I truly believe the Northern hemisphere is in for a rude #COVID19 awakening this fall and winter. COVID continues to mutate, immunity is fading, new booster uptake will be minimal, repeated infections will have weakened many people's immune systems, and everyone wants to pretend COVID is gone.
As I slowly recover from my first infection, I can't imagine why people would want to risk multiple infections. I'll do my best to make this my ONLY infection.
@augieray People with children often don't have a choice as their children are not protected in schools.
People working in crowded offices or public spaces often don't have a choice. Work and get your 4th or 5th infection or loose your job.
And then there's the selfish morons who embrace every new infection and should die on the spot and just won't.
I'm with you, by the way. My first infection in march '22 and I thought you'd have to be fucking mental to wánt to go through this multiple times.
@Lazarou@harriettmb
Lie on the forms so you qualify. People will let you get away with it. Maybe look up something you could ask your doctor to write for you.
@augieray I don't disagree, but I have to ask - what's the endgame here? Is the expectation that we'll mask forever? COVID is not going away, and vaccinations, incredible as they are, can't keep up. Can we ever win? And if not, what's the alternative to just resuming life and dealing with the consequences?
@dubikan I wish we'd pay attention to when risks rise and fall. We don't have to mask forever, but we should when risks rise (sorta like driving slower when it rains.) Why does it have to "masks forever" or "masks never"?
@dubikan Is the expectation that we'll wear shoes forever?
Masks aren't the burden some people make them out to be, and they don't prevent anyone from resuming life.
As for dealing with the consequences, do you know anyone with long covid? Have you seen it up close? Are you willing to "deal with" debilitating and disabling chronic illness? When you could instead, you know, just wear the damn mask?
@pixplz I don't know if you wear glasses, but if you do, you probably know how difficult it is to mask with those. I was having constant headaches while I was regularly masking because of the fogging. I can definitely accept masking when there's heightened risk, but if it's always heightened, then I'll take my chances with long covid, same as I take my chances with cancer when I go out in the sun
@dubikan@pixplz what’s your endgame with wearing glasses? are you going to wear them forever? your eyesight isn’t likely to get any better, so why not live with the consequences of your poor vision and take chances bumping into things? like, the cost of eye exams and well-fitting prescription eyeglasses—who can keep up with that?! maybe have a think about why you wear glasses and whether you can apply those reasons to other health & safety concerns
@esotericjones@dubikan@pixplz
Also a glasses wearer here. I wear my mask high, just under my eyes, so my glasses overlap and there is no fogging. Sure there are times when fog is inevitable, and just like my shoes I can unmask when it's not productive to wear. If worn for covid then it's primarily needed indoors where there is also climate control. Fogging and covid protection rarely cross. Most of the times I'm wearing it for reasons unrelated to covid, like air quality. It's a boon to have.
I carry a mask in my pocket, and I only find it to be a convenience. I can throw it on when the Air Quality Index is dangerously high. I can throw it on when I need to use a public bathroom and don't want the smells to assault my senses. I can wear it when I'm emptying out a vacuum full of dust. I can throw it on before I walk into a grocery store full of people, to avoid the spread of covid.
I don't see how any of that is an inconvenience. Not having one was.
@dubikan I do wear glasses. If yours are fogging, then your mask is leaking. Try a 3M Aura for a better fit.
Your chances of long covid are 10-20% with each infection. Those are terrible odds, aren't they?
Again, do you know anyone with long covid? Have you seen the suffering and agony up close? Because, if you have, you wouldn't be assuming this foolish attitude.
Do you really think it's possible to "resume life" while being disabled from long covid?
@pixplz I know no one with long covid, which leads me to question your 10-20% stat. And, oh yeah, I didn't even talk about the financial cost of masking consistently. We don't all have hundreds of spare dollars per month for "well fitting" masks for the entire household.
@pixplz you said "with each infection". That's not what these studies say. Vaccines and boosters also reduce the likelihood of long covid. Plus, not everyone with long covid finds it debilitating. Only 20% of those who had long covid reported that it prevented them from living their lives.
You said 3m aura, so that's what I looked up, and it's over a dollar per mask if you buy in bulk. Quit moving the goal posts.
The 3M Aura isn't the only well-fitting mask. Blox also fits well. Still, it would cost a family of four under $200/mo. if each person used a brand-new Aura daily. But, they're reusable.
I'm not moving any goalposts. One of us is in denial about the nonexistent burden of wearing a mask, and it isn't me.
@pixplz I'm just not obsessed with covid like you seem to be (e.g.,your username). I take it seriously, but I also recognize there's more stuff going on. But you do you. I'm not interested in this conversion.
Sorry your partner has serious long covid.
@dubikan You came into someone's mentions literally while they're sick with covid to whine about masks. That's on you.
You don't sound sorry.
My spouse caught covid twice while teaching, and now they're disabled by long covid. Schools were supposedly "safe," remember? They're superspreaders, and that's a fact.
I'm not "obsessed." It's my everyday reality, asshole.
@dubikan@augieray
I mean, it's not a choice — we can't un-see what we've seen, un-learn what we know
The world has decided to make it a forever problem, so here we are; masking for the foreseeable, avoiding indoors when we can, cleaning the air in the few spaces we control
If there's an endgame, it'd be a multi-layered public health strategy that actually drives infection to zero, probably involving things like clean air in all public indoor spaces; there's even some movement on that front, ever so slow (CDC recommending 5 ACH, new ASHRAE standard 241-2023, Clean Air Forum in Canberra in April)
In the meantime, we do our best to avoid infection, reinfection, disability and death
@sabik@augieray but why is covid different from every other illness that's permanently around and we try to mitigate it, but accept some level of sickness and death as inevitable?
@dubikan@sabik Because hundreds of studies show that COVID harms brains, lifts rates of heart attacks and diabetes, and damages immune systems. COVID isn't like every other illness.
@augieray@dubikan
As a side-note, the COVID precautions and mitigations also help prevent a bunch of other diseases, like the flu, so that's a bonus
For a lot of other illnesses and hazards, preventing them is a matter of unremarkable routine; we bring a water bottle rather than drinking from the creek, we look both ways before crossing the street, there's a whole schedule of childhood vaccinations, we discard food that's been out for more than four hours
@augieray get better soon and yes it does take longer than most other viruses...have had a couple of times and one was something I picked up from surgery tool...and took very much longer and swear it tries to come back...
@augieray I am still hiding indoors like 90% of the time. When I do go out I wear a mask and/or just putz around in my garden/garage/back porch.
On top of that, when I do go to the store I am in a near panic of being caught in a shooting or attacked for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I was getting gas at the station last week and someone nearly hit me and my car while drunk trying to fill his gas tank! The world is crazy these days!
@augieray I would like to see better air and more people wearing masks, but I do have to say that the NZ winter is not seeing an uptick of cases at the moment (including wastewater data). Is there any reason for that? None that I can see. And yet.
@augieray it's madness, especially considering that multiple infections increase one's risk of #LongCovid. And even here in Hawaii, I see fewer people masking. 😱
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