More and more I question how much pop culture has primed us for a meltdown over a new virus. The endless dramatic depictions of Doomsday scenarios in film and television that people endlessly and uncritically consume probably have had an enormous impact on the way we’ve responded to COVID-19. Instead of reacting in a measured way, an enormous segment of the population descended into a psychosis. Many seemed to relish it even. It felt natural, and they didn’t question why.

Masks will now be voluntary for both students and faculty, as they always should have been. Here’s hoping that other districts, including Oklahoma’s, follow. We’ll know when we’ve begun escaping the mass COVID psychosis when mask mandates begin rapidly disappearing.

Unsurprisingly, Newsom today criticized Texas for lifting their mask mandate

Guess which state has done worse literally every single day this year. Or look at how LA County has done compared to Texas

Maybe he should focus on how mask mandates have been doing in his own state https://t.co/oU3lwJ9GnG pic.twitter.com/xVDzDkZQ9d

— IM (@ianmSC) March 3, 2021

Congrats to TX for ending its mask mandate.

Comparing 4 major states (2 w/mask mandates and 2 without), all ended up in the same place with ~9% total covid cases.

I expect it will be hard for some people to stop wearing a mask. Too much invested in it as an identity symbol. pic.twitter.com/18AAGwTp0i

— Yinon Weiss (@yinonw) March 3, 2021

HB 1677 would require all long-term care facilities to allow residents to designate one more people as “compassionate caregivers”, who would then be given immediate access to the LTC resident. It passed along party lines, with 73 Republicans voting in favor, and 19 Democrats (including my rep., Emily Virgin) against.

The stories told by representatives during the debate, of parents and grandparents who died alone or who haven’t received a visit since March 2020, are horrifying. The callous disregard, even as nursing staff go in and out of these facilities on a daily basis, for the emotional and mental well-being of these residents is ghastly. Even more so is to consider the caliber of person who would vote to continue such an inhuman policy.

Here’s hoping it passes, and we put this dark episode in our state’s history behind us.

A year-long campaign of fear comes at a price…

Video: https://t.co/xVXbsLfTCH pic.twitter.com/fscT1cRtRS

— Clarity (@covid_clarity) March 2, 2021

A worldwide survey by the Uni. of Maryland has tracked mask wearing over time. Here’s their results for the UK & Sweden over the fall/winter.

Why did the UK do much worse than Sweden despite 70-80+% mask wearing compared to 5-18%?

If masks save lives, why don’t they save lives? pic.twitter.com/ReFS7Renhy

— IM (@ianmSC) February 28, 2021

Mask shaming is a belief system for people unwilling or unable to think critically and desperate for the superficial approval of the anxious mob https://t.co/hXs78gkc2F

— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) March 1, 2021

The people issuing these decrees, and the parents complying with them, were always “good” people. And yet this has happened. So we must never again question how it could happen here. It already has.

Crimes against humanity. https://t.co/ZHU4nI4bon

— Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 1, 2021