yes, i still wear a mask
It's been a while since the pandemic has brought masks to the awareness of anyone that wasn't required to wear them before. It's also been a while since the general public was mandated to wear them. I still wear masks, though.
I wear them in the supermarket, in public transport, in bigger meetings, conferences and other crowds. I loosen up a bit during the hot months in summer, but I definitely wear them consistently in autumn and winter as the infectious diseases surge.
And a surprising amount of people cannot handle that gracefully at all.
The second some see me, they start coughing. Some start to fake-cough in my direction, trying to provoke me. Others just say, in a venomous tone, "I guess some people haven't heard that Covid is over."
Others yell "Corona!" at me while I pass them.
I'm a walking bad reminder of what was. But honestly, I don't give a shit! Get a grip and stop whining like a little baby!
It even happens privately, at dinner tables. In-laws. They're interrogating my wife why she is still wearing a mask in the supermarket, and where else. They act like she's overreacting, a hypochondriac.
Then I say: "Well, I still wear one too. I'm on immunosuppressants for life due to my autoimmune chronic illnesses, and they make me more susceptible to an infection in general, and makes them more life-threatening." (They love to forget this every couple months).
The response: "Well, then that makes sense." As if I'm the exception that gains their approval, while the rest is nuts. I don't need your permission, and that's not how this works! Everyone else that's also wearing masks while completely healthy is helping me, too!
For at least 3 years, you've been lectured about how aerosols work, and you just chose to forget it all, while still believing in the idea that being out in the cold causes a respiratory infection by itself, or that the immune system could be weakened by masks.
My mask protection is worthless if I come home and my wife brings home an illness because she doesn't wear a mask anywhere. That's why she wears them too!
And no, my immune system is not atrophying behind the mask - I do not live in a sterile environment and the mask isn't a complete guarantee of not being exposed at all, especially as other genuinely sick people in public don't wear one at all.
It lessens how much viral load I am exposed to; the less, the better, so my medically-induced weakened immune system isn't overwhelmed, but can still build antibodies and ward it off. I'm not lagging behind in what virus variants my body is used to - how would that work? Just because I'm not down with a cold for 2 weeks every other month? Then what about the people who boast about never being sick?
I'm not wearing the mask 24/7. I still have to share my office once a week with someone else, and that someone works at a pharmacy on the weekend, plenty of contact with the sick. I still go to cafes or restaurants occasionally, where I cannot wear a mask while eating or drinking. I still visit friends for board game nights, had a birthday party with guests, and celebrated NYE with people, all indoors. For fuck's sake, I sit on the dinner table with family, discussing that stuff. That's plenty of stuff I am exposed to, even when no one is actively, visually sick, just potentially a silent spreader.
The average person wearing a mask isn't trying to live a completely germ-free safe sterile life. We all have to make compromises - I decided to not wear a mask for 8 hours in the office or at a board game night at a friend's house, just to name situations where I've weighed the pros and cons and decided to take the risk. Sometimes I decide to take my mask off in scenarios where people need to hear me more clearly and read my lips. But that still reduces the scenarios where I'm exposed to too high of a load that would genuinely make me very sick. 10 minutes of no protection while eating something is less risky than 120 minutes.
I shouldn't be the understandable, valid case! Everyone can and should just wear masks how they see fit, regardless of immunocompromised, immunosuppressed, or healthy.
No one likes to get sick, and so many infections can be prevented - infections that can lead to ME/CFS or Long Covid, POTS, and more! I cannot stand clowns who complain about being sick often but never wear a mask. You know of something to help this and you refuse to employ it. Your carelessness affects us all, because we all use the same public rooms and breathe the same air. You being sick but visiting someone anyway infects another, infects another, infects another, in a network reaction until it also reaches the people around me.
I think people underestimate how sensitive this really is. I cannot get live vaccines anymore, and am advised to stay away from people for ~2 weeks who have gotten one (as if I always know!). I'm at risk of contracting severe tuberculosis.
This type of stuff affects almost anyone with an autoimmune illness such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, multiple sclerosis, lupus, vasculitis, type 2 diabetes and more. It also affects people with transplants, and people who are undergoing cancer treatment. All ages! That is a huge group of people worldwide.
When you see a person using a face mask in public, your first thoughts shouldn't be that they're overreacting, a hypochondriac and a germaphobe.
Instead, think about how they might be trying to protect you because they're dealing with a cold, or how they need to protect themselves because of a medical history you can't see. Worst case, they are wearing a mask so their partner undergoing chemo isn't getting an infection.
Rolling your eyes, huffing and puffing, and yelling at people like us makes you an ass. :) we have a right to exist in public with our masks, as it is our only safe way of still partaking in society.
Being mean to masked people and wishing they'd take them off is just a roundabout way to tell chronically ill people that they should hide themselves away or die from preventable disease.
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