It’s been nearly a month since my last update on my adventures of going maskless, and with good reason: Not much has changed.
Until now.
As time has passed since COVID-related restrictions were lifted, the vaccinated among us could go to public places mask-free. As I’ve said before, it’s glorious. During the masked days of yesteryear, I never got used to wearing a mask. I had to get out of my car and go back into the house to look for a mask more times than I care to admit. These days, I’m carefree, not even worrying about having a spare mask “just in case.”
PREVIOUS: Adventures In Maskless-ness
And it’s clear that most people are with me on this. During a recent Major League Baseball game that we attended, most were maskless. If I had to estimate, fewer than ten percent donned the useless pieces of cloth.
Regular visits to the supermarket have generally been uneventful on the mask front these days, with the overwhelming majority of shoppers going mask-free—even kids. Yup, kids who are too young to be vaccinated are going maskless, and no one is batting an eye anymore. I love it.
But things have started to change.
Over the past couple of weeks, there’s been a slight but noticeable increase in the number of people I’ve observed wearing masks again. I was baffled at first, but then the answer came to me: the Delta variant of COVID-19.
In recent weeks, the World Health Organization has recommended that vaccinated people resume wearing masks and social distancing because of the Delta variant. The Delta variant, it seems, is more transmissible than the original strain of COVID-19, so the powers-that-be decided to tell the population to wear the same cloth masks that didn’t stop COVID-19 in order to stop the spread of this more contagious strain. Not to be outdone in the fear-mongering department, Joe Biden literally claimed, “The Delta variant is more contagious, it’s deadlier, and it’s spreading quickly around the world – leaving young, unvaccinated people more vulnerable than ever.”
PREVIOUS: Adventures In Maskless-ness, Part 2
To call Biden’s claims “malarkey” would be an understatement. While the Delta variant does appear to spread more efficiently, it is not more deadly than the original strain of COVID.
I repeat, it is not more deadly.
But fear is a popular tool for controlling the population, and fear is exactly what Joe Biden chose. And while I don’t live in an area that has brought masking back or has officially suggested masking and social distancing again, the tactics appear to be slowly working.
Yes, COVID cases have gone up in the United Kingdom, where 90 percent of new COVID-19 cases are linked to the Delta variant, but there has been no surge in COVID-19 deaths. But people are starting to get scared, and those useless masks are gradually returning.
So, it will be interesting to see how things play out over the next few weeks. Will mask-wearing dramatically increase again? Are local or federal mandates in our future?
I sincerely hope not.
