'Freedom to Breathe': Indian Covidiots Claim Masks are Useless in Viral Video. Don't Listen to Them

"This isn't a mask, but a sign of your compliance and slavery."

We are living in 2020. An ongoing coronavirus pandemic has swept globally, affecting more than 2 crore persons including claiming over 7.5 lakh lives worldwide. The best way to avoid infection? Maintain social distance and wash your hands.

But if you do not enjoy the luxury to stay indoors to get your work done, your best bet is to listen to experts and cover our face with a mask all the time while venturing out as it reduces the chances of contracting the virus. The situation is so bad that even the US President Donald Trump, a long-time face mask resister, wore one during a military hospital visit.

Back in India, since the onset of disease, the cases of coronavirus have grown exponentially. To remind the importance of masks, PM Narendra Modi has, in his several public appearances, donned one while urging his nation to get used to protective covering.

But who can argue with covidiots?

In a video shared by Dr. Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury on Twitter, one can see several young people talking to the camera and telling you how a mask is essentially ineffective. Themed around Independence Day with inspiring music as a backdrop, the many covidiots who take turns to speak, "remind" you that you are being manipulated in wearing a mask. A certain individual then tells you that the virus is about the size of "nanoparticle" which can "easily go through" your protective covering. Another person appearing in the video says wearing a mask is much more harmful as you breathe in the carbon dioxide that you're releasing in the covering.

Urging you to "wake up", the narrator further insists that you not give up on your freedom and fall for such manipulation traps in the name of health and safety.

If the cringeworthy video wasn't all, the "freedom from masks" crusaders go ahead and burn their masks.

Just so we are on the same page, there is plenty of evidence and studies out there that prove the effectiveness of masks against COVID-19.

"The concept is risk reduction rather than absolute prevention," infectious disease specialist Peter Chin-Hong was quoted as saying by the University of California San Francisco. You don’t throw up your hands if you think a mask is not 100 percent effective. That’s silly. Nobody’s taking a cholesterol medicine because they’re going to prevent a heart attack 100 percent of the time, but you’re reducing your risk substantially.”

Responding to the factually incorrect video, fellow Indians called out the misinformation being shared in the name of freedom.

"The doctor who posted this should be reported," reacted one.

Assuming that the video posted on Twitter was not a parody, the Indian covidiots rallying for anti-masks join the long list of covidiots spotted in other corners of the world.

Earlier this month, about 17,000 people took to the streets of Berlin rallying against social distancing rules imposed to curb the pandemic.

Now we can now only hope that the video going viral is, in fact, a satire on anti-maskers. If not, we could be in this for a long, long time.