After the Pandemic: Fear & Loathing in Leftistan

Security blankets are for toddlers. It’s time to let go of the masks.

It’s now been nearly three months since the World Health Organization declared an official end to the global COVID pandemic as a public health emergency. It’s been exactly six days less since the U.S. federal government did the same. But looking around the streets and sidewalks of blue states America, you wouldn’t know it.

As a resident of a large, progressive, coastal city, I can personally vouch that scarcely a day goes by when I go for a walk or a drive without seeing someone sitting alone on a park bench, or strolling down an empty walking path, or sitting at a stoplight wearing an ugly blue surgical mask. (And more times than not, it’s a healthy-looking young adult.)

What gives?

Well, perhaps, as some writers and commenters have loudly lamented, it’s because they’re immunocompromised, and continued mask wearing is not merely a case of leftist virtue signaling or blatant superstition, but rather, is literally a matter of life and death.

Perhaps. After all, it makes sense that those in that category or those in daily close contact with them would continue to mask as a vital health concern. But let’s see what the data has to say.

Although solid statistics on the subject are a bit sparse, it’s estimated that around 2.7% of U.S. adults have compromised immune systems. To put this in context with another prominent culture war issue, that’s about three times higher than the number of Americans who identify as transgender (less than 1% of all adults). It’s also nearly on par with the percentage of the populace who are Jewish (2.4%).

So, logically, seeing people wearing masks in outdoor public spaces should be only slightly more common than seeing men wearing yarmulkes or women with five o’clock shadows. Yet as anyone living in a city like Seattle can attest, it’s an order of magnitude more common to see people jogging or paddle boarding or driving alone (or more ridiculous yet, out and about with an unmasked partner) while wearing a mask than it is either of those other phenomena.

All of which begs the question, why?

While the efficacy of masking indoors to prevent both infection and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is fairly well established (particularly if using a tight-fitting N95 ventilator-type mask, less so with commonly worn cloth or surgical masks), health experts agree that masking outdoors is essentially pointless.

As Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health has stated, “Once you get outside, it starts becoming really, really uncommon for the virus to spread.” He then added:

There are estimates that suggest maybe 1 in 1,000 infections happen outside. There are reasons to believe that if you just think about your risk, if you’re just out and about walking around, it’s probably even much less than that. So those rare instances occur in those contexts of sort of the large, packed rallies. I don’t know that we’ve seen really any cases of somebody who was just, let’s say, out for a walk or out for a run and picked up the infection that way.

In other words, there is absolutely no valid medical reason for wearing a mask outdoors. And yet obscene numbers of people continue to do so nonetheless.

To what end?

Let’s compare the risk versus reward aspect of such behavior to other common and uncommon dangers in life. Take, for instance, lightning strikes.

According to the CDC, your odds of being struck by lightning (varying somewhat by location and profession) are less than one in a million. And almost 90% of those who are struck survive the ordeal. So while many people may consequently suffer from astraphobia, it’s nearly unheard of to see anyone walking around wearing a portable lightning rod (if such a thing were even technically feasible).

How about the odds of being injured or killed while taking a shower or bath?

Again, this varies somewhat by age, but in general, in any given year, around 110,000 Americans (out of a total population of 340 million) will suffer bathtub and shower-related accidents (mostly slips and falls, burns, and drownings).

That’s quite a significant number. And yet how many people wear a helmet in the shower or scuba gear in the bathtub? I can virtually guarantee it’s far fewer than the number of people wearing masks while outdoors — despite it being a far more pragmatic and useful precaution than the latter.

It simply doesn’t make sense.

But fine. It may be completely irrational, but it is what it is. After all, ninety percent of humanity is religious, so I think it’s fair to say we’re not a very rational species. But again, looking at religiosity stats, I think it’s fair to say we are a very moralistic and judgmental species — which brings us right back to those lefties in masks.

During the height of the pandemic, leftists seemingly reveled in accusing those who refused to mask up of being selfish, reckless, society-hating ignoramuses, a.k.a. “covidiots.”

Yet contrary to their professed ethos of inclusivity and respect that they preach about ad nauseum, maskers (who, with very few exceptions, invariably fall on the left end of the political spectrum) are utter hypocrites in this regard.

For in insisting on still wearing their masks when the rest of the world has long since moved on, they treat all those around them not as fellow human beings to interact and engage with, but rather, as walking, talking disease vectors — something to be feared and avoided.

Now who’s being selfish?

Again, during the height of the pandemic, leftists (or at least, those infesting the sewers of Twitter, I mean “X”) railed endlessly about how those who refused to get vaccinated were prolonging the suffering of everyone else. Yet who are the ones now perpetuating a state of fear and distrust and refusing to let life get back to some semblance of normality?

None other than the junkies suffering under a self-imposed “Covid addiction.”

This refusal to allow a return to normalcy is not without societal costs. To quote an oft-used, pearl-clutching cliché, “Think of the children.” Because, to quote another cliché, “The kids are not alright.”

Just like the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, the government’s response to the pandemic (aided by an army of obedient and compliant citizens) arguably caused worse and more long-lasting damage than the virus itself.

An entire generation of schoolchildren is now traumatized, socially stunted, and hopelessly behind in their learning. Trust in government, science, and public institutions is at the lowest level in decades, while political polarization is worse than any time since the Civil War.

Is it perhaps possible that the continued wearing of masks should not only be officially discouraged, but should be publicly and continuously scolded and shamed? I mean, it only seems fair.

After all, it was none other than former president Obama who famously accused working class conservatives of “cling[ing] to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them… as a way to explain their frustrations.” How is it any more valid or respectable when leftists cling to masks as a way to “explain their frustrations” with conservatives?

If half the population can be mocked and dismissed as “deplorables” living in “flyover states,” then surely that stubbornly persistent percentage of the population who continues to mask outdoors can be likewise mocked and dismissed as utter fools.

And they’re not just fools, they’re essentially traitors to humanity and common decency both. When you think about it, other than to protect oneself from sunburn, windburn, or frostbite, it’s pretty unnatural to hide one’s face. Historically, it’s been a practice largely confined to bandits and oppressed, second-class citizens of theocracies, not honest and upright free individuals wishing to engage collaboratively with others.

What kind of message does it send when you’re too scared of your fellow humans to allow them to see your face? Not to mention the reprehensible disservice covering your mouth up does to those who are deaf or hard of hearing and rely on lip-reading to get by in their interactions with others. Talk about being insensitive to the already marginalized.

In the end, I suppose, it’s all about personal choice. And people have every right in the world to wear or not wear whatever they wish. If someone wants to walk around with a toilet seat strapped to their head while wearing a tutu, more power to them. I mean, it’s a free country, and I’m very glad it is.

But if we, as a society, hope to begin healing the physical, emotional, and cultural scars left by the worst pandemic in a century, a great place to start would be by ditching the stupid masks and getting on with the already-challenging-enough task of living life. Is that so much to ask?

Colby Hess is a freelance writer and photographer from Seattle, and author of the freethinker children’s book The Stranger of Wigglesworth.

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