To Clear up any Confusion, Buzz and Lisa Are NOT Anti-Mask

I think, largely, the BAMS has done a good job during the two years of Coronavirus. We’ve done our best to communicate the messages from Dr. Fauci and the CDC on the federal level and from Dr. Ocaranza and Judge Samaniego on the local level.

We’ve let our listeners voice their concerns and opinions while fact-checking and debunking misinformation. It hasn’t been easy but I think we’ve done our best.

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I want to address the idea that we’ve recently become “anti-mask”.  Here are just a few of the comments we got on the KLAQ App chat this morning:

It is true that we (Lisa and myself) have started questioning some of the policies that don’t seem to make a lot of sense. For instance, the Super Bowl is going to have a policy of, “you have to wear a mask unless you’re in the act of eating or drinking something."

Does the COVID virus suddenly deactivate as soon as you go to take a bite out of a churro? Why are politicians and celebrities in luxury boxes NOT wearing masks? Is the virus afraid of VIP areas? Also, I think the biggest transmission risk is having 100,000 people all in the same place NOT how quickly you pulled your mask back up after a bit of hot dog. What counts as “eating?" Have food in your hand? Are you covered as long as you’re chewing? How does ANY of this make sense?

By the way, I’m also alarmed by the number of listeners CONGRATULATING us for no longer being “sheeple”.

Mr. E: 

"Damn, Buzz and Lisa have become anti-maskers."

Angel: 

"Let Niko be the only one wearing a mask, he loves being a sheep"

John: 

"Super surprised that Buzz and Lisa are finally waking up on wearing masks!!"

I don’t think this is “waking up." I think it’s acknowledging that some of the requirements are arbitrary and elitist and that the entire situation is much different than it was two years ago, ONE year ago, even six months ago.  We’ve had a vaccine available for over a year.  In a worldwide “clinical trial” with billions of test cases the vaccine has been proven safe and effective. I no longer fear for MY life. Just for people who, for whatever reason, haven’t been vaccinated yet.

We had a caller this morning who told us she had a six-month-old baby, born 5 weeks premature, who, obviously, has not been vaccinated. That’s who I care about…the few who CAN’T have the vaccine as opposed to the millions who have chosen not to get it.

Is COVID “winding down”? I hope so. AND, lots of the infectious disease experts (Fauci, Wallensky, etc.) have recently been signaling that we might be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m looking forward to that day. Lisa has said she’ll probably continue wearing an N-95 even AFTER we get an all-clear. So, I think it’s a stretch to say either one of us is “anti-mask”.  But does it really make sense that the Super Bowl will be a COVID-free environment as long as you have a beer and a hotdog in your hand?