Anyone still masking?

[Halftime Hope]

8 hours ago, SHP said:

Have you been professionally fitted? That is really important.

I was fitted for a respirator 20+ years ago for a job and there wasn't one that fit my face. Now I can find them without issue that fit my face just as good as the closest fit 20 years ago, it is close but not perfect. If I want a perfect seal I will get out my respirator and p100 filters that I use for work.  Thankfully, technology has come a long way and there are options for even the hard to fit.

Please note that I never wear my work respirator for day to day activities around humans. If the risk is such that I need that level then I will likely not to go.

Yes, I have. I've tried many kinds, and I wear the one in which I do the best in big box stores and airports, places frequented by hundreds of people. I do it with what I think is a rational assessment, "I'll wear a mask for what it's worth." 

As far as current, during covid, studies, again, you can cherry pick which study you want to use to make your point.

9 hours ago, KSera said:

That may well be true for you. But there are millions of health care workers who have been fit tested to N95s that have no leaks. There are several N95s available that have been shown to have a greater than 90% rate of people passing fit tests in them. I know some people’s faces are just harder to fit and they get leaks (most people aren’t even trying to prevent leaks, but clearly you are, so you’re getting better protection than most), but most people can be well protected by a mask if they choose to. 

If healthcare workers had been spared getting covid, I'd feel like masks might be effective.  (I know they have lives outside of work, too, but considering any children were locked down at home for months and years, I'm not sure children were much of a vector.) 

10 hours ago, kokotg said:

Do you think it's significant that they were basically only looking at studies conducted pre-covid (with the exception of two that did show a reduction in transmission)? I just don't see how anyone could use it as evidence that masking to prevent covid in particular is ineffective. Like...I don't even understand how they would try to pass it off that way; it makes no sense to me. 

There are lots of things that make no sense to me. One of those is Fauci telling people, nationally, not to mask, and consistent with that, his telling individual friends of his not to mask. And then flip-flopping on it later. And then wearing two masks.

I'll mask in higher trafficked places, for what it's worth, but I'm not counting on it to protect me and mine.

 

[Halftime Hope]

10 hours ago, kokotg said:

Do you think it's significant that they were basically only looking at studies conducted pre-covid (with the exception of two that did show a reduction in transmission)? I just don't see how anyone could use it as evidence that masking to prevent covid in particular is ineffective. Like...I don't even understand how they would try to pass it off that way; it makes no sense to me. 

So here's my theory on that. In everything in life, we inform ourselves from similar situations. If we don't have an answer regarding our current situation, we can look to similar situations and make inferences.

I don't know why the authors chose the studies they did, but the Cochrane framework requires that PIs state their criteria for study inclusion up front, prior to the study. We also don't know at what point the study was conducted, and if it took a long time for it to be prioritized for peer review and publication. I'm with you...many questions.

 

[Ausmumof3]

7 hours ago, Malory said:

Right. And I think mandates in health care settings face the same issue. 

I think it’s incredibly shameful that healthcare settings insisted on surgical masks and didn’t provide n95s long after widespread acknowledgment of airborne spread and when n95 shortages became unavailable. We are now suffering the consequences with healthcare worker shortages.

[kbutton]

On 4/10/2023 at 10:46 AM, Halftime Hope said:

If healthcare workers had been spared getting covid, I'd feel like masks might be effective.  (I know they have lives outside of work, too, but considering any children were locked down at home for months and years, I'm not sure children were much of a vector.) 

DH's coworkers have picked it up socially or before anyone knew we had local cases. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

1 hour ago, kbutton said:

DH's coworkers have picked it up socially or before anyone knew we had local cases. 

We can trace where we got it both times and it was socially.

One of my coworkers had a huge indoor wedding in September 2020.  The officiant was also an ER doctor and the guests were predominantly ER and ICU doctors, nurses and paramedics. There wasn’t a mask to be seen. Unsuprisingly within a week many guests started to become ill, but it was assumed due to occupational hazard, not a mass gathering of HCW. 

I can cite many personal examples of that.  I think most HCW were probably picking up Covid socially and not at work.

[Terabith]

I mask everywhere except work or when eating, drinking, or swimming.  It's not perfect, but it's a very useful.  

I am NOT happy about health care facilities dropping masking.  That just seems ridiculously stupid, not just for covid but for all sorts of things spread via respiratory routes, and there are lots of vulnerable people.  

[Farrar]

I mask very sporadically. Always in healthcare facilities. I don't care if it's Covid or a cold - it's swimming around in there so why risk it? Everywhere else... it depends. The other day I was in a room with lots of people, sitting for 20 minutes. I hadn't planned to wear a mask but... the person behind me was hacking up a lung. So I pulled out a mask. I was literally the only person in a room of 50 with one on. But I was like, nope. Not doing this with some rando coughing into the back of my head. Once we were out of the room and then in a huge open space, I took it off. Probably a negligible difference, but I felt better.

[Dmmetler]

My feeling is that my masks may not be 100%, but any percentage they block is more than I would have had otherwise. At this point, I can't imagine doing yard work or being outside during peak pollen season, going on a plane full of coughing, sneezing people, or teaching in cold and flu season, because it just makes sense to reduce the exposure. 

[bookbard]

52 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

I think most HCW were probably picking up Covid socially and not at work.

All the nurses I know who got Covid got it from their kids, who got it from school, once mask mandates were dropped last year in 2021. 

 

[wathe]

2 hours ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

 I think most HCW were probably picking up Covid socially and not at work.

100%.  In almost all cases, HCW in my department got it from their kids, or could be traced to an out-of-work social function.   And the one large at-work outbreak was linked to an unmasked break-room pot-luck (that broke the rules).

N95s absolutely work.   I haven't had it yet.  My workplace exposure is extremely high.

[Lynn in al]

No masking unless requested in Dr office,  never got covid

[shawthorne44]

On 4/7/2023 at 5:01 PM, KSera said:

Well, quite honestly, no. I've never been to the doctor for flu like symptoms and no one in my family has ever had a flu test 🤷‍♀️. But that's neither here nor there.

I'm very glad that your husband had such a mild bout and was back outside working within 24 hours. Unfortunately, a lot of people experienced much, much worse than that. Hopefully eventually that's all it will be for anyone (as an aside, in February 2020, there was also a different non-covid illness rampant in the country with very similar symtpoms--even in Spring 2020, the overwhelming majority of people with covid symptoms who were tested turned out to have something else).

 

Well, I got it from someone that got it from someone that caught it in China during their New Years celebration.  

 

[mommyoffive]

Still masking for everything indoors here.  I just dialed down my kids who go to nature school who have been masking 100% there.  I decided to start with when they are outdoors and in their small groups they could go maskless.    Of course I find out today a kid is home sick that was there this week.  Ugh.  Definitely a bit more worried than if they had masked the whole time.  

[mommyoffive]

On 4/6/2023 at 5:04 PM, AmandaVT said:

Yep - I work in a middle school, so masking is as much for not getting sick as it is for blocking middle school smells. 🤢 Also, as a bonus, I can cover my 'wtf' face as needed. I mask in stores, at work, and at appts. I do not mask in friends' homes or when we have people over.

I'm the only teacher masking at school all the time. I've noticed that they will all mask when sick, which is considerate. We have 2 students who mask as well, and I will continue masking as long as they do because I want to make sure they're not feeling totally alone. (also I've quite enjoyed not having a cold for 3+ years now and think I'd be a gigantic baby if I got one)

That is really awesome of you.  I would do the same thing.  The teachers for my children's activities just stopped masking so now it is just my kids.  Which I am sure will force them to not mask just because of the loneliness of being the only ones masked.  😞

[Dmmetler]

12 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

That is really awesome of you.  I would do the same thing.  The teachers for my children's activities just stopped masking so now it is just my kids.  Which I am sure will force them to not mask just because of the loneliness of being the only ones masked.  😞

My personal policy is that I will always mask if a student is masking. In practice, since I'm still masking as a default, it hasn't come up-but I do have some students who will go and get a mask when they come into my rom who don't mask anywhere else, so I suspect that in some cases, they're not masking in other locations not because they don't want to mask, but because they feel uncomfortable being the only one. 

[Terabith]

My high school student masks in the hallways during class changes, if she’s feeling a bit under the weather, or if other people are looking and acting sick.  She always masks in math class, because the teacher is undergoing cancer treatment. I think that teacher is the only one still masking, and she’s been ridiculed by some really jerky kids about doing so which has ironically encouraged her to mask more, because if this jerk student is opposed, she wants to do anything to irk him.  

[Arcadia]

Masking is still required for certain places on campus at my kids community college. One of the places is the counseling center. They do put a box of disposable masks near the entrance of anywhere masks are required. 

[Faith-manor]

In certain environments. We mask if we go to a DSO concert, and in area small businesses. We don't spend much time indoors among folks. The main store I shop at for groceries is a humongous Mennonite bulk food store with a new ventilation system. So if I go on Tuesday morning when they first open, there is virtually no one in there, so I don't mask since N95 fogs up my glasses no matter what I do. If it is crowded, I mask and just go as fast as I can.

I will be going to my favorite greenhouse/nursery this week. Non peak horus, and all the windows and doors will be open, so I will not mask. It is always humid, so the mask gets very sweaty around my face.

Ds wears a mask in meetings at work. But his work space is all his own and his employer provides a HEPA filter. So he does not mask at his desk. The other two sons are in grad school and still mask in classes. Dh is work remote so masking similarly to me.