quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:
I’ll be masking for the foreseeable future.

As you should. I would hope that anyone around you who knows you would do so as well.

Like SK I have been almost disease free since COVID began. One very mild cold (negative test). I'll continue to mask in common public places like grocery stores where I'm likely to be around the greatest concentrations of diseases of all sorts (colds, flu, COVID, other viruses).

I would like to be mask free for class next September when I'm back in the saddle. I find I have great difficulty understanding what people are saying to me from a distance when we're all masked. I was speaking at a convention in DC last week in a huge ballroom. I really had to struggle and pay very close attention to what masked people standing at a microphone were asking me from 20 yards away.

On a related note....when did you last have your hearing tested, P*D?



All kidding aside, most of us are probably have some level of hearing loss at our age and may compensate for it because we can learn to read lips. The masks take that away as a tool....

P*D are you teaching this semester? Sabbatical?

I am teaching, but unlike in the fall, where my largest class was over 50 students, this semester it's "only" 25 students. But it's a crummy room with one door, I'm sure the air just sits there.

I have another class room that has an air filter in the room (free standing unit) and also the room has two doors on opposite sides of the room, diagonally (one at the front right and one at the back left), so I prop the doors open. But that class also is much smaller and the classroom isn't really used when we're not there... I wish my larger class was in a room like that. -_-

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
I'm curious about those of you (or at least in this thread, Cindy and Jodi) who are ready to/comfortable with going maskless -- iirc right, both of you already had covid? (apologies if that's too personal)

But I feel like the people I've heard of who are ready to go maskless (and are not covid deniers) are people who have already had covid.

Maybe I'm wrong here, but I feel like part of what makes me so reluctant to go maskless is I've managed to avoid covid this long, I would be disappointed (to say the least) in myself if I ended up getting it in a way that masking could have prevented.

Part of it is because of where I live. Montana is mostly maskless and has been for awhile. Hardly anybody wears them around here anymore.
Part of it is because I’ve had Covid at least once (possibly twice - based on symptoms, and a blood test for antibodies that registered “high” last fall). And partly because I spend almost no time indoors around other people, and the people I do spend time with don’t wear masks. And probably partly because when I did have it, I didn’t get that sick - so though I do not want to spread it to anybody else, I am not afraid for myself. (That’s huge). Obviously I would mask around people who needed me to, (or not be around them at all) and I’m happy to wear a mask on an airplane and wherever else it is required, or asked of me. I just don’t feel the need to mask around a whole bunch of people in town who aren’t wearing masks themselves.

It’s so different here than in Seattle, where everyone is wearing masks. Like living in a different universe.

quote:

P*D are you teaching this semester? Sabbatical?

I am indeed on leave this academic year. I do go in to the office fairly regularly, but our campus requires masking in buildings. We're done with extreme distancing ... i.e. having a seminar class of 15 spread out in a room that holds 60, which then changes the whole atmosphere (so to speak) of the class. Classes are largely back to normal except for the masking. In a perfect world, that would be gone next academic year, unless some new bad variant descends upon us.

quote:

On a related note....when did you last have your hearing tested, P*D?

Yeah, yeah, I know. I do have some high frequency hearing loss, plus tinnitus. That does indeed affect how easily I understand people. Masking is steroids on that problems.

Jodi, thanks for those comments.

Definitely there's a lot about the question (mask or not) that is not rational, and what one sees around them daily creates "normal."

I have not been in a public place without a mask on since Feb 2020.

That's not an exaggeration. I haven't been on a plane, I haven't eaten in a restaurant...

Oh wait, I took my mask off numerous times at the optometrist's when I got my eyes tested and then when I got new glasses in Aug 2021.

But seriously, that's it. A lot of people say "oh we wear masks whenever we go out" and then you see photos of them eating indoors at a restaurant.

Mr SK and I have not done that. At all.

So I think part of my concern is just garden variety fear of the unknown (i.e., I don't know what it's like to be maskless in public in 2022).

But then there are all the other details ... living in a red state, low vax rates, students breathing on each other and on me in rooms with poor ventilation...

So yeah, I'm not ready to be maskless.

We'll see how students react in class tomorrow (first class since the uni removed its mask requirement).

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
I'm curious about those of you (or at least in this thread, Cindy and Jodi) who are ready to/comfortable with going maskless -- iirc right, both of you already had covid? (apologies if that's too personal)

But I feel like the people I've heard of who are ready to go maskless (and are not covid deniers) are people who have already had covid.

Maybe I'm wrong here, but I feel like part of what makes me so reluctant to go maskless is I've managed to avoid covid this long, I would be disappointed (to say the least) in myself if I ended up getting it in a way that masking could have prevented.

Yes, I had Covid. But no, you’re not wrong. You have to decide how much risk to accept.

It’s just plain old risk assessment for me.

I work from home and so don’t have to be in crowds except the grocery store. I live in a blue state where people get vaxed and boosted.

I have no risk factors other than age. My immune system is crazy strong in general.

There’s no evidence that a subsequent case is more lethal than the first. My first was more mild than a typical cold, so why sweat getting a second case?

Since this began, I have worn primarily cloth masks. I never double masked, I have never worn anything more protective than a blue disposable mask. I own zero K95s. Those cloth masks aren’t protecting me, so why keep wearing them?

I might mask for special occasions, where getting Covid would be a nightmare. Like, I’m about to travel abroad or something. And I will mask when required, meaning a useless, ill-fitting cloth mask worn for show.

I followed the rules about masking. As of tomorrow, I am done.

I'm in MT too. Seems to me nobody wearing a mask is even more reason to wear one. CVS has gigantic boxes of N95s they are giving out for free. I'm using them.

quote:

You have to decide how much risk to accept.

Cindy, I'm not directing this post at you specifically, because comments like the one I'm quoting here are super common. I don't think you or anyone else has any ill intent in saying it. But, having said that....

I'm starting to get pretty sick of hearing this when each person's risk and exposure are so different.

For example, Cindy is working from home right now. I'm working in poorly ventilated classrooms with 25 people breathing on each other.

That might be more risk than I want to accept, but I don't have a choice (unless I quit my job, so, still not a choice).

Sorry, I don't have anything useful to say.

I'm just venting....

I am still wearing masks.
Have been to one restaurant three times. It
is outdoors. The staff wears masks. Most people wwear a mask to their table. We get a table out of traffic.
I have an attitude toward those without masks near me. Have not voiced it toward any of them yet.

While we are still testing positive, we are isolating and wearing masks in the house whenever my daughter comes down stairs. So far she has avoided getting infected which is pretty remarkable.

We go into our 3rd week of isolation... Both of our PCRs came back + this weekend.

quote:

Originally posted by markj:
While we are still testing positive, we are isolating and wearing masks in the house whenever my daughter comes down stairs. So far she has avoided getting infected which is pretty remarkable.

We go into our 3rd week of isolation... Both of our PCRs came back + this weekend.

Hoping you get past this soon!

Lots of under 65 faces at Costco during so-called senior hours. They've figured out no one will stop them at the door.

People (including employees) wearing masks improperly. Some without masks at all.

Mask mandate expires next week.

The world is moving on. edit: And as usual, leaving me behind....

mark, how are you guys feeling?