Before covid, I would be sick with a cold or flu for a total of about two weeks every year. That means I spent 4% of my time sick; one out of every 25 days. Since covid appeared, I’ve been wearing an N95 in crowded indoor areas whenever I reasonably can. (Obviously I can’t if I’m eating something.) My main goal initially was to protect my elderly relatives, but during the last four years I have not gotten sick even once, except from my elderly relatives who didn’t wear masks, got sick, and then infected me when I was caring for them.
Why isn’t everyone wearing N95s? Sure, it’s uncomfortable, but being sick is much more uncomfortable. And then there’s the fact that wearing an N95 protects other people and not just the wearer…
Do I have a comm for you: hexbear.net/c/covid
Yeah, it’s funny because I’m often the token libertarian but my attitude towards covid is so different from that of other libertarians. For the record, I think that containing the spread of infections disease is in practice a necessary function of the state.
Get vaccinated and boosted.
Just cause you have the immune system of a sickly Victorian child, doesn’t mean the rest of us do.
I think most people don’t actually want organ and brain damage, even if they consider putting a cloth on their face to prevent that way too much effort.
Covid will give you one of those if you don’t have one already. No mask is very dumb with covid.
Well, even before the 'vid I got sick enough to miss work maybe once every few years. The past couple years I have been going to clubs and music festivals again and have not gotten sick. Despite not wearing a mask. For the record, I am up to date on flu and covid vaccines. I do think people should mask up if they’re feeling under the weather.
I still see a few people wearing masks in public. I know some local / state laws can be problematic. If you want to wear one, more power to you!
Because science, facts, and caring about other people’s health mean nothing to a lot of people.
I used to wear KN95s every day as a cashier during the height of the pandemic. It was noticeably more difficult to breathe through them, especially when I was working carts duty in the dead of winter. It also doesn’t help that masks like this would need to be replaced pretty frequently for maximum effect because the moisture of my breaths will make them wet after a period of time. I could feel the condensation building in my mask throughout my 4-6 hour shifts.
Oh yeah, and if you want your mask to work properly, don’t have a beard. Those will impair the filtration because air will get through your beard instead of your mask.
Im often the only person I see still masked in the supermarket or even doctors office. It’s so fucking dumb, you’re in there for like 20 minutes just be considerate of others. The hilarious part is its mostly dinosaurs coughing unmasked 😂. Like imma be fine but y’all need all the help you can get and you can’t even wear a mask in high risk places, suit yourself 🤷♂️
Even if I would get sick for 2 weeks every year, that would be preferable to wearking a mask all the time.
Same. I drove Uber during the pandemic and wearing that thing all day was awful.
If youre looking for a good looking, protrctive, and comfortable mask/respirator my daily use is the black kn100. It has nose foam, threaded headstrap, and it comes in multiple sizes https://ppeo.com/goods/black-kn100-mask/
Not being sick occasionally is foolish.
Your immune system doesn’t go away when it’s unused. Instead, it goes haywire, resulting in allergies and autoimmune disorders.
It’s better to have the immune system responding to the sort of environment it evolved in (dirty) than trying to respond to the sort of environment it didn’t evolve in (clean), as if it were the one it evolved in.
Ignoring the pandemic, I don’t bother unless the air quality is very bad. I get sick about once a year, around the beginning of winter.
Fortunately I’m not the kind of person who refuses to wear one around vulnerable people
I just assume that anyone still wearing surgeons masks in 2024 has a pointedly bad case of stockholm syndrome.
fyi: a mask is not a respirator.
N95 is not a respirator,
Was expecting a post about how people should be wearing sith masks everywhere and I am now sorely disappointed.
They’re frequently called “disposable respirators”. I do also own the non-disposable sort with rubber seals and screw-in filters, which is what I would wear if I worked in a hospital covid ward, but for everyday wear the disposable ones seem like a better compromise between efficacy and comfort.
“Disposable respirator” sounds like it was named by the same person who came up with “flushable wipes.”
I worked for a company that sold them and I’ve literally never heard them called that. That must be a regional thing.
Yes they are. They are called N95 respirators https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/publicppe/use.html
Masks help with covid but respirators help more. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/publicppe/community-ppe.html#:~:text=Respirators are more protective than,least effective at reducing exposures.