Believe it or not, the #ZeroCOVID cultists — who insist on permanent lockdowns, forced masking, etc. in perpetuity for the unattainable pipe dream of eradicating COVID — are still going strong in fringe corners of social media.
Creativity not being their strong suit, one of their favorite genres of social media posting is to go into public places — usually doctor’s offices — and complain that no one else is being forced to wear a mask.
#SaltingTheVibe on the LIRR. As we approach the city, I can see a thick soup-like cover due to the heat wave pushing pollutants down. To think we could have had #congestionPricing … instead we got #maskbans 🤦 😷 #noNYmaskban pic.twitter.com/cvZ864QsJG
— Angelique Corthals #SaltingTheVibes #MaskUp (@aspcorthals) August 28, 2024
My guess is that they met with a lot of success in the early days of COVID by publicly shaming establishments that didn’t enforce their preferred draconian masking/lockdown/vax agenda, and so they kept it up, not realizing that the zeitgeist has shifted to the point that they can be easily ignored without serious repercussions.
Related: 'COVID Safe Cuties': The Insular #ZeroCOVID Dating Network
Their main complaint in 2025 is that, by allowing people to breathe fresh air at the grocery store or in schools, the government is practicing “eugenics” by facilitating the culling of those disabled by COVID and the immunocompromised.
Accepting and endorsing policies which accept harm for everyone and disproportionate harm for all marginalized peoples = supporting eugenics.
— Victoria (@vera_tenacious) July 28, 2023
Friends don't let friends be fascists.
See next tweet for sources for free respirator masks. #CovidIsAirborne #DoNoHarm #MaskUp #SARS2 pic.twitter.com/9Qg1RkaZCn
Via The Atlantic (emphasis added):
Members of these groups say they’re only doing what they’ve always done since the start of the pandemic: In the parlance of the boards, they’re “still COVID-ing.” But some are also going further to protect themselves than they did in 2020, and seeking out new strategies for staying safe. They share tips online for how to fit their N95 masks, or for taping filters to the spouts of snorkels so they can safely visit indoor pools. They talk about the challenges of COVID-conscious parenting, and meet up for COVID-conscious church events on Sunday Zooms. They share lists of COVID-conscious therapists who would never try to tell you that you’re too afraid of getting sick, or that your risk perception is distorted, or that the problem here is not the world’s but your own…
When people walk around in masks in 2025, or insist on having lunch outside even in the dead of winter, they find that their cautious habits earn them fewer angry looks. They’re less reviled than they used to be. They’re more often just ignored.
To be ignored — as anyone who has spent time with toddlers can attest — is the most unbearable affront of all.
NY is working to add a mask ban in the state budget! Ask your NY Senator, Assembly Member, Sen. Majority Leader, Assembly Speaker & Gov Hochul to reject mask restrictions in the budget! We need a law to PROTECT our right to masks & clean air.https://t.co/noA6o8Eja0 #NoNYMaskBan pic.twitter.com/Ip1vnC5dEm
— MaskTogetherAmerica (@TogetherWeMask) March 31, 2025
These people, like all cult members, very clearly struggle with questioning their own sanity in a world that doesn’t largely share their obsession with COVID. To remedy their personal discomfort, they will often make affirmative posts meant for other members of the in-group to reinforce their delusions.
Related: Vaxxed Healthcare Workers 27% MORE Likely to Contract Flu: Study
At some point over the past several years, the Zero COVID fringe has turned against, in a delicious irony, the same Public Health™ institutions that they relied on to enforce their hypochondria on everyone else in the first place.
Continuing:
Amid the nation’s mass indifference, their isolation has only gotten more intense. Their epistemic bubble has been shrinking too. This used to be the group that was most attuned to what “the science” said; the ones who paid attention to the dots painted on the sidewalk, six feet apart. In the past few years, as official rules for social distancing have been revoked, they’ve had to make up new ones for themselves. As standard COVID medicines grew ever more expensive, they’ve had to scour for alternatives. And as basic research on the virus hit a wall, they’ve had no choice but to do their own…
The COVID-conscious people have not abandoned science, Dennis told me. It’s the opposite: They’ve come to think that science has abandoned them.
It wasn’t “science” that abandoned them; it was reality.
Yet they march on nobly, tilting against windmills, hoping for a new pandemic as the pretext to lock everyone down all over again.
