#Get an N95 and wear it everywhere

[necnill]

Reposted by Mark Frost

[cellobotomy]

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[postoctobrist]

Where should I be wearing masks? Frankly, putting them on feels insane and pointless now, and I’ve gotten pretty fucking close to believing that it IS, so I’ve tried to mitigate that by doing a bunch of weird rules lawyering around when and where I put it on

Oh man okay I’m going to get yelled at for this. So there’s this balance between minimising risk to yourself and others, and being able to live a live you enjoy and which doesn’t make you feel insane. The safest way to live is completely indoors away from everyone, but very few people like doing that unless they have to. We couldn’t stay locked down forever because it was an unsustainable change. Masks are very effective but people do not like wearing them or even seeing other people wearing them, really. Shit, I mean we can barely get people to wash their hands and that’s one of the most effective and least annoying public health interventions there is. So you can wear an N95 everywhere but I don’t think you’re going to succeed at normalising it, and people are going to stare at you etc.

Also, the risk side of the equation has changed (some people are very reluctant to acknowledge this!). Not for everyone, certainly, but covid is just endemic now, vaccinations have been very very effective, and we’re kind of back to playing the same dumb luck game we agree to play with every other transmissible illness. Is that great? Not really, but there’s only so much you can make people, including yourself, do. It also means that the consequences of transmission are, while still potentially very bad, materially not the same as the ‘freezer truck stacked full of dead bodies’ days of covid.

I think the most important situation to wear a mask in is if you know you’re ill or have just recently been ill. That does miss the bit where you’re most contagious, because you’re asymptomatic, but like I say, imperfect world. Anyway, if you have to go out and you’re coughing and sneezing all the time it’s worthwhile.

Also if you know you’re going to be in a situation where you know you’re going to be in close contact with more vulnerable people - hospital, care home - or it’s really crowded or has more recirculated air - subway, plane, etc.

And of course you should always wear one to a protest, to minimise covid transmission. Covid also hates it when you wear unremarkable clothing and cover any distinctive tattoos.

The main thing I want to get across is that it’s not the end of the world if you don’t wear a mask somewhere, whether you get sick or someone else gets sick or nobody does. One of the worst social phenomena to come out of the pandemic was this idea that blame is an effective public health tool. I simply don’t believe in morality at that scale and I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault that there happen to be weird microscopic copy machines floating around waiting to unthinkingly copy themselves all over the insides of someone’s lungs. It’s a good thing to wear a mask when you can, but it doesn’t make you a good person, or a bad one if you don’t.

You do have to keep washing your hands, though, I’m not giving up on that one.

[kidspawn]

hey I noticed you mentioned on that covid poll that you mask everywhere but still keep getting sick. are you wearing a properly fitting kn95 or equivalent mask? the blue surgical masks are ok but work better when everyone is wearing them, so if you’re the only person masking you probably will have to upgrade to an kn95/n95/kf94 (or ffp2/ffp3 if you live in europe). cloth masks have the good fit of an kn95 but can’t filter the germs out of the air nearly as well as the surgicals or kn95s can. if money is an issue you can get free masks at a community run mutual aid group called a mask bloc, and you can see if there’s one near you at maskbloc d/0/t org. if you’re already wearing a kn95 or equivalent i would try making sure that it fits with no gaps and doesn’t gap when you talk, ect. if it doesn’t seem to gap but you’re still getting sick, you can try doing a diy fit test at home. that’s when you spray a fit test solution like bitter or saccharine while wearing the mask and doing various movements, and see if you can taste the spray. if you can, it means the mask is letting in unfiltered air because the fit isn’t quite right. i can give more details on this process if u want. sorry if this is unsolicited advice, just trying to help so you don’t get sick anymore or as often!

I appreciate this for what you're trying to do, really. I have a pack of kn95 masks I wear, I'm properly vaccinated and all my masks fit.

I also work retail, have been working retail since COVID started, and am often working with tourists and visitors who are bringing illness in. When I got COVID the first two times I was living on a small island with a high rate of infection. I also get sick very fast, and it's not uncommon for me to get sick up to once a month (not just from COVID) but I almost always don't get strong symptoms. I have a very strong secondary immune response. It's less a product of my effort and more that my initial immune response is very weak. I do genuinely appreciate the advice, though, and I can tell a lot of care went into this. It's simply a circumstance of living somewhere with legitimately shit Healthcare, my own immuno issues, and being in a workforce which requires I work up close and personal with people.

[rebellum]

Genuinely that hasenfu addition was so funny that I'm hoping it somehow becomes a copy pasta

in my opinion it is essential to make a "right to garden" law that means no one can stop you from growing whatever you want in your yard.

I think it should even apply to renters so a landlord is required to allow you to have a garden

And I think this can become a reality

[lastoneout]

It really is wild to already natrually have a lot of chronic medical conditions that are associated with Long Covid, and see so many people I know and love who are acutely aware of how much it has made my life a living hell still give up on masking and act like I'm silly for being petrified of catching it bcs if I survive it(and that's a pretty big if) it will likely make all of those problems infinitely worse, and also not seem to really care about potentially ending up with those issues themselves??

Like I have POTs, severe asthma that makes it hard for me to be physically active, hEDS which gives me hellish joint and muscle pain and nerve damage, and (probably) an auto-immune condition like ME/CFS that causes all kinds of problems, all of which is a cocktail of issues uncomfortably similar to Long Covid and there's nothing I could have done to prevent any of it. But I can vaccinate myself and social distance as best I can and wear a N95 mask everywhere to significantly lower the risk of any of those getting worse. But so many people I know see what I deal with and know what Long Covid is and yet STILL don't mask or prioritize getting vaccinated or social distance when they can. (And yes I know some of it is up to chance/luck but like, you can skew the odds in your favor!!)

I just don't get it tbh. They know how bad it is and yet they just keep rolling the dice every day. Genuinely makes me feel like one day I was crossing the street normally and got hit by a car, and everyone I know saw that happen and how it disabled me and yet they all keep jaywalking and ignoring traffic laws, seemingly ignorant of the fact that what happened to me can ABSOLUTELY happen to them.

Legit makes me feel insane.

[mariska]

i don't usually type out posts directly like this because i am a very very traumatized and anxious and depressed and scared person 24/7. but i have been almost entirely sitting and rotting away from multiple lifelong chronic health struggles for years and years and years and if i'm gonna be direct and channel my absolutely fucking furious anger into one hopefully good helpful thing then im gonna do that now, because we all need to speak the fuck up for ourselves and each other and we will not survive in this world if we don't work together, which brings me to the thing i need to say:

if you are able to, and i know for a fact that many, many people are able to, you NEED to wear a mask when you leave your house. yes, every time. every single time. outdoor events too. anywhere you go where there's other human beings. schools. doctor's appointments. work. taking a walk. by yourself, with friends, with everyone. you do not have another choice. you have to wear a mask and if you're also able to, because there are a lot of us who are disabled to a point of very little to absolutely no independece in our lives who are not able to, you need to be telling, not asking, the people you hang out with, go places with, family that you are in contact with etc to also wear a fucking face mask.

the pandemic is NOT over. there is no post-covid era. it's here, it's been here for years and those of us who have both been disabled long before it was discovered and those of us who have become disabled since have been screaming at all of you for almost 5 years now to give a shit about the other living human beings around you AND YOURSELF!!!!! i am one person who does not and has no intention of speaking for the entire global disabled community (we ARE in every community of people, worldwide, by the way. every single one. disabled people are everywhere and we have been since the earliest days of humanity), and i've tried really really really hard to hold myself back from hating so many of you for not caring about anyone's general health and safety when you step into the world, but i can't anymore. i don't have any spare compassion left for you. get it the fuck together, get your fucking covid and flu vaccine/booster shots and actually make an effort to learn how often you should get the boosters again after that, and WEAR A MASK OVER YOUR FUCKING FACE AND STOP KILLING PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO HAVE BEEN DRAINED OF ALL ENERGY AND STRENGTH THAT WE HAVE BECAUSE WE HAVE TO GO INTO THE WORLD YOU ALSO LIVE IN AND SO MANY OF YOU KEEP GETTING US MORE AND MORE SICK AND YOU DO NOT CARE. you HAVE to care. there is not another option. N95 is currently the most effective mask type as far as i am aware but i don't know everything so do your own research about which masks will work best for you.

my fucking god. so many videos online where i just see so many people talking about the very true fact that we all need to stand up for each other and do what's right and help out however we can WITH NO MASK IN SIGHT WALKING ON BUSY CROWDED STREETS AND BUILDINGS AND CONCERT HALLS!!!!! STOP KILLING DISABLED PEOPLE. please please please please, yes, to those who are able to, continue protesting, logging offline and going into the world to take part in actions of community care, but WEAR. A. MASK. WHEN. YOU. DO. do not put it on your chin 90% of the day. do not put it UNDER your nose. put it on your face. like a mask. and wear it. and make sure the other people in your life do the same. i am literally begging you. none of us can do the work that NEEDS to be done to take care of each other in ANY society if we are all too sick or DEAD to be able to actually do that work.

thanks.

[nomorekyriarchy]

I feel like this is overemphasizing my own gravity within the local activist community, but I have some beef to rant about.

I'm immunocompromised and wear a mask everywhere. Before opening my apartment door, I'm in a mask. Nearly every person I regularly organize with also wear masks, without needing to be told, for the most part. We've had conversations in the past about how masking means that disabled people who are medically compromised in some way are able to be in the space at all. It's masks, or it's the dismantling, banishment and isolation of a vital presence in our communities.

This means we stay home when we are sick.

If you get your comrades sick, that means entire actions don't get organized. It means less people are able to provide support. Call venues for meetings. Bake food to make sure people don't go hungry. Drop off meds when others are sick. Be a medic at a protest or a legal observer. Give people training on what to do when someone is arrested. Make banners. Teach chants and protest songs. You don't do your best activism when you need to be in bed with chicken soup and a ginger ale and some binge watching and someone there to help clean up the detritus of your illness.

Last week I was in a crowded elevator at a bus station. I am a visibly disabled person with a large mobility aid who needs the elevator and cannot use the stairs. I am up to date on my vaccines. I was wearing an N95. But when your immune system is not like others, this is prevention but not complete immunity. It is not enough for me alone to try to protect myself.

I overheard someone say to their friends that they had to sneeze. One of their friends responded with, "didn't you just test positive for COVID too?" And they confirmed that and sneezed (into their elbow but inevitably in the direction of others) as everyone flooded out of the elevator.

Because of their unwillingness to stay home when positive, or even take the stairs to avoid someone they knew was disabled while they knew that they were sick, I started quarantining after that. I took two different brand of rapid tests on Monday and was faint positive in both. It is now Thursday and I am still quarantining and still positive.

This means that I can not participate in my communities without putting the entire communities at risk because of how much things spread. I am not the only or the most medically high-risk person who puts my body on the line. What's nearly asymptomatic for me will cause new variants eventually if I do not stay home and make sure that others don't catch this and pass it on.

When you chose not to wear a mask, it goes beyond just basic caring for others. One person will not stop everyone in the world from getting COVID. But it matters. It can prevent one more person from getting COVID. If it’s asymptomatic in you, what are the chances whoever you pass it to will know about that and take the appropriate precautions? How many people will it spread to before someone loses their ability to eat without everything tasting like sewage? Or lose the ability to smell? Or develop a heart arrhythmia? Or die?

We don't know the future. But we are people capable of a butterfly effect. We have choices now and we can stay home and we can mask when we can't.

All that said, I know that there are currently people being institutionalized for mask and other precaution adherence and requesting the same for medical staff who interact with them. I know it is not that simple. But if you have the choice, please understand the gravity of that.

When you choose to "live a normal life" without wearing a mask, and you go about your life totally fine, it is not always you who is paying the collateral damage of that choice.

[thatgirlwhokeepsreading]

[I am fine I am just saving people who don't want to see my covid venting]

Listen, for complete transparency I am behind on my covid boosters + still way more lax about masking than I should be, but I do have my reusable N95 + N99 masks that I wear everywhere bar my desk at work, students' houses*, or at home. We got the HEPA filters running 24/7 at home**. I STAY HOME WHEN IM SICK. I also remain very boring and masking in public aside I also really don't go to places where I'll be around strangers bar attending theatre (which is my JOB).

I am primarily concerned about covid, but to avoid people feeling the need to grill me I will sometimes swerve to say that my PhD advisor has bad lungs + is immunocompromised and so I'm actually not able to see her if I have ANY respiratory infection (which is also true). But also people look™️ at me in public and will sometimes directly challenge my masking, and sometimes (especially in theatre settings) I will get really pissed by this and actually grow a spine about it and talk about how not only are people dying and being disabled but also the theatre industry in Australia COLLAPSED and in order to keep my Fucking Job I NEED us to make it safe to gather in person. (Also I'm working in disabled theatre rn so... y'know... let's not kill our fellow artists y'all!!)

So this established, yesterday was the second time in less than three months that my brother's gf has come over while symptomatically sick. Last time she was fucken putting her toothbrush touching mine and everything so both myself and my brother got sick. I haven't been sick since early 2021, I suspect largely because I mask (which rocks imo), but then she comes over for a visit without telling my brother or anyone else she's unwell bc she's turned a negative RAT (it was negative RAT tests from all involved the whole illness so inshallah not covid).

That time she knew she was sick sick, and so even though she says yesterday she thought it was just hayfever that honestly doesn't win her much credit with me bc it clearly doesn't actually matter to her. And now she has turned a positive RAT and I am just apoplectic with rage. (My brother is also pretty fucken put out because she is apparently consistently not telling him if she's ill before they meet up, including when he goes over to hers.)

I am angry enough that I am waiting until I'm calmer to make it an official call, but honestly I am considering just banning her from our house. Ma'am you work in allied health what's not fucking clicking???

Like she's very apologetic and I appreciate that and MAYBE I'd be a bit more forgiving (given her symptoms were pretty mild and she does have my sympathy about trying to differentiate hayfever and illness) if I hadn't already been made "week in bed" sick by her THIS SAME FUCKEN RESEARCH QUARTER.

I also know that I'm extra mad bc at the moment she's acting as a symbol for my brain of all the people who should know better but don't even try, for the government policy that is going to kill the presence of the artform I love in this country and also like.... SO MANY FUCKING PEOPLE. Like she did not individually do that. But what she has done is at best risked and at worst transmitted this fucking virus to me and my housemates, after ALREADY making 2/3 of us sick less than 90 days ago, and I'm angry I'm so so so angry.

*this is probably the really risky choice

**which has also done wonders for the asthma so that's a nice bonus

[mythicalthing]

I caught Covid while wearing an n95 and still sanitizing my groceries. Then I caught it again seeing Taylor. It just happens sometimes and I’m tired of not going out in fear of it. After getting it the first time being so careful and not being social, only going to work, i decided to just go do things i want to do like go to concerts or out with friends. I just put on my mask, pack my hand sanitizer, and hope for the best.

i took some time to think this over before answering it because i feel so conflicted. i too have taken risks by going to see taylor and going out to restaurants from time to time. i wear masks everywhere else, but obviously seeing taylor 3 times was a huge risk. i'm so torn between telling people that they need to live their lives and telling them to be cautious. i do think overall we should all still be masking in the vast majority of spaces, particularly indoors. so many people caught it when they stopped masking. granted, i still mask and i caught it, so it's not to say masking solves everything. i do think you can go and enjoy life and still be cautious, so that's what i will continue to do and i encourage others to continue wearing masks and getting boosters when they are eligible.

[chronicallysol]

I haven’t posted since last year but pure anger has awakened me from my slumber

anger about what?

The fact the so many people in the disability community assign morality to having caught Covid or not!

Yes wearing a mask is important (and you should wear one to protect yourself and others) but even if you wear a mask everywhere (even a n95, which some people can’t afford btw) there is still a possibility you could get it, it’s way smaller if you wear a mask but it’s there

I got Covid and one of the things that probably contributed to I was living with another disabled person who did not give to shits about Covid or masking at the time

And there’s probably tons of other disabled who have people in their lives that they can’t stop “talking to”, that don’t mask or care about Covid because for example: they’re care giver (parents or otherwise), they’re roommate (and they can’t move out due to say poverty). And those are just the examples

You can do everything right and still get Covid, Stop assigning morality to if you got Covid or not!

[cazort]

I've never dealt with air this bad in my life and it's really frustrating and kinda scary. That picture? It's not an overcast day, there are no clouds in the sky, that's all haze from the smoke.

The problem isn't just that it's this bad, it's been that it's been bad for days now. Today is the worst it's been.

For people who don't know what it's like, here has been my experience:

On the better days, when I've gone for a walk outdoors, my nose and throat burns a little bit. On the bad days, I don't go outdoors much, and I still feel this way all day long, and the feeling doesn't go away.

After it's been bad for a few days in a row, staying inside doesn't really help much. Indoor air came from outdoor air, and unless you are in a space with a really advanced filtration system, a lot of the pollutants are likely to be indoors too after a few days.

I feel like there is a small amount of junk to clear out from my lungs. One of the worst nights I had a coughing fit when trying to go to sleep and it made it hard to go to sleep. I notice I have to breathe a little faster than normal just to get enough air, which worsens the irritation.

The air smells like wood smoke everywhere. It is especially evident the first time I step out my front door in the morning. By now, you can smell it indoors too, it seems to concentrate in certain parts of my home, presumably because of air currents.

The smoke is thick enough that it substantially reduces the sunlight. The lighting is about as dark as a solar eclipse, and similar-looking because it is like reduced sunlight but without clouds. This has made temperatures unseasonably cool, both during the day and at night, which helps a little bit, in that normally I'd want to open the windows and put fans in them, and I can get by without doing this. It has also slightly mitigated the drought (we are unfortunately also in the middle of a drought, which probably makes the smoke worse because plant growth is less lush than it normally would be, and rain removes particulate matter from the air.)

The air quality is noticeably better in areas with dense tree cover, and best in wild areas that have lush, full plant growth, not just scattered trees in landscaping. Plant trees, people, and more importantly, protect wild ecosystems including forests, and allow dense growth of vegetation wherever possible. Trees and other plants remove pollutants from the air, and you notice it in real-time in events like these.

For people in the affected areas, here are some tips:

Follow public health recommendations about avoiding activity. Check air quality throughout the day (airnow.gov) and time being outdoors at the better times. Often, particulate matter from these wildfires is lowest in the late afternoon, which is different from the normal air pollution from ground-level ozone which is often highest at that time, so the patterns of when air is cleanest or dirtiest may not be intuitive to you.

Wear N95 masks or other masks designed to filter particulate matter, if you have access to them.

Eat vitamin C rich foods and/or take vitamin C (< 2000mg is safe daily, best to space it throughout the day) because air pollution tends to deplete vitamin C and other antioxidants. Vitamin C is more important because it has a short life-cycle in the body, contrasting with vitamins A and E which are also antioxidants and are important to eat a lot of in the long-term, but are fat-soluble and stored in large quantities so eating them in the short-term doesn't do much.

Drink antioxidant-rich tea and herbal tea, such as true tea (green, black, oolong, etc.) or herbs like rooibos, fenugreek, ginger, and others. Even though these teas don't have much vitamin C, they have a lot of polyphenols and other plant antioxidants which will circulate in your system and help reduce the depletion of vitamins that function as antioxidants, like Vitamins A, C, and E.

In the long-run, plant trees and other lush vegetation, protect forests and wild areas and lush plant growth. Advocate for action to mitigate climate change. And, in fire-prone areas, advocate for the use of controlled burns, which were used by Native Americans for thousands of years before Europeans instituted an unscientific policy of fire suppression. Controlled burns can reduce fuel loads by burning at safer times of year, like in relatively moist conditions in winter, when wind speed keeps the fires away from nearby population centers, and prevent catastrophic, out-of-control fires like we are seeing this year.

These wildfires are not "natural" events and are not random, they are 100% preventable and are the result of a combination of climate change and fire suppression, which is related to the destruction of Native American cultures which had a more sustainable relationship to fire and had figured out how to integrate themselves into fire-prone landscapes in a healthier way. There will always be fires, but we can act in ways that ensure that fires are smaller and more predictable and manageable.

[lastoneout]

I do actually think part of the reason I've never brought up my palilalia to a doctor is because I got made fun of for it as a kid so I very quickly learned to mask it, and now it only really happens when I'm doing so many things I legit can't mask it because my brain is too busy to allocate energy to that task, and I cannot do it on command. It's also way less noticeable bcs I wear a N95 everywhere so people can't see my lips, which is the main give away that I'm doing it since the repetitions are so quiet you have to be right next to me to hear them.

But like...the other reason is cuz as I've learned more about it the more angry I am that I was forced to learn to mask it at all. Like so many resources are all about how to treat it and get it to stop, and tbh I don't want to treat it. It's just part of the way I talk, it's never been hurting anyone, it doesn't make me less competent or anything. But I learned to mask so well I don't even know how to unmask it, and I'm worried my doctors/therapists will just be like "well you learned to stop that's good" when it's like no!! I don't think it's good!! I dont like knowing that I was just being myself as a child and then got forced to stop because people thought I was weird!!

Idk I'm probably going to bring it up to my therapist next time I see her. Just to work through the like....mourning? I guess?? Or just the bad feelings around being forced to silence part of myself to be respected.

[albonium]

friendly reminder that antigenic tests/RAT aren't reliable, they give 60% false negatives.

they can be used to confirm you have covid (they turn positive and that's for sure a positive) but if they're negative it doesnt mean you don't have it. it could either be because the test is unreliable (they were made for other variants), too old (the us government has been sending out free tests but they are past their expiration date). you can only confirm you don't have covid by getting a pcr test

please wear a tight fitting facemask in public, at least in all medical settings (including pharmacies physical therapy etc) grocery stores and all kind of administrations (the post office for example). we shouldn't put our life at risk just to do basic necessary stuff

covid still kills and disables, even young and healthy people, even if you're up to date eith vaccination (with a reduced probability but still, and vaccines only work on the variants present when they start developping the upgraded versions each time). it can cause long lasting damages to the heart, the brain and the immune system. you can end up bed bound and lose your entire life. people have lost their job and became homeless. society and the healthcare system won't help you. there's no cure to long covid, they can only try to treat some symptômes sometimes to no avail. preserve your health, the health of your loved ones, wear a tight fitting ffp2/n95 mask indoor everywhere.

[anotheraldin]

The pandemic was a filter, a sieve. All of the petty little rules around masking, entering shops, etc. Did you conform without questioning? Did you muzzle yourself? The neurotic and obsequeious nature of the general public really came to light.

Salaam!

Working at a large hospital in a large city here, there was no filter about 20-30 people dying a night anon. It was incredibly busy and people didn’t know what to do the first few months. It was just death that lingered everywhere in the hospital at the time. I had two uncles who were hospitalized with Covid at the time as well.

I still wear an N95 mask as I’m at a higher risk of getting respiratory infections and people like you think it’s all a facade that a million people just died like that.

[dogsbutch]

I would love to be able to go out in person to connect with people, but I am immunocompromised and I CANNOT GO OUT without risking severe illness and Literal Death because people don't mask.

I mask everywhere, with an n95 or better mask. I still got covid, and now I'm even more disabled than I was previously. I was lucky to avoid severe long COVID, but if I get it again, I likely won't be so lucky. One-way masking doesn't work. EVERYONE needs to mask unless they are genuinely medically unable, in which case they rely on all of the rest of us to mask! COVID is spreading silently and continuing to mass disable and kill people.

I'm not sure what to say other than to continue to beg people to care if I live or die or have my life even more ruined by pain and fatigue and illness than it already is. PLEASE WEAR A MASK.

The best masks are elastomerics such as the p100. These are reusable and can be used indefinitely, which saves money long-term. Many look pretty conspicous, but the Flo mask and Envo mask are very low-profile. N95s do work well if AND ONLY IF everyone wears them. Check out project n95 for reasonably priced masks:

Please. Networking is about helping others. Let's take care of each other.

young me especially would have hated hearing this but networking is literally the most important thing you can do to improve your situation like forget economic barriers to education etc just keep making friends with different people and eventually someone will offer you a hand up just because they dig your vibe and that is exactly all that's happening when undeserving people surpass you anyway