Re:The Explosive Legacy of the Pandemic Hand Sanitizer Boom
by NoZebra120vClip on Friday June 02, 2023 @01:51PM
(#36168452)
"The basic science" says that masking protects other people if I am infected with a comparatively high viral load and I am prone to sneezing or coughing unprotected. The basic science tells me to stay home when that happens because I am not fit for public appearances.
Normal people stay home when they're sick, they don't infect others, and the basic science takes care of that just fine. If crazy people want to follow "basic science" and mask up and go out in public while they're carrying an infectious viral load, then I guess we're in Japan or something.
If "basic science" compels the general populace to mask up, even when we're uninfected, unexposed, vaccinated, and asymptomatic, then I feel sorry for basic science because it's jumped the shark.
Re:The Explosive Legacy of the Pandemic Hand Sanitizer Boom
by lisasays on Friday June 02, 2023 @02:40PM
(#36169064)
It also says that it does protect you from other people's loads, albeit imperfectly.
However everyone is tired of masking now, and prefers to forget this.
Re:The Explosive Legacy of the Pandemic Hand Sanitizer Boom
by willcipriano on Friday June 02, 2023 @03:03PM
(#36169346)
Phrasing
Re:The Explosive Legacy of the Pandemic Hand Sanitizer Boom
by NoZebra120vClip on Friday June 02, 2023 @05:21PM
(#36170903)
When masking was first being mandated, I watched a science-guy video as he demonstrated how to properly handle a mask, donning and doffing, shaping the nosepiece, disinfection for reusable masks, etc.
Then I saw reality, where a medical professional would politely remove her mask to sneeze.
Re:The Explosive Legacy of the Pandemic Hand Sanitizer Boom
by hn976827 on Friday June 02, 2023 @04:57PM
(#36170653)
Or you don't understand that there are many things in life other than covid-19 making people mask up. Maybe you stink and people are too polite to tell you so they mask up because they prefer smelling their own breath.
Re:The Explosive Legacy of the Pandemic Hand Sanitizer Boom
by jrockway on Friday June 02, 2023 @02:15PM
(#36168789)
For me the best effect of masking was keeping my hands out of my mouth. I love chewing on those things, which have touched God Knows What disease sources. Put a mask on, no longer physically possible. 3 years without being sick. Who can complain.
Re:The Explosive Legacy of the Pandemic Hand Sanitizer Boom
by hn976827 on Friday June 02, 2023 @04:55PM
(#36170627)
Please stop this rethoric. The world has moved on from Covid-19 and people do or don't wear masks for a large variety of reasons. Perhaps they have a cold and want to keep it somewhat away from others. Perhpas to signal "I'm infectuous". Perhaps they have allergies to whatever, perfume oversensitivities, particles from exhausts, whatever. Perhaps its pollen season. Perhaps they have bad herpes and want to conceal it.
Many reasons, not everything is about virtue signaling or other hyper-partisan political crap.
The reason some people still mask is very simple: For anyone who follows basic science, not what the crowd is doing -- N95 masks in enclosed / crowded situations are still a good idea, especially for those of a certain age.
Many people continue to wear useless (or only marginally) useful masks, and in non-crowded situations (even way out in the open). Which of course ranges from silly to, at best, only marginally useful. However it seems safe to suppose that they're doing so primarily out of strictly rational concerns (however faulty their understanding of better masking practices may be). Some partially, or entirely out of fear (an understandable reaction, if they've experienced a heavy bout of Covid, or have seen its effects in others).
Also, some may remember the temporary shortage of N95s, and still think they're being good, self-sacrificing citizens by wearing less effective (or even basically useless) masks. Or they just don't like wearing N95s because they're too constricting (meaning, "too effective"). However, that is at best a secondary factory, and not the main reason why they choose to mask in the first place.
But to recap: For the vast majority of folks who mask, it's out of (perhaps flawed) sense of pragmatism -- not because they are superstitious idiots, or primarily motivated by some subconscious desire to make a social statement about "who they are".