By James McMurtry
Let’s say you’ve got a brand new custom 1911 .45 ACP pistol with all the bells and whistles, except a muzzle brake. You don’t think you need a muzzle brake because you are a real man, you can handle recoil. But you and your new pistol just can’t seem to knock down those rows of bowling pins fast enough to win tournaments, despite your real man status. The other contestants have muzzle brakes on their comp guns and can get on the next target quicker than you can, because they don’t have to contend with as much muzzle rise and perceived recoil as you do. They don’t care about being real men, they just want to win the tournament. So what do you do, cling to your real man identity, or get a longer barrel with a muzzle brake and maybe win once in a while? Muzzle rise isn’t a left wing hoax, it’s just physics. The brake is not political, it’s just a tool, a means to achieve an end, the end being the ability to shoot faster and more accurately.
The virus is not left nor right, and it is certainly not a hoax. The mask is just a tool to stem the spread of the virus, and we have very few tools at this time. It’s becoming ever more evident that herd immunity is a pipe dream. I believe Rush Limbaugh said COVID-19 was the common cold. The common cold is caused by a coronavirus, but COVID-19 seems to be way different, except for one trait. Like the common cold, COVID-19 seems to be able to re infect its victims without it having to mutate like the flu. Antibodies to COVID-19 don’t seem to offer protection for very long. A conventional vaccine would require a booster every few months to be effective, and we are months if not years away from any vaccine. Remember when HIV hit? We now have treatments, but still no vaccine.
I just looked at a chart for Japan’s COVID rate. Japan has half as many cases as Houston, despite never locking down, despite crowded subways and dense urban areas. When Japanese people are told to wear masks, they do it, and they are faring better than we are.
I don’t wear a mask in public for me. I wear it for us. I want us to survive this and thrive in the future. The mask is not my left wing identity, I have other accoutrements for that. The mask is a tool, to help insure that I’m not the guy that continues the spread of the virus throughout our community, our politically, religiously, racially, and ethnically diverse community.
“ Antibodies to COVID-19 don’t seem to offer protection for very long.” This is still unclear (viz Tom Hanks) On + note, Oxford/AstraZeneca candidate vaccine is reported to have (1.) produced neutralizing antibodies and (2.) significantly boost T-cell Production. Net effect is believed to confer more durable immunity.