The end of mask mandates in Ontario (for now), and the consequences of lies
A lot of people's brains have broken.
Today, March 21, is the official end of Ontario’s mask mandate for public spaces (that aren’t hospitals or long-term care homes, that is). I had some errands to run and thought it would be interesting to see how many people dropped the masks and how many would still be wearing them.
I had to go to the health food store (two unmasked customers, including me, vs two masked, two unmasked store employees, and one store owner with his mask at half-mast); WalMart (about 60-40 masked to unmasked), and the grocery store (perhaps 50-50, maybe with a slight tilt in favour of the unmasked).
I have to admit surprise at the results. I fully expected about 90 percent masking given the extent of Ontarian compliance to the mandates. This reveals that about half the population were not wearing masks because they thought they needed to protect themselves against a virus, but simply because they’d been told to.
This is both heartening and disheartening. It’s heartening to see that fewer people have swallowed the lies than it appeared. It’s disheartening to realize that almost everyone complied anyway. Only a very few strong characters did not.
It’s also perhaps not as encouraging as it appears, though I wish to avoid both false optimism and false pessimism. The structures that allowed masks to be forced on Ontarians and Canadians at large are still in place. There is nothing to stop Doug Ford and the provincial health officials from imposing masks again in the fall when respiratory illnesses inevitably surge, and there is some suggestion he may do just that. There is a provincial election in June, and it may be politically advantageous for Ford to allow the appearance of regained freedoms for now.
On the other hand, we can hope that he will get voted out and a true conservative put in his place; and that the momentum against Covid measures will continue in Canada and the rest of the world such that Ontario would look ridiculous imposing mandates again. Of course even this does not bring us out of the woods; the societal and political problems that allowed this to happen haven’t gone anywhere, and the next “crisis” can and likely will be used as an excuse to impose draconian measures.
It’s a problem both that the government imposed masks in the first place, and that most people only took them off once it told them they could.
Now I find myself wondering how the true believers, the paranoiacs, the ones whose brains have broken over Covid, will function in a society where their security blankets have been stripped away.
I don’t mean this disparagingly. There is a small number of people who have really become paranoid hypochondriacs in the last two years, and I feel deeply sorry for them. They have imbibed the lies into their very being, such that Covid has become the worst existential threat they face, and they are convinced they are at imminent risk of death from simply interacting with other human beings. Fear of Covid may have exacerbated existing anxiety, but it has taken on a life of its own.
Recently a lovely older lady has begun attending our church. She repeatedly asks for prayer for her 34-year-old son, who is on leave from his job, does not go out of the house, begs her not to go out, wears a mask at home with only him and her present, and will not allow her to have guests over. Recently she went out with her daughter and grandchildren, and the son refused to accompany them because “so many people don’t wear masks”. This was an outdoor excursion.
He apparently had Covid and is asthmatic, and now believes he has Long Covid. He suffers from fatigue and difficulty breathing, though it’s unclear whether that is caused by anxiety or physical symptoms as examinations find nothing. I am suspicious that he is vaccine injured, though his mother won’t entertain that suggestion.
Last week I had to send a package with FedEx. The female employee who attended me first asked me to put on a mask. I said no, sorry, I’m exempt. She then snapped at me to stay behind the plexiglass barrier in front of her workstation. Later she had to come out from behind the shield to weigh my package and she waved her hand at me. “Can you step back?” she asked. “I don’t want to get close to you.” I was a normal distance away from the scale. I chuckled a bit and replied “I’m not sick, I’m not radioactive” which caused the other employee to intervene and tell me to step back. I complied, as I’m not interested in being unnecessarily ornery.
It was an unpleasant and dehumanizing interaction; clearly the clerk saw me only as a disease vector and not as a human being. But I forgive her as I feel deeply sorry for anyone living in that amount of irrational fear. Prior to Covid, this would be diagnosed as a mental illness. Now, it really is the logical result of all the lies and fear-mongering propagated by the government and media, causing people like that FedEx clerk to live in mortal terror and be unable to function normally in everyday life. They really have an awful lot to answer for.
I do wonder what it will take for these people to recover, if they ever will. Hopefully the experience of interacting with unmasked people and not dropping dead will penetrate the veil of fear, though I’m not sure those levels of anxiety are at all based in or subject to change from facts and reality.
Northern Illinois. The red part of Illinois which means most everywhere not Chicago. Hardly anyone in Walmart or anywhere else in masks. A few families all holstered up with them thar masks. I want to shout at the kids. Too many teens still hiding behind their real life social interaction prevention shields. They have been so harmed. I fear for them. Is there an Easter scariant now? The virus loves holidays. Apparently attends all of them. Couldn’t see family in NY at Christmas since the jabbed and boostered got Covid out there. There will be hell to pay from me if they try this mask nonsense. I have found out at 73 I don’t give a shite what anyone else thinks about me. This knowledge is very freeing.
So grateful for your writing. In a southern Ontario grocery store yesterday, the guy behind me in line asked, "Are we allowed to take off our masks now?" and I said, "Well, yes, the mandate ended yesterday and no one's said anything to me". He took off his mask. Then the woman in front of me noticed, and confirmed it with an unmasked employee. Then _she_ pulled down her mask and said "Thanks God! Thanks God!" and yelled across the store to her daughter to take off her mask (which cracked me up). So that's 3 extra people removing masks in quick succession because I wasn't wearing one. Perhaps the ripple effect will be quick. I was shocked at how many people *didn't know* they could take their masks off, though. Some people were and are prepared to live masked (with no science/data to back it up) for a long long time. I'm considering wearing bright red lipstick for the next while to make it more obvious.
(ps - I confirmed with a masked employee that it was his choice, not mandated by the employer. He was wearing a cloth mask one foot away from me, but as long as it's his choice...)