Wal-Mart will require shoppers wear mask July 20th

a reply to: Bloodworth

This virus is very new and different. Most of what you are hearing are theories.

Do you want to gamble or take precaution. Up to everyone

Of course, they're theories... but that's my whole problem. Theories are not facts.

As to gamble or take precautions... that depends on the odds of the gamble and the severity of the precautions. I don't go out dancing in the middle of a busy street, for instance, because the odds of being hit by a car are high and the advantage to dancing in that particular spot is not very high. If I decide to walk to my neighbor's house (1/2 mile), I will often walk down the road though. The odds of getting hit just walking along a country road with little traffic are very low, and the alternative is slogging through a hayfield which is half swamp most of the year and has as many snakes as it does hay. I'll take those odds.

I have been studying the reports on this virus now for a few months... all the reports, both the panic-striken ones and the ones that poo-poo the virus and everything in between. My best scientific opinion is that it is something to be a little cautious of; if I started experiencing severe symptoms, I would head to a doctor right away. However, it does not warrant me changing my lifestyle otherwise.

I know a few people who are in high risk categories. One just finished up chemo earlier this year. He wears a mask everywhere he goes and washes his hands so much he's probably going to grow gills before this is all over. OK, I have no problem with that... I even maintain that six foot distancing when around him, for his peace of mind.

In a store, where possible, I do the same for everyone else. If I'm closer than six feet to someone, either there's nowhere else I can be right then or they approached me. I figure others might have the same concerns my friend does, and I respect that. On the other hand, I have PAD... I have very poor blood flow in my legs. My lungs are strong, but any drop in blood oxygen hits me like a ton of bricks. I'm not going to restrict my airway and drop my blood O2 down at all over someone else's fears. It wouldn't kill me... I'd never drop below 97% probably... but just a drop from 99% to 97% would further decrease my ability to walk. That ain't gonna happen, especially since most people are so panicked, I could lay on the sidewalk unable to get up for days before anyone dared come close enough to see if I was alive!

Not to mention, if anyone did help, that help would be to call an ambulance and have me transported to a hospital, where I would be unable to see anyone and would likely be tested for the virus. Any positive in my state, including false positives, are an automatic two-week quarantine... unable to leave my home for any reason whatsoever except medical emergency (transported by ambulance) or to seek shelter during a tornado. Thank you, Queen Ivey. Anyone wants to test me, they'd better bring an army and a bunch of lunches; I'll be fighting tooth and nail the whole way.

So from my point of view, Walmart has just banned me from their store over a disability. That is unacceptable. How long will it be before the whole town follows suit, and I can no longer enter a grocery store without endangering my ability to walk through it?

If this is the America people want, well, it's nice to know they don't want me in it.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Bluntone22

Wal Mart is a branch of the federal government with all their contracts and behind closed doors deals. Figure in case of a national emergency it would be Wal Mart( and Target and Amazon) that would be the transport provider to move supplies anywhere in the US. So I'd expect them to help push the mask policy( not that it does much good). Why do you think they remained open while smaller companies and businesses were closed down? The pandemic was a gold mine for Wal Mart.

a reply to: TheRedneck

"If the goal is to reduce the number of known infections, stop testing."

Der... if we cant test we cant show our increase in infections. Der...


Just stop testing for cancer. Cancer rates will go down.

a reply to: Soulece

"If the goal is to reduce the number of known infections, stop testing."

Der... if we cant test we cant show our increase in infections. Der...


Just stop testing for cancer. Cancer rates will go down.

Known cancer rates would go down. Are you saying they wouldn't?

What we are seeing is what has been happening all along... it's not "new" cases we are detecting; it is "newly found" cases. And as the number of known cases goes up, the death rate, the hospitalization rate, and the average severity is going down.

We call that "science." As in, "listen to the..."

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: Soulece

"If the goal is to reduce the number of known infections, stop testing."

Der... if we cant test we cant show our increase in infections. Der...


Just stop testing for cancer. Cancer rates will go down.

Known cancer rates would go down. Are you saying they wouldn't?

What we are seeing is what has been happening all along... it's not "new" cases we are detecting; it is "newly found" cases. And as the number of known cases goes up, the death rate, the hospitalization rate, and the average severity is going down.

We call that "science." As in, "listen to the..."

TheRedneck

They would go down. But does that help the situation? Of course we are seeing new cases. Just because more testing is happening does not mean those cases have always been there.

a reply to: Soulece

Just because more testing is happening does not mean those cases have always been there.

A delta in positivity factor would be an indication, one way or another.
As would a delta in hospitalizations. Don't you think?

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Soulece

Just because more testing is happening does not mean those cases have always been there.

A delta in positivity factor would be an indication, one way or another.
As would a delta in hospitalizations. Don't you think?

Sure, its obvious with more testing you get more results.

a reply to: Soulece

And more testing results in more people with symptoms which require hospitalization.

Makes perfect sense.

a reply to: Soulece

They would go down. But does that help the situation? Of course we are seeing new cases. Just because more testing is happening does not mean those cases have always been there.

Of course less testing does not help the situation. I never claimed otherwise. What I claimed is that we cannot say at this time that the cases being discovered were not already there. We have no baseline to compare to; we are establishing a baseline.

The number of cases is meaningless until a baseline is established. That's what I meant when I said

If the goal is to reduce the number of known infections, stop testing. If the goal is to discover the truth about the virus, stop panicking and look at the data objectively. If the goal is to create mass hysteria, please, everyone keep doing what you're doing. It's working.

Accepting that we do not yet have a baseline to compare with is part of looking at the data objectively.

So what goal are you going for? It seems to be the mass hysteria.

TheRedneck

freedom!

a reply to: TheRedneck

So from my point of view, Walmart has just banned me from their store over a disability. That is unacceptable. How long will it be before the whole town follows suit, and I can no longer enter a grocery store without endangering my ability to walk through it?

If this is the America people want, well, it's nice to know they don't want me in it.

Yep. We keep hearing how this is for everyone's benefit... So, tell me, my friend. How exactly is this beneficial to you?? I myself, am more than a little claustrophobic. I find wearing a mask for any significant amount of time to be, shall we say, less than optimal emotionally...

I keep being told "Well, you can shop elsewhere...!!" Right now? Sure, I can...but everyone else is having to require masks, too...

...and should this Great Panic of 2020 continue? How many "elsewhere's" are going to be left to shop at??? Door are closing permanently all over the place now.

Greater Good. For everyone's safety. You know the litany as well as I do. What about our good? Or do we not fit into this Frightened New World we see developing before our eyes, the one where Big Brother knows so much more than we do, and is only concerned about our welfare??

I don't care what walmart does. I rather spend my money in a local mom and pop operation instead of it going to some corporate monster. If the mom and pops want me to wear a mask in their establishment; I will abide by their wishes, they are struggling to stay in business as it is.

I had to shut my retail business down completely. Glad to have options.

Just what Walmart needs, more braindead zombies wandering around the discount sunglass isle.

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: Soulece

They would go down. But does that help the situation? Of course we are seeing new cases. Just because more testing is happening does not mean those cases have always been there.

Of course less testing does not help the situation. I never claimed otherwise. What I claimed is that we cannot say at this time that the cases being discovered were not already there. We have no baseline to compare to; we are establishing a baseline.

The number of cases is meaningless until a baseline is established. That's what I meant when I said

If the goal is to reduce the number of known infections, stop testing. If the goal is to discover the truth about the virus, stop panicking and look at the data objectively. If the goal is to create mass hysteria, please, everyone keep doing what you're doing. It's working.

Accepting that we do not yet have a baseline to compare with is part of looking at the data objectively.

So what goal are you going for? It seems to be the mass hysteria.

TheRedneck

My goal is far from mass hysteria. However, I would like people to take things more seriously and worry about others and less about themselves and wear a damn mask.

a reply to: seagull

For you it is emotional (which I consider a good enough reason in itself; my wife feels the same way)... I have a medical condition that masks will aggravate. Technically, I am not required to wear a face mask under the [insert string of epithets that would make a sailor blush here], but you and I both know that would be questioned every way from Sunday. So much for healthcare... Walmart here has already made their handicapped parking moot.

There is no "greater good" for anyone in this except those in power. This is an almost perfect recreation of the Salem Witch Trials. Instead of witches, we see virus carriers. Instead of drowning these witches, we lock up the carriers in their homes and only let them venture forth if they can prove they're not communicable by wearing face masks. But how long until self appointed face mask monitors start actually injuring and possibly killing anyone who doesn't comply? It's coming, whether some want to see it or not. We have mob "justice" running rampant in cities across the US over a bunch of idiots wanting to defund the freakin' police; is it so hard to believe the same thing won't happen over face masks?

I always wondered how people could have gone so far off the rails as to kill so many of their fellow townsfolk over something as silly as an accusation of being a witch. Now I know.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Soulece

My goal is far from mass hysteria. However, I would like people to take things more seriously and worry about others and less about themselves and wear a damn mask.

Over a 0.2% chance of contracting a fatal illness?

I call that mass hysteria.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Soulece

However, I would like people to take things more seriously and worry about others and less about themselves and wear a damn mask.

This is good info from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons:

aapsonline.org...


I think many are worried about others, especially their over-the-top freakouts when they see someone not wearing a mask. We have a lot of very mentally unstable freakish maskholes out there right now. It's scary.

We've all seen the videos of people ramming their carts into maskless shoppers, pepper spraying shoppers that have chosen not to wear a mask, abusive verbal attacks in public, threats, etc.

We all need to be concerned about the mass psychosis we are witnessing.

a reply to: Soulece

Actually, you go ahead and wear a damned mask, stay out of the "magical six foot ring of doom", and leave me the Hell alone, and we'll both be the happier for it.

I'll take my precautions, and you take yours--including, apparently, masking up--and we'll get along just fine.

I take the same precautions with this as I do the flu. Works a trick.

a reply to: queenofswords

We all need to be concerned about the mass psychosis we are witnessing.

TheRedneck and I witnessed this very thing about a week and a half ago while we were out and about looking for some nice guns, and he was showing me around the area, as I'm still fairly new around these parts.

We were in Huntsville, and we'd just stepped out of the shop, when a gentleman, wearing a bandanna as a face mask (really effective...not) started yelling about everyone needing to wear a mask, or he wouldn't come into the store.

Really, dude? Wearing a doo-rag as a mask, and you're yelling about masks????? Uh-huh. Okey-dokey.

a reply to: seagull

LOL'ing at yelling at people who just came out of a gun shop.

Probably drives around Sinaloa with a 'ransom me' sign tapped to his back as well.