Masks, Lockdowns and Post Pandemic Stress Disorder

I'm suffering from a variant of PTSD

Even the New York Times now admits that masks ‘did nothing’. Oh really. As usual, they get it wrong because masks definitely did something though not what was intended. The intention was to stop transmission of a virus, at first. And since no good studies about actual mask efficacy were to be had, we made do with inferior ones. And then, of course, masks became a way of signaling that you were a good person who cared about other people. Back in 2021, Vogue ran an article arguing that mask wearing was the best thing you could do for your romantic life. With this lovely image to inspire you:

Oppressive Mask Virtue signaling became a ‘thing’ and it still is. Even now, one of the largest all-purpose shopping chains here, London Drugs, isn’t content with advising its customers to please consider mask wearing; no, they ‘strongly urge’ them to do so with a big fat sign at the entrance that nobody could possibly overlook. Every time I see it I feel angry, stressed, and helpless, all over again. The way I did during most of the pandemic.

I wonder if that is the intention behind that sign. No, of course not. London Drugs management just wants to ‘be on the right side’, it’s just doing some virtue signaling of its own. So are all the cyclists wearing masks, the mother forcing her toddler at the post office to wear one, the old folks sitting on benches with masks on. They have all fallen victim to The Masked Madness.

As has our official Public Health Service which mandates that you are not allowed into any medical facility unless you wear a mask. I guess they haven’t kept up with the studies that prove the utter futility of mandating general mask wearing, so Science be damned. The only time wearing a high-grade medical mask is indicated is when you have a virus or a bad cold infection but can’t stay home. By wearing one, you are protecting other people from catching what you have. Sort of. But you really should stay home. All other arguments are false and should be clearly identified as the Unscience that it is. So far, nobody in ‘authority’ is talking common sense to the public about masks—and I doubt they ever will. Any Google search on any aspect of mask wearing confirms the utter confusion and disregard for scientific truth we have been living with for the last three years. For me, the mask confusion is a potent symbol for the mass confusion engendered by our cynical political class and above all, Big Pharma. Books will be written and Netflix Specials made about their malfeasance, their greed and deep corruption. I’m just waiting for politicians to start blaming Big Pharma for all of it, throwing them under the lumbering ‘vaccine safety’ bus.

It adds up, not to a microaggression but a big fat macroaggression against common sense, actual science, and the freedom to be left alone. Mask wearing has a sinister aspect because it prevents us from sizing up the expressions on the faces of our fellow humans. We can’t read them and thus feel isolated and bewildered. We have evolved to make those lightning-fast assessments of the intention of strangers, but masks inhibit that. Children forced to wear masks in school now show a marked deficit in social learning. Those kids are now damaged. That’s the real science here, while the faux science of masking goes on and on. Worst of all, Canadians in general are in favour of mask wearing. So I’m told.

I thought it would eventually subside; I would calm down. People would give up on this faux medical charade. But no. As mask wearing and finger wagging continues, I am not calming down. In a way, I am more stressed about this than a year ago. It’s like picking at a scar that won’t heal properly. I believe that I am suffering from Post Pandemic Stress Disorder, a variant on the older version, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. This is a condition that soldiers suffer from after leaving the scene of battle. They are forced to relive the trauma of war in recurring nightmares, daymares, depression and sometimes, suicide. I don’t for a minute think this new pandemic version is anything like as serious, but it does exist. It has its own as yet unacknowledged symptoms. They include an almost unbearable but usually suppressed urge to yell at masked cyclists, people on benches and mothers bullying their toddlers. A spike in blood pressure and a reliving of all the horrible feelings of helpless rage that overwhelmed me during lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Especially, the heated discussions about all of that with our nearest and dearest. The lost friendships, the angry arguments within the family. I would love to be able to ‘move on’ as Dr Oster and her ilk would have us do, but I can’t.

I can’t move on because I have PPSD, always ready to pounce on me just when I started to feel sort of ‘normal’ though I swear I can only dimly recall that state.  

It won’t get any better until masks are officially decried as the useless but sinister and damaging things that they are. Until not just the New York Times but my local so called Health Authority admits on mainstream TV channels that masks do not protect against viral infections but pose a grave danger to social and mental health. Period. Not to mention the ongoing confusion about ‘vaccine safety’, continuing ‘excess deaths’, and lately, a precipitous plunge in birth rates correlating to vaccine uptake.

I do wonder if anyone else is suffering from PPSD. Please let me know…