As an aside, likely prompted by other cultures that wear masks, either to avoid pollution or disease, I’m considering wearing masks more often. The primary reason is to reduce exposure to particulate matter, as PM 2.5 is shown to correlate, if not cause, declines in mental function, as well as reduced well-being and health (see studies below). Air quality in NYC is good, not great, and occasionally ventures into moderate, or even unhealthy for sensitive groups, as when the west of the US burned. It might not be something I do every day, but certainly on days when the air quality is less than good.
Another pandemic practice, hand washing, will also stay. When the pandemic started, I saw articles that quoted medical professionals who thought that hand washing was great, to avoid additional infections and disease, and not just for COVID. Not that I was unwashed before, but…
A sampling of articles related to PM 2.5
It should be noted, some of these studies are simply correlative, and not proof of a causal relationship.
Sorry to hear. Although there were articles alluding to extroverts having a tough time with isolation, it was introverts who suffered the most. I do empathize, but honestly, considering your risk factors, I would try to avoid the unvaxed. Depending on where you live, it can mean that most people are available to spend some time with, and a little caution might go a long way.
Thank you for your thoughts. In theory, I totally agree. In practice, I have no way of knowing who has been vaxed and who remains unvaxed except for the zealots, and they are nowhere near my social circle.
The thing is cloth masks do very little. And most people wear a cloth mask. So honestly at this point mask mandates needed to go anyways for a while? I think if you want to be careful you wear a N95 mask yourself to protect yourself. Really cloth masks have not been a good barrier.
Given that we have been wearing masks continually as our state still even has a mask mandate for indoors. The joke is they’ll lift it in 2030. But I expect this or next month maybe… We switched to wearing an N95 everywhere when Omnicron started and we might continue to for ourselves. That is a personal decision at this point for everyone. Wear it to protect yourself if needed. We are still in the higher risk category with our age and me with type one and we are not skinny. I had something last December and I had hoped it was Omnicron and since mask restrictions are going to be lifted I decided to test for the antibodies, I had hoped it would be positive as it would have made me feel better. But no…it must have just been a bad allergies.
It will feel weird seeing people without masks. But really, cloth masks weren’t doing much and that’s what everyone mostly wore. Vaccinations didn’t matter to spreading it either, you do that to protect yourself, it’s the same with masks. You have to decide what you want to protect yourself.
But, I haven’t been wearing one, except where required for some time now.
If your just a diabetic and you have been vaccinated, I’m sure your pretty close to fine.
If you have kidney disease, I would exercise caution (avoid large crowds).
My elderly (70+, vaccinated, but not boosted) friends just had it - one has a clotting disorder, and so I am a bit worried about her long term. 1 neighbor with Congestive Heart Failure had it (unvaccinated). 1 friend with advanced HIV had it (prior to vaccination). They are fine, though.
1 of my friends aunts had kidney failure and died of covid. 1 child of a friend was hospitalized and almost died after a trip to Disney World, prior to vaccination. An accountant I know in town died shortly after covid began and I suspect that was covid.
I’m not too worried about it anymore, but I know some people are. I go to work everyday. I go to large events and concerts. I haven’t gotten it. We are tested weekly, and they tend to catch cases quickly. I expect to get it eventually, but so far, so good. I wouldn’t worry too much as summer approaches.
LOTS of people got it at work around Christmas time. The problems popped up around elderly relatives, but no one else. It was a little surprising that there weren’t any problems surrounding covid over Christmas - especially because one guy at work was unvaccinated and took the horse drugs. Even he turned out OK.
I’m guessing it depends on where you live. I see many surgical masks and KF/KN’s, and some cloth, and sometimes with none at all, but I will try and pay more attention. We have KF94’s, which worked well for me, and over time my spouse started wearing.
I still wear a mask for shopping at the grocery store, hardware store, Costco, etc. And I may for the rest of my life. Because why not? It is easy and just not a big deal to me. I suspect that even if the feds lift the airlines mask mandate, I may keep masking for flights anyway. I have really enjoyed the last two years of not getting colds and other minor illnesses.
But if I worked retail for 8-10 hours shifts, I might feel differently if I had to wear a mask day after day for shift work.
When I took an overnight flight to Europe in 2019, I caught a cold on the flight and the first four or five days of my tour were diminished by my illness. I think I’ll wear a well-fitting mask on future long-distance international flights. It’s an easy insurance policy.
@katers87 I believe there are different brands too, and that adds to the confusion of which is more accurate. In looking at it further mine was Abbot. Here is a page on it. There are 3 tabs, the third tab is the test I had. SARS COV-2 IGG
The specific calendar day when the virus risk becomes generally acceptable is not knowable. Therefore we are faced with three choices.
Stop wearing a mask when your state’s mask policy expires.
Continue wearing a mask after your state’s mask policy expires.
Selectively don a mask at public venues (mostly indoor, some outdoor) that seem risky to you and continue this behavior until overwhelming evidence supports another course of action.
When I started this thread, I was leaning toward dropping my mask use when my state’s policy no longer requires indoor mask wearing. This thinking is based on accepting that this virus has become so contagious that, at some point in the future, I will inevitably become infected. Perhaps now is the time to let my immune system be challenged. Hospital resources appear to be improving.
But the risks that some point out, including @JamesIgoe, are real and the burden of using my mask at selective venues is not heavy to me.
I think all three of the above choices can be defended since no one knows the true risks. The weight of these risks, or lack thereof, will not be known until epidemiologists, months or years from now, examine the retrospective record.
I agree Terry. I think it really just depends on your risk profile and how big of an impact wearing masks and avoiding crowded spaces is having on your quality of life.
If the answer is very little impact or high risk profile, then I can see why you’d continue wearing a mask.
I’m really grateful to feel comfortable eating out again, traveling, and trying new things with new people. These vaccines are amazing!
I was hospitalized for 21 days for DKA during the 1st year of COVID.
I was intubated, kept in a coma, with only flashes of cognizance.
I had no idea where I was.
I had no idea why I was being restrained.
And, the healthcare workers aren’t all the caring angels they purport to be—you are completely helpless.
And, due to COVID, no visitors or loved ones to assuage your fears.
So… for everyone saying it’s no big deal, I say you’ve never been seriously hospitalized where you’re restrained and existing in fear and confusion.
I’ve been wearing a US-made N95 since 2020. I will continue to wear a mask when inside or outside in congested areas.
I don’t associate with others without a mask on—inside or out.
When I visited friends in their home, and before Omicron, we all wore masks when inside. We were all fully vaccinated and boosted.
I will not be unmasked around anyone I know who has children.
We should encourage and support people to do what works for them and their families.
Continuing on the idea of a previous post, wearing masks to avoid pollution, and why it might make sense to continue to mask, if one can’t afford medical care, another reason to be cautious. It is a small study with higher numbers than other large-scale studies, so the numbers are less reliable, and the title needs careful reading, since it only applies to the 56% of the study that had medical debt, or translated, 1 or 2 people out of every 10 people acquired medical debt as part of COVID.
To @katers87 point, vaccination is crucial, but it might pay for some to be extra careful, to avoid acquiring debt from COVID tests and emergency room visits. For the unvaccinated - they might not take the virus seriously anyway - hospitalization with a serious case might be financially crippling.
For 3 in 10 Americans with medical debt, bills came from COVID-19 treatment
While most sources of medical debt are familiar, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a more recent contributor. Thirty percent of respondents with medical debt incurred debt from COVID-19 treatment, including testing, inpatient care, or outpatient treatments for the virus.
Americans with health insurance are more likely than those without to say they incurred medical debt from COVID treatment, by a rate of 31% to 22%. However, research shows that individuals without health insurance were less likely to seek treatment in the first place if they contracted COVID-19.
My mask will stay on when indoors in public places. I live in Florida and we have annual passes to Disney which we used to go frequently before the pandemic. Disney had a pretty strict mask policy which we liked. We started going again and it seemed pretty safe because they were well below capacity and everyone had masks on. Two weeks ago they announced that masks were optional. We were extremely disappointed when we went. It was crowded and no one wore masks in any of the indoor places. Their indoor places/rides were crowded. There was absolutely no social distancing. It felt like we were at the Superbowl and we were the only ones wearing a mask. I happened to go on one of the Disney blogs for annual passholders and mentioned my concern that Disney is back at capacity and no one is willing to wear a mask when its not mandatory. Let me tell you, I got trashed by all of the other bloggers. They were truly rude and insulting in the things they said to me on that blog. I guess the general public has had enough. I believe they are misinformed about this virus. They think that there is no longer a need to practice any safety measures because they are vaccinated. I disagree. The elimination of safety measures will enable the virus to continue mutating. Some people have told me they are immune to the virus because they are vaccinated which is technically not the case, and a person can still be an unknown carrier. They tell me sarcastically to stay at home in my bubble if I don’t like the way people are congregating shoulder to shoulder in public places. It doesn’t pay to argue at this point. I’m going to continue wearing a mask, trying to maintain some social distancing as best I can. Besides, by doing so I will avoid colds, the regular flu, etc.
I imagine most of us have had a booster shot, so less of a concern, and similarly for those that experienced Omicron, but it still might pay to be cautious, just a little bit longer…
Some health experts think BA.2 won’t cause much harm in New York because of the area’s vaccination rate and because it is gaining ground so soon after the last surge.
“I don’t think it means a lot because there’s pretty good cross-immunity between BA.1 and BA.2 and because the omicron wave was so recent,” said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health and the chief of infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center. “People clearly have good immunity. It’s very good immunity for 90 days. It’s probably decent immunity for six months.”
But other researchers worry BA.2 could prey upon unvaccinated groups such as children and people who have not been boosted. Only 33% of New York residents have received a booster shot. So few health care workers have taken their additional doses that the state health department postponed the enforcement of a booster mandate for this workforce, citing fears of staffing shortages.
