The "muh rights" and "let me choose" arguments are too simplified when it doesn't consider the context of those effects on others. You know that, though...I'm just saying of your other arguments though have more merit (IMHO, despite having approached this with initially different attitudes), so "Let me choose whatever I want" is arguably as oversimplified aas "Just wear the mask even if it's dumb."crossfitter wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 12:47 pmI don't care if people want to double mask forever, but whenever I see people acting irrationally everywhere, it makes me lose hope that this bulls**t will ever go away. The onslaught of irrationality is just too strong.rijaca wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 12:41 pm I just don't understand why you get all worked up because others are wearing a mask outdoors. Are they giving you $hit for not wearing one? Are you giving them $hit for wearing one?
I'll wear one when when I'm indoors and its required by the business. I'll wear one when it's required by my employer. It's not a big deal. I'm required to wear pants when I'm in public. Damn Gov't.
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I just want people to leave me alone and let me choose my own risk.
I'm in the public health/medical research arena, and have even researched cardiovascular risk in patients hospitalized with acute COVID (Summary: the proteomic biomarker profile we observe is extreme and different than any other plasma samples I've observed). So I was initially frustrated with public denial and lack of political leadership at the top last year.
However, I had discussed with my wife that public health needs to "own" all policy implications and externalities, including mental health burden, job loss, educational delays, increased domestic and other violent crimes, alcoholism, obesity, etc. Relatively small cash infusions don't solve these problems: we need a deeper acknowledgement that it's important for people to have a reasonable path forward to partial and then complete normalcy.
In the example here, we should be stating more emphatically that not only is outdoor exercise safe, but the known benefits for physical and mental health far outweigh a risk which has not been observed or established in transmission from transient encounters of mostly healthy people outdoors -- especially in a context where nearly everyone has had the opportunity to be vaccinated. And while people can and should be able to wear a mask outside if they want, I totally get why it can be off-putting to see: there's that slight but non-zero burden of wondering if you should put your mask up, or if someone is going to get mad or stressed out, or even just a reminder of the pandemic itself when all you want to do is cruise around in nature and take a break -- all in the context of the fact that you might be vaccinated and healthy and no risk to anyone. So yeah, I've made choices not to hike or run on fav trails in Boulder because it's less stressful to run in Loveland/Fort Collins; last year I ran roads that were right next to bike paths for the same reason (ironically increasing my risk of getting mowed down by a car).
So let's acknowledge these issues (however big or small) so we can think in the bigger context of actually promoting people to be healthy.