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@camaradademian@neopaquita.es · 2 weeks ago

WHY PROGRESSIVES AND LEFTISTS NEEDED TO WEAR A MASK SINCE YESTERDAY
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bl0DsT8khogQ_TOOYjBlor8TBj7N6A72dDwL2sLQRzs/edit?tab=t.0

I can now say, year four into the C19 pandemic, that I’ve had enough conversations with supposed progressives and revolutionaries about the importance of masking. Person after person, always the same talking points, always the same polite concern followed with dismissal and apathy. I am one of many who are tired of people not being honest with themselves and not committing to their claimed values. These conversations have become so repetitive, so artificial that I resort to typing my own automatic response to common talking points rather than wasting my time doing one-on-one. It should concern all anti-capitalists that, when confronted about masking and accessibility, visibly fall back on the same replies as right-wingers. While the latter may sound more crude and unapologetic, the premises are identical.

It is crucial to self-reflect on one’s own actions and whether they align with one’s values, because so many have tolerated cognitive dissonances and let them translate into material harm. Some have chosen it knowingly, which begs the question of how serious an individual is about the human rights and liberation of all peoples.

1. But we are social creatures, we have to see each other’s faces. Many essential settings don’t carry a social cost to wearing a mask, namely places like malls, grocery shops, public transit, pharmacies, movie theaters, concerts, conferences and clinics. A vast majority of activities can be carried out with a mask across the face. It makes sense to become a link in the chain to block transmission wherever possible, to protect the wellbeing of performers and workers. Any human being is vulnerable to Covid-19, some are simply more vulnerable, but this virus and its long-term effects don’t discriminate.

#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice

demian 😷☭⚧ (he/they)

@camaradademian@neopaquita.es replied · 2 weeks ago

It’s an arbitrary decision to claim being entitled to showing your face to anyone and everyone, wherever, and that it’s a necessary criteria for socializing. Masks and socializing are not mutually exclusive and can often make socializing safer for people who deserve to be included as much as you. Maskless gatherings can be done privately with consent from the ones attending. The risk of exposure in public spaces should be reduced to the maximum, to the point where infection almost relates to bad luck out of respect for people’s bodily autonomy and health. A part of having a vibrant community is looking out for each other and enabling access to spaces for all. What needs to be done is prioritizing lives over “vibes” and re-centering our ways of bonding together beyond the scope of excessive consumerism.

2. High-risk people can wear a mask if they want. Mask media filters up to 98% of particles. More often than not, one-way masking with a quality respirator will prevent infection in social settings even in the face of contagious people, but it has limits. This performance tanks if the mask isn’t perfectly fitted to the wearer’s face, simply because air follows the path of least resistance. You give it gaps, it’ll pass through the gaps and the bigger they are, the more leakage. This disingenuous talking point flies in the face of high-risk people often not having access to fit-testing to achieve a perfect seal or the financial capacity to consistently buy respirators. It places the burden of protection on vulnerable people and voluntarily shuts out the notion of solidarity, which in this case would translate into two-way masking to fix the main limitation of one-way masking.

demian 😷☭⚧ (he/they)

@camaradademian@neopaquita.es replied · 2 weeks ago

Airborne viruses behave similarly to cigarette smoke. The limitation with a perfectly sealed respirator, when only the wearer is masking, is what I call the hotbox effect. Aerosols accumulate in an unventilated room with time, so having a contagious source in the room with a masked high-risk person inside whose presence is required is a real risk especially when they can’t choose when to leave. At that point, a minimum 2% of leakage over time turns into inhaling an infectious dose. The same applies to a ventilated room where the vulnerable person is sitting next to a contagious source for hours. The proximity trumps ventilation, because that’s where the aerosols are the most concentrated.

3. We have to take into consideration the comfort and freedom of others. This is antithetical to collective care notions that are supposed to be at the heart of progressive and revolutionary ideologies. Freedom has its limits when the autonomy of one can result in death or long-term disability (or worsening one’s condition) of another. The idea that masks are uncomfortable is also arbitrary, because on these grounds, we should have waged war against heels, bras and costumes, and yet many choose to wear such things for hours at a time. Regardless, keeping each other healthy is far more comfortable than managing chronic illness and having to endure invasive medical interventions after no one bothered to use prevention tools.

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