Lettere: COVID-19 and fear; masks and citizenship – Loveland Reporter-Herald

COVID-19 and fear

Fear is an effective tool for controlling people. Parents use it to control children. Preachers use it to scare hell out of parishioners. Politicians use it to scare voters away from their opponents. Kings, Hitler and Stalin have used it for control.

Rom Emanuels Never let a good crisis go to waste keeps running around in my mind. Is COVID-19 being exploited? Are devious groups containing the virus in aerosol containers and spraying it on crowds to keep the virus active in the U.S.? No one is that evil. No one?

My understanding is that viruses evolve/mutate over time. I believe COVID-19 didnt appear instantly in a bat near Wuhan. I believe it evolved/mutated over time from previous viruses in bats within cool, moist caves with stale air. Would the antithesis (warmth, sunlight, dry, fresh air) be a prevention or cure? Seems like it has potential. So people in places such as Arizona in the summer have no worry? A look at their lifestyle indicates they might have worry. They live in air-conditioned homes, drive air-conditioned cars, drive to air-conditioned buildings to work and shop! All the while the virus could circulate within the cool, dark air-conditioning systems.

Is fear of COVID-19 being used by some to control/manipulate the decision people will make during the presidential election?

My research indicates that SARS-CoV-2 is approximately 0.1 micron in diameter. N95 masks used by medical personnel are designed to remove more than 95% of particles that are at least 0.3 microns in diameter. How effective are masks made from regular fabric or scarves? What if the nose is not covered? Can the virus enter the body through the eyes, the nose, the mouth, cuts/abrasions in skin? Droplets fall to the ground rapidly, aerosols linger.

If homemade masks are insufficient to ward off the coronavirus, why mandate the wearing of a mask? Conditioning the public to accept orders from government? What is really in store for our future? Who knows what evil lurks in the minds of some.

Fear, the downfall of many.

Dennis Carr

Loveland

There was a time in our nations past when most people tried hard to honor the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want others to treat you. The Golden Rule is one of the fundamental pillars of the universal natural law that governs all human existence. Basically, the natural law is: Do good. Avoid evil. If all humans obeyed the natural law, we would be in a genuine paradise.

There is no hope that we will ever be able to fully obey the natural law. But it is extremely distressing when groups of people deliberately thumb their noses at the Golden Rule. The rule keeps humans civilized.

During COVID, face coverings are both a tool and expression of the Golden Rule. When you refuse to wear a mask if you dont have a health reason you are saying that you are the only person on earth who matters. Everybody else is worthless and expendable. Maybe youre thinking that if someone dies of COVID because of you, Oh well, everybodys going to die of something. Im just playing my part in the Darwinian big picture.

Wrong. When you refuse to wear a mask, youre just a lousy citizen. Period.

Glenn Troester

Loveland