12 ms·

I hope you realize how that looks from anyone else's point of view. So many people lie because they think they personally are the exception, or are extremely mi

I hope you realize how that looks from anyone else's point of view. So many people lie because they think they personally are the exception, or are extremely mistaken about basic facts, that I don't blame any guard that disbelieves your claims about your mask being really modded to not have a vent. I hope most guards would question something like that.

mindslight 6y ago
For sure, that's an integral part of communicating! I'm talking about a hospital, so there are several staff members controlling the entrance. The people who sit behind the desk and actually do the checkin are generally understanding, and the person who questioned me most specifically about the valve now remembers me from day to day - in fact I've since gotten her attention when getting flak from a security guard a few times. The security guards are meanwhile more on alert, presumably because they are primed to be tough with any covidiots (although thankfully I haven't seen any incidents!). They have that cop mindset of seeking trouble with people who stand out, and don't know specifically about the valve requirement. One time after I was approved by the checkin person, I heard them talking among themselves with one saying "those masks are actually better", but it's tough to directly pierce the fog of their authorituh. I haven't had a larger problem here precisely there are people in multiple roles, some empowered to exercise actual judgement. But I can just imagine that when you try to scale this down to a single overworked security guard, the better equipped people are likely to experience unreasonable pushback. Thinking about it, my own next step might be to put a piece of visible tape over where vent would exhaust, so I can at least point to something physical. But the problem hasn't been the security guards not believing me about the valve specifically, but rather just seeing that my mask is not their standard surgical mask.

mindslight 6y ago

For sure, that's an integral part of communicating! I'm talking about a hospital, so there are several staff members controlling the entrance. The people who sit behind the desk and actually do the checkin are generally understanding, and the person who questioned me most specifically about the valve now remembers me from day to day - in fact I've since gotten her attention when getting flak from a security guard a few times. The security guards are meanwhile more on alert, presumably because they are primed to be tough with any covidiots (although thankfully I haven't seen any incidents!). They have that cop mindset of seeking trouble with people who stand out, and don't know specifically about the valve requirement. One time after I was approved by the checkin person, I heard them talking among themselves with one saying "those masks are actually better", but it's tough to directly pierce the fog of their authorituh. I haven't had a larger problem here precisely there are people in multiple roles, some empowered to exercise actual judgement. But I can just imagine that when you try to scale this down to a single overworked security guard, the better equipped people are likely to experience unreasonable pushback. Thinking about it, my own next step might be to put a piece of visible tape over where vent would exhaust, so I can at least point to something physical. But the problem hasn't been the security guards not believing me about the valve specifically, but rather just seeing that my mask is not their standard surgical mask.