Same in England. Even people i know with lung issues wear them without a problem.
The videos I see online about these Middle aged white Americans (females mostly) who can't wear a mask for health reasons, but can scream and shout without any breathing difficulty or anxiety are just ridiculous.
Glasses is one big reason.
Also, for whatever reason, my masks seem to want to pull down with my chin as I talk. I have to keep readjusting it upward and it gets tiresome, especially in light of not wanting to touch your face. I support wearing a mask, but it's not all that great either.
everyone is wearing one here. we're going through quite a bad outbreak in the past few months, and masks are pretty much universal.
my boss slightly annoys me sometimes because he's come into my office without a mask. i always put mine on, & he usually (but not always) takes the hint that he ought to do the same.
the only time i've had any conflict over masks is outside. i jog 3 or 4 times a week, & i've received a few pissy comments for jogging without a mask. by all current accounting as i understand it, as long as a reasonable distance is kept, there's a vanishingly small risk to being unmasked outside. i think wearing one outdoors is unnecessary.
that said, i understand that people are justifiably freaked out, & even if it's just performative, it's not always a bad thing to go along with the performance.
so i now generally sport the mask while jogging, even though i think it's kinda daft to do so.
I wear one all the time, except when I'm at home, or outside on my own property, or in my car. Nobody else has been in my home or car since last March.
At least around here (rural Kentucky) it doesn't seem to be strictly a demographic issue. I'm in a small town with a college. Nearly 100% of the students are wearing masks when outside, at least around the campus. I'm pretty impressed with that. On the other hand, I see people of all ages not wearing masks in the stores, out on the streets, and so on. Quite a few are wearing masks, quite a few aren't.
I think it's more of a clueless vs. not clueless issue. Being in a college town in hillbilly territory means we've got more high school dropouts than average and more PhDs than average. Some people seem to think, "COVID's been going on for months, I haven't got sick, and nobody I know has got sick." The natural tendency is to slacken off precautions, because nothing bad has happened personally. I keep telling people, "sure, nothing bad has happened, because we're out in the boonies in a place that doesn't get much tourism. So it took longer for COVID to get here, and we're just now starting to see serious positivity rates here, but it will get worse. This is the time to get *more* stringent in our precautions, not less."
Some people get that, some don't. I try to shop at Walmart in the off hours, when there are fewer people there. Even then there are a fair number of people without masks, but at least I can stay away from them. During the peak hours that's pretty much impossible. Walmart tried to control the situation by making some aisles one way with arrows on the floor and "do not enter" signs at the other end. Some people just ignored them. The arrows are gone now, I think Walmart gave up on that.
The fast food places vary in their precautions. Taco Bell seems to be the best; they seem to always take full precautions. At the other extreme is McDonald's, where the workers seem to do whatever they feel like.
I see people without masks all the time. They are the sane ones. I see people wearing masks, too. They touch it, and then touch it and then touch it and then touch it. Yes, because transferring whatever is on your hands to a mask that won't come close to stopping anything as small as a virus, is a good idea.
> I see people wearing masks, too. They touch it, and then touch it and then touch it and then touch it. Yes, because transferring whatever is on your hands to a mask that won't come close to stopping anything as small as a virus, is a good idea.
I wish the public authorities would do a better job at educating. Wearing a mask is not enough, by itself. What you describe is the down side of masks, that some assume that having a mask on means they're fully protected and do such things.
People should regard the outside of the mask as contaminated the moment they're in a situation where there could be COVID present, and should not touch it for that reason. And they should be disinfecting their hands frequently with 70% IpOH or something similar, including immediately after removing a mask. And of course frequent hand washing, the entire hands (not just rubbing palms together), with a long rinse *away* from the fingertips at the end.
I carry IpOH wipes and I'm constantly using them when away from home. And I use a mask once, then assume it's contaminated and put it in safe storage until I can decontaminate it. I'm not a physician or someone like that, but I've got enough experience in biology labs that I think I've worked out some pretty good protocols for keeping myself safe.
Even then, a surgical mask is more about protecting others if you're infected. I'll use one if I'm just going through a fast food drive-thru. But when I go into a building I'll use a KN95.
I'm in multiple high risk groups for COVID. Therefore, I am not going to catch it. Period.
I'm 38 and from the Netherlands. I only wear a mask if I'm forced to, but tend to avoid such places. Most people here do not wear a mask. They all look very smart and not high on weed.
People have been protesting everywhere, even in Germany. Well, they've been trying to protest, our governments won't allow it, of course. Other certain protests are okay, though.
No, what I'm saying is that most people are not wearing masks voluntarily. A lot of them are actually protesting against stricter rules. They don't want to wear the masks when they don't think it's necessary and they don't want total lockdowns.