Are you still Masking?

I rarely see anyone masking anymore in the UK

i don't even see scolding posts about masking on tumblr anymore so it's truly over imo

In an airport/on a plane and that’s it.

I wouldn't say "covid is over" as a blanket statement but in the region of the globe I'm in and within the social circles I frequent it pretty much is.

I've given up the ritual masking and unveiling preamble for indoor dining but if it's picking up a togo order, it still seems rude to whomever hands it to you not to mask up, especially if they're masked.

I chose "COVID is over" even though I know it isn't strictly true. Infection and hospitalization rates where I live have been low enough since early this year to where I don't think it's necessary anymore. The rule I've followed all along is to go by the local guidelines, and those have not encouraged masking for quite a while.

Have not been masking at all and it's been fine, but I'm going to be immuno-compromised and have to start doing it seriously, which sucks.

face diaper

Only when shifting large piles of dusty objects.

I might wear one today because of the smog

pretty much just at the doctor's office/hospital at this point. voted "if someone sick is nearby".

My doc's office stopped masking sometime in the past couple months.

I still always mask on public transportation and at the grocery store, though I've given up most other places, including at work. A few months ago, I was masking by default in any indoor space other than private homes and restaurants, but have become lax and admittedly inconsistent about it.

Basically, I decided that I no longer wanted my anxieties about COVID to stop me from doing fun things, and though there are a lot of things I could do while wearing a mask (for instance, I regularly masked at the movie theater for over a year), at this point I'd rather just not think about it when I'm trying to enjoy myself.

Masking on the bus and at the grocery store doesn't bother me, and I sort of even like the anonymity it provides, so I imagine I'll keep doing that for a while.

I was in Sweden in June and I think I saw one person wearing a mask

Still sorta common here in the Bay Area, and I think there's a subset of Asian residents who will be wearing them from here on out

How many of y'all have got/know someone who has got COVID in the past year? I do know a few. Many of them lived in households where others did not get it, and often they cannot figure out where they contracted it.

weirdly a lot of high school kids here are still masking, even when by themselves

xp I have a few friends/acquaintances that have had it within the last couple months

I was also in sweden in june! agree, masking seemed essentially nonexistent

I mask when seeing patients at work, even though it’s no longer required…but otherwise I’ve mainly stopped. local transmission is low enough that it’s probably not worth it. when the seasons change, that may change

although I go frequent a lot of hippie locations (thrift stores, record/book stores) where masking is still very common, so I’m happy to put one on so as not to ruin the vibes

all of those "no" options are loaded

I picked the only non-loaded one: ngl I have a pretty face

I was on a flight yesterday, the only person I saw masked was a woman probably in her late 70s-early 80s. She was behind me on the jetway, and she said, "Oh, I'm supposed to wear this," and put it on.

picked "Yes, even outdoors if a lot of people are around." they say the odds of getting long covid is 15% if you get covid. even if it's really 5%, that is a *gigantic* risk of potentially lifelong neurological problems. people in general are bad at statistics.

all of those "no" options are loaded

― But his face would not turn into hot Kirby (Evan), Tuesday, July 18, 2023 2:18 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Should have added: No, because I'm a logical person who uses logic

I put "because of social pressure," even though I have never once felt DIRECT social pressure not to wear a mask. My reasoning is -- I am really one of those people who never found wearing a mask particularly difficult or unpleasant. But now that no one around me is wearing one I feel weird doing it, even though it is no different of a physical sensation than it ever was. That's "social pressure," right?

I could also have put "because COVID is over" because that is (at least to my eye) clearly a social rather than epidemiological assertion.

I do always carry one with me, because I think it's important to be able to throw on on if it seems called for.

I mostly still mask because my son caught Covid in Feb. and all his friends have had it 3 or 4 times. I'm pretty sure future generations are going to be sick as fuck.

I see more people still masking in Miami than when I visited Dublin last month.

I'm in a library now, masked. I mask when I teach, in theaters, on public transportation (planes, etc.), doctor's offices. But I started eating indoors about a year ago and unless the weather's balmy (November to April) I eat indoors.

No one in my intimate circle has gotten COVID since October 2022.

I think I would wear one if I got on a plane, but I was recently in a very crowded museum in Houston where zero people were masked, I felt somewhat anxious about it, but rolled with no mask anyway.

I picked the only non-loaded one: ngl I have a pretty face

― rob, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 2:19 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

nah that one is the "no because I'm self-centered" option. You can't vote no without consenting to wrongheadedness or naivete.

but I am pretty ;_;

Should have added: No, because I'm a logical person who uses logic

― hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Tuesday, July 18, 2023 2:25 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ah, confirming you are indeed mad at everyone not wearing a mask still! No wonder.

FWIW I'm generally not wearing one because the stakes are relatively low these days... Happy to wear one in establishments if asked though.

I wasn't pushing back against your undeniable beauty, rob

Not mad at you guys, because you aren't in the room with me afaik

I'm actually reading this over your shoulder

ty, Evan

for me:
1 - never going on a nasty ass airplane again without wearing a mask

2 - I wfh and don't really use mass transit but if I did the same would apply

3 - any business that has a sign (for me, the only good bagel place in Minneapolis makes a big deal about it and provides masks at the door), but yeah basically happy to mask anywhere that requests it

4 - some large crowds, Yo La Tengo a while back felt a bit oversold and I was feeling hinky about it, so I put one on

5 - obviously if anyone is immunocompromised etc, or at the doctor's office, or if for some reason I was sick and had to go shopping


otherwise in general, no

The only aspect of my face I like is my eyes, so I actually think a mask improves my looks.

ski mask then imho

Haven't really masked since leaving urban NJ (the most densely populated state in the US) for rural Montana (not the most densely populated area of... anywhere) in March. Wore them a few times to the grocery store and no one looked at us oddly or anything, but we gave up after looking up the Covid rates for our county, which are basically zero. I wore one when I went to the doctor's office last week, and I'll wear one in August when I have to get on a plane, but other than that I'm raw-facing it everywhere I go and just maintaining social distance (easy enough in the mountain west, where leave-me-alone is the law).

My brother got covid in June after missing it for three years, even when in the same household with people who got it. He may have gotten it at my wedding, but no one else at my wedding got it (we contacted everybody)!

i masked all this year at school, plan to continue next year as one of my co-workers has a medically fragile child at home. i still mask at restaurants even though it's off when i'm eating, figuring some mitigation is better than none. i dont go out to eat much anymore, though. still doing curbside for groceries. probably the only place i dont mask is at outdoor events.

obv the number of hospitalizations and deaths from covid have come way down and thats a big relief, but the threat of long covid being exacerbated by multiple infections is still a huge driver for me to keep masking. my wife caught the alpha wave 3 years ago, and the 3 of us all got omicron in january '22. i think my brother has gotten it 4 times which freaks me out for him.

I got into a Twitter PM exchange with an acquaintance who slipped down a perilous rabbit hole last Sunday after reading about the person at the Beyonce show two weeks ago who boasted about attending sick with COVID but was taken out on a stretcher after a vomiting spell. My acquaintance was all "COVID hasn't gone away," which, yes, I agree. Then she followed it up with THIS IS WHY EVERYONE SHOULD BE STAYING HOME: NO CONCERTS, MOVIES, RESTAURANTS. I realized I couldn't argue with her and I stopped responding. After three and a half years, boosters, including one I lied to get in March, I'm just not where I was in July 2020, and it's insane to think a person can maintain that level of inhibition without some damage to their mental health.

otm Alfred

I wore one in the airport and on a plane for a recent trip to Colorado, and when I have to ride public transportation, but otherwise not.

How many of y'all have got/know someone who has got COVID in the past year?

Five people in my office had it last month. (Over a third of the total who work some kind of regular in-office hours, but only three of them work the same schedule and same part of the building). Three different households in my apartment building have had it in the last 3-4 months to my knowledge, including someone who lives alone in a studio. I have friends on two other continents who have had it in the last six weeks. I know one person who was hospitalised earlier this year.

it's insane to think a person can maintain that level of inhibition without some damage to their mental health.

I actually have a different take on this. I think there are lots of people for whom it's no big deal to not go to concerts, movies, or restaurants! Lots of people don't do that very much anyway! And so for those people, "that level of inhibition" is not a very high level, and it doesn't damage their mental health. What does sometimes happen though is that people like that don't have a good mental model of others and mistakenly think it would be harmless for most people to go no-restaurant.

xpost - I've known five people that have gotten it in the last four months or so, taking them at their word, each of them was the person in their household who somehow avoided it when it went through the family in 2021 or 2022.

Sure! I should've noted how some people loved 2020-2021 because they no longer felt pressure to socialize; I know a couple of them. But, as you point out, they expect everyone else to follow suit. xpost

voted "Yes, but just indoors in public spaces (work, stores, theaters, etc.)"

the jury is out on the long-term effects of this, and what do i really gain by showing my face to the random people around me? i also don't want to have it, not know it, and give it to someone else, and who knows what could happen to them. lots of folks out there are more vulnerable than i am. afaic wearing a mask is NBD, i don't really care if i'm in a grocery store and the only one doing it. if i'm going to get it eventually (have yet to, same deal for my wife), it'll be because something slipped thru the cracks.

it's been nice to not catch anything since 2019, my only "illness" was iirc after my first vaccination.

i've known a bunch of people who have caught covid in recent months. lots of them are kids.

i haven't felt like i've missed out on anything, i just adjust my social plans to incorporate outdoor spaces.

i mask if i feel sick. voted pretty face obv

I got it last December (after attending an oversold indoor concert of a local singer/songwriter) and it wasn’t really a big deal. Had major surgery in February, haven’t worn a mask since. I work in a bar 10 hours a week. Would wear one if I had to go back to a doctor’s office but otherwise I just never even think about masks anymore.

Yes (to thread question)

No.

We could re-poll, but I think the result would be predictable enough there's no point.

The combination of finally getting hit with it last summer and RFK and his idiot elves doing whatever = of course I'm going to continue. (I essentially retain this approach I posted about almost a year and a half back.)

I still mask on any public transportation and whenever I feel terrorized (I keep masks in every satchel and tote bag).

100% still masking on public transport and airplanes

I mask on airplanes and when throwing Molotov cocktails

I see about 2-3 masks a week, and all of them are worn by people who look like they are about 60+.

I see masks very frequently still, on even young people

I hardly ever see any these days, but yesterday, in Kitchener (Ontario), I saw a few in the space of an hour. Was wondering if it had more to do with measles than COVID.

As a transplant recipient I take immunosuppressant drugs to prevent rejection of my donated liver. As a result I am one of them immunocompromised people you may have heard about.

My instructions were to generally avoid sick people and avoid food with high contamination potential like salad bars, buffets, sushi, and last week's leftovers.

My family and I were told to take the same common-sense precautions one would ordinarily take re: covid, measles, etc. I get vaccines (the non-live kind when possible) and refrain from eating deli counter lobster salad.

I confess I have not worn a mask in a year, except when in a hospital. Normal do I ask others to mask around me. I have gone to concerts, movies, I travel on planes, I take the subway. And I am fine. My doctors (including an infectious disease doc) have not recommended masking.

Not meant to discourage or shame anyone here, just giving a data point.

* NOR do I ask others, not "normal" do I ask.

That is, I don't ask people to mask on my behalf. I don't mind if they do it, it's just not on my radar screen of things I am worried about.

I continue to mask up at the doctor's office but nowhere else. My wife wears one when we go to Target or the supermarket, and those are really the only times we're around large numbers of people. We don't eat in restaurants anymore and no bands we might want to see tour up here. I might mask up when she drags me to see the "live-action" Lilo & Stitch at the end of this month, though.

After 10 days in another city last month, I saw more masks in one train carriage the day I returned to Seattle than I had in the week away.

I might mask up when she drags me to see the "live-action" Lilo & Stitch at the end of this month, though.

Covid will have all been worth it just to get this statement from Unperson.

I'm seeing a lot of masking folks out and about these days (including a guy with a full-on plastic space helmet thing, which is a first for me), but I recall also seeing a big uptick around the same time last year, and I'm wondering if it might have as much to do with increased pollen counts as anything else.

I see masks on a daily basis, and still, all these years later, mostly worn incorrectly.

I have largely stopped wearing them in stores, I’m mostly going on what I know from the people who have caught Covid and continue to wear them on airplanes, and based on the several people I know who caught it at a Taylor Swift show, I masked up for Kylie Minogue a couple weeks ago. Still dining outdoors almost exclusively, with a couple of necessary exceptions.

Xpost
There has been a summer wave every year so far, generally in June

We have a pile in the kitchen cabinet for whenever bird flu goes nuts again, but to answer the thread question, no.

I also wear shoes in the house.

Fwiw I got covid last year while already in intensive care. Then I got hepatitis C and hepatitis B and a gram-positive bacterial infection.

All this while literally everyone around me was wearing a mask and gloves.

I am still backmasking fwiw...

cranberry sauce
fremme neppa venetta

Masks mostly disappeared in Tennessee as soon as mandates were lifted, but I do still see two particular groups wearing them at least sometimes: people over 70 or 75, and young artsy/lefty people. If I'm at any kind of artsy/lefty thing, there will be a handful of masked young people. There is definitely some kind of political/cultural sorting around it. (Granted, the young people I see may all be immunocompromised or have other medical reasons for masking, but it still seems isolated to certain subcultures.)

Yes I think in certain spaces it's just become normalised, so ppl who would've wanted to do it all along now feel comfortable doing so. A good thing.

Yep. Barista at the coffee shop I was at this morning was masked. Service workers in general are another place I see masking, tho mostly in independently owned businesses. I don't know if places like Target even allow it any more.

If I'm at any kind of artsy/lefty thing, there will be a handful of masked young people. There is definitely some kind of political/cultural sorting around it. (Granted, the young people I see may all be immunocompromised or have other medical reasons for masking, but it still seems isolated to certain subcultures.)

― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Monday, May 12, 2025 7:08 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah back in late 2023 I said this upthread: "It is interesting how political radicalization due to anti-maskers and the equal but opposite anti anti-masker reaction has made it so some progressive art spaces still have stricter masking policies than medical facilities."

I still see Starbucks and Target employees masked.

The main places where I see masks *required* are independent bookstores.

I'm sitting in an office right with three people in masks.

I see tons of workers at target, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, coffee shops, etc., masking up

if anything the corporate policy in many places is, "We'd rather you mask and come to work than ask for time off."

Most of the people i see working the checkouts at Fred Meyer are masked.

(I absolutely would do the same in such a high-traffic customer-facing position.)

Conversely, at the TJs i go to i can't remember the last time i saw any masked checkout staff.

I do on transit but do not necessarily in stores...which makes no sense, I realize. I sort of tailor it by how much outside airflow is available in different spaces. Buses open to the fresh air every block and have windows open and a constant breeze. Trains are basically enclosed so I mask. Stores...Idk honestly. My office building has centralized air filtration so I don't think about it here.

Seattle Art Book Fair this weekend:

https://i.ibb.co/nNsNtZTJ/IMG-5545.jpg

The independent bookstore and the lefty arts space are the only places in town still requiring masking that I'm aware of.

has made it so some progressive art spaces still have stricter masking policies than medical facilities
Yes but the masking policies at medical facilities are disgraceful, so

As in lax, or laxly followed by the professionals therein

We can't even get them to wash their hands.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJo4HFKtuqI/?igsh=amVzcnJ1OG5oeW95

The band Car Seat Headrest is asking folks to wear N95s for an outdoor show in July.

I'm wondering when the plexiglass barriers will come down. Wasn't it determined that they actually restricted airflow and were not helpful?

Where do you see them?

I see them all over still, most recently checking in at a motel (could be a security thing).

I don't see many plastic barriers, but I do see plenty of hand sanitizer stations. Not as many as before, and not always filled, but they're there.

Xpost
I think I am probably one of the more covid cautious ilxors at this stage and I do not mask outdoors

The increase in public availablilty of hand sanitizer is a pretty good side effect of the covid era

The increase in public availablilty of hand sanitizer is a pretty good side effect of the covid era

In my area, what's happened is that they don't refill the sanitizer dispensers, which have also become really gnarly looking. So for a while, I would get some because I thought I needed it only to realize it's empty and I just touched this pump or lever that's got all this gross shit all over it.

Re: masking, I still carry it around and wear it if I'm going to be next to someone elderly, especially if I'm going to see an 80+ year old jazz master and I want to say hello.