Do you still wear a mask?

I hardly ever see people with masks anymore, at least here, so I'd be interested in a more global answer. Thanks!

#CovidIsNotOver

@Testoceratops Hmm I have to take my mask off to eat, which i don't often do in public but do during work. Would you consider that always or often?

@RadiantEmber Well I didn't think about it, but to eat you have no choice so I'd say always. Thanks for doing it btw

@transicorn Yep, thanks a lot for the article and for your answer.

I don't often go out and avoid busy hours and places, but if I see just one person with a mask, it's very uncommon (North East of France)

Saw one at the supermarket the other day, I was positively surprised

I have another question in mind, so I'm asking too.

If you don't mask anymore, would you reconsider if you got told you or one of your loved ones' health strictly needed it?

Thanks for your honesty and for your votes!

@Testoceratops I am always wearing when on trains, in grocery stores, crowded environments, night clubs, etc

I'm usually wearing on buses unless it's really empty, or in doctor's offices unless I'm getting labs drawn and need to reduce my panic attack probability

I don't wear as often as I used to in small group environments, or in places where there's a lot of air and not a lot of people (e.g. my favorite coffee shop)

I'm still having good luck, but I feel like I'm taking more risks than I would have a year ago, and I'm not sure how to feel about that. (I'm being more risky in a lot of sectors of my life overall, but mostly as an overcoming-anxiety thing)

my current operating rule is to minimize time sharing unfiltered air with random people in close quarters

(I'm still at 0 known covid infections, and honestly 0 flu/cold since 2020, so I think I'm either really lucky, have had asymptomatic infections I don't know about, or something)

@Testoceratops I mask in enclosed spaces with strangers, except when I eat something (but I don't restrict my eating because of it). I also sometimes mask in dense outdoor crowds, but the only situation this applies to that I get into regularly is a crowded public transport platform. I don't treat my coworkers as strangers, even though they don't mask.

The only friend I have in my city doesn't mask at all. He said I can come over some times, but I decline because I'm physically unable to go lately.

I'd like to see him when I'll can but don't know how to ask him if he could mask, because even a cold could put me in danger now.

I don't know how to ask him so I'll think about it. Don't wanna seem rude/judgemental or anything, but I really can't take risks anymore

@Testoceratops based on the way I've seen you talk in your posts, I'm relatively certain you can explain that need without sounding judgemental or rude. If he takes it as judgemental, he's probably projecting and you might have to deescalate but I bet you can, especially with a friend

@Testoceratops I put often because it's an always in some situations and a sometimes in others 😅 like I never go on public transit or to an event without wearing a mask (indoors or outdoors), or any indoor public place, but I'll walk around the block without it or sometimes take it off at a friend's house if they also usually mask. And unfortunately I can't really get away with not eating/drinking in public :/

@Testoceratops i still do but i don’t see many other people wearing them here in dublin or elsewhere in europe. i saw many more in seoul and especially in tokyo when i was there last year.

@Testoceratops
I wear mine in public. Though if there's not many people around, sometimes I don't.
If it's crowded, absolutely. I do it at airports.

@Testoceratops I'd mask if in crowd and not eating/drinking, but that's rare (and a resolution after a music event over a year ago where the one masked person wasn't me). Outside, shopping, at mall, there the need to not feel as appearing different wins and I focus on minimizing short-term stress.

If I had a friend wanting to visit and telling me to mask, I'd open all the windows and wear FFP2.

That in a city of a country present in rankings of cities with the worst air quality.

@Testoceratops I chose "always" but maybe I should explain a bit?

I don't wear a mask at home.

I wear a mask whenever I go inside any building - store, doctor's office. If friends/family want to visit with no mask they need to test negative (not 100% but low enough risk for me). If they don't test then we both wear masks.

Even outside, if I'm in any sort of a crowd, or even a small group (untested) that's sitting and talking for a long time, then I wear a mask.

@Testoceratops i've been working on asking people to mask in my place. so far it's been okay. it might help if you have a mask you can offer (esp because people are not good with getting a decent one)

good luck!

@Testoceratops mostly, I've explained things without a sugarcoat and using simple yet shocking realities

in my case, it's stuff like
・I'm already mostly bedridden. One more illness will probably make it so I have to go to the bathroom in my bed and unable to feed myself.
・Pettng cats even a little right now is tiring. One more illness will mean I probably won't be able to pet them at all.

basically, not rude, but shocking enough if the other person doesn't have experience with chronic illness that it might just startle them out of their naive understanding of the consequences of their actions

it doesn't always work, but you can tell who actually cares about you

#Disability

@Testoceratops i chose "yes, always" because i wear an n95 whenever i'm in public. for me that means whenever i'm
- indoors with people who aren't one of my two partners
- indoors by myself, but in a space that doesn't have good ventilation/where people have recently been, or
- outside around multiple other people.

the only exceptions i have to this are
- i have a sort of "bubble" of 6 or so friends who also wear masks in public (although maybe not quite as much as i do) and who i hang out with fairly regularly. we're comfortable not wearing masks around each other - a lot of these are also people who i kiss/am otherwise intimate with, so if i'm already doing that it doesn't feel like much of an additional risk
- there's the occasional unmasked gathering of a friend group, of which most people mask in public but not all of them; we all do rapid tests in advance to reduce risk for that situation
- sometimes i will eat outside with multiple other people and take off my mask for that. i very rarely eat at restaurants/cafeterias indoors (yay for portland food carts) but sometimes it does happen, and when it does i pull down my mask briefly and put it back between bites of food

overall i feel like i do a pretty good job reducing my risk of being infected (and the risk i expose others to). of course there are still things i could do to reduce my risk level further but i think that would have marginal gains and overall not be worth it for me personally

@DavidNielsen Thanks for sharing honestly. Glad you're masking when going to see the doctor. Nobody wore a mask last time I went to one, which is really concerning because the waiting room is really small

@Testoceratops i know that i should, that covid is still fuckin about out there, but like. masks are sensory hell and i live in a very white very privilaged area and so i’m afraid of being judged if i wear one

@Testoceratops but!!!!!!! absolutely if a friend had a health issue that put them in danger if the people around them weren’t masked, i would mask!! i don’t get why anyone wouldn’t

@silvermoon82 Oh then that must be why

@Testoceratops Yeah I wish I saw people masking more often. Reducing the spread of respiratory diseases helps a lot of people

@RadiantEmber I really wish so. Yup it really does, it can save lives and I think it seems to be abstract to some, like, maybe they feel immune idk

@Testoceratops

Where I live, I see maybe 5% of the population masking in offices/libraries/stores/etc. The % goes up a bit after news about high levels of flu/covid/etc.

In my workplace, I'm the only regular masker; the other staff wear a mask if someone in their household is sick, to avoid passing the virus around.

@Kathmandu I'm sorry so few people are masking there. Thanks for sharing. Same here honestly, I don't even know if we reach 5%.

Nobody wore one at the pharmacy nor at the doc, which is alarming to me