Any of you still masking?

[Guest]

I'm in the middle of a large medical conference. There are a few hundred attendees (mostly physicians, the rest nurse practitioners and PA-C's). I counted only 3 people who wore masks (none of the speakers). I'm wondering if any forum members are still wearing masks when in large crowded venues. I'm particularly wondering about two particular members (you know who you are)...

[+ robear]

I am!! On public transit in NYC, many still do and I fully intend to keep on.  It seems an excellent way to avoid wintertime respiratory miseries of many kinds.

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

I might wear a mask at the bar next Monday night.  🎃

[CuriousByNature]

Yes, I still wear one when I go to most indoor locations.  Not so much for myself, but because there are others who are more susceptible to catching a bad case of covid compared to me.  

[MscleLovr]

Yes I do. Especially when visiting a hospital. And in crowded spaces. 

There was a recent survey (based on the last week in September) on this topic (UK Office of National Statistics) . It found that about 14% of those aged 16-24 did so. For those aged 70 and over, this rose to 43%. 

[JoeWinkoReturns]

absolutely. i already got 5 covid shots but with type 1 diabetes, i try to stay as safe as possible. if im going into a crowded place (like a greyhound bus or amtrak train) I ALWAYS wear a mask...

here's what i look like in it. 

Also goggles and faceshield too so nothing can get into my eyes. 

[Luv2play]

I have tried to loosen up a little in the last few months but as I caught a cold the other day I realize that using a mask over the last several years has decreased my risk of infection from viruses generally. These last few days I have donned a mask whenever encountering anyone. I live alone but saw an escort late last week. I wonder whether he gave me the cold. He did kiss me.

[+ JEC]

I will still mask on planes and in crowded indoor spaces.   Not masking at grocery stores and the like. 

4X vaxed plus had COVID in June.  Getting #5 tonight (bivalent)!

Jack

[+ LIguy]

Yes....masking is required at the hospital where I see my cardiologist and infusion......also required at all my specialists and primary care doctors offices....also required where I had pulmonary exercise classes....and i wear one at the supermarket.  I have not had a cold or anything in several years.

[SirBillybob]

This should go well. 😉

[Rudynate]

Nearly every time I leave the house.  If I'm just going out for a walk I don't bother.   I need to take extra care.

[EZEtoGRU]

4 hours ago, JEC said:

I will still mask on planes and in crowded indoor spaces.   Not masking at grocery stores and the like. 

4X vaxed plus had COVID in June.  Getting #5 tonight (bivalent)!

Jack

Exactly the same for me.  For airports and airplanes, I always mask.  Also, any crowed indoor spaces (concerts, sporting events, etc).

I got my bivalent booster this morning!

[+ Tygerscent]

21 hours ago, Unicorn said:

I'm in the middle of a large medical conference. There are a few hundred attendees (mostly physicians, the rest nurse practitioners and PA-C's). I counted only 3 people who wore masks (none of the speakers). I'm wondering if any forum members are still wearing masks when in large crowded venues. I'm particularly wondering about two particular members (you know who you are)...

Yup… I still wear them in the airports, on planes, at concerts, on cruises and tours, in the theaters in London and NYC… I especially wear them in public in places with low vaccination and high incidence rate of covid, colds and flu. I don’t just wear masks for covid but, that’s part of it~ 
 I also mask in hospitals and when attending medical appointments with my Clients~ Masking works in favor of my vulnerable Clients as well as myself: I can’t work if I’m sick~ If they get sick, they most likely aren’t hiring~ 
 Still vaxing here… I’m on Covax 6~ Got my bivalent today.

 Happy to show my Vax records and I still carry covid tests to test before seeing Clients to show them I don’t have covid. 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Tygerscent

[Guest]

Wow. I'm flabbergasted by the responses. Not at all what I was expecting. I guess it's a failure of public health personnel to disseminate information. Sad. 

[EZEtoGRU]

Unicorn has been anti-mask during most of the pandemic.  Not a surprise that he continues to be so now.  No doubt he started this thread with the purpose of stirring things up so he could act shocked and push his anti-mask agenda.  Some people seem to think COVID is in the rearview mirror.  Not true.  Our weekly COVID numbers were released yesterday in Michigan.  Over 1000  COVID hospitalizations currently in the state and 158 COVID-related deaths in the last week.   Clearly we still have a COVID problem.

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, EZEtoGRU said:

Unicorn has been anti-mask during most of the pandemic....

Absolutely not true. I expressed shock and dismay, for example, when Florida and Texas dropped masking. But, unlike many people here including yourself, obviously, my views changed as the facts on the ground changed. Little has changed since March of this year, however. And they're still counting all people who test positive as "cases" in the hospital, even when the reason for admission obviously has nothing to do with the virus (heart attack, stroke, injury, etc.). Bear in mind that your state has a population of over 10 million, and more people die with colds every year than with the current virus. Public health officials have dropped their recommendations for masking mandates, and very few people agree with you. Look around

But you will continue masking until you kick the bucket rather than admit to anyone you're wrong. This virus will ALWAYS be with us. Keep buying those masks. You'll need them until you draw your last breath. 

[SirBillybob]

It’s important to distinguish between public health recommendations for mask mandating and masking itself. Some entities have decided that the trajectory of COVID morbidity, lethality, extended post-recovery chronicity aspects what have you, are not particularly helpful in underpinning a dichotomous message, because people need a simple directive and the public will often consider such variables in individual decisions anyway. Quebec’s singular message is that masks reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Period. Crickets on face covering format; so be it. Notwithstanding that the null effect hypothesis is neither convincingly upheld nor rejected, there exists a small body of observational research that maintains tension between the possibility of some benefit versus no benefit. The contextual mandate of masks in certain settings in the province reinforces the view of some benefit albeit unsubstantiated at a rigorous research level. The impediments to executing robust research designs aimed at resolving the question at a basic binary level, according to some public health entities it seems, are not deemed to justify a dismissal of a null hypothesis result directionality that favors masking as a legitimate mitigation measure. The paradox itself, the lack of supporting or refuting data because such data are elusive, doesn’t establish a basis for a recommendation one way or another at the individual level of self-determination, of choice. In Quebec, probably elsewhere, rounding up to the assumption of salutary effect in certain settings is going to spill into individual preferences in people’s overall ecology, such that they will extend a central message of mask utility and round up behaviourally elsewhere, though not obligatory, yet possibly extended to the idea of protection and infection source control for a grouping of pathogens. The higher rate of masking among older folks may be, in part, an artefact of the actual mandate in health settings with which they are more likely to intersect. I don’t see how the decision to mask is contradictory for any one single Québécois, whether trustingly following the public health bottom line or having drilled down, data-dived, into the pool of extant research.

Edited October 26, 2022 by SirBillybob

[Luv2play]

50 minutes ago, Unicorn said:

Absolutely not true. I expressed shock and dismay, for example, when Florida and Texas dropped masking. But, unlike many people here including yourself, obviously, my views changed as the facts on the ground changed. Little has changed since March of this year, however. And they're still counting all people who test positive as "cases" in the hospital, even when the reason for admission obviously has nothing to do with the virus (heart attack, stroke, injury, etc.). Bear in mind that your state has a population of over 10 million, and more people die with colds every year than with the current virus. Public health officials have dropped their recommendations for masking mandates, and very few people agree with you. Look around

But you will continue masking until you kick the bucket rather than admit to anyone you're wrong. This virus will ALWAYS be with us. Keep buying those masks. You'll need them until you draw your last breath. 

I don't recall you criticizing the CDC when it dropped its recommendation on masking indoors in March 2021, when other countries like Canada didn't follow suit. And then the CDC having to reverse itself a few months months later when Delta was deemed to be a game changer.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Luv2play

[+ Tygerscent]

12 hours ago, EZEtoGRU said:

Unicorn has been anti-mask during most of the pandemic.  Not a surprise that he continues to be so now.  No doubt he started this thread with the purpose of stirring things up so he could act shocked and push his anti-mask agenda.  Some people seem to think COVID is in the rearview mirror.  Not true.  Our weekly COVID numbers were released yesterday in Michigan.  Over 1000  COVID hospitalizations currently in the state and 158 COVID-related deaths in the last week.   Clearly we still have a COVID problem.

Sometimes it’s a personal choice just like not wearing a mask or not getting vaccinated… It’s OK for us all to have personal choices. 
 My personal belief and action standard isn’t that “nobody” should wear masks or that “everybody” should wear masks but, we are free to choose what is best for us and what’s best in our unique situations~    
  Dissemination and accuracy of information has been both good and quite lacking at times in the past at best, (globally and historically). So, I look at many different sources and experiences and make my own decision~ 
 My choice is to wear masks because, it protects me and that better protects the people that I’m with. There is nothing in my choice that is political, religiously or corporately driven~ It is simply my choice as my conscience guides me.
 Covid isn’t gone, the flu is not gone, pneumonia is not gone, cancer is not gone, diabetes isn’t gone, etc., if anything, more keeps coming.  
  I take my precautions as is necessary in my world. Other peoples worlds might be different and not need masks but, my world works better if I wear a mask and nurture the things that provide safty for my self and those around me.  
 
 

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Tygerscent

[BeamerBikes]

I mask up at airport lines, airplanes, healthcare facilities that mandate it. As it turns colder again in the Chicago area, I'm reminded how the mask actually feels better if I forgot my scarf outdoors. LOL. 

I also n95 masked up regularly indoors in the weeks ahead of my recent surgery. Didn't want to risk having to reschedule that.  

Mask or don't mask. For me - it's personal preference and local site rules.  I vax'd up now covid 3x + 1x bivalent. 1 dose of Jynneos waiting 2nd one. Flu shot as well. Cause fuck it why not?  How many times did I eat or drink to excess in my life? It's a little late to get self-righteous about me being healthier than others.  Also, I trust vaccines when applicable so let it rip. 

[+ Lucky]

The "freedom" not to mask in the face of a public health emergency is contradictory. If masking saves lives, the "freedom" does not exist.

Notice I said "if."

[EZEtoGRU]

1 hour ago, Tygerscent said:

Sometimes it’s a personal choice just like not wearing a mask or not getting vaccinated… It’s OK for us all to have personal choices. That is the freedom that we are fighting for… Not that nobody should wear masks or everybody should all wear masks but we are free to choose what is best for us and our situation because each one of our situations are differentSometimes it’s a personal choice just like not wearing a mask or not getting vaccinated… I

Ummm....nah.  I don't know what kind of freedom you're fighting for...I'm not fighting for any kind of freedom.  No-one on this thread has said nobody/everybody should wear a mask.  The OP asked what people's current masking practices are and numerous people, including me, responded.   The OP proceeded to attack me and make fun of my current masking preferences.  Your response really should be targeted at the OP not me.

[Xavitv]

6 hours ago, Tygerscent said:

Yup… I still wear them in the airports, on planes, at concerts, on cruises and tours, in the theaters in London and NYC… I especially wear them in public in places with low vaccination and high incidence rate of covid, colds and flu. I don’t just wear masks for covid but, that’s part of it~ 
 I also mask in hospitals and when attending medical appointments with my Clients~ Masking works in favor of my vulnerable Clients as well as myself: I can’t work if I’m sick~ If they get sick, they most likely aren’t hiring~ 
 Still vaxing here… I’m on Covax 6~ Got my bivalent today.

 Happy to show my Vax records and I still carry covid tests to test before seeing Clients to show them I don’t have covid. 

On a cruise? Like outdoors on a cruise ?

[+ sniper]

Planes and airports, but not because of COVID specifically. I've caught other bugs on flights that ruined vacations.

Medical offices as required.

[+ Tygerscent]

8 hours ago, EZEtoGRU said:

Ummm....nah.  I don't know what kind of freedom you're fighting for...I'm not fighting for any kind of freedom.  No-one on this thread has said nobody/everybody should wear a mask.  The OP asked what people's current masking practices are and numerous people, including me, responded.   The OP proceeded to attack me and make fun of my current masking preferences.  Your response really should be targeted at the OP not me.

OK… I’m sorry about the misunderstanding. I’m not directing anything towards you. I edited my post to clarify. 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Tygerscent