Here are some thoughts I have from the perspective of a person living in Canada about 100 miles east of this nation's largest city Toronto (it's basically our version of NYC if you will, though obviously not nearly as big, population ~3 million with 5+ million living in the greater metro area).
I'm often accused of being a contrarian simply for the sake of being a contrarian....which I don't believe to be true, becuase swimming against the stream is exhausting with 99% of people trying to convince me that my views are wrong.
One of those views is that I'm opposed to making the wearing of masks mandatory, I have no issue if someone wears one voluntarily of course.
In my area we have 0 current identified cases...zero, none, nada, zilch. My county has had 21 confrimed cases in total since the start, and all have been resolved with no deaths. We have been fortunate. Here's the data from our local health authority, it includes surrounding regions which are also at 0 current cases, there have been 32 deaths in Kawartha Lakes, a popular area with seniors who've retired.
https://www.hkpr.on.ca/covid-19-2/
Health officials have expressed the view that cloth masks could help reduce viral spread if used properly, and therein lies the problem. Masks have not been mandatory here from the start, that changes come Monday when they'll be required in indoor public places like grocery stores. No more than 25% of people have been wearing them here, and the minority of those who are wearing them, I often seeing them being used improperly. The biggest offense is touching the outside of the mask and not performing proper hand hygeine immediately afterwards.
Just this past week a woman wearing a mask and glasses was in front of me looking at a loaf of bread, she couldn't read the expiry tag and so lowered her mask touching the outside of it.....then after reading the tag she returned the loaf to the shelf. That damp warm cloth material right over the mouth and nose is an ideal breeding ground for SARS-Cov-2 as well as other germs and bacteria. This isn't isolated, I see people constantly touching the outside of their masks, to adjust them or to pull them down while talking or for a breath of fresher air. Then they're touching product and putting it back, touching shelves, scales, produce bag dispensers, the keypads on payment systems....touch touch touch.
Up til now there has only been a small number of people doing this, and given that they're voluntarily wearing masks (even if they're doing it imporperly) I'm assuming these people are all being somewhat diligent in other areas like limiting their contacts with people, washing their hands and mainting social distance.
But starting Monday EVERYONE has to start wearing them (exceptions for people with lung conditions like asthma and copd and some others). And I'm afraid that we're going to start seeing outbreaks. Plus I think a lot of vulernable people have been avoiding places like grocery stores because, seeing so many people without masks, they've assumed they're not safe.....but now with almost everyone in masks, some will likely think: "Finally, I don't have to order my groceries on line, I can go into the store because they've all got mask on now".
And here is the big problem I see......if all of a sudden a week or so after masks become mandatory, if we start seeing outbreaks will authorities be smart and say: "hmmmmm, maybe we should go back to masks being voluntary again". If that happens I'd breathe a huge sigh of relief.....but if it were to result in them requiring masks to be worn not just indoors, but outdoors in public all the time....if something like that happens I will be even more inclined to agree with the subject line of this topic....that this virus is being used as a weapon to take away our liberties.....having everyone in masks dehumanizes us and makes us all look like little worker bees.
Peace.
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