i do not care about your post. by all means, continue to mask up. i'm not trying to be acerbic (go ahead, look it up).

enjoy your weekend.

best wishes.

Chico, California. Not many people are wearing masks outside; maybe 10% or so.

In Western NY it's about 0% or so people wearing masks outside.

lol

There is different advice in different regions, countries, cities etc. Somewhat down to differences in advice from health experts, somewhat down to different political priorities and somewhat down to difference in outbreaks or difference in active Covid-19 variants.

On the individual level, people are in different life situations. Some have conditions or close ones with conditions that make them take more precautions. Wearing a mask might not matter that much if there is only 1 person out of a 100 that does it, but it might also be one of the few things you can actually do. Control is a weird thing.

I'll fully admit I've clung to still wearing a mask indoors. I've always been a "belt and suspenders" type when it came to risk avoidance, and I pretty much said I'll keep wearing them until no one else is or COVID is eradicated. Let's also realize that mask wearing, even in non-COVID times, has precedent in first world countries like Japan. Also I suspect that for some, even those unlike me, who paid attention to how there was essentially no flu this winter, the prospect of still masking up during cold and flu season, regardless of where things stand with COVID, will have some lure.

So that means Covid is massively more contagious then the flu?
Masks stopped the flu but didn't put a dent in covid over the winter?

Thing is that even with Pfizer/Moderna vaccines they are only 95% effective in perfect conditions. Against worst variants they are apparently only 80% effective.

However, getting Covid when vaccinated isn't the problem. Virtually no deaths or hospitalizations.

It is catching it and passing it on to unvaccinated children who then pass it on to elderly who aren't vaccinated.

Oddly most of the people who were wearing masks in Vegas where I was just playing poker in tournaments, were Doctors who had been vaccinated and had children.

This touched me.

I generally tell people who are wearing masks that I have been vaccinated. But if they are uncomfortable (which is rare) I will put on my mask.

In general indoors I will wear a mask so that people who aren't vaccinated will feel safer. I did not do this while playing poker because I was wearing glasses that would fog up. But I typically wore my mask while walking through the casino or in the rest room.

Be careful when you go. Nevada is experiencing the 2nd worst infection rate right now in the US and it is skyrocketing at 1.23 and ~15 cases per 100,000 people.

I came back feeling fatigued (OK I got no sleep because I finished a tourney at 4:30am on my last day missed my 6am flight and flew back at 11:30am). I also have a sore throat and slight congestion for a day.

And it wasn't that bad when I was there (like 1.07 infection rate)

I just read where the flu typically infects between 5% and 20% of Americans each year with vaccines (essentially 40% effective) preventing about 2% to 3% of Americans getting the flu.

Covid has infected about 10% of Americans in known cases. I wouldn't be surprised if it infected twice as many or more because testing just hasn't been available. And this was with mask wearing, social distancing, and quarantining all things that are not done to prevent the spread of the Flu.

So yes Covid is far more infectious than the Flu. Even with 50% of Americans effectively vaccinated it is still spreading in 20 states at over 1.00 infection rate today.

Mask wearing did put a dent in the spread of Covid. But it would have been far better if they had been worn by everyone (indoors especially).

My daughter who was an EMT during Covid lived in my house before there were vaccines. Every day she worked she was in contact with people who had Covid. She wore a mask except when in her room or the basement. My wife, my son, and I did not catch Covid. And as far as we know, neither did she because she, and when possible her patients, were masked up at work.

I would assume a medical worker like an EMT would be wearing an N95. When the general public refers to masks I think of blue surgical or cloth masks. Maybe my perception is off but yeah, if every mask worn by the population was an N95 then I'd think that would be effective.

I'm sort of with you on this. I think somewhere along this journey, we lost our way on masks. I believe the non-medical masks we all wear obviously have some impact, but they aren't the end-all be-all some seem to think they are. Here in our province, they've often been labeled one of the least effective, last resort measures. Staying home when sick, washing hands, not gathering indoors, keeping distance - my belief is those are the measures that have been most effective, in conjunction with contact tracing and subsequently isolating/quarantining, closing down high-spread sectors, etc. Masks have their place, but we potentially get into trouble when we start ignoring other measures but think it's OK because we're wearing masks.

+1

Masks (indoors) are an easy intervention that shaves a bit off the edge of infection.

They dont have a massive or even big impact but are such an easy intervention that its a no brainer to implement a mask indoors mandate.

That even this became politicised is basically why WAAF.

This has undoubtedly been a disaster. The education around mask use and effectiveness was appalling poor while playing into the natual inclinations of the stupid but well meaning.

Similarly with vaccines where so many act like it's over as soon as they've been jabbed. It's been a disaster of epic proportions in some places. This is at least time limited as the vaccines take effect but the failure to give warnings/education when we get jabbed has been pathetic (in the Uk and afaics everywhere). They could so easily have had huge red signs at vaccine centers telling people to continue to be very careful for a couple of weeks after the jab.

Sure. As long as they don't have a negative impact on other measures - for example, people worrying less about keeping distance because they're wearing masks. Whether that's a real thing or not, I couldn't say for sure.

Yeah, the messaging is important, as it has been throughout the pandemic. On vaccines, I feel our government has been pretty clear here that it's 2 more weeks until you're truly vaccinated, and then there are still cautions about behaviour post-vaccination. Of course at this point with numbers going down, nice weather here, pandemic fatigue, etc., even the best of messaging won't always work.

People taking untoward risks because they were masked is not something I have observed.

Seems like a mileage may vary thing.

Anyone who does this is likely to do it anyway imo, mask or no mask. Better to be doing it with a mask.

Some rules around masks have kind of embodied this phenomenon though.

I am in a crowded pub with poor ventilation, sat down I dont have to wear a mask. If I move about I do have to wear a mask.

Masks are probably doing **** all in this scenario.

I don't know. The vast majority of people I talk to say things like I went to so and so place but I had a mask on or everyone there was wearing a mask so it's all good. Or things like "they're bringing back a mask mandate possibly" like that's some answer.

Then you've got moron govts like Thailand that find out whole households are getting infected (who knew?) and they're issuing statements for everyone to wear masks at home around your family. These are official statements from the health minister.

I think a pretty big chunk of the population thinks masks are the nuts and if it wasn't for those damn antimaskers we wouldn't be in this mess.

I dont count going to a place as an untoward risk.

I guess there is some weighting to the "place."

If someone in your house is infected, wear a mask seems like solid advice.

Lots of medical advice works the same way, e.g. you are probably totally ****ed, but still do this very slight mitigating thing.

The reason they caveat with "I wore a mask though" is because they knew it was an unnecessary visit for wherever they were going but got that mask so it's all good.
If someone in your house is infected some blue surgical mask ain't doing ****.

We're always guesing a bit

Yesterday I went to the supermarket. The whole time I was there (and they hadn't just arrived and didn't look like leaving) were two customers just standing there chatting to each other. Both had masks on. I'd wager without masks they wouldn't have done it and that they thought the masks made it ok.

This also seems pretty typical to me.

Im not convinced its aint doing ****.

Im not saying it will do much, but its some degree more than absolute zero imo.

Household spread is far from always 100%, even with Delta.

The only way to stop that interaction is to not let people out, or to remove masks as a mandate but still let people out.

So say you let people out no masks, one of those individuals is infected, they dont have the conversation, but then walk around a super market with nothing mitigating their shed of virus.

Latter seems worse to me.

The thing with masks though.

1: Give me reliable information about someone political coordinates.

2: I can now predict their position on masks with high confidence. (Obviously not saying perfect confidence).

3: This is weird imo.

Sure can be better than zero but the way a lot of people I interact with think it's massive.
That's all I'm saying.

I'm pro mask and that's a false dichotemy. The issue for me is whether education on mask use could have been far better both for individulas and businesses.

but in any case it doesn't chnage the reality which doesn't go away when we stick our heads in the sand.

The danger is letting politcal views bias views of reality. I agree that the objection (which I share) to the antimask view has made it difficult to have a sensible conversation about mask usage.