Face masks are ‘the mark of the beast’? Enough with the Deep State nonsense, Wichita
“Open your eyes!” a woman shouted to Wichita City Council members through the webcam set up in Century II.
“You have to wear something to go into a store to buy something? This is a pathway to the mark of the beast!”
Another mask-mandate opponent:
“Living in fear and stressing over all the craziness doesn’t make anything better. . . . Forget the mask, live your life, be happy, and trust in your body and what God gave you.”
And another: “I don’t have any data or facts to give you today . . .”
But everyone knows that people who go to church are inherently better, law-abiding, more loving people, she said, and Wichita’s mask mandate discourages them from worshiping.
“They’re afraid of a virus that this mask mandate encourages fear of.”
And on, and on — 120 people over seven hours. Residents opposed to Wichita’s mask mandate implored city leaders to abandon a strategy that has lessened the spread of COVID-19 in our community.
A sampling of the comments:
“The mask mandate is about compliance, it’s not about keeping us healthy.”
“Instead of smiling faces, all I see is empty eyes.”
“We’re conditioning the next generation to be anti-social.”
“Masks don’t do anything. It is fear-based mind control.”
“I consider myself a bit of a scientist . . .”
“We are not children in need of your protection.”
“I refuse to accept this new normal.”
“I’m going to be free or I’m going to die. That’s it.”
The message from this parade of conspiracy-minded mask opponents was clear: COVID-19, which has killed nearly 190,000 people in the United States, isn’t dangerous at all. It is an exaggerated, fabricated, non-existent ruse — a “scamdemic” — intended to destroy the American economy and turn us all into blindly obedient chattel.
Let’s be clear: The enemy in this public health crisis is the novel coronavirus, a contagion with no definitive cure that attacks the lungs and other organs.
Some patients end up in the hospital, struggling to breathe. Some die. Others suffer long-term health effects that can include blood clots, shortness of breath, fatigue, heart problems, liver and kidney damage, seizures and strokes.
At the beginning of this outbreak, public health officials believed the virus primarily was transmitted by touching contaminated objects or surfaces and then touching your face. Regular hand-washing was the main prescription, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said healthy people didn’t need to wear masks.
Over time — and you see, this is the way science works — experts learned that contact with virus-laden junk mail or cans of tomatoes isn’t the main way COVID-19 passes from one person to another.
Immunologists now believe it is spread primarily through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks.
That’s why the CDC now recommends that everyone wear a mask in public. The covering lessens the risk of asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers passing the virus to somebody else.
That’s why Sedgwick County’s top health officer issued his first mask order on July 8 and recently extended the requirement for another month.
And it’s why most restaurants, schools, churches, retail stores and other public establishments are saying, “No mask, no entry.”
It’s the safe, responsible, neighborly, Christian thing to do.
The “Unmask Wichita” contingent claims their right to breathe freely should trump everyone else’s desire to avoid the virus and slow the spread of COVID-19.
They passionately quote the U.S. Constitution but conveniently ignore the Preamble’s charge to “promote the general welfare.”
They say we’re “not children in need of protection,” but they’re not lining up to protest speed limits, smoking bans, airport security checks, restaurant health inspections, firefighters, police patrols or the countless other ways government safeguards its citizens.
This isn’t about public health or personal freedom. It’s paranoid, Deep State, shadow-government hokum, plain and simple.
Kudos to Wichita city leaders for patiently listening to the speakers but extending the mask mandate anyway, recognizing that it’s one of our only tools to keep schools, businesses and the economy open.
Bravo for science and common sense.
