Especially because a lot of outside doesn’t need a mask. If you live in a dense urban core, it might. If you live in light urban, or suburban/rural, you can mask when stepping into the store or whatever.
Don’t forget that masks are to protect others at least as much as yourself.
> Don’t forget that masks are to protect others at least as much as yourself.
That seems to depend on the mask itself, some masks explicitly state that they offer no protection to the wearer and only serve to provide protection to others _from_ the wearer.
This article, for me, highlights one of the major problems of this entire response. Various establishments keep trying to present a rather black-and-white binary view on these subjects.
They're doing a particularly poor job of explaining the spectrum of risks and protections that are available and how to apply that knowledge to your own individual circumstances.
I had a different underestanding: I thought masks are to protect others, overwhelmingly, and there might also be some protecting power for yourself, in a much lesser amount.
The concept is consistent with "since you can, limit dispersing the droplets".
I unfortunately do not have bookmarked articles about this though. Do you have any good source (e.g. to state that masks have a protecting power for the wearer comparable to that for the others)?
Yes, 99.5% counts as “mostly”, I was just emphasizing that “I don’t want to wear a mask” is “I don’t care to protect you” not “I don’t care enough about the risk to myself too wear a mask”.
You're correct, that is our understanding in NZ, mask wearing is almost entirely about protecting others by limiting the projection range of droplets. It works if everyone wears a mask.
And wearing a mask is not just direct individual risk reduction either. Preventing spread reduces opportunities for the virus to mutate, which reduces the larger systemic risk that a new mutation is created that is even more adapted to bypassing vaccines and masks.
I've been seeing this a lot amongst anti-mask arguments. Antimaskers unironically equate wearing a mask to some type of life-altering, oppressive action. It's absurd.
Amongst all of our social responsibilities as human being, wearing a mask is probably the easiest, most bare-minimum thing imaginable, right up there with "don't litter". And just like I don't respect people who litter, I don't at all respect people who don't wear masks in crowded places.
edit: wowfunhappy deleted their comment, but previously it said that the reason they don't wear a mask is because "it fogs up my glasses and is hot and sweaty", and went on to say that such hardships "affect [them] psychologically". This is exactly what I'm referring to in the first sentence of my comment. Absurdity.
The damn thing fogs up my classes when it's cold, and is hot and sweaty when it's warm. When I speak, I frequently have to repeat myself, and I can't casually take a sip of water or eat a snack.
And while this part pertains more to other people wearing masks—I honestly feel like universal masking affects me psychologically. I have a huge amount of trouble recognizing people's faces when their masks are on—I didn't even recognize my sister when I ran into her on the subway—and I'm not able to read anyone's expressions.
I'm not an anti-masker, and I wore one diligently throughout 2020 and early 2021, but I'm just not willing to do it forever! Wearing a mask is by no means torturous, but I really do think it is life-altering. Similar to social distancing, masks change every single interaction I have with others.
I'm aware that masks protect others in addition to myself, but where does my responsibility end? I wear a mask on public transit, and I'll wear a mask any time someone asks me to put one on. But I'm not going to wear one otherwise, and I'm significantly less likely to go into a store if there's a sign on the front that masks are required. I think I should be able to make that choice, and other people can make the opposite choice.
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Edit: Re your edit, sorry about that, I actually deleted the above comment from downthread in order to post it here instead, and our actions seem to have crossed.
I didn't stop wearing masks early on, I got vaccinated as soon as possible, and I've pleaded with everyone I know to get themself vaccinated as well. Please don't lump me in with COVID deniers.
We're long past the point where "educating people" is going to help. The people left who still refuse to mask up are not doing it because of lack of education, and it's time to publicly shame them for their selfishness and arrogance, just like we shame drunk drivers or litterers.
I'm really, honestly trying my best to have a reasoned discussion about this! But I don't know where the misunderstanding is, somehow I'm looking at the same numbers for breakthrough infections as you are, and I'm seeing a very different story.
To be clear, I wore a mask religiously for 15 months, and got vaccinated as soon as I could.
Since you could have transmitted potentially deadly diseases to immunocompromised people before COVID, you have definitely worn a mask everywhere in public for your whole life, right? That’s the only way you have any sort of moral high ground.
If the answer is “no”, then we are just quibbling over what constitutes an acceptable loss of life. Because you are culpable.
Public shaming works best if the people being shamed care about the regard of those doing the shaming. It works very poorly when the topic is polarized and the shaming can be easily brushed off. The more hyperbolic and over the top you make this shaming, the easier it is to brush off.
At this point, the burden of the disease falls almost exclusively on unvaccinated adults. For everyone else, the risk is same order-of-magnitude as the flu. It's pathological and innumerate to obsess over COVID when we unthinkingly accept similar or greater risks. If you're afraid, stay home. Don't saddle the rest of us with the cost of your neuroses.
> The damn thing fogs up my glasses when it's cold
Check the nose clip of your mask. Fogging your glasses might mean it's not sealing correctly around the nose, so that the hot humid air from your breath is being directed upwards towards the interior of your glasses, and also allowing unfiltered outside air inside the mask when you inhale.
Last winter, I even bought a mask from https://zerofogmask.com/?v=7516fd43adaa, which you heat up with a hair drier before wearing for the first time so it molds to the shape of your face. It admittedly worked better than a normal mask, but only partially and only for a few uses, which wasn't economical at $20 each. Plus, it was particularly uncomfortable.
When I was at Mayo Clinic, one of the eye doctors put tape at the top of my mask to seal it. He did the same to his because he wore glasses. This prevents fogging up glasses (or eye exam equipment).
I'd suggest using paper tape for this because the skin around the eyes is very delicate and regular medical tape is a bitch to get off. They used medical tape, and I felt like it was ripping my lower eyelids off when I removed it!
I wear safety glasses and a mask at work. I pull my mask up a little so that I can catch the edge of it between my nose and the glasses. I haven't had any issues with fogging.
I did some research on this last winter, when I was literally struggling to go outside—I walked straight into a lamp post at one point! I'm not going to be able to find the article now, but what I read it's largely dependent on the shape of your nose and face. I seem to have lost the lottery.
I can accept that there may be a continuum of taste in terms of how onerous wearing a mask is. But I don't really know how it can be that bad when my six year old managed it all year last year for school.
- wear a mask
These 2 things seem rather different in magnitude.