I still wear a mask when going out to stores because I'm immunocompromised due to a kidney transplant. It's ultimately up to me to protect myself from others but what bothers me most lately are people who either laugh or think I'm stupid for still wearing a mask. Some even go as far as to call me out and shame me for it. Can people just mind their own business? I'm not trying to get them to wear a mask so why are they so fixated on me taking mine off?
I still wear a mask because I stand in soldiartiy with folks like you.
Not only do I want to prevent the spread of the disease that could kill immune compromised folks like yourself, but it also helps normalize mask wearing.
Genuinely, I think it's probably because they feel a little guilty when they see you wearing one, and that's uncomfortable for people, so they respond by taking it out on you.
This is why I started exclusively wearing kn95s because it became clear after a time that people simply don't give a shit about anyone except themselves, they don't care if you or I get covid and die.
So I stopped pretending like I'm doing my part since we all know surgicals and cloth masks are only truly effective if everyone else is wearing them. They know too but choose to fuck us anyway. So fuck them too and protect yourself first. Wear your p100 respirator with the exhaust vents that filter nothing for extra vindictive points
Probably the same kind of people complaining about their religion being “under attack”, yet they’re the only ones actively pushing their religion on everyone else and trying to criminalize anything that goes against what they think it stands for.
I work in the med/surg floor of a busy hospital, even though management has taken down mask requirements for patients and staff, I still keep mine on when I go into patients room. I'm not immunocomprised, I just don't trust other people to tell me or the admitting staff the truth of their problems.
Honestly, I am not immunocompromised and I still wear a mask because I haven’t gotten sick since the pandemic started, and it even helps my sinus’ when I’m cleaning the house. I’ve never been one to worry about what someone thinks of me, so I’m sorry if this comes off as tone deaf, but fuck ‘em. Why should you care about what they think about you? When was the last time you thought about that person who was doing something you thought was strange in the local mart? I will assume not until I just made you think about them. Live your life as safely as you want. For every moron out there trying to make fun of you (they can try, but ultimately they themselves just look foolish and stupid) there are more like me and the others who wear masks alongside you. Stay safe and have a good rest of your day!
This is the same issue the LGBT community suffers from, as well as people of color, people with accents, etc. People always find ways to make themselves feel superior to others by pointing out something different. You choosing to wear a mask just makes those kinds of people laugh because they either 1. Feel better than you for not wearing masks or 2. They are uneducated/ignorant and follow others' opinions without question.
I suppose the only way to turn it back around on them would be to try scaring them by saying you have something contagious like strep throat, or worse, so they'll shut up and leave you alone. Otherwise my only other advice would be to just do your best to not engage with these types of people.
I really hoped that the mask stigma would change, but it's sad to see it go this way. I might just start wearing a mask again to do my part to normalize it.
If people are sick, they should feel like it's the right thing to do to wear a mask. It needs to be a normal thing and people that make fun of it are pieces of shit .
No one should shame anyone for wearing a mask. However no one should shame anyone for not wearing a mask.
I don't begrudge anyone for wearing a mask in solidarity or to do what they think they can to save lives, but I'm on the side of feeling like I'm taking a personal bag to the store, or recycling plastic bottles like it's actually doing something. I personally don't like wearing a mask, and I feel like in most cases it's just theater to do so.
Someone called me a libtard under his breath, but loudly enough to make sure I heard...in a CANCER center, where many of us were having our immune systems weakened by chemo.
You can't fix stupid so I don't even try. I've been in remission for almost two years, I'm healthy and he's out there sucking in viruses. We both have ticking clocks, but mine is ticking much more slowly than his is.
The lesson I'm learning is that we should have worn masks during "flu season" all along. In crowded and poorly ventilated spaces at least. It's a cheap and easy measure and I don't know what the BFD is with masks.
Well, you see, I want to be able to persecute others because that's, like, the foundation of my religion. But it doesn't really feel right because I end up feeling like the instigator. So I go out looking for reasons I'm being persecuted against so I can sleep at night after a good long day of playing the victim and retaliatory persecuting others.
And that basically explains masks and the rest of the garbage the right yells about.
No excuse but the entitlement of being adult toddlers. Or actual toddlers but they tend to be a bit more sensible. (Unfortunately, I'm partial to acting like a toddler now and again myself, so this comment is a little self deprecating – turns out it's really hard to try to solvee social problems as an individual when the rest of society lives like fuck-you-i-don't-care-if-i-cough-a-deadly-virus-into-your-face.)
That's the damn truth lol. I wish I would've known and used masks more appropriately before; could have avoided a bunch of little respiratory infections. The most I would have had to deal with is people asking "are you sick?" because I'm wearing a mask
The disposable masks are reusable until they're dirty, worn or damaged. They shouldn't be reused if you think you've been in a high exposure area but if you wear it while in the corner store for 2 minutes, you can safely reuse it.
The lesson I leaned is that as long as it's not a COVID everyone is dying, we need to save our healthcare system from collapsing situation we shouldn't wear masks because we need to be able to fend off common colds with our body or we are artificially creating a pandemic. For example we almost had a new collapse of infant care because way to many babies for a certain flu type after everything opened up again which would normally spread out over longer periods.
You're really showing some serious ignorance with your comments. It's really funny that people are actually stupid enough to believe the stuff you're trying to sell LoL.
Not sure about other countries, but at least in Europe we had quite a few comments, including by health officials, that the school closures should not have been done and upheld to the extent that they were.
And I agree, the impact on learning and children's mental health was not justified by the real or potential dangers of the pandemic imho
Edit: One comment from the German Health Minister here, describing prolonged school closures as a mistake
Get over it. COVID is a lot more minor than anyone made out to be. Have you not had it yet? You will if you haven’t. And then you will get over it like a cold. COVID is over for good.
Nonsense, it is a novel virus, effects can vary widely. I got it for the first time last Christmas and my heart still hasn't recovered, dizzy spells after climbing stairs or bending over.
it’s interesting to see how common it is for people in NYC to still wear them sometimes, especially when on the subway (the air is shitty, so it makes sense).
I doubt it will be much of a problem here, except for those who always refused. yeah, it sucks, but it’s a lot better than getting sick— or dying.
It's not the worst, but certainly not a pleasant experience at least in summer or winter. In summer your face gets all sweaty and disgusting and in winter I get a runny nose and the mask gets disgusting. If it's not really necessary I'd rather don't wear it.
It's funny. I didn't understand these sorts of complaints until I remembered I have a beard. There is always something on my face and I'm just used to it.
Wear a Mask. Get vaccinated. Stop spreading misinformation
Since the anti-mask/vax comments seem to be flooding in, figured I'd make my opinion known too... as obnoxiously as I can, because apparently that's how it's done
Even if it kills (which it likely will), our track record shows that didn't care enough about that, and in a decreasing manner. So it'll only be worse.
Pretty sure every virus has killed people, from the cold, to flu, and of course covid. It feels like now the death rate for the latest variants of covid are pretty comparable to the flu, the virus has lost a lot of its killing power over time.
I keep wearing N95s. Haven't gotten COVID yet and not feeling like playing the Long COVID roulette. I don't work 9-5 in an office so I don't even have to wear a mask for very long periods of time. Buses, stores require it, but there's plenty to do outside anyway. Patios are fine. Need to take a leak? Put the mask on. No one from my circle has caught it yet. Honestly this protocol isn't that bad.
It's like once "their guy" gave them the ok, everyone started licking doorknobs again. Why couldn't we keep this "social distancing" thing going? I liked my personal space.
I've been doing this and still somehow managed to catch it about a year ago. One of the few people at that event that was wearing a mask and somehow I'm the one that gets it...
Don't know if I'm ever going to stop wearing a mask.
It happens. Since the beginning of the pandemic I've caught something exactly once, a couple of months ago. I did a PCR test however while symptomatic and it came out negative. So did my wife when she got it a couple of days later. My point is that something got through the defense protocol and could easily have been SARS-CoV-2. I only know it wasn't because I tested for it.
Everyone in my immediate circles either masks up like I do or hasn't seen me in a few years lol. I didn't quarantine and mask all this time to get COVID now goddammit I refuse. Funny thing is my life hasn't been any worse without those people now that I think about it... Huh.
Our track record dealing with covid shows us that our approach was largely unsuccessful. Masking must be enforced, not suggested. This is the only effective solution.
I tend to agree, but realistically who is going to enforce it? You've got to take into consideration the impact the constant stream of conflict has on low level employees who end up responsible for this enforcement. For those who want to protect themselves, N95 masks are highly effective when used properly.
Right, it's not going to be accepted by the public or broadly enforced by anyone. The only thing we can do is wear effective masks to protect ourselves. That's basically been the reality of it the whole time.
You also need to wear eye protection. Even just regular, prescription glasses showed a 30% reduction in infection rates. Masks don't protect if other people wont also wear them.
In an ideal world, the community. In our current world, the government must require businesses to require customers to wear masks and social distance, and threaten them with suspending their business if they do not comply.
the impact the constant stream of conflict has on low level employees who end up responsible for this enforcement
It will not be constant. Places where this was enforced strictly did not have that trouble. It is the wishy-washy enforcement that empowered people to do this. It will be a short lived protest that dies out quickly, and the suffering will be far easier than that of covid deaths.
For those who want to protect themselves, N95 masks are highly effective when used properly
From my understanding, it is not enough. A person sharing a public space with you and not wearing a mask poses a threat, and this threat is massive if they are carrying the virus (even if non-symptomatic).
People must not have the freedom to cause the death or others by spreading respiratory viruses due to childish irresponsibility because their favorite youtuber said so.
People were such dimwits about it though. Even if you had a security guard at the entrance to every shop challenging people to wear properly fitted n95s, I'm certain heaps of people would remove it after they walked past just on principle.
Yeah it was a shitshow, all because of how politicized it became. No one in 2018 would have thought that asking people to wear a face mask would become such an embarrassing ordeal.
But trust me, it's easy to catch a mask less person in a store. It shouldn't take more than a couple incidents before they learn their lesson and make an example for others.
You people need to be stopped, you are insane autoritarians. The crisis is over, we are but fin to wear mask forever. You had your time in the lime light, now it's back to normal. Continue to abuse this position and you will not get the population to mobilise again to alleviate the situation.
Once again we see the abled throwing tantrums over the idea of having to suffer a mild discomfort so as to protect the lives of the disabled, especially the immunocompromised.
I have an aunt whose immune system has to be medicated into nonexistence at all times so it doesn't wreck her body, and she is still fucked up from covid, months after "getting over" it and with multiple vaccine shots beforehand. How many people have you killed or left permanently ill, and never realised, in your selfish ignorance?
If there were any divine justice in this world, idiots like you would be smote with horrible autoimmune diseases or total organ failure, forced to go on anti-rejection drugs for the rest of your lives, and live with the same fear you force on others, the fear that any "harmless" disease could be the death of you.
How authoritative. Personal responsibility is the answer. Not forcing others to your level. If your threat level is that high, ok that is your choice. However everyones threat level to this thing should take into account that not everyone in your community will be on the same page as you.
Unless you want another trucker convoy emerging, I suggest not forcing any mandates. Enforce any mandate on yourself, but only yourself.
No one must have the freedom to cause the death of other people by spreading lethal respiratory viruses, only because they failed to comply with every one of the million warnings about covid-19 and masks. Just because your favorite youtuber told you masks are bad does not give you the right to murder people. This behavior must be stopped at all costs, and I do not care what you think of it.
Personal responsibility is the answer if the question is, 'Would you like to contribute to millions of unnecessary deaths and further countless suffering?' It clearly doesn't work as a public health strategy.
Haven't left my house without wearing a mask ever since the ride started.
Also never caught the virus.
At the rate we're going, I'm going to wear them for the rest of my life. I don't mind.
I got it in late July and STILL have it. Both testing positive and with symptoms. Isolating this long has been hell. And I have no idea when it's going to end.
I mean, we didn't handle any of this well the first time. That goes for most places on the planet. I'm sure we won't handle it well if it really does go south again.
There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect. The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection. Hand hygiene is likely to modestly reduce the burden of respiratory illness, and although this effect was also present when ILI and laboratory-confirmed influenza were analysed separately, it was not found to be a significant difference for the latter two outcomes. Harms associated with physical interventions were under-investigated.
I hate scepticism over vaccines, but when it has just been announced that vaccines can be sold to the public for around £100 each, and then this comes along. They say ignore how many are being admitted to hospital as other consequences are more dangerous.
I have followed the hospital rates as a metric for over a year now. I don't see any other metric as valid. The death rate is reduced as the most vulnerable have been seen off. The reporting rate is non-existent because people are not interested anymore. People are under pressure to attend work with covid now, so why would they bother with the testing kits. Patients in hospital is the most sensible data point to me.
Why are we not being told of which areas are showing the most cases? Covid cases are drastically reduced now. Which hospitals are taking in large amounts of cases?
It would be stupid to take unnecessary risks, but this has a bad smell of fear mongering to sell vaccines around it for me.
If the government was trying to funnel money to vaccine companies they'd just make the vaccines free and pay for them with government funds, forever. That makes a lot more money than having the companies try to get people to fork out 100 pounds for them.
From the charts in the article, it looks like levels of infection are up to where they were in May/June 2023. Were you wearing a mask then? It really begs the question: What is the threshold level of infection in which the wearing of masks is critically important?
Eh.... Nah. I don't think you're going to see a lot of mask wearing in the US again. If they want to roll out another vaccine I'll take it, but the masks are a pain in the ass and no one likes them.
I'm starting to realize that the terminally online have just migrated to Lemmy. Who's being selfish or inconsiderate? You're forcing me to wear a thing on my face because you or someone else MIGHT get sick from a disease they will most likely survive, if not just shake off with zero consequences in a week like the common cold.
I did my part by getting vaccinated so I don't add to the number of people who'll go to the hospital. If things get really hairy I'll wear a mask, but it's really just for show. I don't believe that it'll do much to protect me from getting sick or potentially spreading the virus.
it's been a long time since I took biology but my gut keeps telling me that this isn't some binary thing.. like, all these suggestions we follow to me seem to be about minimizing exposure.. like if I get 100 individual covid viruses in me through a cheap, cloth mask, my body can fight it off. And that may be a different outcome if I didn't have a mask at all and got 1,000 individual viruses in me.
I don't know, I'm not a biologist, I just don't get how everything is constantly framed as all or nothing. it doesn't make sense to me.
It's very strange to me. I live in Sweden, we barely shut things down, no masks etc things went about as well as other places that did do masms and we're now looking like we're doing better in some respects (e.g. education)
We fucked up at the start of it all with care home rules not being strict enough but otherwise all good.
Surveillance is an incredibly important tool in monitoring virus incidence and disease spread. Here is a summary of an article published in the National Library of Medicine that explains it in detail:
“Surveillance is a fundamental tool for public health, producing information to guide actions. Modern surveillance tends to follow health measures such as the incidence of a disease or syndrome or even the occurrence of health-related behaviors. There are many reasons for conducting surveillance, and the data collected and the approach taken to analyzing those data are both influenced by the overall goal of a surveillance system. Surveillance systems aims mainly at detection also provide information that may be useful for other purposes. The goal of detecting an outbreak of a newly emerging virus, places specific demands on the type of data collected and the types of analysis performed. All approaches to surveillance share some common principles. While some of the underlying methods used in public health surveillance have evolved considerably in recent years, the general approach to surveillance has remained relatively constant. At a fundamental level, surveillance aims to (1) identify individual cases, (2) detect population patterns in identified cases, and then (3) convey information to decision-makers about population health patterns.”
Cloth masks were always supposed to be a stopgap measure until vaccines or increased N95 production was available.
People will not mask up again, and quite frankly, shouldn't have to, especially if they're not going to use ones that are actually effective.
The pharma companies jacked up the price of the vaccines knowing future waves were coming and yearly boosters would be necessary.
My point is: whether you think people should mask up again or not, it's just not going to happen, but the actual paths forward, either mandatory vaccinations or at least cheap and readily accessed shots for the willing won't happen either without government intervention.
But let's be bluntly honest, people's behaviour has nothing to do with the efficacy of masks. They won't wear a mask, regardless of efficacy, because they simply do not want to. And they do not care if they spread disease.
There are many, many people who gladly masked up until the vaccines were out and then stopped when they got their shots, like all reasonable medical professionals suggested, and now won't go back because they've kept up their boosters and it's unreasonable to insist on it.
But, you're right, the other kind, who aren't vaxxed and never masked, won't do their part out of spite, and the only solution for them is mandatory vaccinations or complete social pariahhood, and only one of those is realistically possible.
(You won't see the outrageous profiteering of their new pricing directly, but don't worry, you're still impacted, even if your tax rates are a bit more sensible)
I'm happy to see "fuck you, I got mine" is alive and well internationally, but why that was your first response to a plague vaccine being inaccessible to the masses should be up for question.
The government could announce a volcano evacuation and you stupid fucks would be like “how long are you babies gonna be scared?” as you walk into the burning hot lava.
Read the review. It’s the most comprehensive post pandemic study from a highly respected journal. They clearly state the following:
There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect. The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection. Hand hygiene is likely to modestly reduce the burden of respiratory illness, and although this effect was also present when ILI and laboratory-confirmed influenza were analysed separately, it was not found to be a significant difference for the latter two outcomes. Harms associated with physical interventions were under-investigated.
If we can’t settle the issue after a 2 year pandemic, I highly doubt it will ever be settled by science.
Masking is political theater and is ultimately a matter of expressing your tribe at this point. Alternatively, we could think of people who wear masks today as leaning more heavily towards social humanism and hive mentality (society over the individual), where non masks proponents lean towards liberal humanism (in the sense of freedom of the individual, that is, personal liberty).
Given that the science is inconclusive about masks, and even suggests that they are not effective, it’s about time that news outlets drop the topic. If you want to wear a mask, then do it. But don’t force anyone else to or suggest that governments should regulate it.
COVID is over. New shit will come. Masks won’t be the solution.
Edit: downvotes without any proper rebuttal. Classic tribalism at all cost despite the truth.
"Our confidence in these results is generally low to moderate for the subjective outcomes related to respiratory illness, but moderate for the more precisely defined laboratory-confirmed respiratory virus infection, related to masks and N95/P2 respirators. The results might change when further evidence becomes available. Relatively low numbers of people followed the guidance about wearing masks or about hand hygiene, which may have affected the results of the studies. "
Soooo, I will continue to think that the mask is effective against viruses spreading by air. Knowing that n95/P2 masks protect mostly the person who wear them and surgical masks protect mostly people from the wearer.
Yes, they aren’t confident. Isn’t it amazing that that is their results after 2 fucking years and a ton of studies into it? You’d think they could come up with more conclusive evidence that masks work. But they didn’t. The science on masks isn’t resolved. That’s pretty damning in my view.
Surgical masks don’t do shit. They only protect larger particles. Virus shit is far too small for any effectiveness.
be me
be in rocky marriage
wife cheats on me
I move to apartment for 6 months trial seperate
hate life
pandemic
goddamnwtf.jpg
I don't have evidence she actually cheated on me this time, other than the nudes she sent the same dude she fucked. I learned my lesson this time. I'm not letting her have the house.
masks do NOT work. Not unless you are wearing at least an N-95 or better mask. More fear-mongering in an election year, surprise surprise. Do not forget to get your lovely vaccines.
Let's fix your incorrect comment: "Masks prevent the spread of communicable diseases, especially N-95 masks."
The existence of viruses is not fear-mongering. You don't believe in the flu either? Staph? E. Coli? Is your ignorance limited to just one virus, or all of them?
N95 work the best but that doesn't mean other masks do nothing. They still very much reduce risk
this is an article about the UK. Election years aren't really quite a thing in the UK as the UK parelement's elections are called whenever the ruling party/coalition calls it as long as it's within a certain time frame (in this case by 2025) and it's highly unlikely for them to call for sooner than they have to as the Torries aren't exactly polling well