Footnote 8

Yesterday, my daughter and I took the (public) bus and she asked me: "why don't you wear a mask?"--My answer: "Because it’s not necessary, my dear. Would you rather I’d wore a mask?--"No." (smiles)

So, yesterday this happened: due to the expectable, if somewhat bungled, response to seasonal weather shifts—there were some 20cm of snow that fell during the night from Monday to Tuesday—by local gov’t, I didn’t take the bike to my daughter’s kindergarten and work. To be honest, the municipality’s response was better than the abysmal experience last winter, but still, practice makes perfect, I daresay.

We took the bus, and this was fine enough, although virtually everyone showed up late for both kindergarten and work. On the way back home, the (public) bus company had cancelled every second bus during afternoon rush hour, citing ‘construction work’ and, guess what, heavy traffic (on which see my brief comments below the following dialogue).

Bottom line: it took us some 25 minutes until our bus arrived, and then some 50 minutes until we got off some 7-8 stops later.

While we passed through the city centre, the bus was crowded, with—I’m guesstimating here—4 out of 5 people following the government’s ‘recommendation’ to put on a face diaper ‘if the minimum distance of 1m cannot be maintained’. Leaving aside the inanity of ‘recommending’ any such ‘measure’, however absurd in practice, let me just note that the bus drivers, of course, don’t wear face diapers here (you know, I would expect because ‘the virus’ won’t get them because they are ‘essential workers’, respect the driver’s booth, or whatever; it seems to be the same case with patrons in a restaurant: wear a face diaper before you sit down, but once you do, ‘the virus’ moves around you; I digress).

Here’s what my daughter (D) said to me (I) about halfway into our ride.

D: Dad, why don’t you wear a mask?
I: Because it’s not necessary, my dear. You don’t have to wear a mask if you don’t want to.
D: I see. Many people do that.
I: I know, my dear. Would you rather I’d wore a mask?
D: No (smiling at me).
I: (smiling at her)

I’d say that’s a score for displaying reasoned understanding at age 4.5. Also, I daresay this is also win for responsible parenting, and I dare the government to interfere with it.

Hopefully, this little anecdote made you smile. Have a good day.

P.S.: Masks don’t work.

A brief ‘disclaimer’ or sorts—no, this isn’t medical advice.

Do your own research, but keep in mind that these face diapers have a filtration efficiency between 70-98% (depends on the product) against bacteria. Sars-Cov2 is a virus. Masks don’t work against respiratory viruses, on which see Steve Kirsch’s helpful compilation of 47 (!) peer-reviewed studies that support my statement.

If anything, face diapers may prevent you from spreading way too much in case you’re symptomatically infected (but in that case you shouldn’t be on a public bus, right).

Finally, if you do wear a mask that offers more protection, such as a FFP2 (KN95) mask, do check out labour and occupation health legislation. As it stands, these masks were designed for people who work under certain circumstances (e.g., cleaning facades, polishing wooden floors, etc.); labour and occupation health legislation typically contains provisions for their use, such as a maximum of 75-90 minutes of wearing masks at any given time, followed by a mandatory break of doing so for 30 minutes (this depends on the jurisdiction you find yourself in).