Someone asked me why Anne and I wear masks to hockey games, and because they weren’t a dick about it, I answered them.
I’m pasting it here, so I have something to refer to going forward.
Covid is very much still A Thing, and so is the flu, the common cold, and other respiratory illnesses. I started masking during the pandemic, because I didn’t want to get sick and die. I have kept masking when I’m in close proximity to other people, large crowds, or small indoor spaces because I haven’t had the flu or a cold or, gods forbid, Covid, since I made that choice. It’s such a tiny, simple, thing and it makes a huge difference for me. It’s too bad that so many people have decided to make another personal health choice that is none of their business, that doesn’t affect them at all, just another part of their culture war. And it tells you everything you need to know about a person when they are a dick about it.
From a practical standpoint: the guy next to me was coughing and sneezing his face off the whole game, and he couldn’t be bothered to wear a mask to protect the people around him from whatever he had. Whether it was a cold, or something more serious, I know I didn’t pick it up from him. That’s basically why I wear a mask whenever I’m in a crowd, and why I wish it wasn’t such a big stupid deal (pro or against).
I see a lot of thank yous for wearing masks in our photos. I appreciate the kindness, but we aren’t making a statement. We aren’t modeling behavior. We are doing what is best for us, period. This isn’t a statement, it’s just a personal health choice. If it helps normalize the entire thing, I’m happy for that passive bonus, but it’s not something I’m spending an action or even a bonus action on.
I haven’t heard someone complain that I wear shoes into a restaurant, and I haven’t ever had someone thank me for wearing shoes in a restaurant. I hope it will be the same with masks, sooner than later. It’s nobody’s business, and the only people who are dicks about it are dicks about everything else, anyway.
I’m just tired of this being not just A Thing, but A Big Stupid Fucking Culture War Thing.
So. Mind your business, do what’s best for your health and in consideration of the health of those around you, and don’t be a dick.
Thanks for listening.
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I still mask up too for similar reasons. I’ve really enjoyed not getting ANY respiratory infections these last few years. I’m also asthmatic and I’m the type that coughs rather than wheezes, so me wearing a mask puts the people around me at ease too.
Wil, one of my corworkers has severly immuno-compromised family members and so he wears a mask at work everyday (we work in a military health facility). It is his choice and we don’t bother him about it but I’m sure there are those folks that look at him strangely and just can’t get it through their head that it is his health choice to make and isn’t impacting their life in the slightest. Great job and just keep being you!
Same. I started masking at the start of the pandemic, and I haven’t been sick ever since. Now I look back at all those times I caught something, and feel like a complete moron. I could have saved myself from all of that with something as simple as using a mask when I’m around people. Now I know I will use a mask for the rest of my life, I’m not going back to suffering through illness twice or three times a year, not after enjoying almost 4 years illness-free. Honest to god, hand to my heart, I’m not trying to make a political statement, I just don’t see the point in getting sick.
Same. I still mask with an N95 any time I am indoors and in crowded outdoor spaces sometimes. I like not being sick. I’m also self-employed and have no sick pay at all. If I don’t work, I (a) don’t get paid and (b) leave someone up the metaphorical creek, as my job is to cover for people when they need to be out or if they have a shift they consistently can’t cover with their normal staff. And before anyone gets on the “but it’s good for you to be sick!” thing, no. No, it is not. May I introduce Merkel Cell Polyomavirus, one of seven known viruses that cause cancer in humans that I am far more familiar with than I’d ever like to be? Etc. Yeah…I’ll stick with my mask. It’s such an easy, easy thing to do and has some many benefits, I just don’t see the point in not masking.
*so many benefits, that is. (And since I’m fixing my typo, I’ll add – way less acne, because I can’t pick at my face; decreased snacking and drinking sugary things at work; decreased need for sun/wind protection in certain situations…yeah. I’m good. I rarely feel a need to justify myself, but I also have a parent with cancer – you guessed, it Merkel Cell – so yeah. People just need to follow Wheaton’s Rule here. Now, I don’t usually use gendered language if I can help it, but you know the one. Don’t be a dick!)
I think people have become hypersensitive to mask-wearing, while there have always been people needing to mask for various reasons. I just think the masks emphasise your and Anne’s beautiful eyes and glasses. I notice that more than anything!
Although the anti-mask roots were certainly deep in a weird ‘culture war’ context, I don’t think that’s what is going on today. I see everyone across all political spectrums abandoning masks and reacting negatively at their presence. That could be less pronounced in California, but it’s the case in much of the country. And again, the negative reactions, rejection of reality, and even overt acts against masks crosses all ideological boundaries. Obviously there’s still a lot going on in the way of culture wars, but the anti-mask issue seems to have some sort of broader impetus these days.
I could easily be wrong, but the sense I have is more that people are broadly aware on some level just how at risk they and their families are and how badly they’ve been abandoned. It’s not just SARS-CoV-2 (which remains a BSL-3 pathogen with multi-systemic long-term impacts even in ‘mild’ acute infections). It’s the climate crisis, attacks on multiple different groups, political instability. The world in which we’re embedded is extremely unsafe and the ground keeps shifting. In those sorts of circumstances, human beings tend to look at those around them and adopt similar behaviors. And that appears to create some sense of safety.
I think seeing others wearing masks then introduces a form of cognitive dissonance and the negative reactions are an attempt to resolve that dissonance and restore the (from my perspective ‘false’) sense of safety.
I could be wrong, of course. It’s hardly an area in which I’m any sort of expert. But I have spent a lifetime trying to navigate the world as an autistic person from a deeply chaotic childhood home with a ton of chronic and complex PTSD symptoms. I’m used to trying, often unsuccessfully, to figure out why people around me are behaving in ways that often appear bizarre to me.
Take care. I’m glad y’all are doing well.
I think you’re right. With some people it intrudes on their attempt to pretend everything is back to normal, and they can’t cope with that.
I mask less often these days, thanks to alll the vaccines (including RSV). I still mask when I think it’s good to do so, and shame be to any who thinks evil of it.
I will also note that, at the first morning session of a large, crowded conference, wearing a mask also means that nobody can see how grouchy I look while I’m waiting for my morning coffee to kick in.
One of my acquaintances got in the habit of sticking her tongue out at people while masked and hoped she would get out of this habit when unmasked.
Preach!
That said, thank you for shifting the Overton window. I’m spotty at always masking in public, so thank you for the reminder.
Also, Anne’s hoodie rocks. :100:
Ahhh – I see now, comments are only posted to your page if they mirror your sentiments. Bummer
I see you don’t understand content moderation, or holding comments for approval when they come from someone who hasn’t left a comment before.
This is unsurprising, considering the hilariously ignorant series of debunked talking points, pseudoscience, and mouth-breathing ignorance you vomited up. I will trust my doctor, and a planet full of medical and scientific experts over some random Internet Smart Guy who dropped out of Trump University. You start out with “masks have ZERO efficacy in stopping any viral infections” which is the most easily disproved ignorance I’ve seen in a minute. Literally the opposite is true. I won’t approve your bullshit because it’s lies and bullshit and misinformation. If you want to spread that shit around, do it in your own space, not here.
Now let me be clear: I’m not wasting any more of my time on you. I’m not debating you. You are wrong and ignorant with a faint whiff of entitlement. I encourage you to turn off the right wing propaganda you consume that has filled your head with deadly lies.
Bye bye now.
If I had to pick one thing that has really eroded my faith in mankind over the last number of years, it would have to be the successful and sustained politicization of basic, established, and effective methods of managing the spread of disease. During a pandemic that killed so many more than it had to, at the hands of a group of enriched, sociopathic “leaders”. My personal long COVID symptom is that i’m now basically Sgt. Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon, 24/7… too old for this shit.
Seriously. During the 1918 flu pandemic, people were arrested for endangering public health if they didn’t wear a mask in public. This time around, I was afraid it would get to the point where you got arrested if you did wear a mask in public.
Yup. One thing my profession is very, very good at is epidemiology/disease prevention and control. I’m a veterinarian, and we really are really good at that. Most people don’t give their (animal) food supply a second thought. We have entire legions who do. And health certificates/vaccinations/testing are required to move nearly all animals pretty much anywhere. When COVID first hit, I got really baffled and upset about how people who accept a Coggin’s test requirement for a horse to move it down the road without batting an eye threw such fits about testing or whatever for humans. Aren’t humans even more important than animals? Why couldn’t they get it? But one day, I realized that the death of their neighbor doesn’t affect their pocketbook, whereas the death of their cattle does. And I got terribly depressed. I know everything is about money for so many, but I just… yeah, it was hard. My job is to protect all species from harm (including humans – parasites and zoonotic diseases are real things and must be our first priority), and I just…yeah, it’s not political, but so many try to make it so.
Same.
I’ve been masking in public since 2020 and I haven’t stopped. I only caught COVID when my wife caught it one unguarded day, and passed it on to me. It was nasty (even vaccinated, the cough lasted a month), and I don’t want it again. Keep it up, Wil. Your health is yours to protect.
The only problem I have with people in masks. In a scenario where it is clearly a voluntary option, they choose to wear it, and wear it wrong. If I can see your nostrils, the mask is doing nothing.
Wil,
I’m right there with you! Also, I read Anne’s post on Instagram about why she masks, and again — same. I can’t get sick. I’m old, have underlying health conditions and rely on my small business to make ends meet. If I get sick, it would be financial disaster. A mask is so easy, cheap, simple, and effective and I love them!!
Even though you don’t do it for the thank-yous, I still feel the need to let you know I appreciate it. I still wear a mask everywhere for a variety of reasons, and that’s not changing anytime soon, but it’s hard to avoid feeling stupid when I’m the only one at a store with a mask on, so seeing someone else wear theirs helps a lot.
Well I’m going to thank you anyway. I’m one of those people who is at risk of more severe health problems if I catch a respiratory illness and none of the people I interact with will wear a mask around me even if I tell them this. Even if they are sick.
Also, more people in masks means it’s more “normal” and people will stop giving me grief about mine. )I hope. Some day.)
Whatever floats your boat Wil. You do you, and that’s all that matters. If what you’re doing doesn’t harm anyone then there’s really not a problem. People who make dick comments about people wearing masks out in public are just dicks.
HOWEVER, I actually think that it’s funny when you see somebody driving in a car all by themselves wearing a mask. Just saying.
If I’m going to multiple public places reasonably close to each other and I’m driving between them I leave my mask on as it’s better than taking it on and off constantly. The less you fiddle with your mask the better.
Totally agree
The absolute best was when I was in a store the other day, and an older woman with a mask looked over at me, also masked, like we were in the cool kids club. Seriously, I’d love for masking to be normalized, but I am so used to people fake coughing around me just to get a rise, that I’m sort of used to just navigating the world from my own internal circle, being extra solicitous around others, and quick about whatever it is that needs to be done. For that reason, I don’t enjoy going out anymore and don’t really go out for fun as I did before. My actual reason for masking is because of vulnerable family, but in practice, I am more vigilant about it, and that’s not changing anytime soon. But for my own health, I have noticed and enjoyed not getting the yearly colds we were all used to, nevermind the flu or covid or rsv. When I’ve randomly run across people like your guy coughing and sneezing everywhere, I’ve always been glad for the precaution. While I, in theory, have basic health insurance, my last claim was denied, so I’m doing everything I can think of to stay healthy.
Another passive benefit to wearing a mask is that it protects other people from us. Some people get symptom-free covid! And you never know which people around you are at great risk if they get sick (though of course no one who gets symptoms likes it).
Having lived in Japan…there is it normal to wear a mask if you have a cold…even long before COVID. Maybe it will be come normal in the US some day soon. 🙂