The Dumbest Covid Thing Ever

BUCK: I’m just making the claim here, but the New York Times is essentially backing up some of the claim with this piece. What do you think is the dumbest? What is the thing that you say, “I cannot believe people were convinced to do this or had to do this” in all of covid?

CLAY: So there’s a ton of things that the data would reflect, like we’ve obviously ridiculed masks. We have ridiculed schools ever shutting down, lockdowns in general. None of the data supports this. But I would argue that the dumbest thing that probably exists in my opinion is some of these public venues.

I’m gonna give you two options: One is wearing a mask until you sit down at a restaurant, which there’s no one on earth who can possibly say that that makes sense. The other are these shields that people are putting in place like, you know, like when you go into a convenience store or whatever else.

BUCK: Is this like Family Feud or whatever you get the pot, or you win the —

CLAY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s it. That is the answer, the ding, ding, ding.

BUCK: The Wheel of Fortune, the Daily… I don’t watch enough of these shows. I used to when I was a kid.

CLAY: And these things are coming back now they started to go away, right, the shields?

BUCK: Here’s what’s so important for everyone to understand. ‘Cause remember “The science!” If you argue — if you agree with Clay and Buck, if you agree with us, “You are denying the science” and people will freak out at you about that, right?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: However the most recent data — and this is from the New York Times — from top-level academics at universities who study air ventilation engineering, this is the… Let me just give the headline, Clay.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: “Those anti-covid plastic barriers probably don’t help,” it says, “and may make things worse.”

CLAY: Of course. (chuckles)

BUCK: So we’ve had these plastic barriers up. Now, a lot of things don’t help, right?

CLAY: Right.

BUCK: We know the whole put your feet here in the elevator. But making things worse say level beyond. Here’s what this actually says in this piece. It says, “There may be a particular problem places in like classrooms where people are present for a longer period of time, where interrupting the airflow can create pockets of covid in the air.”

So by creating these barriers what you’re actually gonna do is interrupt normal airflow — this is what this New York Times piece says — and essentially create a pocket. Clay, you’re in a restaurant, you’re behind the Plexiglas and it’s, “Oh, this is keeping you safe from covid!” It’s actually making you sick while you’re eating your foie gras or whatever — your chicken wings — in a cloud of covid, according to the laws of aerodynamics in this article. Think about that. It’s worse for you.

CLAY: It is, and I hope that in the years ahead we’re eventually going to get studies to prove it. I think this is one of many things that actually makes things worse and/or doesn’t help at all, and it doesn’t surprise me. (chuckles) I want to see a study on these stupid restaurants that require to you wear a mask when you walk into the restaurant and to your seat and then once you’re seated, you can take immediately your mask off. I think that’s probably the dumbest rule that exists.

BUCK: I also believe that masking was essentially compliance training and also elevated people’s anxiety because it’s a constant reminder that you’re supposed to be scared.

CLAY: Yeah. I think you’re right.

BUCK: So then they’re more likely to do all these other things. It’s like masking is the center of the whirlpool, like, this is the thing that brings everything else down with it.