The Last Mask Holdouts

MX. Cherry…all you need to know.

“The last holdouts” suggests that most people have moved beyond this particular mitigation strategy.

Yes, R2, most of us have.

[quote]MX. Cherry…all you need to know.

That nonbinary people are the only ones left who understand how infectious diseases work?

I can't read the article without subscribing to the NYT,

I live in Toronto and plenty of people still wear masks. Some stores still require them. The transit system still recommends them.

Here is the article. Make sure you don't miss the last photo.

Hospitals and healthcare still require them.

I will wear one even if I am the only person wearing one in public, what other people think of me is none of my business. I haven't had Covid, or any other illness in 3 years.

Covid is extremely transphobic, R1.

R7 Thanks

Article thumbnail is misleading. Once you see the photo of the actual couple’s masks, it all seems a bit much.

Did you see Mx. Cherry’s mask, r4? Did ya?

I'm the only one masking up at my gym. Watching the gymbros dutifully slather sanitizer all over the equipment after their sets, unmasked, is equal parts funny and depressing.

R12 Yeah. Why is it any of my business?

R13, sanitizing the equipment was a thing LONG before Covid-19. Christ.

[quote]I will wear one even if I am the only person wearing one in public, what other people think of me is none of my business. I haven't had Covid, or any other illness in 3 years.

I stopped wearing a mask two years ago and haven’t had an illness since.

I hate masks (except outside when it's cold, then it's kinda warming, though otherwise pointless) but I also haven't been sick for longer than I ever have been, so I wear it for the few minutes that I'm in a store etc.

R8 fine but do you also behave like this?

For Nathanael Nerode, 46, the partner of Mx. Cherry, the imperative now is to educate others about the risks that remain. When friends say they are not worried about Covid because they have already had it, Mx. Nerode, who also uses gender-neutral courtesy titles and pronouns, sends them a link to academic papers that suggest reinfection is relatively common and each infection adds to the risk of severe outcomes. When friends say they do not mind if they get Covid because it will be only a cold, Mx. Nerode sends a paper suggesting that even mild cases can result in cognitive impairment.

“I’m fairly blunt,’’ said Mx. Nerode, who is also a member of Mx. Cherry’s game group. “So when somebody’s like, ‘Oh, I’m inviting you to this event,’ my response is, ‘You’re crazy. That event is dangerous. Don’t come crying to me when you get sick.’”

Another faithful mask-wearer (in all indoor public spaces) here.

It's literally the least (and easiest) thing I can do to help prevent virus spread. I have zero issues wearing one, don't mind doing it, and don't care if someone else thinks I'm being overly cautious.

I wore a mask the other day, because I had gotten fucking exposed at work. I let people without mask know, before they got in an elevator with me or vice versa. This was in Texas. Different reactions. 1 woman was very grateful I told her and declined to get on with me. A Pregnant woman got right on with me and thanked me for saying something, But, she works in a hospital and had covid recently. Ya never know.

[quote]sends them a link to academic papers that suggest reinfection is relatively common and each infection adds to the risk of severe outcomes. When friends say they do not mind if they get Covid because it will be only a cold, Mx. Nerode sends a paper suggesting that even mild cases can result in cognitive impairment.

I think Mx. (🙄) Nerode has been posting on DL.

NYT pushing the minimizing agenda as always. The National Enquirer is a more legit news source at this point.

R15 washing down equipment with a glass cleaner was sort of occasionally a thing before. Dudes didn’t want to be thought of as femmy for cleaning down equipment. And mask wearing was also a thing before, particularly in certain parts of the world.

Gender neutral courtesy titles.

Don't even stop the train, I'll just jump.

I wish it was the norm to wear them during flu/cold seasons or when you're personally dealing with a cough. The pandemic really exposed America for how crass we are as a society.

Archived, non-paywalled article at OP

[quote] Bitsy Cherry, right, and Nathanael Nerode wearing industrial face masks at their home in Ithaca, N.Y. Credit...Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times

^ that can’t be a very healthy way to live, *at home*

I don't care if people wear masks - maybe they have respiratory problems, I don't know and I don't care.

What irritates me is the people who think I'm being cruel and callous and lack empathy because I'm not wearing a mask to protect them. At this point we all have the tools to protect ourselves (vaccines, antivirals). I have no patience with people like in this article who are wearing masks solely because they're so RESPONSIBLE and so THOUGHTFUL and CARING about the rest of us and who are judgmental about the rest of us who don't match their (ludicrous) standard of empathy. Too many people are using masking as virtue signalling.

I'm trying to assume that all of the young, seemingly healthy people I see wearing them have asthma or something.

Mx. Cherry’s valve mask is selfish.

Sweet baby Jesus, these mental cripples are afraid of cognitive consequences of not wearing masks?

Where I live the only remaining mask requirement is for health facilities and pharmacies. The prior requirement for masks on public transportation was lifted a few months ago, and other mask requirements relaxed and lifted last spring. It's not an odd thing to see someone wearing a simple surgical mask (not the industrial and hazardous waste masks sported by the pair of freaks in this NYT article); no one thinks anything of it. It's simply assumed that they have some presumably sound reason or preference to wear them: perhaps an upcoming visit to a family member in frail health, perhaps their own health conditions, perhaps an abundance of caution. I've never seen anyone react with any indication of surprise of contempt or whatever. Mask wearing was standard issue here for a long time and compliance was near absolute; if you saw someone without, you assumed they had inadvertently left the house without one, or were en route back home or to buy a mask. When the restrictions were lifted, people responded happily by putting aside their masks, but always there were older people, young kids, people who looked in frail health, and a few others who looked young and/or fit who kept wearing masks and it's not a problem. Why should it be?

Some of us have other health issues and wore masks before the pandemic, and will continue to do so.

I just wish some of you assholes would keep your distance and not bend over and talk into my face when I'm at my desk, or lean in and talk one or two feet away from my face when we're standing around. Pretty sure one of you gavce me covid a couple of weeks ago and I never had it before. (I still wear a mask in the grocery store and places like that. I think I'm going to start wearing one at work again.)

Scumbags who don't wear masks in public deserve every illness they get.

I just got back from Walgreens and I was the only person in the whole store wearing a mask.

Flu and covid numbers are high so I wore one thinking that sick people often go to pharmacies.

I still wear a mask; I take public transportation and I’m not taking any unnecessary risks. I’ve had all vaccines available to me as well.

Im staying in the mask until the infection recedes

Antimaskers and procovid activists are too verbal.

They love to flap their mouths and spread infection all over.

Bat Now in Hell.

L.A. County Health Department sends an email every week, detailing the rise in vases again and also the rise in hospitalized children with RSV. They've asked for 2 months that people mask up indoors again, but the average Angelino hears none of this on the local news.

^ cases, not vases

Most people aren't in a mask and refuse to social distance. I wear a mask in public and look for people who are in a mask to be near when we can't social distance. There aren't many of us.

Also a rise in vases..

Lol, r42! I knew one of you stylish queens would come through with a reply, and you did not disappoint.

[QUOTE] NYT pushing the minimizing agenda as always. The National Enquirer is a more legit news source at this point.

What’s the “minimizing agenda”?

As long as it protects me from your bad breath, I will continue to wear one.

Maybe they wipe down the equipment at the bathhouse you "exercise" in, R15. I never saw a gym engage in such obsessive-compulsive wiping down prior to March 2020.

It's pointless public health theatre regardless.

Which is smaller: Covid or sperm?

Do you think a paper condom would be effective?

Like, totally, like faked. It's like, fake news.

Apart from the Covid issue I haven't had cold or flu for years. I'm never taking this sucker off in public.

Stopped wearing masks in my office building, except in elevators, sometime in early 2022. Continued masking in stores until summer of 2022. Continued masking on the elevator at my office until late last year. Stopped wearing masks on public transit last month.

It's not over but it's nothing like it was. I'm vaxxed, regularly boosted and I've had Covid exactly once in the summer pf 2022. It wasn't fun but I recovered in time. However, everyone's risk profile is different. Masking should be a normalized choice that deserves respect but we don't need mask mandates again. Masking or not masking is up to the individual.

R50 good point! In addition, allergy season has come early to Georgia and the film of yellow pollen dust is everywhere. I wear a mask whenever I am out doors and I wear a mask in public areas like grocery stores or malls. I have lung disease so I can't really afford to get sick.

People continue wearing masks for so many reasons—they have a chronic disease; they are close to an elderly parent; they don’t want to get Covid.

What, now we’re supposed to just follow the crowd and rips off our masks because they did. These are the same people who thought Ivermectin was a good therapy

I still wear a mask on the NYC subway and in theatres. Fuck you if that somehow irritates you

Why are Repugs always so obsessed with what other people wear?

I haven’t had a whiff of body odor while on public transportation since masking started. I will never stop wearing my mask, for that reason alone.

I wear them on elevators and in other confined spaces. I couldn't give a single fuck what other people think about that, or being judged over it for that matter. It protects against the flu (hello????) as well as Covid. Another side benefit is blocking / mitigating the foul odour of BO from many hygiene challenged individuals.

I live in a dense urban area where the majority of people walk and rely on public transportation. Masks usage is still common on buses, on the crowded sidewalks, in the grocery store, etc. Baffles me why mask wearing is such a trigger for some people.

I wear them indoors, grocery shopping, doctor visits, etc. I honestly don't care what other people think of it.

I'm still wearing a mask. I wear two - an N95 and a cloth mask on top of it, to keep my 95 secure (it was moving around without both layers).

I've had chronic illnesses over the last few years and am at high risk. At the point now where I don't care much about what others do, but will continue to do what's best for me.

The article is clearly mocking mask usage by spotlighting these two freakshows who still wear them and act so bizarrely about them (sending their friends articles and scolding them, e.g.)

I still wear them at grocery stores and movies, and on public transportation.

r5 go into your settings and turn off javascript, then you can read any article that has a popup

😷 I'm required to wear one in my job as a covid tracer, but the salary and benefits are really amazing for a guy like me, so I don't mind at all. My friends call me the "Masked Millionaire" And, I have never had covid. The N95 masks are a real step up from those coffee filters and rubber band face masks !

I've never stopped wearing a mask. I've never had Covid, either, and I will do whatever I can to keep it that way.

Jessica Chastain had on a mask at the Oscars.

People wearing masks are protecting people around them more than themselves. It’s amazing that they take shit from others. It shows what a bunch of mental patients the trumpkins are. We’re talking deep mental illness. These are objectively bad people.

Now that community transmission rates have fallen, I will likely give up masking by the spring.

I will probably keep it on while on the subway though

I am the last one who still wear one at work, there are still people wearing it in public transport, but maybe less than 10%. I try not to catch it again, my mum is getting treatment for breast cancer in her 80s, even if she is vaccinated, she has other medical things to deal with than to do covid.

In the winter, the masks actually make me feel warmer

I have a non-binary coworker who double masks to this day. She’s “trans” and “queer” and of course has a male “partner.” No muff diving there.

They’re furious the rest of us don’t mask in the workplace.

They’re also trying to get refugee status in Ireland because they’re scared of the nazis in America going against trans people.

… I view all mask wearers through this lens. They’re psychotic.

Oh, also this mask loving “trans” co-worker stood in line at the gay bathhouse to get a monkeypox vaccine because they were terrified of it. Used their “queer” status to get one from a gay slut who needed it.

Also wore gloves throughout monkeypox in public.

Mental health is the real disease. Not COVID.

Well, THAT was an easy block.

🤒 Also good in the wintertime to prevent the spread of colds and the flu.

[quote] They’re also trying to get refugee status in Ireland because they’re scared of the nazis in America going against trans people.

Actually, that sound pretty sane.

[quote] Oh, also this mask loving “trans” co-worker stood in line at the gay bathhouse to get a monkeypox vaccine because they were terrified of it. Used their “queer” status to get one from a gay slut who needed it.

There isn't a limit on them. Anyone who wants one can get one.

That was during the height of monkeypoxmania when there WAS a limit and guys had to struggle to find and get them.

It’s like someone trying to cheat into a COVID vax when they were only giving it to the olds and very ill.

Aaaanyway enough about THEM.

[quote] Aaaanyway enough about THEM.

So all trans are just terrible people?

Since March 2020 I've taken care of Covid patients and I'm still taking care of Covid patients. The unvaccinated are still dying. Covid has not taken a holiday.

And I still mask.

Still masking up here. In 3 years I haven't had as much as a sniffle. I don't miss seasonal colds and flu, and I'm certainly glad to have avoided COVID. Of course I'd rather not wear one, but there are too many stupid people around (as death rates have proven).

[quote] I am the last one who still wear one at work, there are still people wearing it in public transport, but maybe less than 10%. I try not to catch it again, my mum is getting treatment for breast cancer in her 80s, even if she is vaccinated, she has other medical things to deal with than to do covid.

froggie0, I wish your Mom good health. You're smart to mask for her. I believe I read that vaccines have been slightly less effective in elderly, and with her cancer treatment, she's more vulnerable. You're doing the right thing.

You’re a good person, froggie0.

[quote]R28: Too many people are using masking as virtue signalling.

This.

Some people don't want to get sick or make others sick.

End of thread, for fuck's sake.

[quote]People wearing masks are protecting people around them more than themselves.

I, for one, don't think this is appropriate anymore. At this point, we all have access to the tools to protect ourselves from serious illness (vaccines, Paxlovid, and masks too if you're really trying to protect yourself). There's no reason to assume responsibility for protecting other people unless you're trying to show how virtuous you are.

In my experience, the people who say they're trying to protect other people get angry that other people aren't masking up to protect them. They show "empathy" and then they want to demand it of everyone in return. I think self-reliance is more of a virtue than empathy.

I'm still wearing one in certain public places, like supermarkets, big box stores, and medical offices. I'm the primary care giver of my father who's got pulmonary hypertension (PH), a rare disease that affects both heart and lungs, so COVID might be a death sentence for him. If I get it, I'd probably give it to him. And even if we were able to avoid that, then me not being able to help care for him for a couple of weeks would cause more problems than what it takes for me to simply wear a mask a few hours each week as an added measure to not come down with it. .. I must be doing something right, because I've been able to avoid not getting it for three years now.

R84, it's idiotic that you think that people who are simply being considerate of others is "trying to show how virtuous you are", and therefore a negative.

Conservatives live in Opposite World. Compassion is weakness. Any infringement into their insane, backwards ideology is an attack ON THEM.

Vaxxed and double-boosted here. Masked dutifully for as long as it was required. Don’t really judge anyone who insists on doing so.

Had COVID once; it was less than a cold for me. A tickle in the throat. So no, I will not be living the rest of my life in fear.

Mask mandates failed. Masks are effective in reducing the transmission of this virus.

Do you R88 get off on the power to indiscriminately kill people with weaker systems than you? YOU had "less than a cold". YOU don't live in fear. What a nice luxury, for YOU.

It says right on the box that it does not protect against coronavirus.

R70 is spot on.

R90 uses fossil fuels that will ultimately one day “literally indiscriminately kill people” with the effects of climate change.

R91 It has been a neurosis the entire time and will remain one. I'm very happy to have regained the right to show my naked whorish face in public again. If you choose to veil, good for you 👏

One thousand eight hundred sixty people died of COVID last week in the US. Nearly 2000 families are in great pain this week. Think about that.

Hi guilt tripping ghoul troll. You forgot to mention that I have blood on my hands and people are DYING. Better put my burqa back on!

I keep a mask in my pocket for use in crowds (movie theaters, etc) but I'm not overly stressed about it. Nobody gives me shit either

I wear a mask to protect my over 70 medically vulnerable parents because I'm around them a lot. Guess I'm just selfish, huh? Some of you are really sick, controlling fuckers. Let's match you and then raise:

I hope the next pandemic painfully kills a person without a mask on within a day. And, you fucking hypocrites had better not put a fucking mask on...but of course you will, because it will affect you personally if you don't, just like it affects us personally now. Ignorant assholes.

R98 As has been repeatedly pointed out, the masks don't protect against COVID. You need to get a more tolerant attitude and stop playing martyr.

[quote]As has been repeatedly pointed out, the masks don't protect against COVID.

Even if you say this another 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times, it won't make it true.

Just read the box.

"I stopped wearing a mask two years ago and haven’t had an illness since."

Just the pre-existing mental condition, then?

Who says God doesn't take care for his most miserable little lambs?

Wait, does anyone think that he does?

Because I don't.

The histrionics are off-putting. Mental disorders on full display.

Why do people care whether or not someone else wears a masks? I truly don't understand

The mass murdering right wants unlimited guns and unlimited death. They demand it.

I wear them off and on. I watched covid ruin people at random. The shots vs masks remind me of birth control vs condom. Both night do the job, but one is the easiest thing to do immediately.

Does anyone wear a mask who isn't suffering from a personality disorder?

[quote] Does anyone wear a mask who isn't suffering from a personality disorder?

Only a diseased trash nazi Repug would consider trying to protect yourself and others to be a “personality disorder”.

^Oh dear!

Oh look, we found a diseased trash Repug at r109!

[quote]Does anyone wear a mask who isn't suffering from a personality disorder?

No, but caring that other people wear masks certainly is a sign of a personality disorder or at least control issues - as most rethugs seem to have when it comes to other people's bodily autonomy.

[quote]I hope the next pandemic painfully kills a person without a mask on within a day.

You super caring thoughtful maskers have been wishing that on everyone who doesn’t subscribe to your neuroses.

I’ve had COVID 3 times. Not dead! My HIV+ husband… not dead! My elderly parents who have had it (including being smokers and one having had a quad bypass)… not dead!

You keep wishing and praying that us very selfish MAGA Maskholes - or whatever you want to call rational humans with a healthy risk assessment - would die so you could float from day 1 and it hasn’t happened. 💋

Now go and shake your fist at a cloud or something.

Many Chinese in NYC were wearing masks before Covid.

[quote]I’ve had COVID 3 times. Not dead! My HIV+ husband… not dead! My elderly parents who have had it (including being smokers and one having had a quad bypass)… not dead!

And this is the exact crux of the problem - both in terms of covid and more generally.

People like you don't care unless it impacts them personally. You only look out and care about how something affects you PERSONALLY. You don't care that other people can and usually do have different outcomes. You don't care that other people cannot afford to get sick. While it does provide protection from catching the virus, you don't care that wearing masks has always been more about not spreading the virus than about protecting the wearer from catching it (also demonstrating a convenient and exhausting lack of scientific knowledge).

You're like Sen. Rob Portman - who didn't give crap about gay rights until it affected himself and someone he (ostensibly) cared about, his son.

R112 = I’m lucky, fuck those who aren’t

R114 -

I know no one out of the hundreds of clients in my work base who has died of COVID.

I do not have a co worker who has died of COVID.

None of my co-workers’ immediately family members has died of COVID.

I have not had to sign off on any bereavement time for someone who has had to attend a funeral (stupid virtual panic style or normal) due to COVID.

So no. Masks clearly haven’t done anything, won’t do anything now, and life continues irrespective of your self invented reality (much like the pronoun sect). Hence “the last mask holdouts” in OP’s title.

You maskerloonies invent your own reality in which billions died from COVID (not fudged stats with “linked to” or “with” but literally from), you wish people like me and others who don’t subscribe to your world views died because it challenges your psychosis, and then have the absolute chutzpah to wrap yourself in a taffeta veneer of self-righteousness as the MOST CARING among us.

Pfft! Eat shit, bitch. But only in small bites between raising and lowering your stupid fucking mask of course. 💋

r112 is anti-Ukraine and also:

[quote]Oh, also this mask loving “trans” co-worker stood in line at the gay bathhouse to get a monkeypox vaccine because they were terrified of it. Used their “queer” status to get one from a gay slut who needed it.

[quote]Also wore gloves throughout monkeypox in public.

[quote]Mental health is the real disease. Not COVID.

When did the trolls get so feeble?

Don't engage with obvious trolls, PLEASE

My physician says he has not seen one single cold, allergy attack, or flu patient since 2020 (in his patients who wear N95 masks)... Masks protect against other things than COVID. He and his partners have a panel of 30,000 patients here in DFW. The masks must do something. Covid is not the only killer out there.

OR his mask-loving patients (i.e. you) are more likely to be shut-ins who avoid people altogether.

Gotta control for those variables if you’re trying to make a statistical conclusion (anecdotal or otherwise).

I also didn’t get sick during the lockdowns. Not because of a mask but because I couldn’t GO anywhere.

r120 I did not realize that allergies could be avoided by staying away from "people altogether."

troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) noun. A person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

Our advice: don't feed the godamned trolls.

Don't engage them, that's just giving them what they want, which is to watch you get your panties all in a knot.

Now trolling is different from somebody whose opinion is different to yours. That's just life. And for the record, you're wrong. You'll have to decide which is which - and of course, they could sincerely disagree with you and be a troll.

We have several ways of dealing with trolls that don't involve taking their bait.

Block the thread. Click If you're not interested in the topic make the whole discussion disappear from your feed.

Block the person in question. Click on any post and all posts by that poster will disappear from your feed. For racist or homophobic or otherwise abusive posts, use the Flames & Freaks button to inform us of their misbehavior. Now we don't see every click of the button, but if enough people do it, we notice.

You can also control what level of trolling you are willing to tolerate by using the "Flames & Freaks" slider in the settings screen.

The quickest way for the whole thing to turn into a shitshow is to have it become a trollfest. Yes, sometimes it feels good to anger up yer blood.

But you're better than that.

Om.

Can't the trolls just open up additional accounts and keep right on trolling??

^^^that's certainly what I do

I wear a mask because if I become ill or injured, I don't have anyone who will change my diapers.

I’m wearing my mask 😷 as I type this in the office.

I look 10 years younger with the mask...

Suckers!

I had a doctor’s appointment today. The office continues to require masks. And my doctor doesn’t believe the office will ever relax its mask requirement.

I wear a mask for my own comfort level. If you think this is virtue-signaling, tell me. I will kick your teeth out of your cum-stinking cunt of a mouth, thus proving that I'm really not all that fucking virtuous.

Violence never solved anything, R130. Other than World War II.

I wear a mask to hedge my bets against contracting a viral infection that is spread from host to host through airborne and droplet transmission.

I also received vaccination and boosters. I social distance. These measures combined offer layers of protection against an illness that injured and killed millions of people around the world.

I will be relieved to move on from this miserable and anxious place in history.

People shouldn't care if those who want to wear still do. If they do then fuck off!

R132, you will move on from it only when you realize that the misery and anxiety were coming from inside your head all along.

R134, so, you think I should work very closely with the public all day long and then go home to a house to help take care of two over 70 year olds with health issues and just cross my fingers? That sounds smart and responsible to you in comparison to simply wearing a mask at work or whenever I am indoors with people? Really? If so, then the inside of your head is a very selfish place.

I still wear one and freak out when someone coughs/sneezes into the open air around me. I have to stop myself from kicking them in the neck.

I'm must wondering how you're dealing with pollen season R136. Are you just angry with the world?

We're wondering why you're trolling a gay site.

We all know who this cunt is

PS, r139?

Silver lining: This pandemic has revealed that there are, in fact, people who are bigger germaphobes than me and I finally look sane by comparison.

No more weird stares whenever I use my sleeve or shirt to touch public door handles or card readers.

I also kept a "gas pump glove" in my car, refused to shake hands with people, and religiously applied hand sanitizer. If sick with a cold, I would keep my ass at home or wear a mask when in public. The mask-wearing would also get looks. Now, all of this is normal behavior and no one bats an eye.

I feel seen.

I wear a mask in stores and at doctor's appointments. Yesterday, I had an appointment...wore the mask....then, got coffee, didn't bother with the mask, and at an antique store...again, no mask. It's a hit or miss now. I still see some masked people, even outdoors (don't wear outdoors)...but they're in the minority now. No one has hassled me about the mask. No one seems to care.

Where are you located? r142?

I think masks are here to stay now. Public transportation, stores, really crowded areas, doctor/dentist offices...a mask is a good idea. I feel we'll be more like Japan, who for years, always wore masks.

Japan is still masking up for nearly all folks, both outside and inside.

Central New Jersey..

If you were in a red MAGAt area, you may encounter more hostility....

[quote] The article is clearly mocking mask usage by spotlighting these two freakshows who still wear them and act so bizarrely about them (sending their friends articles and scolding them, e.g.) I still wear them at grocery stores and movies, and on public transportation.

r61 I thought the same, showing some extremely bizarre case. They do have faces (saw on fb) that need to be covered. It's insane some still get hysterically political over this. I still wear them when appropriate, haven't stopped enjoying my life, travel, dining out, concert, etc. Those who get upset by the sight of mask are crazy. But so is this geek, who fills his social media with endless covid/mask stuff till now in 2023! And both of his parents are mathematicians, one teaches at Cornell and another got degrees there & Stanford.

[quote]I also kept a "gas pump glove" in my car, refused to shake hands with people, and religiously applied hand sanitizer

Hopefully, you saw yesterday's news about disposing of expired hand sanitizer:

Well smell you, #132. How could the world even go on without your scrumptious yumminess?

R131, violence didn’t solve WWII either. It was a fight over resource scarcity, which led to blame division. But Winston Churchill was a racist, 1940s America was generally racist, Henry Ford was a Nazi sympathizer. It wasn’t just a good vs evil battle. The only people who were preaching race equality and sex equality back then were the Communists; although Stalin clearly had no intention of practicing anything he preached, since he himself was a racist.

But whether it solved anything, I would guess not? We didn’t make any fundamental economic changes, leading to the same resource scarcity, and blame.

R135, I also take precautions I feel are appropriate. I get vaxed, I buckle my seatbelt, I wash my hands after I've used the bathroom, I look both ways before crossing, and that's just a sampling of precautions I take.

None of those precautions make me miserable and anxious.

The fact that you think misery and anxiety are a necessary part of precautions, and the fact that you get bristly and defensive about it and accuse anyone who doesn't feel this way of being selfish, is saddening.

You're not a better person for putting yourself through mental anguish. You'll be of more service to the world if you take the precautions you feel are appropriate, and then go about your life without fear and mental doom-mongering.

I think I'm going to keep wearing masks on airplanes forever!

I went to Europe several times when I was younger, and every damn time I caught a cold and spent part of my vacation being miserable and lying in bed when I wanted to be looking fabulous on the streets of Paris or Amsterdam. No more of that shit!

It's hard to convince the anti-maskeres of anything since they are pumped full of disinformation and thrill to spreading it themselves.

I do not plan to ever stop wearing masks in public. Who knows how soon it will be before the next epidemic in this over populated world filled with people stupid enough to take veterinary medicine and yet refuse vaccines. Nope. Mask stays.

We aren't talking about germs or germaphobes. We are discussing a virus that has killed and injured millions of people and mask wearing being a tool that can minimize the risk of exposure to the virus.

I won't wear a mask any more. But I am fine if others want to. I don't want their gross germs. Please step away from my royal throne, good sir.

Oh fuck off.

That's where I am R157, but I just wish the maskers would shut the fuck up about it. Just wear your mask and live your life.

Please step away from my elderly parents, asshole.

[quote] my elderly parents

Sometimes that doesn't matter and one has to pray for a miracle to finally finish the job.

[quote]Please step away from my elderly parents, asshole.

Maybe your elderly parents need to stay in the house.

Maybe you should stay in your tomb.

The elderly or vulnerable should be able to do what the need to do to feel healthy without catching a bunch of shit. Likewise, I will do what I want. I will not mask unless a sign asks me too.

[quote] unless a sign asks me too.

Oh, dear, R164.

I teach music in a VERY small studio to college students who survive on 5 hours of sleep a night and share each other's colds and illnesses freely. You'd better believe that I wear a mask for each and every lesson. And in the supermarket and any crowded setting, including theaters. Holdout, or the most basic common sense. You decide.

I have decided, R166. I'm done.

r166 =

Damn tootin.....LOL

I still wear a mask most of the time in public and always indoors in public. I'm comfortable with that and if other people aren't then I encourage them to do as they wish and leave me the fuck alone.

Some anti-masker explain what the huge deal is with wearing an almost completely weightless mask when you are around other people inside for any length of time? Try to do it without parrotting the mouth-breathing 'ma freedums' MAGAts, if you can.

I stopped wearing masks the minute the mandate in my area was lifted. I occasionally see people wearing them in public and don't care one way or the other. Consistent with common sense since the beginning of time, people who are sick should stay home and keep their germs to themselves. That's what I do, although I haven't been sick with anything since sometime before 2015. I can't even remember the last time I was sick after 2011 when I had a cold around NYE but think there might have been one minor cold somewhere in the 2011-2014 range.

[quote]Some anti-masker explain what the huge deal is with wearing an almost completely weightless mask when you are around other people inside for any length of time? Try to do it without parrotting the mouth-breathing 'ma freedums' MAGAts, if you can.

This is the problem right here. Too many of you have tied mask wearing or not wearing a mask to politics. That is what makes so much of this so ridiculous. I live in an overwhelming blue urban area and most people are not wearing masks anymore. Some are, especially black people, but most aren't. Some of you haven't been able to divorce politics from this.

R170, I assure you that no one around you gives a fuck.

R171 -

We DON’T care if you wear one. That’s a straw man ylu maskerloonies make up to justify the fact we think you’re insane.

“WHY ARE THEY AGAINST MY CHOICE?! Why do they CARE?!”

No one cares. I see people with face tattoos and it engenders the same feelings as when I see some moron in a mask walking outside.

But you care when we don’t. As always, projection.

It’s the mask folks that want to say how caring and enlightened and considerate they are while simultaneously calling for the societal exile of those who don’t want to wear them. Never mind constantly wishing people who don’t wear masks suffer or die, which is parroted CONSTANTLY and sincerely - it’s not a rhetorical flourish.

Mask people want to force everyone around them to wear masks. They bitch and moan constantly about how irresponsible people who don’t wear masks are. They want a referee (government) to take action against those who don’t subscribe to the same paranoid, pathetic world view they do.

That’s why we mock you and roll our eyes. We only bitch you out on places like DL because it’s so EXHAUSTING to witness your delusional self righteousness while simultaneously wishing death upon those who disagree.

Masks are still required at some workplaces.

Agree with R170. Also, some people have immune issues related to having cancer and other conditions.

No one who still makes the decision to wear a mask in places where most people no longer do are being bulied, commented upon, confronted, or anything else by anyone who isn't wearing a mask. Please stop crying about victimization where there is none.

Went to a concert last night and was one of very few who had a mask on. I was fine with that and so were everyone else around me.

Thank you for mentioning that, R179. And that's the way it should be.

R173, your reading comprehension leaves much to be desired. I literally asked for the reason without the politics of the MAGAt mouth breathers overlaid on top of it because the MAGAt mouth breathers were the original antimaskers. The only person who can't figure that out would be a MAGAt mouth breather.

So, why don't you answer the question without, ironically, bringing politics in it?

Out on my walks, I've noticed more people including delivery men and postal carriers wearing masks (allergy season here began a month ago) . As others have mentioned, people notic they got relief from allergies and continued the practice.

If it helps with allergies, etc., it makes all the sense in the world, if you're comfortable enough with a mask on your face.

As for politicization of the issue, I would say that there a few cultural institutions (I'm speaking of a few Off-Broadway theatres) that definitely are milking the "You must still a mask in our theaters" mandate to the point where it seems woke. And I refuse to see any show under an edict that I feel is woke posturing.

[quote] We DON’T care if you wear one. That’s a straw man ylu maskerloonies make up to justify the fact we think you’re insane.

Oh, the irony.

I had taken my mask off and was carrying groceries to my car when a 40-something male asked me "Why were you wearing a mask in the store?"

I told him "I'm old and have asthma." He said "You know masks don't work, right?"

I asked "Do you believe in freedom and autonomy?" "Yes." "Do you pay my medical bills?" "No." "Are we done here?"

I stared at him until he walked away.

I would like to know where some of you are living, where random people just walk up to you to comment on your life. This all sounds very Mayberry to me - and no offense intended. The vast majority of people are just trying to get through their own days without feeling the need to comment on others.

Exactly, R186. I assure you, that doesn't happen in NYC. Maybe in upstate NY or PA you might have that encounter--where MAGATs are. I think it's more personal belligerence, a new entitlement people feel they have a right to have. Hence, the politicization. I believe these are isolated incidents.

[quote] I would like to know where some of you are living, where random people just walk up to you to comment on your life.

Two places in Michigan. A medium-sized city and in the country. Once I was walking into my mother's assisted living facility and again when walking into a restaurant (both summer 2021), I got yelled at by passing cars, "Take off the mask, asshole."

R187, I live in a very blue neighborhood in NYC, and nobody, and I mean nobody, gives two shits what you do or don't wear, as long as you leave them the fuck alone.

I don't wear a mask, but even before Covid, it was common to see Asians wearing them. As I said, no one cares. I'm actually happy to see other people wearing masks. That way they won't sneeze and cough on me.

I assume the people who say they're persecuted must live either in a very intrusive "Del Boca Vista" old folks' home or some kind of crazy ultra-red MAGA country.

Exactly, R189, and this isn't an anti-vax movement, it's isolated incidents of belligerance, mostly likely from MAGAts.

Sorry, I meant: "anti-mask" movement.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain why wearing an almost weightless and practically unnoticeable mask when you are indoors around people for a length of time is such a burden. If it isn't a political statement about 'ma freedums' or a statement of "you're not the boss of me!" petulance, then what is the reason?

Socks and shoes are more of a hassle than wearing a mask when you are inside around a bunch of people but you will certainly be required to wear them or you won't get service in most places. How about shirts? Do you also have fixations about having to wear a shirt in public places? Are you glad that the people making your sandwich are wearing a cap or hairnet for the protection of your food from things coming off their bodies?

How about this for an answer R192. Because I don't want to wear a fucking mask. My question to you is why are you so obsessed with who is or isn't wearing a mask.

R192, go away. Why are you interested in pursuing this false line that people who don't see a reason to wear masks at this point (the vast majority of us) need to explain why we don't to have soemthing covering our mouths every time we're indoors--still.

R192 calls us petulant with all the petulance she can muster.

[quote] Why are you interested in pursuing this false line that people who don't see a reason to wear masks at this point

That's not the line he pursued. But it's much easier to criticize him for something he didnt actually say.

I have donated my body to the local medical school. I expect them to leave my mask on as they cut me to tiny little pieces and give me ridiculous nick-names as they do so.

So, R193 and R194, 'ma freedums' and petulance are your actual answers? Of course they are. Do you want to address the other situations where you are required to wear certain things in certain situations or would that just bury your "reasoning" too quickly?

I had a zit on my chin last week, and I needed to go to the shop around the corner, so I fished out one of my old masks.

What is this "ma freedoms" shit you're trying to lay on us, R198? Those are MAGAts you're describing. Is that what you're calling all of us who feel it's safe to move on from the masks we worn during a pandemic that is no longer a pandemic.

*we wore

r200 They're in a cult. Give up. And I'm saying that as an extreme germaphobe. This mask issue has turn people into full-blown cultists on both ends of the opinion spectrum. The devout anti-maskers can't be reasoned with, and the devout forever-maskers can't be reasoned with.

Frankly, we should dump both factions off on an island somewhere and let them destroy each other while the rest of us move on with reality in peace.

*turned

To repeat what I say above, I've never witnessed anyone showing belligerence -- or the tiniest scintilla of give-a-shit -- toward anyone still wearing a mask.

But some of the self-righteous and accusatory replies of the mask-wearers in this thread make me wonder if others are lashing out at them either because of their percieved petulance OR because they have been chastised/demonized in the past for not wearing a mask, and they figure turnabout is fair play,

Mind you, I'm not defending it. I'm not defending [italic]anybody[italic] who thinks it's their damn business what others do or don't wear. I'm just trying to think of reasons why they act like they do.

[quote] the devout forever-maskers can't be reasoned with.

What is the reason these people need to accept? Why is continuing to wear a mask a problem?

Interesting that I was reading this thread while in IKEA, while wearing a mask.

I wasn't the only one, but there weren't many, and nobody gave me a gard time about it.

[quote] Why is continuing to wear a mask a problem?

Who here has said it was a problem, R205?

[quote] Who here has said it was a problem, [R205]?

Clearly, a thread titled "The Last Mask Holdouts" is not intended to discuss how people still wearing a mask are no big deal. It is intended to draw attention to them and indicate they should not be wearing a mask any more.

R208, the OP link and the headline link to a NY Times article about, yes, people who continue to wear masks when most people don't.

That's it. Where are you finding the inference of offense from OP?

I don't wear a mask outdoors, I do wear one when in public indoor spaces. Never gotten COVID, but a number of friends who had also never gotten COVID have gotten it recently. No, they're not dead, but it's been an unpleasant, lingering experience for all of them.

What I've noticed in stores is that the customers aren't masked, but many of the workers are. That tells me that there's enough COVID around that people who can't afford to get sick are taking precautions.

For me, the issue with COVID now is that if no precautions are taken, the average person will get COVID a couple of times a year--that would be fine if COVID was like the common cold, but it's not--each round of COVID carries a significant risk of long COVID and other chronic issues. I don't need to fuck up my lungs, thank you very much.

I'm not going to play these games with you, r209.

[quote]Why is continuing to wear a mask a problem?

It's no more a "problem" than practicing complete abstinence as a preventative measure for STDs/STIs. Neurotic? Sure. But at the end of the day, no one cares.

It only becomes a problem when you start preaching to others about practicing abstinence and demanding that they do so. See where I'm going with this, r205?

So, R211, you can't defend your accusation. Got it. Like I said a few posts ago: go away.

[quote] See where I'm going with this, [R205]?

I'm so sorry you have been so oppressed by the hordes of people trying to get you to wear a mask.

[quote] So, [R211], you can't defend your accusation. Got it. Like I said a few posts ago: go away.

No, see, you tell me to go away is exactly the kind of controlling, demanding bullshit you are whining you are the victim of. So, no, Im not going away. And you have revealed your faux naivete was a phony as we knew it was.

[quote]I'm so sorry you have been so oppressed by the hordes of people trying to get you to wear a mask.

I...never said I was "oppressed." But, come on now, you know good and well that there were people who were more than willing to "express their concerns" to people about mask-wearing on both ends of this debate. It has never been those of us who are neutral who made a big deal. It has always been two groups: "anti-maskers" and "mask-worshippers." Both have been pustules on society for various individuals to put up with.

[quote] you know good and well that there were people who were more than willing to "express their concerns" to people about mask-wearing on both ends of this debate

This is true.

[quote] It has always been two groups: "anti-maskers" and "mask-worshippers."

This is bullshit "bothsiderism." No one "worships" a mask. And there is an enormous difference between, "You should wear a mask in the middle of a pandemic for everyone's sake" and "Now that the worst is over, people who continue to wear masks are insane and should be mocked."

r216 Well, that is an opinion someone would have if they believe wearing a mask when not actively sick is a reasonable practice or idea. I can assure you that anti-maskers feel the exact same way when they are called out on their stance to refuse to follow the requests of the private businesses that they claim to support the freedoms of so much (see: their arguments for a certain bakery).

Self-awareness is hard.

I don't care if people don't wear masks at the moalment. When the virus rates go up again, and they will, then I expect those people to behave sensibly and put on a mask.

No one has ever confronted me about wearing a mask in public, indoors or outdoors. I've never confronted anyone for not wearing a mask, indoors or outdoors.

I do what I think is best for my own health. I presume others do the same.

[quote] as we knew it was

Who's "we," R214? You mean "you." You're a minority of one here on this thread, hunty.

*moalment = moment

I'm with R214 in this thread.

You're a hostile blowhard and a bully, R219.

R218, of course I would mask up again if necessary. Right now I'm not because I don't think it is, but I am always willing to do that.

So much for R221's assessment of me. Poor, butt-hurt R221.

Does the Times not have an editor? They mention Dr. Alice Barton and have her picture and then another picture next to it referring to Dr. Burton. Is it Burton or Barton? Jfc, get it together!

Also, Mx Cherry could stand to lose a few pounds if zhir is really worried about covid. Just saying...

Anyone going by Mx Bitsy Cherry and who wears industrial facemasks that look like something you'd wear with a hazmat suit isn't the best example of a sane mask wearer.

And yeah, if they're so worried about their health, why don't they lose some weight?

r225 Once again, I'm just glad these type of people have taken the heat off of people like me who only touch public surfaces with our sleeves/shirts and keep to ourselves 99.9% of the time, anyway.

For this, I will ever be grateful to them for their special level of neuroticism.

R144 Yes! There was a "King of the Hill" episode where they went to Japan and Hank saw someone wearing a mask and said, "Excuse me, Doctor?"

[quote] No, see, you tell me to go away is exactly the kind of controlling, demanding bullshit you are whining you are the victim of.

Tell me where I whined I'm a victim of anythinf. You cna't, because I haven't, R214.

If Bentley wore a mask, we wouldn't have videos like this

Masks save butterflies' lives.

r229 That reminds me of this, forever hilarious, video:

R231 Ha! There's even a book! I love it.

For people still posting death-toll statistics, keep in mind that the difference between death from COVID and death with COVID far errs on the side of the former. Remember when Massachusetts quietly reduced its COVID death count by 16%

People aren't reporting cases anymore which would explain the lower numbers. I'm still wearing a mask and shop early/late to avoid the noids. My partner now refuses to wear one. The other day some smart ass made fun of my KN95. "Nice mask!"

Maybe they’re just ugly.

Michael Jackson chic.

Very brave of you, R234.

[quote] People aren't reporting cases anymore which would explain the lower numbers.

That MUST be it, R234.

I love being a casual mass murderer of the elderly and immunocompromised.

Are their death numbers skyrocketing from COVID? Receipts, please, R239.

R239, I live in a large building wih signs in the elevators that encourage mask wearing. Even old people ignore them.

R240. R241 I troll a gay site. It's like shooting fags in a barrel.

Not sure what you're attempting to say, R242. I'm gay, I live in NYC, I hate Trump and wore masks everywhere until last fall, when it felt utterly unnecessary.

I have a sister in law who is an ER nurse, during the height of the pandemic she was a major booster of masks and vaccines because she worked the front lines. I remember Christmas of 2021 she told me to keep masking through the holidays because a big spike would follow and she was right.

She stopped masking outside of work last year. This Christmas I asked her if we could expect another post holiday spike and she said not likely, Covid is basically over.

The numbers aren't down "because nobody's reporting." They're down because the numbers are down. Far less people have it and far less are spreading it. Stop spreading fear and misinformation. You aren't actually helping.

This is turning into the new condoms/versus PrEP debate on here. Americans, culturally, are never going to completely embrace full time mask wearing and social distancing. So the best thing those who are still concerned about Covid can do is wear their masks and self social distance. And if people are calling you out because it (which I find hard to believe) just ignore them. You don't owe anyone an explanation of your personal health choices.

R243, ignore the troll. That poster is certifiably insane, and has the posting history to prove it even beyond using homophobic slurs.

I have just got past my second Covid round. the first being June 2022. At my doctor's for an exam, he said the following: Some people have a genetic predisposition to get Covid. The more times you get Covid the worse effect it has on your body. Gyms are a petri dish of Covid. Covid is as infectious as Measles. Covid can hang in the air in a room for longer than they first thought. Three of his colleagues are out with Covid. He has had it three times. In Palm Springs there is a breakout of it currently that is bad. Immunity? 60 days max if exposed to the same variant. Other Variant? All bets are off.

He said to wear a mask.

Me? All vaxxed, current with Bivalent also.