The people who don't want to wear masks: are they washing their hands or not?

The anti-masker/ freedom lovers in my area take ZERO precautions and mock those who do. I do see some re-thinking things now, though. We’ll see if anyone at the store this weekend is back to wearing masks, but I doubt it.

My neighbors have two children and are anti-vaxxers who have taken zero precautions this entire time. None of the kids have been seperated all summer or masked or anything. It’s difficult because the kids are precious to me, but what can you do except stay away from them. And yes, they think it’s all a political hoax.

Where do you stand, @KNOWITALL? How are you dealing with the virus threat?

And these neighbors of yours: do they obey traffic laws? Do their kids wear seatbelts in the car? Do they observe any safety precautions and respect any rules? How about Commandments?

@Jeruba I stay at home (on month five) and wear a mask when I go to the store once a week.

haha, no to most of the above, but they do obey most of the commandments as far as I know. They aren’t that religious.

So obviously you do take it seriously. That’s good to know.

If your neighbors came down with the virus, whom would they blame?

@Jeruba Hopefully themselves.

I can’t talk about it to them because she’s posted on facebook how ridiculous it all is, then got slammed by all her friends, then said she can’t wear a mask because of asthma.

If I opened my mouth, I’d probably be mean, so I just leave them be. They actually got a scare two weeks ago when the baby (3 yrs old) ran a high fever and had to get tested for Covid, but ended up it was a UTI. Still no masks on either child and all the kids are running around together still, on the street. Guess it didn’t scare them much.

On our local news last night they interviewed a young couple with a baby. The man said he and his entire family thought the pandemic was a hoax. But then he, his wife, child and parents all got the Covid virus. He had tears in his eyes begging that everyone wear a mask and wash their hands.
I was wondering how many people he had seen on news shows doing the same exact thing and ignoring them or laughing at them. By this point, I don’t think people will change their minds or the way they live unless the virus attacks them or their loved ones personally.
So to answer your question, apparently this young couple were not wearing a mask or washing their hands.

There’s no method for predicting their hygiene beyond the rejection of masking up. That one’s obvious. I can’t tell you how frequently I’ve been in a public restroom to witness someone exit a stall and immediately leave the room. People are more peculiar than you could invent them. I remember to this day a comment from a coworker better than 50 years ago when challenged on his behavior. His reply was that his behind was less risky than the tap handles on the restroom wash basins. What do you say to something like that?

@stanleybmanly Ewww.

Yeah. I’ve never thought myself prissy, but I never got over that with the guy. I mean how do you avoid paranoia? Is this the guy you want picking up the donuts? What happens when it’s time to shake his hand?

@stanleybmanly, I wasn’t thinking of trying to predict. I was wondering if anyone here had personal knowledge of how anti-maskers are treating the other guidelines.

If they do follow other precautions, then they acknowledge the virus, and resistance is about the masks themselves. If they don’t, then it suggests that they actually deny the virus.

All the emphasis on resistance that I’ve seen was about the masks per se.

I see a lot of people in facebook groups who are no maskers, but I only personally know a few, and they seem to be insistent that everything is exactly the same as it was a year ago, that this is just another virus, and so I assume their hand washings and sanitizer rituals are the same as they were whatever they were.

I have a few friends who wear a mask when asked, so if a store asks customers to wear masks they will do it, but otherwise they don’t wear a mask, and they believe eventually almost everyone will get covid, that it is inevitable, and so they do not take extra precautions like wiping their groceries with wipes, they don’t wait to open the mail, they are visiting with their children and grandchildren without worry.

The people I know who don’t wear masks aren’t taking any special precautions.

If they are not prepared to wear masks it is doubtful that they will even keep their hands sanitized.

Fools to themselves and even more foolish towards others because the wearing of masks helps to protect others more than it protect the wearer.

I know a bunch of people who don’t believe in masks, though they have to wear them in public (indoor) spaces, by law.

They don’t tend to use hand sanitizer or keep their distance from each other. They do wash their hands, but probably not much more than they always did. It’s strange – they believe there is a virus, but they think we’ll all be just fine even if we get it.

Did anyone mention that it went all around social media that touching surfaces is no longer a concern? That was about 6 to 8 weeks ago. I figured businesses that were opening up needed cleaning products and they were hard to find, or health experts were afraid people were getting too OCD, or that we were poisoning ourselves with chemicals on our food and in our lungs. Someone picked up some minor mention and blew it out of proportion and spread it around the internet. I know more than one person who took that to heart. I still have people tell me surfaces aren’t a concern anymore even if they believe covid is real.

This is the real problem, the way we share information things run like wildfires and get blown out of proportion and people lock it in as fact before we’re even sure it’s true.

@ANef_is_Enuf It’s fascinating how people are so primed for cognitive biases like confirmation bias. Plus, people get really happy to be able to hate the “other” side. It’s depressing for me. I swear this stuff on social media is the same psychology as getting people addicted to video games. So, it’s easy to add gasoline to a fire and explode it across the internet.

I just did a quick google and found this article on bias. It’s a good read to understand some of what is at work during covid and in life in general. It definitely applies to so much of politics.

https://www.verywellmind.com/cognitive-biases-distort-thinking-2794763

Very strongly agree. Of course, when you point it out,people are quick to see how the “other side” is guilty but justify their own part in it. A huge chunk of what is currently shared as news is essentially propaganda. I actually just shared something today about cognitive biases, but I do this every time the world gets this way and it usually fails on deaf ears. People are predictable, if nothing else.

I don’t wear a mask unless the store that I have to be in for necessities stops me. I’ll put my ridiculous mask made of tshirt material on to satisfy the requirement of a face covering.

I do not think this virus is a hoax but I do (based on Doctor’s, scientists, and statistics) think this is completely overblown. We have much more dangerous things floating around like the FLU virus that we take no precautions over. Having said that, I’ve always been a germaphobe and have always washed my hands more than normal people do.

I don’t visit nursing homes because they’re the ones that could die from this but, it’s no different than if they got a bad cold or strep throat or even the flu. This virus is extremely exaggerated.

@Coolhandluke

Well the only reason you think it is overblown is you delusional hero says so. And he’s doing to get re-elected !
People are dying in great numbers like 154,000 total and over 1200 a day. It is for real and your body has no defenses to fight it off, if you get it hope it is asymptomatic and not on a ventilator for weeks or death.

@Coolhandluke We do take precautions when flu has a bad season or a new strain emerges that appears to be causing severe illness and death. In 2009 we closed over 700 schools, churches stopped shaking hands and changed communion practices. We rushed a vaccine for the new strain.

When I was in Nashville late January early February many schools there were closed for flu. Back in 2018–2019 I know there were some closures around the country.

Average flu deaths for a flu season are around 35,000, right now we are at 150,000 covid deaths so far. Even if you argue some deaths are misclassified it still is much more than flu and we are not finished with a 12 month cycle yet.

Not to mention countries that mask and distancing up are reducing deaths significantly. Why not just wear a mask? Wearing masks will help us keep businesses open, hospitals doing elective surgeries, schools to open, people to feel safe traveling, I just don’t understand your objection.

Covid also is showing some long term mal effects in a portion of people who do survive, which is worrisome.

We wear seatbelts, have speed limits, airbags, and have people take driving tests and check their sight to make driving safer for them and others, how is covid different? On average 40,000 people die in car accidents per year in America. We are way past that with covid.

Look at Florida numbers, deaths are climbing daily now. First we had more cases, now the deaths are going up 2–3 weeks later just as predicted.