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Some people here in HN said that the pandemic would normalise using masks - the way things are now every time I see someone wearing a mask I can’t help but thin

by nells 4y ago

Some people here in HN said that the pandemic would normalise using masks - the way things are now every time I see someone wearing a mask I can’t help but think that they are ill and infectious; it’s very very rare. So glad that we are back to the way it was.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
thot_experiment 4y ago
Huh. Weird, it's definitely moved the overton window a ton where I am and I'm glad of it. It's totally normal and nobody cares one way or the other as far as I've noticed. It's nice to be able to mask up without any feeling of stigma about it. Masking up just sort of seems like the altruistic move on public transit and the like, this was true before covid, esp during flu season, and I always felt a little embarrassed for our society that it wasn't considered normal.
- nells 4y ago
  It takes a special kind of person to cover half their face with a dirty mask and make it harder for themselves to breathe just so they don’t catch a cold.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - s5300 4y ago
    Where are your presumptions that the mask is both dirty & it makes the wearer have difficulty breathing? Projection of your overall health & cleanliness?
  - DocTomoe 4y ago
    Compare that to East Asia, where wearing a mask during Flu season was a common thing to prevent your own disease to spread to others long before Covid was known (I've seen sources claiming they started doing so after the Spanish Flu). Of course, we cannot expect us Westerners to have that level of compassion and common sense.
  - 4ggr0 4y ago
    > just so they don’t catch a cold. The people I know who still wear masks and myself wear them so that others don't get our cold, not necessarily to protect ourselves. A form of respect towards co-workers etc.
    - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
      Yes. Unfortunately it hasn’t stuck in Australia either. Back to people coughing all over everything out in public. I cannot remember a time as an adult where I have had so few sick days over a 3 year span. Guess that’s over now.
      - 4ggr0 4y ago
        I noticed this as well, yes. I travel by train and the amount of people who sound sick is astonishing, lots of coworkers were sick in the last couple of weeks. Didn't get me yet, touch wood.
      - techdragon 4y ago
        It seems to have stuck slightly better in WA than the rest of Australia, possibly because we had the rapid return to moderate normalcy (with a border closure) and thanks to the prolonged border closure we basically got a 12+ month crash course in several levels of public responsibility. We had occasional mini lockdowns in between to keep untracked community spread at zero until the public health teams worked out the time was right between vaccination levels, delta spreading , etc. While it’s not a majority of people, I still routinely see people wearing masks out and about, particularly on public transport. But I suspect it’s primarily as a defence against other peoples germs. Which I’ll admit is why I’m currently looking at nicer less “hospital” masks, notably a few companies that make respirators had a mini boom and diversified into “everyday wear” models that didn’t look like you were fumigating for termites. There are reusable respirators that just look like nicer disposable ones now. It’s also helps that people don’t find it as weird if you have a mask on when riding a bike since that’s been sort of a normal look for a while, pioneered by both the Lycra wearing enthusiasts and the boom in bike couriers thanks to food delivery apps and no one riding as a courier wants to breath car and truck fumes all day.
6stringmerc 4y ago
I just got a phone message reminder from my County health department emphasizing getting the booster. It’s motivating me to go ahead and put it on my priority list, at my specialist center there are a ton of cancer patients and the masks are now stated as mandatory for all. Not enforced but still, it’s posted. I thought masks were the clearest indicator of a person’s perspective on themselves and their role in society: the same ones who complain about their rights being oppressed are the ones who get the most upset with people like me who take them at their word and then suddenly discover hypocrisy at the core. I’m so glad we had this moment for people to show their true selves in such a simple fashion. Not as easy as the “Insane” hand stamp that Homer Simpson got (“why won’t this wash off?!?!”) but it’s nature at work again. See bright color snake or reptile? Likely poisonous as a defense mechanism. See a human with dyed hair and a bunch of metal shit in their face? Different kind of poisonous but still there. No mask during peak time = asshole. The same kind of asshole that doesn’t put their shopping cart / trolley back in the corral. Yes, those people are assholes. If you’re that lazy, reader, stop acting like an asshole. Hope you have a living will or your own respirator on standby, cuz your attitude is going to mandate in the long run you’re in the “didn’t give a shit then, so we don’t give a shit now” pile. It’s called a hospital. A very, very close friend was saved by NYC EMTs and Doctors and from that experience career changed into a full RN now on a cardiac ward in Ohio. He’s super high risk and excerpt from COVID work thankfully. It was a hard job at first, watching 50% of patients die because what brought them in was too late to fix. Game over. When COVID hit he told me stories of how many middle America reasonable people were in denial as it was killing them in beds. They fought until the end. The worst ones realized they fucked up and would pay for it and with no friends or family on the way out. Fuckin brutal, death in cold sterile isolation with yourself to blame. Intellectual suicide. It will never be the way it was ever again, because our society is broken because people like you care more about the wrong shit than you can admit, and politely, don’t wear a mask, fully inhale on that helium tank to entertain your friends with a funny voice at your next party.
- sweettea 4y ago
  >See a human with dyed hair and a bunch of metal shit in their face? Different kind of poisonous but still there. Fascinating. Can you elaborate on why they're poisonous?
sokoloff 4y ago
I see a few people each day wearing masks. I don’t jump to any particular conclusion about it; why they wear it is their business.
- wccrawford 4y ago
  I recently caught Covid for the first time, and even though it was a fairly mild version of the symptoms, I don't want to that happen again... If I'm in crowded situations, I'll be wearing a mask for a while again. It's just self-protection.
neither_color 4y ago
In the DC area you still see one in a dozen or so people wearing masks. It's not considered unusual or discouraged as far as I know.
matwood 4y ago
IDK. I've been traveling recently for work and am surprised how many masks I see on airplanes and in airports. I think it has been normalized for anyone who wants to wear one.

by nells 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

thot_experiment 4y ago

Huh. Weird, it's definitely moved the overton window a ton where I am and I'm glad of it. It's totally normal and nobody cares one way or the other as far as I've noticed. It's nice to be able to mask up without any feeling of stigma about it. Masking up just sort of seems like the altruistic move on public transit and the like, this was true before covid, esp during flu season, and I always felt a little embarrassed for our society that it wasn't considered normal.

nells 4y ago
It takes a special kind of person to cover half their face with a dirty mask and make it harder for themselves to breathe just so they don’t catch a cold.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- s5300 4y ago
  Where are your presumptions that the mask is both dirty & it makes the wearer have difficulty breathing? Projection of your overall health & cleanliness?
- DocTomoe 4y ago
  Compare that to East Asia, where wearing a mask during Flu season was a common thing to prevent your own disease to spread to others long before Covid was known (I've seen sources claiming they started doing so after the Spanish Flu). Of course, we cannot expect us Westerners to have that level of compassion and common sense.
- 4ggr0 4y ago
  > just so they don’t catch a cold. The people I know who still wear masks and myself wear them so that others don't get our cold, not necessarily to protect ourselves. A form of respect towards co-workers etc.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 4y ago
    Yes. Unfortunately it hasn’t stuck in Australia either. Back to people coughing all over everything out in public. I cannot remember a time as an adult where I have had so few sick days over a 3 year span. Guess that’s over now.
    - 4ggr0 4y ago
      I noticed this as well, yes. I travel by train and the amount of people who sound sick is astonishing, lots of coworkers were sick in the last couple of weeks. Didn't get me yet, touch wood.
    - techdragon 4y ago
      It seems to have stuck slightly better in WA than the rest of Australia, possibly because we had the rapid return to moderate normalcy (with a border closure) and thanks to the prolonged border closure we basically got a 12+ month crash course in several levels of public responsibility. We had occasional mini lockdowns in between to keep untracked community spread at zero until the public health teams worked out the time was right between vaccination levels, delta spreading , etc. While it’s not a majority of people, I still routinely see people wearing masks out and about, particularly on public transport. But I suspect it’s primarily as a defence against other peoples germs. Which I’ll admit is why I’m currently looking at nicer less “hospital” masks, notably a few companies that make respirators had a mini boom and diversified into “everyday wear” models that didn’t look like you were fumigating for termites. There are reusable respirators that just look like nicer disposable ones now. It’s also helps that people don’t find it as weird if you have a mask on when riding a bike since that’s been sort of a normal look for a while, pioneered by both the Lycra wearing enthusiasts and the boom in bike couriers thanks to food delivery apps and no one riding as a courier wants to breath car and truck fumes all day.

6stringmerc 4y ago

I just got a phone message reminder from my County health department emphasizing getting the booster. It’s motivating me to go ahead and put it on my priority list, at my specialist center there are a ton of cancer patients and the masks are now stated as mandatory for all. Not enforced but still, it’s posted. I thought masks were the clearest indicator of a person’s perspective on themselves and their role in society: the same ones who complain about their rights being oppressed are the ones who get the most upset with people like me who take them at their word and then suddenly discover hypocrisy at the core. I’m so glad we had this moment for people to show their true selves in such a simple fashion. Not as easy as the “Insane” hand stamp that Homer Simpson got (“why won’t this wash off?!?!”) but it’s nature at work again. See bright color snake or reptile? Likely poisonous as a defense mechanism. See a human with dyed hair and a bunch of metal shit in their face? Different kind of poisonous but still there. No mask during peak time = asshole. The same kind of asshole that doesn’t put their shopping cart / trolley back in the corral. Yes, those people are assholes. If you’re that lazy, reader, stop acting like an asshole. Hope you have a living will or your own respirator on standby, cuz your attitude is going to mandate in the long run you’re in the “didn’t give a shit then, so we don’t give a shit now” pile. It’s called a hospital. A very, very close friend was saved by NYC EMTs and Doctors and from that experience career changed into a full RN now on a cardiac ward in Ohio. He’s super high risk and excerpt from COVID work thankfully. It was a hard job at first, watching 50% of patients die because what brought them in was too late to fix. Game over. When COVID hit he told me stories of how many middle America reasonable people were in denial as it was killing them in beds. They fought until the end. The worst ones realized they fucked up and would pay for it and with no friends or family on the way out. Fuckin brutal, death in cold sterile isolation with yourself to blame. Intellectual suicide. It will never be the way it was ever again, because our society is broken because people like you care more about the wrong shit than you can admit, and politely, don’t wear a mask, fully inhale on that helium tank to entertain your friends with a funny voice at your next party.

sweettea 4y ago
>See a human with dyed hair and a bunch of metal shit in their face? Different kind of poisonous but still there. Fascinating. Can you elaborate on why they're poisonous?

sokoloff 4y ago

I see a few people each day wearing masks. I don’t jump to any particular conclusion about it; why they wear it is their business.

wccrawford 4y ago
I recently caught Covid for the first time, and even though it was a fairly mild version of the symptoms, I don't want to that happen again... If I'm in crowded situations, I'll be wearing a mask for a while again. It's just self-protection.

neither_color 4y ago

In the DC area you still see one in a dozen or so people wearing masks. It's not considered unusual or discouraged as far as I know.

matwood 4y ago

IDK. I've been traveling recently for work and am surprised how many masks I see on airplanes and in airports. I think it has been normalized for anyone who wants to wear one.