinated since most people carry their vaccine card with them.

I've never taken my vaccine card out of the house (other than when I went to get the second shot).

[Former President tack50]

On masks, I've always found (or at least suspected, I obviously can't confirm anything) that the US just never cared about harshly enforcing its mask mandates? Most notably I recall Calthrina saying he was powerless to ask his customers to mask up; or various posters saying that the police outright refused to enforce the existing mandates (which tbh sounds insane to me, the police should not get to decide was laws to enforce and not enforce!)

Given the current stage of the pandemic, I'd tie mask mandates to vaccination rates (possibly including cases in the equation too). So say, for example, bring back mask mandates in counties where vaccinations are under 50% for example. Of course the challenge is not issuing the mask mandate, but rather enforcing it, by making sure that stores kick out anyone not wearing a mask (or fine stores that let people without masks in)

Like I say it is a problem of enforcement. Yesterday I actually had a hilarious mask compliance incident. I was at the beach and I wanted to go to a nearby public toilet. I was obviously just wearing my swimming pants. However just before I got in the woman at the door told me I could not get into the toilet unless I was wearing a mask. So I had to put up a mask leading to me wearing a mask but wearing no T-shirt

Had I tried to get in anyways I'd have been kicked out, perhaps even the cops might have been called on me.


As for vaccinations, ideally they should not be mandated, but it seems clear to me that some sort of mandate is necessary in the US since the vaccine uptake is not high enough. First of all, some sort of decent federal vaccination certificate should be deviced, so that stores who want can restrict entry to only vaccinated people.

Then, states could just gradually increase restrictions on the unvaccinated if it comes to it; though I will say this is a big violation of individual rights.

[Torie]

One can argue where the lines should be drawn,  but I swing pretty hard away from the libertarian position in favor of the authoritarian position on this one. It's the tragedy of the commons in reverse, or something. One loose cannon rolling around out there, is that we don't know everything yet about the Delta variant, and just how bullet proof vaccinated but otherwise high risk people are from it, and we do know that without herd immunity, those not vaccinated serve as a breeding ground for new variants. Do we really need to go through the rest of the alphabet to get from the Detla variant to the Zap variant, just to give every letter its own turn?

I do loathe wearing masks, and I do have some trouble breathing in them, but the sooner we achieve herd immunity, the sooner we all, all of us, can throw the damn things away. In the meantime, it has been 1.5 years since I step foot inside a restaurant or bar, and I wonder if I will ever fly in an airplane again. I appreciate the planet does not revolve around me, but damn it, I am a person too.

Thank you.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Staunchly against masks, personally in favor of the vaccine, especially for those who never got covid (but believe it should not be required).

[Progressive Pessimist]

I don't blame anyone for not trusting that others not wearing masks might not actually be vaccinated. That's why I still personally wear a mask in indoor public spaces (with the exception of being seated at restaurants).

As for new mask mandates, I think that vaccination mandates by businesses and institutions are more practical instead at this point, and they should be able to ask people whether they are actually vaccinated or not.

[Santander]

Mask mandate is fine, because it's merely a public health order. Obviously, there are some absurdities (like requiring masks for walking down the street) but for the most part, it is an inconvenience, at worst.

Vaccine mandate is a non-starter and anyone who endorses one is a danger to freedom.

[TheReckoning]

Staunchly against masks,

Why?

[THG]

I recommend taking the vaccine, but I am 100% against forced vaccines and forced masked mandates.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Staunchly against masks,

Why?

I view them as a symbol of a culture that has chosen to fear

[Hammy]

Staunchly against masks,

Why?

I view them as a symbol of a culture that has chosen to fear

Most people in Japan wear masks routinely during flu season, not to mention doctors wear them, so that's some odd logic. I could see your point though if you felt that way about mandates at this stage.

[Cassius]

Masks don’t work, at least in the sense of making a non-negligible difference to the spread of coronavirus (to be fair it can’t really be proved either way, but if that’s the case I err on the side of not doing something) so I find mask requirements to be pointless symbolism, although obviously if people choose to wear masks for whatever reason that’s fine. I also don’t support requiring people to get vaccinated, as that’s something that’s never (to my knowledge) been done before and I don’t believe that we should start now.

Fact is, vaccines have long been heralded as the silver bullet that will eliminate coronavirus and enable us to ‘return to normal’ but as we’ve seen in Britain we now know that won’t be the case given the small but solid core of individuals who’ve been vaccinated twice and yet are still getting infected or re-infected with COVID. The only way to ‘return to normal’ then is to end the COVID monomania and accept that it will continue to cause deaths but (hopefully) at a much reduced rate. All this talk of using continuing to use PHI’s in an attempt to strangle variants at birth is all very King Cnutish. The virus is unlikely to be eliminated in our lifetimes, given that we’ve only successfully eliminated one virus that spreads primarily between humans (smallpox, and that was much less transmissible than COVID). Others, like Polio, Malaria and Ebola, we’ve largely succeeded in kicking and keeping out of developed countries, but, again, all those were far less transmissible than COVID.

I think COVID’s fate ultimately will be that it becomes something like the Flu (which it wasn’t when we didn’t have vaccines); we have vaccines that we constantly update to help beat back new waves of infection, whilst at the same time accepting that every year it will potentially kill tens of thousands. The good news for us on that score is that it doesn’t mutate as much or as quickly as the Flu. The problem here, of course, is that governments, the media and ordinary people have invested so much energy into the belief that COVID is a deadly plague that needs eliminating that it is difficult to see how the great mass of ordinary people (who, broadly, continue to support invasive PHI’s as long as COVID remains on the scene) can be brought around to accepting this, at least in the short term.

[Ferguson97]

I support mandatory vaccinations.

Mask mandates make sense in certain areas, like schools. If kids under a certain age can't get vaccinated, then there's no reason why they shouldn't have masks.

[Hope For A New Era]

I'm increasingly against required mask-wearing, even though I still wear a mask in indoor public places (I willingly admit that I, as someone who has both had the virus and been vaccinated and is therefore about as protected as a person can be, view the mask more as a sign that says "I'm not a Republican" than as any kind of virus protection. Don't attack me for it, I'm not the one who politicized masks).

I was very strongly in favor of mask mandates during the height of the pandemic, but vaccines have been widely available to anyone who wants them for months now. At some point it stops being reasonable hesitancy and logistical problems, and starts being natural selection. We are experiencing a pandemic of stupidity, and I am so done with it. The people who want to be protected are protected now. Let the others have as much virus as they want. It's time to start handing out Darwin Awards.

I hate to be so blunt about it, but the current situation is just absurd.

[Schiff for Senate]

Strongly support personal masking and mask mandates, as well as mandated vaccination. I don't care if you're vacccinated, more variants are developing and it can spread very easily. Why argue over an extra precaution that slows/stops the spread of COVID19 and is very easy to do? People who don't wear a mask don't respect others, whether or not they are vaccinated. It's not like wearing a mask is difficult to do or a mask is difficult to get. And if some people are too stubborn/irrational to see that argument, then the government should step in an impose mask mandates.

[MATTROSE94]

I favor mask mandates until 70-85% of the population is fully vaccinated.

[SnowLabrador]

We need mandates for both. Yes, personal freedoms are important, but they don't matter if you die of COVID. Moreover, all freedoms come with limits; there's a reason you're not allowed to drive 150 MPH on the left side of the road.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Vaccines should be mandatory, but as we have witnessed over the last 18 months, humans like being....human.

We just need an airline to step up and say you cannot fly with us until fully vaccinated. Then other businesses will follow suit. I foresee mining companies here will force employees to be vaccinated in 2022 and 2023.

For this, you would need a digital vaccination passport from your Government.

Masks should be mandatory in areas where infection is more probable, or during lockdown.

This stuff is not difficult, yet the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a genuine lack of professionalism and performance in Government sectors compared to the private sector.

If COVID-19 was managed by the private sector in Australia for example, we would not have imported the Delta variant from India (and foreign visitors) and placed these people in hotel quarantine in the CBD of cities with 2-6 million people only to have their Uber Drivers and Security Guards spread the virus to their relo's and lock down 2-6 million people. Utter stupidity that could only be formulated by a Government committee of health professionals with no idea about working in the real world.

Only Government employees could manage to produce a schmozzle like what we have seen. Too much time hiding in their office looking at Instagram and managing their own promotion and pay entitlements.

The pandemic has really highlighted how ineffective Government bodies have become at doing any job. No accountability, wrong people trained to manage it, nobody can make a decision, the list is endless.

The management of COVID-19 is the only task we can see them do, and the results are evident for everyone to see.