State now urging everybody to wear a mask in public indoor spaces

You forgot Soros and the Illuminati.

This ride never ends, buddy

That shrieking “authoritarianism!” persuades no one and achieves nothing.

does "Hey, we suggest you do this" fall under authoritarianism?

How is the investigation into the origin if Covid-19 going? What's the plan for keeping this type of thing ever occurring again?

It's a big world out there and we have no control over what happens outside our borders.

Just wear a mask, okay?

Just like you wear a shirt, and shoes, and pants ...

I'd love to see you try to stand all day at work in pantyhose and minimum 2" heels like women employees of the state (and most private companies) used to have to or be fired. Sheesh.

Or just move to Texas.

Whether this came from bats via pangolins or some other wild animal, to a wet market, or via careless people in a lab, or even a nefarious foreign plot, the virus is here now. Wearing a mask makes sense based on what we do know about the virus--it's dangerous and airborne. Get masks printed with American flags or "protecting myself from a Chinese plot" if you like, the important thing is that you wear one and it fits properly.

Then, since you agree with me that preventing future pandemics is important, write to Congress and the White House and push them to restore the funding for things like pandemic monitoring that was cut before 2019.

The verbs in this advisory are "urges" and "advises". We're hardly looking at a totalitarian state stomping its boot-heels on an (unmasked) face, forever. The only actual requirements are for healthcare, transportation, and certain other high-density and/or high-risk settings. Hardly a major imposition.

As for origin of SARS-CoV-2, that's ongoing work. It's a long and difficult process because you have to stumble on just the right samples in order to fill in the missing links. China isn't releasing Wuhan lab documents for inspection but honestly I can only blame them so much, given that people were such assholes about it and instantly politicized every damn aspect of the pandemic, but I bet they're doing their own investigation as well. And there have been a lot of calls for banning gain-of-function research, which is something that people were advocating for doing even *before* COVID-19 was a thing.

Every end-of-the-world plague novel that I ever read either comes from a government accident, or because something is unleashed on mankind that was previously hidden deep in a jungle or buried under Arctic permafrost. As we lose more jungle and more of the Arctic ice, well, we're just getting started.

Our reaction to 9/11 brought us a pretty significant assault on liberty. PATRIOT act, warrantless wiretaps approved by secret courts, "Sneak and peek" searches executed against your ISP or telcom provider or landlord, who was forbidden from telling you that your stuff had been searched. Not to mention America's war entered into under false pretenses.

Our reaction to COVID-19? Vaccine and mask mandates, and restrictions on large indoor gatherings.

I just don't see the comparable intrusion at all.

are you speaking from a podium?

You put your underwear over your head AND post a link on youtube.

At an event I attended virtually this weekend, speakers were tested that day and were more than 6 feet away from all audience members when they talked unmasked on a podium. Especially for something like a press conference, this can be helpful for audience members who need to lip read. An even better solution would be to have the speakers wear the masks that have a transparent section so people can see the mouth while still being protected.

Like many people, I spent the summer not much worrying about wearing one since I got my cootie shots.

As soon as Delta came on line, I put mine back on well before any requests or mandates because it really isn't a big deal.

As did 99% of the people that I saw in grocery stores and other public places, because it really isn't a big deal.

We have a sufficiently educated populace that understands that even people with their shots can easily reduce their risks by masking up again, because it really isn't a big deal. I'm surprised there even has to be any urging or requirements anymore. The FreeDumb crew can go right ahead and risk self-removal from the gene pool.