Isn't a Bit of Infection Protection Reasonable? (Meant is Voluntary Masking)

Masking is awesome, because it permits the wearer to feel better (although there's, of course, no evidence that masking actually makes sense outside construction sites)

I found this gem of wisdom a few days ago, and since I suppose you’d might want to comment on it, have a go (translation, emphases, and [snark] mine).

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Would a Little Infection Control Really be so Unreasonable?

Our author wears a mask and is repeatedly criticised for it. She remains calm, explains, and thinks: this really is the stupidest of all realities.

An op-ed by Anna Böcker, Der Tages-Anzeiger, 2 March 2025 [source]

Illness season! It’s flu season, plus other respiratory infections and there’s always a bit of Covid. Colleagues are absent, daycare centres are closed, the bus isn’t running, it’s no fun [remember, correlation isn’t causation; upon second thought, whatever, I suppose at this point in time]. The 2020/21 flu epidemic, on the other hand, was virtually non-existent. Back then, the general public was still protecting themselves from infection [by being forcibly ‘locked down’, mandated masking, and the like: good times, eh? /sarcasm]

Now the peak of the pandemic is over, but Covid is still going around. This means that people are still falling ill with long Covid [sic], for which there are still no approved treatments [people got ‘off-label’ poison/death juices for their kids, so what’s keeping you from doing likewise and get non-approved treatments, such as ‘horse dewormer™’ or the like? Oh, it might be your addled brain plus your NPC physician…]. There is also no prevention—apart from trying not to get infected in the first place [what about living healthy, being outdoors, perhaps adding vitamins C and D to your diet, etc., but, no, what cannot be, simply can’t be thought in the first place]. But even harmless infections cause real problems because they lead to a lot of downtime [speak for yourself]. Would it really be so unreasonable to do a little something to prevent infection? [personal recommendation: spend 1-2 hours outdoor everyday all year, irrespective of the weather, ginger tea plus vitamin D supplements all year long: I’m not a physician, but I’m also hardly ever sick].

I’m often asked why I wear a mask. Rarely in an empathetic, curious way, but rather in an aggressive way. I’m confronted, usually by strangers who think I have a contagious disease. [no way I’m commenting on this]

In the hope of sparing the next person affected this question [what a hypothesis—as if normal (sane) people would wear masks (which don’t work)], I then explain that I am wearing the mask to protect myself [ok, whatever], like the vast majority of people wearing masks [this is how these absurdities are kept alive: marry a truth (masks have a purpose, e.g., FFP2/N95 ones when sanding indoors or removing mould) to a lie, such as ‘the vast majority of people wearing masks’ doesn’t do it to prevent infection with a respiratory pathogen…but then again, such distinctions don’t matter to Branch Covidians]. And that it’s not the infected people with masks that are the problem, but those without [we have, officially, learned nothing from the Covid years: these mentally ill people are still (!) considering everyone but them the problem, with all attendant issues, incl. most notably the pathologicalisation (if that’s a word) of someone else’s behaviour]. Why the hell is it always the people wearing masks who are confronted—the people at risk, the cautious, and the supportive? [be an ally, wear a mask] And not those who go to the shops and trains obviously ill without a mask? [this stance, I’d argue, is at the heart of our predicament here—both on an individual level (my freedom ends where yours begins, but that’s not an issue for this mentally ill columnist) and on a societal level (no Covid judicial review and harsh sentences for the perpetrators, no peace)].

We Hardly Use our Tools

In a way, I’m happy when people speak to me instead of staring angrily, coughing in my direction, or shouting at me. But it really draws down my energy. And actually, everyone has known the answer for a long time: for whatever reason, a person wears a mask—they are protecting themselves and others at the same time [another unholy union of truth and lie, and I suppose the only apt illustration for the author of this op-ed is a mediaeval plague doctor wearing a mask]. Why do people still constantly attack you when you’re wearing a mask, with words like: you’re scaring me, go away? [my choice of words would be different, of course…].

This is the stupidest of all realities. People with masks are being discriminated against, and air filters are being disposed of [ever checked the average bathroom air vent shaft? Now, if you did, you’d learn quickly…]. Part of the population believes that the vaccination is to blame for Long Covid and not Covid [hard to say, really, if ‘public health™’ officialdom never did those studies, the manufacturers committed fraud, and legacy media merely amplified the BS from ‘authorities’]. Flu vaccination rates are far from the target rates [do they ‘work’? I mean, they’re awesome for Big Pharma, but I’ve yet to see convincing evidence these poison juices actually prevent infection or transmission: oh, wait, we don’t know as this is apparently not studied (but, for completeness’s sake, see this 2024 CDC study, which notes the flu shot ‘reduced the risk for influenza-associated hospitalization among high-risk groups by 35%’ (no talk of infection—which is mentioned 4 times—or transmission, which is mentioned not at-all)]. Because so many people are ill, those who are still able to come to work half-sick and switch off the rest [again, speak for yourself].

Of course, wearing a mask is annoying, and nobody wants to go to the vaccination centre [I’d offer a simple solution here: don’t wear a mask, don’t go to a vaxx centre]. But putting it on briefly on the train or in the supermarket really doesn’t hurt [but your rambling nonsense hurts my brain]. Lying flat for days with an infection is definitely more annoying [apparently, that’s true, but then again, it’s also true that being sick is your body’s natural response while getting healthy again]. People often think mask wearers are crazy and paranoid. But maybe it’s also a bit crazy to sit unprotected in an underground car full of coughing people and wonder why everyone is sick somehow [well, hard to argue with that notion of being ‘a bit crazy’ to wonder about this while you’re the one wearing a f****** mask].

We have reasonably good tools at our disposal. The health insurance pays for the vaccinations [here’s a thought: make people pay for themselves and see how high vaccination rates would be; remember, they are ‘way off target’ now]. Tests and masks are thrown at us [do these tests work? I’m very sceptical at this point, and recent legacy media reporting isn’t very convincing: they claim tests work but also suggest taking ‘multiple tests’ (what for? the manufacturer’s bottom line, of course)]. An air filter costs employers less than one or two replacement shifts. But we hardly use them. Meanwhile, people at risk prefer to stay at home and have to think carefully about whether they can afford to go to the doctor [isn’t health insurance paying?]

Author Ed Yong has won a Pulitzer Prize for his writing on the pandemic, but he continues to wear a mask at events [no comment]. Yong talks about a cycle of panic and neglect as a reaction to crises. Neglect leads to going into the next crisis unprepared and then panicking again. There is no glory in prevention, they say. So here’s a round of applause and thanks to all those who are trying to keep themselves and others healthy [no such nonsense piece works without some self-congratulatory, virtue-signalling BS].

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Bottom Lines

The pandemicists have won, at least in regard to casting a spell over legacy media and their ilk.

This is particularly apparent in such op-eds, often penned (sic), without much, if any, thought, by comparatively young journos™ whose only claim to ‘fame™’ is the combination of their ignorance coupled with a profound distance, emotional, intellectual, and factual, from the real world:

'What to do if Family Members Vote AfD? Visit a Counselling Centre'

There’s so much that’s painfully wrong in the above example of that op-ed about masking, it boggles the mind.

What I find even more problematic, though, is that woman’s inability, or refusal, to consider the world from someone else’s point of view.

Der Tagesanzeiger is a known left-radical rag, yet they have no problems pushing for both war and more mass immigration of Moslems. Some of their ‘highlights’ that have caught my attention include:

'I Would Fight for Germany', TAZ columnist and socialist utopian Leon Holly proclaims

Upside Down: German Left-Wing Media taz Calls for NATO to ‘Liberate’ Ukraine

Of course, they’re also all-in on the woke-fied war against nature:

Footnote 24: 'Hetero-Sex isn't natural'

Naturally, it’s a good thing, these insane people claim, that Moslems must be imported at all costs, even if that means the normalisation of the utterly depraved practice of ‘masking’ women by means of Niqabs and Burqas.

Perhaps Anna Böcker would like to wear a bloody mask walking around Berlin’s Sonnenallee (there, some 30K Palestinians live) and try out how liberating and mindful her stance is?

I doubt she’ll muster the courage to do so, but then again, why am I arguing with a mentally unstable person?

Sigh.