Masks are nearly all off
Masks are nearly all off
But our personal mask choices show that most people behaved illogically
There is an old George Carlin joke: on the freeway, everyone driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone driving faster is a maniac.
I think many of us feel the same about masking. Anyone who wears it longer than you is an idiot, and anyone who took it off sooner is a maniac.
At the airport in SF, masks are nearly completely gone. SF of course is the last bastion of masking, as masking correlates with more democratic voters and not public health principles.
What I find interesting is how masks reveal that most people, even doctors, are illogical. There were only a few logical moments to unmask in community settings, and if you didn't do it then but did it at another time… well, that is likely an emotional decision.
Here were the logical breaks for masking:
If you don’t believe community masking helps (this is what the best available data show), it was rational to never wear one. (Apart from mandates/ to make others feel better) — pretty much my position/ behavior.
If you do think masking has a modest effect (5-10% reduction in transmission), it was rational to stop wearing masks…
… After you got vaccinated
… After you got covid
If you think masking has a massive effect (95% reduction), then you are not a rational person. No way it can be that high in the real world with real compliance.
If you ever masked a 2 year old and thought it helped (aka followed the CDC’s guidance), you are gullible and need to distrust authorities more.
All the people who stopped masking 6 months after they had COVID or 1 year after their last booster are acting completely irrationally. Why stop then and not a day sooner or a month later?
And if you are still masking, the only rational choice is to mask until you die.
What do you think? Leave a comment to justify when you decided to stop masking. Was it rational? Why?
And if you still mask, when will you stop? Before you die?
Like many, I am in need of a new PCP. In late 2023 a mask mandate for health providers was re-instituted here in the Boston area yet patients can choose to not mask. Sigh. OK. In 2024, there are people wearing surgical masks walking outside during the winter all over this city. Whatever. They're "gone" and it's not my fault. So I scheduled a new patient PCP consult at a Functional/Integrative Medicine practice thinking they'll be more reasonable. Nope. The practice (under a corporate healthcare umbrella) was mandating masks for providers but not patients. Hmmm, I thought...this does not make sense.
(Oh yeah, I recall reading somewhere that doctors are begrudgingly wearing masks as it makes their patients feel "safe". Thank you, unscientific Covid response hysteria!)
I advised the Functional Med office manager that I'll wait until the mask mandate is lifted, assuming this will happen after "flu season" ends, as I'd like to be able to communicate effectively with the M.D. I politely pointed out that masks make this difficult, especially for elderly people (which I am not...YET). The manager replied "Oh, it is not temporary" (the mask mandate). She sounded rather smug issuing this statement. I squelched a sarcastic retort and calmly replied that I'll wait.
So now I'm hoping that I can bank on excellent health to avoid having a PCP at all. Bad idea! I'm told I need to worry about RSV! And Covid - forever! And shingles! And hey, despite that scary NYT article about "rare" stroke risk, I can get three "safe and effective" different shots at the same time. Working in healthcare for 40 years, I never heard of such a thing...until 2023.
Bottom line: don't get sick and for the love of God, don't get old.
So in 2009, I got bacterial meningitis. First thing they did in the ER was to mask me, and they put on masks to treat me. Was it wrong then?