I’ve just returned from a family business trip to the Bay Area of California. During my time I visited large cities, like San Francisco and Oakland; smaller ones, such as Alameda and Walnut Creek; and towns in more rural areas – for example, Sonoma.
As many readers of this article will remember, at the height of the COVID-19 ‘emergency’, under the ‘leadership’ of totalitarian state Governor Gavin Newsom, California was at the forefront of actioning ‘measures’ to stem the progress of the ‘deadly’ coronavirus. Amongst the slew of useless and self-harming intrusions imposed upon Californians, highly prominent was the demand that people masked up. Indeed, just days before his ill-fated visit to the wildly expensive Napa dining hot spot, the French Laundry, Newsom had preached at his fellow citizens, “Going out to eat with members of your household this weekend? Don’t forget to keep your mask on in between bites.” Throughout his dinner at the exclusive restaurant, Newson was, of course, maskless.
From his prominent perch, Newsom was the worst of the California Covidian evangelists; but there were plenty of others who lectured and dictated to the populace, whilst excusing themselves from the mass mask madness. The hypocrite list is long and includes the likes of San Francisco Mayor, London Breed, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi and nonagenarian Senator, Dianne Feinstein.
Sadly, Californians followed the demands of these ‘leaders’, and riven with fear of a virus with a recovery rate of 99.9%, whether they were inside or outdoors, strapped cloth to their faces. Alongside other mandates such as lockdowns, social distancing and ‘working from home’, masking helped turn cities like San Francisco into living stage sets for a future remake of The Walking Dead.
More than three years on from the initial panic, what has changed? In some ways, quite a lot. Masks are no longer required to be worn. Even in healthcare settings, they are yesterday’s thing. The majority no longer wear them. But the numbers of those that do remains surprisingly high. Inside or out; while walking or driving; in restaurants, supermarkets and banks, the remnants of the masked are visible. The most troubling instance of mask wearing that I witnessed was in the city library in Alameda, a pleasant, affluent, suburban community sitting in the Bay, close to Oakland. Here a woman ushered her two young children, all three sporting brightly coloured cloth masks, past me whilst clinging to the wall, keeping her distance and maintaining a wide-eyed stare on my unmasked visage. The stupidest example of misplaced faith in a strip of cloth? That has to be the security guard-cum-receptionist in the atrium of the Californian state employees’ Walnut Creek administration offices who, sitting behind his desk, surrounded by Perspex screens, rushed to put on a mask as we approached at a distance of 50 feet.
So why, like Japanese soldiers who for decades after WW2 ended hid out on distant Pacific Islands, are some Californians unable to realise that the war against Covid is – if it ever started – over? Notwithstanding the appalling state of the infrastructure in California, the almost overwhelming tide of homeless folk living in tented ‘cities’ within their cities, the sky-high cost of living,and the rising crime rates, the natural setting of the Bay Area is beautiful. The weather and environment are wonderful: fresh, clean air, with, for most, ample opportunities for exercise just a short distance away. Yet substantial numbers, maybe as many as 1 in 5, still wear masks outdoors (and the number is probably even greater indoors).
Certainly, the heritage mix within the Bay Area must be a factor. The largest ethnic group are Asians, with Chinese, Japanese and Koreans prominently represented; people who were culturally already more likely to wear face masks. Also, from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, the Bay Area has form when it comes to ‘giving many hard days of sacrifice to battle’ RNA viruses using masks. And, resonating in the Democrat-dominated Bay Area, during the COVID-19 era polling found that ‘liberals’ were more likely to wear masks than Republicans.
But there are other undercurrents at work: for some the removal of mask mandates does not reflect a triumph of common sense, nor even that the virus has been defeated and the world is safer, but that danger has just been increased. In California, disability advocates have been campaigning for the reintroduction of masks and say that “Some patients with chronic illness may avoid treatment rather than risk contracting COVID-19”. Put simply, thanks to the likes of Newsom, Breed, Pelosi and Feinstein, there are Californians who are too frightened to live without a mask.
As Smile Free’s Dr. Gary Sidley wrote in his recent article documenting TFL’s continuing encouragement to wear them, for many using a mask has become a way of coping with the real world and in the long run will ‘needlessly perpetuate anxiety’. What I’ve witnessed in the Bay Area is that the ‘long run’ is already with us.
Paul Stevens is a member of Smile Free which campaigns for the end of mask mandates and masking.
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Yet another Conservative government responsibility.
Coalition Government ….. Clegg’s fingerprints all over it.
I’m beginning to think I might be OK with this shite because, let’s face it, the sooner they go broke, and the crap hits the fan….perhaps our sensible re-set can go ahead?….I mean they always say when ‘hunger comes through the door, love flies out the window’…maybe they just need to get to rock-bottom, like alcoholics, before they can get better??
I appreciate this will affect us all..but sometimes you just have to pull the plaster off…or maybe this is our Battle of Britain moment..to help future generations….?
Or maybe it’s the bottle of wine talking….?? LOL!!
Like you, I and many have said, things have to get a lot worse before they will start getting better…
It’s only when people are starving that things change. And then they do change, for sure, but for all the wrong reasons – so the outcome usually produces another type of hell.
But my message is not negative, far from it: let the sheep be sheep, just have an eye for their tendency every so often to go completely crazy, en masse.
The light shines out from within individuals who will be free (anarchic). That light will light your way, and be a guide for those who are searching for the light.
By the way, this is not meant as a religion. It’s the opposite. The church has never supported this message. It’s just another of those blasted power structures (which keeps the sheep as sheep, and paying sheep, at that).
I know (almost) everyone here knows this, just for the record
I concur 100%, but I’d concur a bit more if you and Mr Gum would be so kind as to replicate this experiment and then get back to us with your findings. I do believe it would be advantageous to the group in the long run! P.S Perhaps try ‘best of 5’, though it could be deemed unethical…
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1687824144279261184
Let them go broke – but not us! Don’t let them waste our money and resources. The best way to do that is not to let them take it in the first place. Don’t comply!
Sensible reset? Are you high?
Haven’t you heard of the NWO?.
We’ll go broke funding it before they do
‘Proscribe’ is to ban or outlaw, prohibit. Perhaps the author means ‘prescribes’.
According to an internal Philip Morris report, a series of ASI proposals have become policy and been enacted into law. These include:8
Who funds ASI?
This is one of the reasons I have taken the personal decision to (legally) reduce the tax I pay as much as possible. It’s meant re-organising my life along simpler lines and reducing my voluntary spend.
Starve the beast.
I’m quite enjoying depriving the Government of as much of my money as I can.
It has long been known that public sector procurement is utterly hopeless.
“Public procurement costs the Treasury coffers £379 billion a year”
No. It costs the taxpayer £379 billion a year. Indeed, the whole public sector is rapidly becoming an horrendous drain on the taxpayer, with more going in for less and less.
Heaven help us – because this government , nor the next, won’t!