We advocates for individuals bullied at work know well the health dilemmas targets endure. The health consequences of bullying are all stress-related diseases. Among the many effects is a compromised immune system. This increased health vulnerability links bullying at work to COVID-19.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Aldous Huxley

Another fact is that studies (for example this one from Texas A&M) have shown that wearing masks in public helps reduce the transmission of the virus. It stinking works!

But there is a crazy subset of Americans (‘muricans as they see themselves) who defiantly refuse to wear masks. I say crazy, but mean they are batshit stupid. They rise in protest at municipal government meetings to bark about either the infringement on their “freedom” or they conflate the biological exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide into a misinterpretation of masks as instruments of death.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
Isaac Asimov

Then there are the fools at the top of the political pyramid responsible who should have, and still could, prevent COVID cases and deaths if only science was followed instead of some cockamamie ideology. That ideology is idiocracy. It melds American Individualism with a Republican anti-government posture. The worst of two worlds merged.

It’s an upside-down world where only science can articulate the steps to attack the virus and reduce it to a negligible state where it cannot harm us indefinitely. Sadly, it is science vs. politicians. The president famously and directly said that he felt “no responsibility at all” to respond appropriately to the pandemic. Several toady governors followed suit and denied the fate that COVID would wreak on their citizens.

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut took extreme action, e.g., lockdowns. It paid off. Their states are the only ones to control the virus, and then only after much suffering and death.

The madness of the February through June denial with too-early lifting of restrictions in several states led to unlimited beach time, crowded bars and restaurants, full church services, and political rallies attended by thousands. As summer outbreaks in the majority of states outstrip the scope of the problem we had in the spring, politicians raging against science and scientists are doing the stupidest counterfactual things.

Nebraska Gov. Ricketts (in the featured picture above) threatened to withhold federal financial support to counties (not even his money to play with) if they dared to require the wearing of masks. Trump’s staff in advance of his infamous under attended Tulsa rally removed stickers on the seats encouraging social distancing during the rally. Get ’em close without masks was the goal. South Dakota Gov. Noem, previously famous for ignoring the prevalence of COVID in meat processing plants, proclaimed that there be a large public gathering at Mt. Rushmore with no masks and no social distancing to greet the president.

Lt. Gov Patrick of Texas said that he has stopped adhering to the advice of Dr. Fauci. Did he or the governor ever follow his advice? The anti-Fauci attacks have led to death threats against the person with the strongest and clearest voice of reason during the pandemic. Yep this is America on idiotic-hateful-dumb-divisive steroids facilitated by Facebook. Who you gonna believe? Our know-nothing president and VP or the public health experts. One group is lying; the other group is pleading for our “better angels” to surface. Looks like the ignorant liars are winning the contest.

If everybody lies to you, consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer…And a people that can no longer believe anything, cannot make up its mind. It is deprived, not only of its capacity to act, but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people, you can then do what you please.
Hannah Arendt

There should be no contest between evidence-based truth and narcissistic bravado from buffoons. Bullied targets need your help. Wear a mask. Hey it steams my glasses, but I wear one. Don’t be a “Karen” who throws a hissy fit when a retailer enforces their mask-wearing policy. You can be sure the video will go viral.

And as the Wyoming governor’s campaign suggests — even cowboys wear masks.

I asked Pam Countouris, WP bullying specialist and owner of TCB Training & Consulting, to chime in based on her background. She wrote:

In this challenging time of Covid 19, the only thing we know for sure is that the virus is in charge. I am not a medical professional but was raised by a father who founded the Virology Department at the University of Pittsburgh in the late 1950’s. I was taught to wash my hands constantly, to never take a lick of another child’s ice cream cone and to use a paper towel to exit a public restroom’s door following use.

Unfortunately, this virus has been an enigma from the onset. Even the most educated scientists cannot agree on how to best mitigate Covid 19.

So, back to the original question…To Mask or Not to Mask. I would say, why wouldn’t you? The experts say, it is to protect our most vulnerable population. We know that the elderly and people with underlying health conditions are considered the most vulnerable.

Could a target of bullying be considered one of the vulnerable populations? Research shows that when a person is being bullied that the hormone cortisol is being produced in the brain which has been linked to compromising the immune system. As I said, I am not a medical professional but why take the chance? This too shall pass but until then, let’s stay safe and beat this virus! Wear a mask!

So please wear a mask. The no-maskers, the Karens, and Kens out there who may spit on, or deliberately cough in, the faces of others are people you know well. They are the bullies in our society.

Bullies kill people in the workplace. But don’t let them kill us when we are trying to get groceries, the mail or take-out meals, too

You wear a mask. It’s the socially responsible and kind thing to do. Protect yourself from the bullies who, this time, might be carrying a deadly virus.

We are a nation prone to social contagion. The worst in a few of us can implode to become the model for the majority of us. If we must be copycat conformists, copy those who believe in science. We outnumber them. This is not the Electoral College. Let the majority rule so more of our fellow Americans may live.