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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

All of that just means that the rational thing to do, as an individual protecting oneself, is to mask. But there are also people for whom COVID is much riskier, and in a just society we'd maybe want to protect those people, too. Masking does that. It's good for you and others. And it's easy to do.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

It's low enough that it's not an inevitable outcome of any given unmasked public excursion. Far from it. But it's also high enough (much higher than 0.01%) that eventually you will get COVID and you're rolling the dice on long term impacts each time (and the odds get worse with each infection).

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

I'm not going to argue where, exactly, COVID infection from being in public unmasked, followed by severe long term effects from said infection fall in that exact profile. My point is, people act like the risk is somewhere between 0.01 and 0.001%, or effectively 0. But it's higher much than that!

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

Something that happens only 1% of the time is probably going to happen to you multiple times a year if you do that thing every day. Something that happens 0.1% of the time will get you once every ~3 years. Something that happens 0.01% of the time will only get you every ~30 years. 0.001% = ~300 yrs!

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

I do think a big disconnect at play in current COVID discourse is that people really don't understand the difference between a 1% risk, a 0.1% risk, 0.01% risk, and a 0.001% risk. Whole orders of magnitude collapse into a single "well that's too small to worry about." But that's not quite right.

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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 21h

I’m very very tired of “living in fear” being lobbed at maskwearers by people who frequently say they can’t wear one because no one else around them is.

Living in fear is ignoring science and endangering lives and your own health because you’re terrified of not fitting in.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

"We have the tools" I say repeatedly as I futilely try to push in a nail with my thumb instead of using the hammer that's sitting right next to me.

Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

How many of these "I don't need to mask because there's a vaccine" opinion-havers actually go out and get each new update of the COVID vaccine, one wonders? Given that overall vaccine uptake in the US is, last I heard, something like 15%, probably not many of them!

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bats 🦇✨ @itsbabs.bsky.social · 23h

even the smartest folks whose takes i otherwise appreciate, who otherwise want to resist fascism themselves & encourage others to, find wearing a mask in, at least, public indoor spaces—to prevent the harms of this administration from impacting others—to be a bridge too far; it’s shameful, frankly.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

yeah, i think a commitment to public health obligates you to get vaccinated and, when you are sick, do what you can to avoid spreading that to other people. the demand that one mask at all times in public spaces is, i think, unreasonable.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

Any COVID infection can cause long term damage to multiple body systems, and subsequent infections increase the odds of this happening. Even if you only get COVID once every year or two, the cumulative effect can be utterly devastating. Brain fog, greater risk of cancer, dementia, and diabetes, etc.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

I hope I'm wrong but from everything I understand about actual COVID research the reckoning that's coming in about a decade is going to be devastating. The society-wide cost of repeated infections across all but those of us currently called "unreasonable" is going to be staggering.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

Rational assessment of the threat environment would include an understanding of the current research on the long term effects of cumulative COVID infections, something that you clearly lack. Masking is a very basic, very easy step you can take to protect yourself from what remains a dangerous virus.

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Cate @midcatecrisis.bsky.social · 1d

The thing about unreasonable is try to imagine you are a person who knows you will have a very good chance of dying if you get COVID (this is not me, I have a very good chance of becoming more disabled and am already 20 hours a day in bed) and nobody will help you not get it.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 21h

As great as the COVID vaccine is at reducing acute severity it currently does not prevent infection or transmission. So, how about the demand that my high risk partner and countless other disabled and/or immunocompromised people like her not participate in public life? Is that "reasonable?"

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 22h

The problem with this is, as many others have pointed out in the replies, the current COVID vaccine does not prevent infection or transmission. It is still good to reduce severity, and people should get it, but until there is an actual sterilizing vaccine people should be really be masking.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

yeah, i think a commitment to public health obligates you to get vaccinated and, when you are sick, do what you can to avoid spreading that to other people. the demand that one mask at all times in public spaces is, i think, unreasonable.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 22h

"This ask is not reasonable" is, incidentally, the exact rhetoric used against Universal Basic Income, Single Payer Healthcare, reduction in carbon consumption and emissions, and countless other important and progressive things.

Skeet from @joadsprocket.bsky.social. It reads:

"I am not interested in living in a society of Universal Public Masking and neither are most people. This ask is not reasonable, and the invocation of solidarity in service of it is ridiculous."

This was a reply to a post asking for liberals and leftists to mask in public spaces in solidarity with the disabled and immunocompromised due to the ongoing risks of COVID-19.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 1d

Aristophanes was the ancient Athenian equivalent of a shitposter.

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Gallifreyan Jedi @jediofgallifrey.bsky.social · 2d

i am simultaneously a pessimist (observant of events and conditions with above average pattern recognition while being generally bad at denial and self gaslighting apart from extremely narrow and specific personal situations) and an optimist (extremely stubborn refusal to give up despite the above)

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 2d

As an American and Colorado Rockies fan this thread is doubly for me.

A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 5d

I've noticed the opposing team's fans only cheer when the opponents score on us. To win those fans over, I recommend we score on ourselves repeatedly; that will surely make them so happy they'll start supporting us. And I'm sure all our fans will keep cheering for us—who else is there to cheer for?

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 3d

"Wear a mask and don't use the plagiarism machine" is a really effective combo for maintaining your ability to think, but I guess people aren't really into that.

Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 3d

I'm at the combination people's brains being melted by multiple COVID infections / people's brains being melted by genAI use party and I don't like it.

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 4d

What a game to have seen in person!

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 5d

The "Oh I didn't/don't like wearing a mask, so I stopped" conversation is so annoying (doubly so coming from people who should know better). Guess what? I don't like it either! But I do it because I don't want to contract or spread COVID. It's the ethical *and* smart thing to do!

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#9 Dream @gayfabfourfan.bsky.social · 5d

“We live in a society that decided years ago to ignore a global pandemic, & continues to look away as the numbers of people disabled & killed by Covid climb each day. We’re forced 2 continue contributing to the economy & carrying out our civic duties without a shred of protection from…institutions…”

Guiness Pig @guinesspig.bsky.social · 7d

Are we suffering from benevolence debt?

As a Covid-Conscious person, your choice to continue with masking and mitigations is part of the legacy you're building.

It matters more than you'll ever know.

guinesspig.ghost.io/a-little-gol...

A Little Gold Dog, A Not-So-Little Legacy

There’s a little figurine of a dog I keep on a shelf in my home. It’s painted gold, mounted on a weighted piece of wood, and has an embedded metal hook. I assume it’s to hold a leash, since it came w...

guinesspig.ghost.io

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Paul Franz @paulfranz.bsky.social · 8d

You betcha!