People, please! Have some self-respect!
You people who are wearing Covid-19 face masks outdoors, bathed in God’s golden sunshine, bicycling with the lane all to your lonesome, trucking down the sidewalk under a high sky and no one within 20 yards, you 20-something solitary joggers feeling the breeze wafting off Lake Monona …
TAKE OFF YOUR FACE MASKS!
Here’s my face mask!
Quit being such weenies! You look like IDIOTS! Don’t be so PARANOID! You are not going to die! You are watching too much CNN! The contrails from the F-15s buzzing Madison ain’t coronavirus dust! Does the farmer shear you for your wool every spring?
God help us, we’ve seen motorists on Madison’s Beltline in full face mask, windows rolled up. Be careful of such people, they vote Progressive. An Axios poll finds that 78% of Democrats say they wear a mask at all times compared to just 45% of Republicans.
So maybe Covid-19 masks are a political fashion statement.
The political desk at the Werkes is no fan of Tony Evers. The man is weak-kneed. Can’t even defend the State Capitol from the marauders. But even Tony the toothless says only this:
“You need to wear a face covering whenever you are indoors or in an enclosed space, other than a private residence, and other people are present in the same room or space. For example, you must wear a mask while you are shopping in a store or using a taxi.”
Is that so hard to understand? Some pretty intelligent people question the governor’s legal authority to issue such an edict (backed by a $200 fine). And/or question their efficacy. (Our Mizz Vicki demonstrates vaping through a face mask.) But we’ll play along. In a store or riding a taxi. (We pick our fights.)
But OUTDOORS! In the fresh air? (Air Quality Index this morning over Madison WI: Most Excellent!) This ain’t Mumbai or NYC after 9/11, people. Use some common sense.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Prize goes to the motorcyclist wearing a Covid-19 face mask. No helmet, but a face mask. Must have taken one too many tumbles.
When do YOU wear a mask, kemosabe?
Military Ridge bike trail heading east from Mt. Horeb yesterday…lots of users, nary a mask until Hwy PD (Fitchburg) and as I entered the Emerald City and hit the SW Trail (parallels Monroe St) the bikies became bleaters with half of all riders masked up. Best recreational sheep in this burg are the stand up paddleboarders on Lake Monona off Spaight St. dutifully masked up to avoid killing granny.
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I can’t breathe.
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My Dean HMO doctor says it’s unnecessary to wear a face mask while bicycling all by one’s lonesome.
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If you were voting Democrat you would want to wear a mask too.
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If you had to vote for a D卐M☭CRAT, a clothespin worn on the nose works, too.
A SARS virus is very small and passes through most masks.
Like a screen door on a submarine, a fish with a bicycle or Gov. Evers, they’re totally useless, ineffective and actually cause more harm than good.
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Ichabod Evers is like a penny; two-faced and damned near worthless!
The Gotch
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Is vos going to sue again? If not is he also two-faced and worthless?
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That’s true of a simple cloth mask, but one with a few layers of proper filtering material (which is easier to breathe through than most cloth) will keep out ALL virus particles going in either direction. Going around town pointing at people and telling them they look like idiots is possibly the most childish, petty thing I’ve heard all week. Grow up! This has, by the way, absolutely NOTHING to do with politics, except in your fevered adolescent brains. Any idiot knows that you take precautions if you know what they are. Pro tip: WE KNOW WHAT THEY ARE.
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Patrick Dieter – your facts are incorrect:
The 2019-nCoV particles varies from about 60 to 140 nm—that means as small as 0.06 microns all the way to 0.14 microns. So unless you’re wearing an N95 or an N99 mask, your assertion is incorrect.
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Nope. If you use the same filtering material that’s in an N95 mask (available dirt cheap on Amazon) and get a proper seal with four layers, it’s actually MORE efficient than the N95 because the multiple layers tend to catch all particles long before they get through the fibers.
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I suggest reading the peer-reviewed studies on masks and fitting.
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I have. For some strange reason, none of them address the issue of homemade masks that perfectly replicate or exceed the N95 masks. I researched it heavily to make sure I was creating an effective replacement. Mine is double the effectiveness of a commercially-made N95.
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From what I understand, fitting is the critical element. The way you can tell if an N95 mask is working is if your breathing, at rest, is somewhat labored.
Please note that I consider masking to be unnecessary. The best way to deal with this, if you are in reasonably good health, is to get it, get over it and pass on the immunity.
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Let me encourage you to get on with it then. I am in an extremely high risk group, so I’ll have to pass on martyring myself over an opinion.
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In the Great Outdoors!? With No One around!? You do NOT need a mask!
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And that’s your business HOW? I reiterate. Pointing fingers of blame and hurling insults over small, petty, harmless behaviors is exceedingly childish. It suggests an obsession with constantly being right (whether you are or not.)
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And paranoid
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“Pointing fingers of blame and hurling insults over small, petty, harmless behaviors is exceedingly childish. It suggests an obsession with constantly being right (whether you are or not.” (bolds/italics mine)
What you reference is TEXTBOOK micro-managing, busy-bodying, rat-’em-out, We_Know_What’s_Best_For_You Lefty Stasi behavior.
OWN IT!!!
The Gotch
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Presumably, you were looking in the mirror when you made this comment? You are essentially micromanaging perfect strangers who ride past you on a bicycle. Can’t get much more busybody than that.
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Yet, the Werkes has issued no executive order, has not promulgated an administrative rule, has proclaimed no fatwah. He has merely expressed a constitutionally protected opinion that, judging by the response here (aside from yours) is shared by many others.
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In what way have I stopped that opinion from being shared freely? Since I”m not a government agency, I am incapable of censorship. I am merely exercising my own right to free speech. Still quite juvenile to point fingers and call fellow citizens “idiotic.”
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Except when they ARE idiotic. No one, not Tony Evers, not Dr. Fauci, not Oprah Winfrey advises wearing face masks In The Great Outdoors! Yesterday evening, saw a fellow on a moped wearing flip flops, no helmet, and a FACEMASK! The guy is a full-on idiot!
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So you’re telepathic now? You know exactly why the guy wore a mask? I don’t think so. Plus, even if what he was doing IS idiotic, it’s rude and childish to say so. I’d bet you have had your share of idiotic moments as well.
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“Presumably, you were looking in the mirror when you made this comment?”
Um…not exactly.
IMO, MOST of the slobbering, and verbal/physical attacks initiated, about wearing/not wearing masks is from Lefties.
This doesn’t surprise The Gotch in the least, ’cause that’s how Lefty rolls:
*If a Conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one, if a Despicable Lefty doesn’t like guns, he wants guns outlawed.
*If a Conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat, if a Despicable Lefty is a vegetarian, he wants meat products banned.
*If a Conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life, if a Despicable Lefty is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
*If a Conservative is down-and-out, he tries to better his situation, a Despicable Lefty wants to know who is going to fix it for him.
*If a Conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels, Despicable Lefties want those they don’t like to be silenced.
*If a Conservative is a nonbeliever, he doesn’t go to church, if a Despicable Lefty is a nonbeliever he wants any mention of religion silenced, unless, of course, the religion is from another culture.
*If a Conservative needs health care he shops for it, or looks for a job that will provide it, a Despicable Lefty demands that the rest of us provide for it.
*A Conservative will read this and will forward it, so his friends can have a good laugh, a Despicable Lefty will read this and delete it, because he’s offended.
Ah Lefty; so MUCH crippling ignominy, so little time!!!
The Gotch
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Gee, that’s funny. I’m many miles to the Left of most Progressives and none of those things are true of me. You missed the part where Conservative Evangelical Christians live to force their beliefs and rules on everyone! You’ve spent too long in the Republican echo chamber that you can no longer see the routine habits of your cohort. Are there SOME so-called “Lefties” who act that way? Of course. There are assholes in every group. EVERY group.
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The Gotch doesn’t blame you in the least for trying to distance yourself from LaLaLoopyLoonLeftyLand.
That said:
“You missed the part where Conservative Evangelical Christians live to force their beliefs and rules on everyone!”
STRIKE ONE: The Gotch is a devout agnostic and no sympathizer.
“You’ve spent too long in the Republican echo chamber that you can no longer see the routine habits of your cohort.”
STRIKE TWO: The Gotch is a multidecadal INDEPENDENT…a Free Agent political party-wise.
One more thing.
Only TWO strikes in this game, ergo, YER OUT…in Lefty Field!
The Gotch
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Where is YOUR statue, Mr. Forward?
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My statue never made it to the plinth, some people objected to the pitchfork. So it’s up in the haymow keeping the pigeons happy. I recently added a screw top head and a life preserver because you just never know. Thanks for asking.
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Worse: these morons vote.
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Been thinking the same exact thing!!
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Just another excuse for some virtue-signaling–Madison liberals’ favorite passtime (besides cop-bashing). From my experience, you’d think the near eastside bike path was ground zero in the pandemic.
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The city would have made a mint of they would have fined everybody at the “celebration of death” the other night at Garner.
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I don’t wear one. They are beyond useless. Every proprietor must piss off his clients if he insists. Every cop has something better to do. Most of the masks are one day/one use and long expired. If the damn virus was one tenth as communicable as promised we’ve all been exposed repeatedly.
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I was tempted to stop my car and ask a young woman jogging in the mountains all alone why she was wearing a mask but I knew it was a political statement she was making so no sense asking her. Either that or she thought the deer were carrying covid. Either one is irrational thinking and best not to confront the irrational.
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9a this morning, SW bike path, about 10% masked. At 11a about 20% masked.
This past Weds morning, on an isolated section of the Ice Age Trail, an older couple separated by about 20 feet, both masked. Runner coming up behind them, me on a bike about 100 yards away. Woman goes into a total panic, looks just like a cornered rabbit. She doesn’t know where to turn and finally figures out that she can get behind her husband.
My regular question, when I have the opportunity to ask it, is: on a scale of 1-10, if the Black Death is a 10 and health is a zero, where is COVID?
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The data for mandated, universal masking it’s less than robust. Most people don’t use them properly anyway (don’t wash the cloth ones daily or don’t dispose of the disposable ones after daily use) and, in fact, they become an infectious source over time. Nobody at my golf course here in the hinterlands wear them. When is the legislature going to step up and eliminate this silly measure?
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Depends on your age and risk factors. A healthy young adult: almost zero. Elderly with risk factors higher, but so many variables, hard to pinpoint. I saw on news last night 59,000 positive cases in Wisconsin, 1,000 deaths for a “total mortality rate” of 1.6%, which is about 16 times the mortality rate of the common flu. Certainly notable, but not “lock down the planet” noteworthy. I predicted back in April on this blog those numbers and that the lockdown costs would far outweigh the benefits. I guess Steve owes me a beer.
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Actually the rate is 0.018% of the population of 5,800,00 Wisconsinites. It’s easy to play the numbers and say it’s off the positive cases. How many of the 5,800,000 are testing positive? That’s right, you don’t and never will.
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You are using a different metric. I am correct: mortality rate is 1.69% or 1.69 people die/100 people infected. The actual rate is probably much lower as many more people are infected but dont know it and dont get tested
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I find the 0.018 number to be more reliable. ‘Total mortality’ though a standard, has no real denominator; the number of infected is unknown.
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Kooter…A scant 18 of those roughly 1,000 deaths are to Wisconsinites younger than 40. Seven of 10 total state deaths are to those aged 70 and over. So, the risk for virus infection in the main biking demographic (under 40) is extremely small. NOTE: It’s my evidence-based presumption that many of those 18 have immune-suppression issues, or another underlying condition.
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/deaths.htm
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Yes, and more importantly, the minute percentage of school age children, and only slightly higher percentage for teachers, makes school closings a political, not a scientifically-based, decision.
It would be really nice if WI would post co-morbidity factors for the covid-related deaths.
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Kevin and Tom: I agree.
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Pardon the reply to myself. Allow me to make a correction: The “under 40” demographic can still become infected and transmit the virus, of course, but serious complications such as hospitalization and death are concentrated in the aged, and especially in those over 60.
Masked biking is still unnecessary.
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It probably doesn’t seem “scant” to those young people who are drawing their last breath. I suspect it’s a pretty big deal to them.
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Any death, to those who are dying or their families, is tragic. How do we respond as a society to the fact that life implies death? Do we shut down schools because 18 students might die? Do we shut down businesses because 1,000 people out of 6,000,000 might die? What are the costs to society for doing so? And I don’t mean only the financial costs. How many students are going to be left behind? How many businesses, and the jobs/livelihood that they provide, will cease to exist? We do not do this for influenza-like-illnesses (ILI), which kill ~1600 people/year in WI.
To bring it back home, would you Patrick, who identifies here as a person in a high risk category, assert that it is your right to insist that society essentially stop so that you can be protected?
The typed word essentially eliminates subtlety, or at least devolves into that condition. Please know that I intend these as real questions in a real and very necessary discussion.
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Well, I think it’s safe to say that nobody knows exactly what to do. I suggest that the most critical thing is that we all get behind whatever solution has been put forth and work together. I’m not blind or insensitive to the horrible stuff that’s come as a result of the shutdown. I also know that such “disasters” also usually contain the seeds of a better way to do things, online school etc. It’s definitely stopped a whole lot of bullying problems, for instance. With AI and massive automation on the horizon, a whole lot of us are going to need to embrace a VERY new way of having an economy. MANY jobs will become irrelevant in the next few decades. We will need to choose some new way to distribute wealth and goods, because the whole “work = paycheck” thing will be history. Those who refuse to change will suffer the most.
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Thank you. While I agree that the future will likely be quite different than the present, things like online classes only work for a minority of students. The lack of a proper environment, or even the basic tools, impact a significant number of students. In Madison, based on the number of students who qualified for assistance, that number could be 33% of the total student population.
As a kid who was bullied for most of the time I was in school, small stature and big mouth, not such a great combination, bullying is not the worst thing that can happen. Not being able to think properly is far worse.
I have no interest in supporting what is being pushed by our Governor, County exec or Mayor. What they are promoting will destroy our society and culture and I can’t help wonder if that is the objective.
Thank you for the discussion.
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My question is….so what? I don’t care if you wear your MAGA hat, your fanny pack, mirror sunglasses, or your plaid shorts with white socks. Why do you righties always feel the need to get in someone’s face all the time over this stuff. You can all get together and have a Covid party; no one really cares.
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the lefties get in righties’ faces. Remember Manhattan Beach?
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Richard-may-I-call-ya-Dick. Fanny pack? When Melba Stone 1st brought them out in 1962, they were embraced wholeheartedly by the swishy left, and later accessorized with man-purses and man-buns. If yer gonna make these scurrilous comments, please get the attributes correct. BTW, last I checked, the most egregious mask-scorners were the much revered members of… Black Lives Matter.
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The swishy left?
Heh! Like there’s any other kind…?
The Gotch
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Yes my big lib brother in law has been wearing one for years. And he makes quiche, his son sympathizes with BLM, and they don’t eat meat. Man bun will be next.
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More essential than vos’s popcorn business and he got 350 grand of your tax money from the feds. We got zippo.
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“We got zippo.”
We?
Yeah, right; and zippo‘s more than you deserved!
The Gotch
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Do I have to post all the Google hits on “MAGA cap wearer assaulted”? No one here has gotten into anyone’s face. Just commenting and (however hopeless) attempting to educate.
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RE: masks [the following was posted to Robin Vos, date shown]
Mon 8/3/2020 1:43 PM
Speaker Vos:
You Swore an oath to uphold the Constitution & Laws of Wisconsin.
Gov. Evers has violated the law TWICE, issuing UNCONSTITUTIONAL mandates.
STOP playing political chess with the economic & educational health of this once great state.
LOSE the feckless, gutless, spineless “go along, get along”, business-as-usual Standard Operating Procedure.
GET OFF YOUR ASS, put your CLOWN POSSE majority in motion, neuter the little Duce NOW!
Your CONSERVATIVE base is relying on you and your contemporaries in the Senate.
Response from Vos to date… CRICKETS!
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Evers is following the CDC guidelines. As confusing as trump has made them.
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Dave. Really. I concur and don’t wear a masc outside either. Let them be. We can coexist. 😊
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True, but the issue is the mandate for everyone to wear them. Regressive logic in action: “I’m nervous to drive so let’s put in more speed limits/stop lights” or “I’m a vegetarian so let’s ban meat” or “I’m a whatever-gender so lets demonize the norm”. Regressives are ruining this country.
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Wearing a mask outdoors while walking/running/biking is simply the left’s new mode of virtue signaling. To the reasonable and sane It’s simply a badge of ignorance.
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C’mon Scott, perpetually needy Lefties can only shoehorn so many virtue-signalling signs onto their property.
They’ve flooded that zone; same with the Gosh I’m Nice Toyota Pious bumper stickers, the Look At Me lapel ribbons, and the I’m Dialed IN wrist bracelets.
It appears to be a natural, imbecilic Lefty progression: Masks are the Next Big Thing!
Never Interfere With an Enemy While He’s in the Process of Destroying Himself attributed to N. Bonaparte
The Gotch
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There are well over 25 comments about masks from the radical right. Just who is freaking out here. It really isn’t any of your business. If you find it so upsetting why don’t you walk up, get in their face and tell them how you feel about them wearing a mask. Hmmmmmm?
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Because we aren’t you.
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“Because we aren’t you.”
Bet you thank your everLUVin’ Lucky Stars for that, am I right?
The Gotch
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Two experiences. 1) Last week Friday (8/1) was in Three Lakes. Saw roughly 40 people out and about, 2 wearing masks. 2) This week Friday (8/7) was in Minneapolis. On the way back, heard a radio ad for a Menomonie-area hardware store MOCKING Evers’ mask order.
In the real world, nobody’s buying the Lefty bullshit.
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So why are there 4 ads on this blog selling masks?
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Fools gotta buy them somewhere.
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The ads come and go; I have no control over them.
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Thank you for bringing this up! Whenever I see someone wearing a mask outside on a near-empty street, empty parking lots, etc. I see a person with no common sense, someone with the inability to think critically. In a city that thinks of itself as intellectually elite. Ha.
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Deciding to wear a mask is like deciding to wear shoes or not. It’s none of your business.
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Who demands you wear shoes?
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Ah, so deciding to wear masks or not is none of anyone’s business. I concur. Welcome to the party pal.
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I asked a friend of mine about masking wearing on the bike path. She said it’s because they want to protect people from their germs should that cross paths with someone. I say that that is nuts. The risk is minimal.
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I went with the neck gaiter instead. It’s more effective than the conventional surgical style masks and even modestly filters the air on low quality days. It’s no fun feeling like you smoked a pack of Kools on your bike ride home from work I say. Plus I can simply pull the thing up to ease the minds of the crackpots and germaphobes if I have to go somewhere. Then once outside the gaiter comes down immediately without having to detach a dumb mask and so on. I like the cool blue Lycra fabric and the cool ninja style with multi functions as a face/head covering. And you can mutter to your self and not draw attention and throw off unwanted acquaintances as it is an adequate disguise. Otherwise, wearing a mask everywhere is overkill. I saw a guy at Walmart East last week with an open fast food sandwich carton attached across his face! That was a Walmart moment to say the least. But yeah everything is out of balance in this country, I still abide by (some) of George Carlins philosophies on germs. The 3-5 second rule still applies, it’s how I rage against the machine.
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I like using the ascot. Goes well with my blue blazer and yachting cap.
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