Lots of concerns and opinions about wearing masks during the pandemic?
Post your thoughts here!
Cheers, Joe
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Um, nope, don’t like em
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I think in a culture where people already were used to wearing face masks it helps.
The way they are used in countries with people who aren’t used to them seems more like a placebo to me. As discussed people rarely use them correctly - they touch them all the time, store them in their car, pocket, whatever.
A lot probably also don’t regularly wash/exchange the mask so it’s all made more or less useless.
I do wear them as I use public transport and it’s mandatory to wear them and I also try not to make the mistakes listed above but I’ll be glad once I can breathe freely again. Also almost all people don’t wear the mask before getting on the train. So before getting on the train they raise their mask - again touching the mask with the hands that have been everywhere before.
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From what I’ve read they must be the “ right” type of mask to be efficient.
Being a facial hair kind of guy they really don’t make life easy 
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It’s not creepy at all, it’s only a Covid face mask, and a lot less creepy then everybody running around with half face shown like old western bank robbers imo. Lol
Bringing us to a new law in California, and other if not all stated that we must wear masks in public, anywhere that is not in our house or our car.
Looks like I am not going outside anymore.
What about you @PamPurrs, they doing this in Phoenix? How are you gonna deal with it? It’s like a $1400 fine here if you are caught not wearing one. Starts Monday here, but in the city of Tampa, it started and they wrote like 145,000 tickets already, as far as I’ve been told.
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Why not just wear a mask? I honestly don’t understand the resistance here. They are clearly effective at reducing spread of pathogens. Health care workers wear them for a reason.
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I disagree 100%
They could be effective if everybody wore a fresh, sterile, sanitary medical rated face mask, and stayed clean and sterile at all times, and changed it several times per day.
People wearing the same face cover day in day out, sweating in it, touching it with dirty hands, storing it on dash of car, pocket, table, ground, etc…
Not sterile or sanitary, and not healthy or preventive for the wearer, and if wearers are using such, and get sick, they can spread it.
Plus it it more to protect the wearer, and stop them from touching their face so much.
It does completely the opposite for me, I have to wipe the sweat away at least every 30 seconds, and or itch.
Social distancing works. Lock down works, I don’t agree face masks work.
So many places have reopened, and mandated face masks, and cases are on the rise, just like when masks were not worn.
That’s my belief, I don’t like them, they are not comfortable, they make me claustrophobic, and even tho I wash mine often, if I am wearing it more then 30 min, it’s no longer clean. I don’t have boxes and boxes of sterile lab / medical grade ones as an option.
I agree that you have a belief that is right for you too.
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I either use disposable ones or the cloth one I have will be either washed or put into the freezer before the next use.
Use = me leaving the house.
But now that it gets warmer and warmer again it gets really uncomfortable and with sweating and touching your face I agree that they become next to useless.
Also regarding the panda mask: No! This is a creepy panda mask. Cute panda masks exists but this is a creepy one.
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You do a great job, and service to yourself. All I can report is around where I go on a daily basis, and 90% or more don’t, unless working At grocery stores, convenience stores or service industry. And they are mandated to change masks and wash hands every hour on the hour.
Most others have same old dirty masks on, and I see them thrown in cars, pulled from pockets and big purses, dropped and picked up, etc… all the time. I can’t see those as helping anything.
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I agree. Most people make masks useless again with their behavior.
I remembere a video of a female health minister of some European country and she said: “You just need to follow a few simple hygiene rules. […] 3. Don’t touch your face.”
and she scratches her nose and flips the page
It’s harder than one thinks to keep your hands out of your face but the irony in the video was gold.
Since I use public transport to get around and it’s mandatory to wear a mask there I try to use it in a way that actually works. As already mentioned it is getting harder with the weather getting warmer & sweat & breath under mask.
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They aren’t for keeping germs out. They are for keeping them in when someone is carrying the disease (and may not know it, in the majority of cases). They keep the disease from spreading by keeping it from being exhaled very far from the person carrying it. Basically, they are to keep this:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2007800
from spreading past the mask (or very far past the mask). Outstanding video illustration of the difference there.
Combined with social distance this seems very effective.
I’m not the type that would even want to try to tell anyone to do anything they are against doing. But I think anti-mask sentiment is dangerously wrong here.
Japan is a useful example here as a country with a strong social ethic of wearing masks when appropriate. Japan was never locked down other than a few specific business types; we were just asked to not go to bars and restaurants and clubs and so on, and that companies should do WFH where possible. There was never any “shelter in place”. Lots of companies ARE doing WFH, but it is voluntary. 40% of Tokyo was still commuting even at the peak.
Using Japan as an example for high mask usage, Japan has 127M people, a quarter of whom live in a single dense metro area, and has a strong mask wearing culture. So far Japan has had 953 Covid-related deaths.
Using the US as an example for low mask usage, the US has 328M people, distributed in many separate areas, and is the wild west when it comes to masks. So far, the US has had 122,000 Covid-related deaths, or a per-capita death rate 356 times higher than Japan, despite being largely spread out and rural.
Ubiquitous mask usage has been a factor that some people here are thinking is the biggest reason for the disparity.
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I guess it all depends about the population density. here, almost nobody wears a mask ; even the people who work in supermarkets don’t wear one. I myself have a mask in my car and I wear it only when it’s mandatory to enter into a shop, which is pretty rare.
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Right type is part of the battle, they must be used, changed or cleaned and stored properly to do anything that I can see.
Yes, facial hair issue here too
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We have to use it here to enter any shop.
I don’t like using them, but hey, the way I see it if helps minimize spread it’s a very small sacrifice.
It also has the cool side effect of not having to smell anyone’s breath
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If you stay far enuf away from people, a.k.a. Social distance, shouldn’t be an issue. Lol
Yes, we have to, and I only do when I have to. I think I am more at risk wearing one then not, but I do what I am told.
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Sometimes 2 meters are not enough! 
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YIKES!!!
I would leave is people’s breath were that bad. Gross. 
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It also has the cool side effect of me brushing my teeth before leaving the house and putting the mask on for that very reason. With the mask on even a little bit of smell in my own breath is awful.
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Phoenix and some of the surrounding cities have adopted rules that you have to wear a mask in public places. I will avoid those cities as much as possible. I live in an unincorporated area outside of Phoenix, so I’m safe from that stupid rule. I haven’t heard anything regarding the penalty for not wearing one.
I keep one of those silly little paper masks in my purse just in case I find myself in a situation where I need one.
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Yes, it’s a new thing in CA, starting Monday, if you are in public, and not in your car, you must wear a mask. They will cite you, they say it will be heavily enforced, and the fine is steep. I know other states already have it in place and HAVE been HEAVILY enforcing the new law.
I will just stay inside, in the AC, and play bass as much as I want, only going out when I must.
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