Masks...

[Nate.]

I personally use a self contained breathing apparatus. Can't take no chances

[Ero]

When It comes to masks I think some people might react differently because I know my brother has to where different masks cause of his skin but for me its not a big deal .

[Mxyu]

Personally, I don’t have a problem, It isn’t great but not really uncomfortable either. Just gets annoying when your talking and you can’t hear anyone. But other then that it’s not horrible. 

 

 

[SilentGuns]

3 hours ago, Gentoo said:

Why do people get so irrationally angry about this. These people have been doing fine without a mask for their whole lives, and I'm sure they don't see some new flu-tier virus as challenging that. Don't want to be bothered by these 'idiots'? Take off work, collect your stimulus or whatever unemployment/benefits you can and order all your food/groceries from home. Don't have the means or money for that? Looks like natural selection is taking it's course.

 

Seriously, having this much irrational fear about something means you're either A) old as hell B) incredibly unhealthy or C) very easily influenced by media headlines. Do your research and get over your germ theory. Go outside and live a little.

Not going to lie, I was not aware that the flu kills hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, during extreme restrictions.

 

 

[John]

3 hours ago, Gentoo said:

Seriously, having this much irrational fear about something means you're either A) old as hell B) incredibly unhealthy or C) very easily influenced by media headlines. Do your research and get over your germ theory. Go outside and live a little.

 

The masks are there to protect other people from you. My grandmother lives with me and many other people have grandparent(s) living with them. If I were to go out and live a little I would either cause the death of my grandma or some person's grandparent. My grandmother's brother died because he was exposed to COVID and a lot of people I know have relatives that have died as well. I wouldn't say the fear is irrational if there are people dying around you. 

 

24,000 to 62,000 people died from the Flu during the 2019-2020 flu season which started on October 1st, 2019 and ended on April 4th, 2020.

 

In 2018 to 2019, an estimated 34k people died from Influenza.

 

So far, an estimated 253,000 people died from COVID-19 according to the CDC.

 

I don't want to kill my parents, grandparents, my girlfriend's mom that is at risk, or anybody else that is susceptible. COVID sucked when I went through it and I got it fairly easy compared to others. I didn't lose my taste but I did end up losing 10 pounds. Other people lost their taste and smell for extended periods of time and had it for much longer than me. 

[3ni]

I hate wearing them because I do about 210 stops a day with it on, pouring with sweat and fogging my glasses up. However, I’d do anything to keep my wife safe so I wear it anyway.

[delirium]

22 minutes ago, John said:

 

24,000 to 62,000 people died from the Flu during the 2019-2020 flu season which started on October 1st, 2019 and ended on April 4th, 2020.

 

In 2018 to 2019, an estimated 34k people died from Influenza.

Interestingly enough, I first saw rumours of what we now know to be corona circulating on some conspiracy forums I lurk as early as October of 19. Could be related to the disparity in deaths from one year to the next but who knows.

 

Theory was that china released it on purpose during the world military games but take that bit with a grain of salt.

[Kieran]

The whole pandemic really exposed how entitled and inconsiderate some Americans are when they can't deal with the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask in order to help others.

[Charliere]

No, it's not enjoyable to wear a mask practically all day. I'm required to wear mine all day at work, they're required when you go to public places in my state.

 

Everyday there's a potential for me to be exposed. I'm constantly in contact with hundreds of different people and animals in their pets, and in close proximity with other coworkers that could have been exposed. I move around a lot at work and sometimes have a hard time breathing, but if I need to take off or lower my mask I do it in a separate room.

 

My mother has MS and is immunocompromised, my only grandparents are immunocompromised. I wear my mask around my family to keep them safe.

 

Wear a fucking mask.  It's not hard, and it shouldn't have to be an argument.

[Phoenix_]

I work at a martial arts place and help run the after school program and teach classes for the kids. We are required to wear masks, and at work I have no qualms with wearing them because even though I'm 99% certain I don't have COVID-19, if I can do my part to prevent spreading anything to the children and families I interact with on a day-to-day basis, I will. It honestly drives me nuts when I have to tell parents and grandparents to put their masks on more than I have to remind the children to pull their masks up. The amount of entitlement people have because they live in the "land of the free" is disgusting. It's not hard to have common courtesy to keep your mask on during a global pandemic to protect others. 

 

At Thanksgiving this year, I wore a mask because my grandparents are immunocompromised and so are a couple of other family members that attended our small gettogether.

 

Do I enjoy wearing the masks? Of course not. I would much rather be able to see people's faces from my coworkers, to the kids I take care of, their parents, people I see in stores, etc. It gets itchy and sweaty and gross but if it's to help us get out of this quicker, I'll do my part. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same mindset. According to a WebMD report in late October, mask use in the US has gone up drastically, but the percent of adults who always wear masks is still only at around 70% (well when in public places), which is nowhere near where we need to be to stop this surge of cases.

 

I'm hoping once the vaccine becomes readily available to the public, enough people will be willing (ironically, I won't be getting it) to get the COVID vaccine and restrictions around the country can be lessened so smaller businesses can go back to closer-to-normal and people can have somewhat of a concept of "normal" social interaction. Even a year in, there's still so many question marks about what's going to happen, all we can really do is individually do our part and hope for the best.