Huh? “maskless again”? Are there places that still have mask mandates?
A mask mandate was recently reinstated for New York City’s public hospitals due to an increase in flu/COVID/RSV infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently warned that respiratory illnesses are on the rise across the country. Just before Christmas, national COVID-19 hospitalizations jumped 17% in one week.
“I think that’s a major reason why we’re seeing this rise in not only cases, but also hospitalizations. Because we’ve just had Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, so a lot of people are gathering from all over the country,” Roy told NY1.
It’s still surprising to me that so few after 4 years of this still do not understand the airborne nature of respiratory illnesses especially Rona with all that has gone on.
Then again I might be expecting too much from people…
TIL some still use face masks
Edit: people have trouble understanding that the world is a big place. I haven’t seen a person wear a mask, where I live, for over a year now
It’s mainly if you have contact with vulnerable people. COVID and flu both get upticks in the winter months, and hit the elderly and immunocompromised pretty hard.
I still use them if I am the one who is sick to prevent spreading, or if I’m going to be going on a trip soon to prevent me being sick and ruining the vacation, or if I’m around vulnerable people. The vacation one might sound silly, but I had a very close call this year where a family trip that couldn’t be canceled and had to be planned a year in advance was almost ruined by everyone getting sick a few days before. We lucked out and it was very mild, but it could have been something nasty that made us cancel the trip. So now I wear a mask when going out in public a couple weeks before a trip.
I’m absolutely masking before any vacations. I’m going on a trip I’ve wanted to do for decades this fall, and no way am I risking missing it. The last “vacation” I was supposed to have (in 2019) got ruined by some asshole coughing up a lung on the plane and I spent a week in Aruba miserable in bed, which was a great use of my limited time off and money. Not doing that again if I can help it.
Hey, get this: did you know people wore face masks before COVID? That’s right! Little known fact.
In fact, many people in Asian countries used to be seen wearing masks in enclosed spaces like subways when they are sick, purely out of consideration for the health of others. Wow!
The more you know…
I thought the mask was mainly for other people? I remember it being hotly debated but last I remember seeing anything I think that was what was said
Yeah, it catches (lots of but not all) aerosolized saliva from the wearer’s mouth, which means a carrier is putting less viruses into the air. It’s far less effective the other way: stopping viruses in the air getting into your lungs, but it’s slightly better than nothing.
So, if someone feels sick but cannot miss work, this allows them to lower the risk they pose to others near them.
Some people have never stopped masking where I am. I’ve asked my partner to mask up when going any place indoors where sick people can’t avoid (pharmacy, groceries, etc). We don’t mask at a bar, but we do mask at a concert. The difference is that a concert happens once and tickets spoil. A bar is available every night, and sick people are more likely to stay home.
Unless you’re immumodeficent or something, I can’t imagine living like this in 2023.
I can’t believe people still act like putting a tiny piece of fabric on your face is even an inconvenience. So fucking dramatic “I can’t imagine living like this” its like living a regular life except sometimes you go an public and you put a little piece of fabric on your face. It’s similar in concept in some ways to how when you go in public you use pieces of fabric to cover your genitals, etc. oh man what a crazy fucking bizarro world can’t even imagine if we had to put fabric on parts of us when interacting in public.
If all my friends jumped off a bridge, there’s probably a good reason. I keep pretty intelligent friends. The bridge is probably collapsing or some shit. Wear a fuckin mask tho.
“So what, now I’m just supposed to do anything that Rosa does? What if she… jumped off a cliff?”
“If Rosa were to have jumped off a cliff, she would have done her due diligence regarding the height of the cliff, the depth of the water, the angle of entry… so, yes, if you see Rosa jump off a cliff, by all means, jump off a cliff.”
"You jump off a cliff."
“Gladly. Provided Rosa did first.”
Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1170/
