Yeah, right now I’m the lone weirdo walking the halls on campus or the aisles of the grocery store wearing a mask. I’m not planning to stop.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Yeah, right now I’m the lone weirdo walking the halls on campus or the aisles of the grocery store wearing a mask. I’m not planning to stop.
Me, too. I no longer care what other people think. When one laughed at me, I asked what’s so funny? She was all flustered at being called out and buzzed off.
Me too.
Well, not in class. In class, everybody masks, because I mandate it. Even if the university does not.
I can’t quite tell which one is you. Have you done something new with your hair?
My N95 is just a regular part of the way I dress when I leave home, and I hardly ever see anyone else wearing any kind of mask at all, even at my doctor’s office!
I wish the mask were better at protecting me from others, but at least it’s pretty good at protecting others from me. (“It’s not all about me” is something that few people seem to get any more.)
Me, too.
The very small hospital at which I work (in the ER) just lifted their mask mandate this week. No required masks of staff or patients (though all the nurses continue to wear masks). My sister, a public health nurse (she makes home visits), continues to wear a mask on visits and in the office. They had an outbreak in the office recently.
I always wear a mask around strangers in public, indoor spaces. I will for the foreseeable future.
#2: I am not allowed to mandate it in class. My university says we have to respect everyone’s preferences about masking.
Everyone’s but yours, apparently.
Have you considered spraying the U Morris administralion building with spores of some non-lethal but diarthea-inducing malady?
I think the rules would change fast.
FWIW I had to spend a night in hospital (Flinders Medical Centre, Emergency Dept, South Australia) a couple of weeks ago now. I had to wear a mask there as did others in the waiting room & beds even had it on whilst trying to sleep. (Rather badly stuffed knee if anyone wants to know, I’ll spare y’all the gory details.) Oh and while we were waiting (from 3 pm till midnight) nurses went around and gave everyone RAT tests to see if anyone was positive and we were asked about having any covid symptoms. Outside of hospital; you’d think covid has gone away with hardly anyone wearing masks but inside one it’s a very different story and, yes, we’re still in yet another covid wave apparently.
PS. In things to see tangential news – there’s going to be new Star Wars movies and the anti-“woke” pro- ignorant bigoted staus quo set are already hating on them! Oh & we have a Pakistani director for one of them too see :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2023/01/11/infinite-thread-xxvi/comment-page-7/#comment-2174129
Happy to say I have yet to be the only one at the grocery store wearing a mask. We’re a minority, sure, but it includes a few workers. Nobody has bothered me about it, either.
I live in one of the smarter, mostly sane states.
I’ve heard the travel agencies here in Germany have the best year ever. Especially the cruise ships are all booked out – spend your holiday on a luxury plague ship”
Dear PZ and the masked commenters, you are being safe in an intelligent, practical, responsible way. Don’t stop! I and most in our organization will continue to mask-up when near other potential sources of often fatal infection (forever, if need be). Our Heroic Heretic (tm & copyr) has a cartoon where he is wearing a mask and saying, “I have an unyielding aversion to being murdered by maskless, mouth-breathing anti-vaxx morons!”
Lately, in stores, we are seeing a few more people masking up. In Japan, for decades, many people mask-up in public for many valid reasons.
My wife and I wear them all the time when out. We probably will forever because of the great data out of Japan where lots of people wear them during flu season.
I see above where PZ wrote the University won’t let him require them in his classes. But could you ask the students to PLEASE wear them? Pretty please?
In microbiology class back in 1971, we had an experiment in the lab where the first person was asked to put their hand in a petri dish that contained a benign organism that was red colored. He then shook the next persons hand, then that person the next, then the next. All thru that class.
Then every one of us put our hands in a clean petri dish and a few days later we measured the colony counts and saw the red growth in every dish. Now covid apparently does not spread like this all that well, its an airborne one, but the lessen is the same.
@8 PZ
Are you allowed to instantiate a dress code for your class? Especially given you have lab components, you should have some authority to set standards for what students are expected to wear.
I have to admit, I’ve just sort of given up. Yes, it’s the smart thing to do in so many ways. I know it would be better. I’ve just hit the point where the returns appear so utterly nonexistent that I can’t be bothered, even though, yes, everyone here is absolutely correct, and wearing a mask is the right call. But… at the point where everyone I’m around is vaccinated, and no one else will wear a mask, I just can’t get myself to bother, despite feeling guilty about it. If I felt at all ill, I would, but I have to admit to hitting preventative measure fatigue. So… even some of the people who don’t wear masks all the time anymore know you’re correct to do so. Every time I see one of these posts, even, I feel encouraged to wear my masks more often. It’s just so discouraging that nothing seems to help. Heck, I ended up finally catching COVID during one of the periods where I was wearing my mask everywhere, probably because everyone else had already given up. Any reduction in odds for something as bad as COVID is good. I know this. And yet, exhaustion has set in so thoroughly that I haven’t been able to force myself to actually do it.
Requiring masks in classes would actually be very welcome. Unfortunately, I think my professors are also not allowed to make such mandates.
@17 Jemolk said: I know it would be better. I’ve just hit the point where the returns appear so utterly nonexistent that I can’t be bothered
I reply: I encourage you to be careful and disciplined. An average flu season sees 60,000-79,000 deaths. Covid infections and deaths are NO LONGER being accurately tracked and reported. Epidemiologists a few weeks ago reported that there were still likely over 1,500 deaths per month currently from covid. A reasonable extrapolated current estimate for flu and covid combined is likely > 3,500-4,500 deaths per month < . In the past month, I know of 5 people who got covid: 1 died, 1 is on dialysis for the rest of his life, 2 have severe long term debilitating results (don’t know what the 5th suffered). I find that reason enough to take the simple responsible precautions of mask, vaccination and distancing.
the art here is very blatantly made by MidJourney, I’d guess one or two versions old at this point. it’s got the hallmark love for symmetry an strong value, even favoring similar colors to the first version i became sorta familiar with. a lot of times when you get AI art output it comes as four results arranged just like this, which is funny, because it fit the theme well enough they didn’t even have to change that about it.
anyway, i’m pro ai-art and i approve this message, haha.
inside my building:
I go to the laundry room on my floor without a mask
I go to visit my neighbour without a mask
I go to my mailbox on the ground floor WITH a mask.
if I leave the building:
mask mask mask
I’m annoyed that all four people present as women. During the mandates every time I saw a straight couple and only one was wearing a mask, it was the woman. Having something like this where it’s just women in the images isn’t going to help get (most) men to wear masks.
The big mistake was that nobody was selling tactical masks made of military-grade materials.
Tabby, the men were using stolen Predator cloaking gear. Because they thought it would look un-macho to be seen with a potentially life-saving mask.
Same. Just same.
I find it very amusing that people in the Masks Forever camp complain about being harassed, ridiculed, misunderstood, etc., and then they immediately proceed to say that those of us who choose not to wear a mask are idiots, mouth-breathers, morons, irresponsible, callous, etc. Live and let live, right? If you think masks are so awesome, keep wearing them, but don’t force them on the >90% of us that choose not do so.
@4 billseymour “I wish the mask were better at protecting me from others, but at least it’s pretty good at protecting others from me.” What??? Could you point me to any studies that show this?
And for those of you working in hospitals, please read this recent study from a London hospital:
https://www.medscape.co.uk/viewarticle/mask-wearing-hospitals-had-little-impact-covid-19-omicron-2023a100076l
Summary, to save you some time: Masks were mandatory for everyone working at the hospital. But in the second half of 2022 they selected some of the wards where nurses, doctors, etc. were told not to wear masks. Four months later, you know what the difference was in Covid cases contracted in the hospital between the masks/no masks wards? Zero. None. Zilch.
Wow. A study.