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In San Francisco, I saw someone wearing a surgical mask outdoors pressing a crosswalk button with his foot. At some point, we may need to discuss the unavoidable irrational phobia of microbes and the extent to which it is perpetuated by public health.
Dr. Vinay Prasad November 2023
Of course you can read it. Of course I follow the news. I’m familiar with headlines like:
Why are 1,500 Americans still dying from coronavirus every week?
However, I want you to know that there is a much more serious and pressing issue. I saw a stranger wearing a mask outside! Did you know that there is no evidence to support this? People who were wearing masks outdoors were wearing them for no particular reason. So did he really think he could catch the coronavirus from a fire hydrant? Was he worried it would spread to the stop sign? That’s ridiculous. It gets worse than that. Recently, I tweeted about a cyclist who was riding his bike outdoors in San Francisco on January 17, 2024, wearing a mask. I wrote an entire article on monetized Substack slamming this “totally insane” cyclist, posting a photo of him and asking questions. :
Where is the evidence that wearing two masks while biking outdoors improves health outcomes??
Guys, this was a rhetorical question. There is no evidence that wearing two masks while biking outdoors improves health outcomes.
Throughout the pandemic, I bravely tackled only the biggest challenges, leaving the seven-foot gauntlet to the “skeptics” of science-based medicine. Yes, yes, yes this week too, I know he said 1,500 lives have been lost to COVID-19. It will probably be the same next week. yawn!I’m on record saying There are zero “smart people who don’t care about the new coronavirus yet.” I support it.
No one should “care” about COVID-19, but we should all care deeply about strangers who “don’t care” about COVID-19. In contrast to coronavirus casualties, strangers wearing masks outdoors is a serious concern. By my standards, someone with an “irrational phobia” of unavoidable microbes needs to be ridiculed and shamed in public many times. I’ve tweeted about such strangers countless times and devoted several articles to them. I have no plans to stop. Taking excessive precautions against a dangerous virus and mocking strangers injured by it is why I went to medical school in the first place. Of course, I consider any precaution to be too much precaution.like i said Before“Recurrence of infection is inevitable. The longer we live. There is nothing we can do about it.”
True, I know nothing about the life of this masked stranger. It’s also true that I can’t begin to explain how much his actions hurt anyone other than hurting my delicate sensibilities. But there’s zero chance he’ll benefit from the mask. If a stranger in a mask outside is not a 10 foot ring, I don’t know what is.
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