Measles in Texas, bird flu in Louisiana, tuberculosis in Kansas and Covid everywhere. Public health has been dying a slow death for years, we can’t count on it anymore. What can we count on? A mask!
I really appreciate your focus on masking, especially respirators, as it's an important part of the conversation. Equally important is hand hygiene!
Most cold & flu viruses, as well as intestinal bugs like norovirus, are transmitted through touching commonly-handled items in public. Hand sanitizer is great for preventing cold & flu, but hand washing is the gold standard against noro and other intestinal pathogens.
Most people don't know how to wash their hands! I'm being completely serious here. When I was in nursing school, they had us use a UV gel and then wash our hands. Despite extensive past healthcare experience among my classmates, almost no one managed to wash it completely off.
Staying home and/or isolating when sick is another big one.
Yes absolutely! All those factors are really important, I mainly focused on masks because a lot of people have asked me how to choose one and how to fit it etc.
I wish public health had given out better guidance on the difference between a mask and a respirator and how to wear them (and why!). I think it could have made a big difference.
I agree. So many people have misconceptions about respirators! They take the things they heard about surgical masks and assume it's the same for respirators. Thanks for doing the work to educate!
That’s exactly it! Surgical masks have their place but I want people to know that if avoiding Covid (or other airborne viruses) is the goal then a respirator is needed. I’m hoping some people will also be pleasantly surprised by how much more comfortable they are!
My mom and I still mask in public spaces, because she is 86 with lung issues and any respiratory disease would likely kill her. We also don’t eat in indoor restaurants. Neither of us have had covid or any other communicable disease since 2019.
Thank you for masking!! I wish people would realize it’s easy to do and it’ll likely keep you from getting sick with anything. It’s great to not be sick!
I am terrified right now. I’ve had long covid over 5 years and am permanently disabled. Everyone around me is sick and I need to have surgery on Friday. My FIL was hospitalized for Norovirus and I had to tell my husband he couldn’t go help unless he stayed with them. I left my chiropractor’s office when I saw everyone wearing a mask out of the blue. I asked what’s going on and they said he was sick. While I appreciate the masks, fuck that. I was out of there. Even close family members act like I’m over reacting because they still have a cough from their cold last week. Every sign of sickness near me triggers my flight of fight. I hate living like this.
I’m so sorry Molly! I don’t blame you at all for leaving I would have done the same thing! I went for cardiac testing once and it was super quiet and they were all in blue masks and when I mentioned how quiet it was the tech said “yeah almost everyone is out sick”. It’s like there is just zero self awareness. Detached from reality.
It is curious and disturbing that the same people who screamed about their freedom and not being told what to do at the same time continue to stop at stop signs, drive the right way on highways, stand obediently in line at stores, and go in through the in door and out through the out door, I guess being told what to do is a matter of cherry picking those rules you obey and ignoring the ones that you don't agree with. It's madness.
And when you point that out the same it’s not the same because masks are a symbol of government tyranny. They don’t even consider for a moment that they only feel that way because some talking head told them to, and in fact governments haven’t told people to mask in years. They told us to take them off!
I got COVID 4 yrs & 11 months ago - ahhh, memories - & the trigeminal & occipital neuralgia & PEM plus immune system issues that have made themselves at home have kept me masking. I finally ran out of medical leave & had to quit my job as a flight attendant (which I adored). I'm retirement age but didn't want to stop flying. We had no masks then.
I just bought the Aura 3m respirator N95 & can't believe I've found a mask I love. Your article was so helpful bout fit, etc & I'm temporarily wearing glasses & they're not fogging!!! Sooo comfortable! The hearing aids are a pain in the ass to juggle with those 2 but focus on grateful I can hear better.
I realize my perspective is different because of my age & as weird as it sounds (who wants to spend the last years of their life in pain & disabled?), I had 65 yrs of my life where I wasn't most of the time (I've had weird physical issues my whole life but nothing like this).
One of my best friends ended his life (we got COVID a week apart) at 38 because he couldn't take the multiple levels of pain. I hesitate to say "I understand" & while not suicidal, if my pain doesn't improve, I have no desire to live a long life. I'm 70 in a few weeks. I've had a long life.
But I'm still masking up because I sure as hell don't wanna get COVID again or the flu or rsv or anything that would make me sicker. I've had enuf.
Your information is priceless, your writing full of truth & honest, heartfelt compassion w/ sharp wisdom & you are a fierce blessing to us all. Please keep it up. Please take care of you. And teach us how we can in return xo Beth
I’m so sorry you lost a friend to Long Covid. I wish more people understood how devastating a disease it could be (and how easy masking is by comparison!). Sometimes you have to try a few to find the right one but once you get a comfortable respirator it really is super simple and effective.
I think it’s great you’re prioritizing staying as healthy as you can, and thank you for the kind words as well as the reminder to take care of me!
My issue is I’m allergic to latex and it is hidden in everything in so many masks even if they don’t say it on the outside of the box. I worked in healthcare and would have severe reactions with much of the PPE. They had to give me special gowns masks ect. I contacted Covid a few yrs 30 months ago have long covid and it has disabled me to a degree I still haven’t learned to accept. After diligently protecting myself until they decided not to protect me anymore. My GP masks when I see him I don’t have to ask.
My nurse friends don’t see me and don’t mask. So sad
Former healthcare worker here who got Covid-19 at the very beginning of the pandemic. I can't believe how many people clapped and called us heroes, only to discard us when we got disabling conditions like long Covid just from doing our jobs.
On the bright side, it's been almost 5 years of long-Covid (ME/CFS) and I'm finally starting to rebuild strength and gain function. Hang in there!
The sequined and rhinestoned masks cracked me up, as if that was going to help with all the piercing that had to be done to attached the decorations! I got me a respirator mask in pink and another in black, alternating depending on my mood - girlie or death metal. They never seemed all that weird to me because I live in a neighborhood with a high Asian immigrant population, and they were masking years ahead of the Covid pandemic.
I love your come back to survival of the fittest and you're 100% correct. Fittest is about adaptation and flexibility, not just brute strength.
I adore your fierceness, btw. Thank you for the providing the resources, the insane videos and for using the word, doff, also, coicidentally, my last name, so, fond of the word. And you've made me think twice about masking again, which I haven't been for a while.
I will say you can put sequins and other decorations on an elastometric because you can affix them to the silicone portion without impacting seal. I’ve seen some folks with metal spikes coming out of their masks! Mask chains also seem to be quite popular right now and apparently don’t impact fit at all.
Thank you so much for saying it made you reconsider masking. That was the whole goal of this. I want people to realize that survival was never been about who is the “healthiest” but rather who can adapt to threats and changing circumstances.
With the political messiness in the US right now and the disaster that is public health, a good mask makes good sense. Especially if vaccines and treatments become harder to come by.
Exactly!!! I want to drive this message home because I’ve found that especially since Covid began there’s an increase in people who incorrectly assume it’s the strongest who survive. I’m constantly told “survival of the fittest” as though I have no right to survive because I’m disabled.
I also want people to reconsider masking because it’s a safe and non invasive way to keep yourself healthy. Heck it even helps with pollution and pollen!
I wonder where they’ve received that message from. It’s been no different throughout the history of all mankind. Still as true today as it’s always been.
I have been reflecting on how we’ve come to think we are so superior to our ancestors. We think we’re better, more advanced. Our health has never been worse. We are so far from healthy - we don’t even know what health is. What it feels like, what it looks like.
It’s a rude awakening to lose it. Though maybe it’s what we need and it’s the one way to achieve it? I know I did. There was no any other way for me. So I guess I can only speak for myself.
I just bought my first respirator masks today. I'm traveling soon to meet a friend's new baby, and I can't be careful enough.
I've been having trouble with overheating in regular masks (thanks, perimenopause!) so I'm hoping the vented respirator masks will be better for me to use.
The vented masks should be much more comfortable! Just know that they won’t protect the baby (or anyone around you) if you’re sick… but if you’re wearing them regularly then you shouldn’t BE sick because they’re awesome!
I reuse about 3 to 5 3Ms and keep in a file accordion. I discovered when removing do not unbend the metal as it will break quicker. I place in a small brown paper bag in the back and rotate them. I make sure it sits for at least 4 days. I use until the strap is no longer tight or the respirator appears excessively dirty. If I got into a hospital, I toss afterwards. And of course, I am the only one usually. But I know I will not get sick!
when i developed 30J breasts in middle school, nobody took "its hard to get the right fit and leaves lines on my body" as a reason not to wear an underwire bra (quite the opposite, I would be dress coded and publicly shamed if I wore a cami w/ built in bra like my peers.) yet this is an acceptable excuse for adults not to mask. and only one of those things impacts public health.
Since then, I ordered N95 duckbills at a steep discount; and while they look odd, they also work well for singing (but aren’t concert black, so I would only use them for rehearsals).
Still masking at work- very busy both staff-wise and customers- coffee/donuts/food place. 4 days for a long time since 2019, then 3, just 2 now (we'll call it semi-retirement). I still just use surgical masks at work because my employer still provides them, and they work well for talking to customers and co-workers for hours at a time. Apart from work, I'm only in public to buy groceries/essentials (I don't live in town) and I use my cloth mask still for that. In this rural area there are not a lot of options for N95s etc available, and I haven't been impressed with the few I've tried. Cost is also a big factor (see the bit about only working 2 days..lol). Luckily I seem pretty resistant- one minor (in symptoms, at least!) illness since 2019 in spite of being surrounded by sick people at work all the time- and that makes me wonder if I may carry symptomless illness on occasion- so all the more reason to keep masking...(also gloves at work + sanitiser solutions, alcohol spray in car after touching anything, all groceries etc cleaned at home)
Without doing an Internet search, see if you can list the foundational principles of the scientific method.
If you cannot, when you’re talking about trusting the science you were talking about accepting what someone or some group has told you.
Science is a long and sometimes tedious process of formulating theories and quantitatively determining whether they are valid hypothesis.
Science is not looking up to any so-called experts. Experts are wrong much of the time. Experts often have conflicts of interest. Experts like all of the rest of us, lie sometimes.
If you believe that masking effectively prevents transmission of a particle so small it requires a $2500 respirator to filter incoming air and exhalation then of course you’re welcome to believe that. But you are not welcome to demand or coerce others to agree with you.
I disagree with your entire premise yet I fully support your right to make your own decisions.
That is not what happened over the past five years. You don’t get to say “well we’re just going to have to agree to disagree” when the ones disagreeing with you have lost their jobs, their families, their friends. We can only agree to disagree if there are no negative consequences for either side of the disagreement.
That has catastrophically not been the case.
Think back to my initial question about the principal tenets of the scientific method and if you know them right now without looking them up. If you do not know them, consider that you are in no position to say anything of value about science.
I really appreciate your focus on masking, especially respirators, as it's an important part of the conversation. Equally important is hand hygiene!
Most cold & flu viruses, as well as intestinal bugs like norovirus, are transmitted through touching commonly-handled items in public. Hand sanitizer is great for preventing cold & flu, but hand washing is the gold standard against noro and other intestinal pathogens.
Most people don't know how to wash their hands! I'm being completely serious here. When I was in nursing school, they had us use a UV gel and then wash our hands. Despite extensive past healthcare experience among my classmates, almost no one managed to wash it completely off.
Staying home and/or isolating when sick is another big one.
Yes absolutely! All those factors are really important, I mainly focused on masks because a lot of people have asked me how to choose one and how to fit it etc.
I wish public health had given out better guidance on the difference between a mask and a respirator and how to wear them (and why!). I think it could have made a big difference.
I agree. So many people have misconceptions about respirators! They take the things they heard about surgical masks and assume it's the same for respirators. Thanks for doing the work to educate!
That’s exactly it! Surgical masks have their place but I want people to know that if avoiding Covid (or other airborne viruses) is the goal then a respirator is needed. I’m hoping some people will also be pleasantly surprised by how much more comfortable they are!
My mom and I still mask in public spaces, because she is 86 with lung issues and any respiratory disease would likely kill her. We also don’t eat in indoor restaurants. Neither of us have had covid or any other communicable disease since 2019.
Thank you for masking!! I wish people would realize it’s easy to do and it’ll likely keep you from getting sick with anything. It’s great to not be sick!
I am terrified right now. I’ve had long covid over 5 years and am permanently disabled. Everyone around me is sick and I need to have surgery on Friday. My FIL was hospitalized for Norovirus and I had to tell my husband he couldn’t go help unless he stayed with them. I left my chiropractor’s office when I saw everyone wearing a mask out of the blue. I asked what’s going on and they said he was sick. While I appreciate the masks, fuck that. I was out of there. Even close family members act like I’m over reacting because they still have a cough from their cold last week. Every sign of sickness near me triggers my flight of fight. I hate living like this.
I’m so sorry Molly! I don’t blame you at all for leaving I would have done the same thing! I went for cardiac testing once and it was super quiet and they were all in blue masks and when I mentioned how quiet it was the tech said “yeah almost everyone is out sick”. It’s like there is just zero self awareness. Detached from reality.
It is curious and disturbing that the same people who screamed about their freedom and not being told what to do at the same time continue to stop at stop signs, drive the right way on highways, stand obediently in line at stores, and go in through the in door and out through the out door, I guess being told what to do is a matter of cherry picking those rules you obey and ignoring the ones that you don't agree with. It's madness.
And when you point that out the same it’s not the same because masks are a symbol of government tyranny. They don’t even consider for a moment that they only feel that way because some talking head told them to, and in fact governments haven’t told people to mask in years. They told us to take them off!
I got COVID 4 yrs & 11 months ago - ahhh, memories - & the trigeminal & occipital neuralgia & PEM plus immune system issues that have made themselves at home have kept me masking. I finally ran out of medical leave & had to quit my job as a flight attendant (which I adored). I'm retirement age but didn't want to stop flying. We had no masks then.
I just bought the Aura 3m respirator N95 & can't believe I've found a mask I love. Your article was so helpful bout fit, etc & I'm temporarily wearing glasses & they're not fogging!!! Sooo comfortable! The hearing aids are a pain in the ass to juggle with those 2 but focus on grateful I can hear better.
I realize my perspective is different because of my age & as weird as it sounds (who wants to spend the last years of their life in pain & disabled?), I had 65 yrs of my life where I wasn't most of the time (I've had weird physical issues my whole life but nothing like this).
One of my best friends ended his life (we got COVID a week apart) at 38 because he couldn't take the multiple levels of pain. I hesitate to say "I understand" & while not suicidal, if my pain doesn't improve, I have no desire to live a long life. I'm 70 in a few weeks. I've had a long life.
But I'm still masking up because I sure as hell don't wanna get COVID again or the flu or rsv or anything that would make me sicker. I've had enuf.
Your information is priceless, your writing full of truth & honest, heartfelt compassion w/ sharp wisdom & you are a fierce blessing to us all. Please keep it up. Please take care of you. And teach us how we can in return xo Beth
I’m so sorry you lost a friend to Long Covid. I wish more people understood how devastating a disease it could be (and how easy masking is by comparison!). Sometimes you have to try a few to find the right one but once you get a comfortable respirator it really is super simple and effective.
I think it’s great you’re prioritizing staying as healthy as you can, and thank you for the kind words as well as the reminder to take care of me!
My issue is I’m allergic to latex and it is hidden in everything in so many masks even if they don’t say it on the outside of the box. I worked in healthcare and would have severe reactions with much of the PPE. They had to give me special gowns masks ect. I contacted Covid a few yrs 30 months ago have long covid and it has disabled me to a degree I still haven’t learned to accept. After diligently protecting myself until they decided not to protect me anymore. My GP masks when I see him I don’t have to ask.
My nurse friends don’t see me and don’t mask. So sad
Former healthcare worker here who got Covid-19 at the very beginning of the pandemic. I can't believe how many people clapped and called us heroes, only to discard us when we got disabling conditions like long Covid just from doing our jobs.
On the bright side, it's been almost 5 years of long-Covid (ME/CFS) and I'm finally starting to rebuild strength and gain function. Hang in there!
That’s great that you’re improving and regaining function! We need more hopeful stories like that!
I’m so sorry. I can only imagine how hard that makes things. Latex seems to hide everywhere! Have you found a brand that works for you?
I’ve got some great contacts who knows a ton about different mask brands, happy to ask if it would be helpful!
The sequined and rhinestoned masks cracked me up, as if that was going to help with all the piercing that had to be done to attached the decorations! I got me a respirator mask in pink and another in black, alternating depending on my mood - girlie or death metal. They never seemed all that weird to me because I live in a neighborhood with a high Asian immigrant population, and they were masking years ahead of the Covid pandemic.
I love your come back to survival of the fittest and you're 100% correct. Fittest is about adaptation and flexibility, not just brute strength.
I adore your fierceness, btw. Thank you for the providing the resources, the insane videos and for using the word, doff, also, coicidentally, my last name, so, fond of the word. And you've made me think twice about masking again, which I haven't been for a while.
I will say you can put sequins and other decorations on an elastometric because you can affix them to the silicone portion without impacting seal. I’ve seen some folks with metal spikes coming out of their masks! Mask chains also seem to be quite popular right now and apparently don’t impact fit at all.
Thank you so much for saying it made you reconsider masking. That was the whole goal of this. I want people to realize that survival was never been about who is the “healthiest” but rather who can adapt to threats and changing circumstances.
With the political messiness in the US right now and the disaster that is public health, a good mask makes good sense. Especially if vaccines and treatments become harder to come by.
This: “It was never about who was healthiest, it was about who was most adaptable.”
It’s not the strongest of the species that survives….
Exactly!!! I want to drive this message home because I’ve found that especially since Covid began there’s an increase in people who incorrectly assume it’s the strongest who survive. I’m constantly told “survival of the fittest” as though I have no right to survive because I’m disabled.
I also want people to reconsider masking because it’s a safe and non invasive way to keep yourself healthy. Heck it even helps with pollution and pollen!
I wonder where they’ve received that message from. It’s been no different throughout the history of all mankind. Still as true today as it’s always been.
I have been reflecting on how we’ve come to think we are so superior to our ancestors. We think we’re better, more advanced. Our health has never been worse. We are so far from healthy - we don’t even know what health is. What it feels like, what it looks like.
It’s a rude awakening to lose it. Though maybe it’s what we need and it’s the one way to achieve it? I know I did. There was no any other way for me. So I guess I can only speak for myself.
I just bought my first respirator masks today. I'm traveling soon to meet a friend's new baby, and I can't be careful enough.
I've been having trouble with overheating in regular masks (thanks, perimenopause!) so I'm hoping the vented respirator masks will be better for me to use.
The vented masks should be much more comfortable! Just know that they won’t protect the baby (or anyone around you) if you’re sick… but if you’re wearing them regularly then you shouldn’t BE sick because they’re awesome!
Wonderful!
What I'm trying to do is prevent bringing anything with me — or bringing anything back, since I'm going from the Midwest to the coast.
I'm also attempting to mitigate my allergies long-term. They get worse every year, and certain times are worse than others.
Sounds like it’ll be great for those purposes! Hope you have a fun and safe trip!
I reuse about 3 to 5 3Ms and keep in a file accordion. I discovered when removing do not unbend the metal as it will break quicker. I place in a small brown paper bag in the back and rotate them. I make sure it sits for at least 4 days. I use until the strap is no longer tight or the respirator appears excessively dirty. If I got into a hospital, I toss afterwards. And of course, I am the only one usually. But I know I will not get sick!
A couple nits, though both are on messaging and phrasing rather than substantial differences.
> I don’t believe it was ‘theatre’ so much as we were learning as we went along.
There were clearly both going on at the same time.
> not a benign virus
Not really a thing. All viruses will prioritize their spread over our health. Certainly some are worse than others.
when i developed 30J breasts in middle school, nobody took "its hard to get the right fit and leaves lines on my body" as a reason not to wear an underwire bra (quite the opposite, I would be dress coded and publicly shamed if I wore a cami w/ built in bra like my peers.) yet this is an acceptable excuse for adults not to mask. and only one of those things impacts public health.
Some elastomerics can be taken apart for cleaning, which is useful.
A while back, I posted on Mastsdon my design for a singer’s performance mask:
https://mstdn.social/@swhunter7/111098825324135403
Since then, I ordered N95 duckbills at a steep discount; and while they look odd, they also work well for singing (but aren’t concert black, so I would only use them for rehearsals).
Still masking at work- very busy both staff-wise and customers- coffee/donuts/food place. 4 days for a long time since 2019, then 3, just 2 now (we'll call it semi-retirement). I still just use surgical masks at work because my employer still provides them, and they work well for talking to customers and co-workers for hours at a time. Apart from work, I'm only in public to buy groceries/essentials (I don't live in town) and I use my cloth mask still for that. In this rural area there are not a lot of options for N95s etc available, and I haven't been impressed with the few I've tried. Cost is also a big factor (see the bit about only working 2 days..lol). Luckily I seem pretty resistant- one minor (in symptoms, at least!) illness since 2019 in spite of being surrounded by sick people at work all the time- and that makes me wonder if I may carry symptomless illness on occasion- so all the more reason to keep masking...(also gloves at work + sanitiser solutions, alcohol spray in car after touching anything, all groceries etc cleaned at home)
Without doing an Internet search, see if you can list the foundational principles of the scientific method.
If you cannot, when you’re talking about trusting the science you were talking about accepting what someone or some group has told you.
Science is a long and sometimes tedious process of formulating theories and quantitatively determining whether they are valid hypothesis.
Science is not looking up to any so-called experts. Experts are wrong much of the time. Experts often have conflicts of interest. Experts like all of the rest of us, lie sometimes.
If you believe that masking effectively prevents transmission of a particle so small it requires a $2500 respirator to filter incoming air and exhalation then of course you’re welcome to believe that. But you are not welcome to demand or coerce others to agree with you.
I disagree with your entire premise yet I fully support your right to make your own decisions.
That is not what happened over the past five years. You don’t get to say “well we’re just going to have to agree to disagree” when the ones disagreeing with you have lost their jobs, their families, their friends. We can only agree to disagree if there are no negative consequences for either side of the disagreement.
That has catastrophically not been the case.
Think back to my initial question about the principal tenets of the scientific method and if you know them right now without looking them up. If you do not know them, consider that you are in no position to say anything of value about science.