i want to add:
if you’ve stopped masking for whatever reason, you can start again.
it makes spaces more accessible, it helps preserve your health and the health of the people around you.
it’s a tiny action you can take to make the world safer.
It is so fricken weird to be the ONLY person masking in a cancer center waiting room.
At least all my nurses and drs mask for me but still that should be automatic especially in a place with nothing but immunocompromised people.
And masking up around others is just good manners. (If we could see all the particulates in the air, we'd realize the level of contaminants we're breathing in/out if we aren't wearing an N95 respirator.)
Thank you 🥰 people masking helps me so much. And I'm able to mask too and I do. If everyone were masking I'd be able to get out more. I'd like that. It's nice to think about.
I've been on a 14 hour and a 16 hour train ride on two seperate days last week.
All that time. Through the WHOLE OF GERMANY, i have seen ONE person aside from myself who wore a mask.
I felt like the biggest monkey on the planet.
Maybe. But all the "stats" and "reason" dont help me when i feel like "that guy" again. Always the weirdo, always the odd one out.
People didnt seem sick either, or showed any usual covid signs.
Its hard to keep up...
Alright. Because people seem to have trouble grasping this.
It is hard to SEE people ignoring the stats, that tell me i should mask up. I have one reality where i read about some statistics and another reality where NOBODY almost literally NOBODY gives a fuck.
And THAT makes it hard for me to keep this up.
If that is appaling to anyone, please feel free to check if you got any empathy left, or if youre only driven by telling people they are wrong to have emotions.
it’s wild to me that you think you are the only person with this experience.
it also does not change the fact that your choices are:
- stick out for masking
- cause harm to other people
i empathize, and empathy is not a free pass for harmful behavior.
I'm so high risk that I have to cancel certain doctor appointments when covid cases are too high in my area
I have had about...3 hugs? This entire year so far.
I can't go anywhere in public for fun where others aren't also masking.
Who exactly do you think should be centered in people's empathy?
we are actually overflowing with empathy because we know how much life can change from one single infection. i’ve had ME/CFS for decades, probably because of strep throat. is it worth the risk to you personally to get all that cumulative damage?
bsky.app/profile/m00p...
when we beg people to mask up, we are doing it because we know from experience how much the chronic illness life can suck.
we’re not trying to control you. we really just don’t want anyone else to have to suffer needlessly and also, uh. we want to stay alive and not get further disabled ourselves!
That emotion you feel, that mental struggle, is a measure of how screwed up things are, an indicator of importance. A society that socially punishes people for trying to act ethically is WRONG. Doing well by each other should be easy. Think about why it's hard, who has made it hard. Stick it out.
we have known for almost 5 years now that asymptomatic transmission happens.
is it harder to wear a mask, or to grapple with the fact that you may kill or disable someone else because you decided not to do something as easy as masking?
no, i absolutely do get your point.
as someone who has not stopped taking precautions, but is living with long covid because other people did, i have very limited patience for “but nobody else is doing it.”
choosing not to wear a mask harms people. is it worth harming people to fit in?
I'm sorry you feel so uncomfortable being the only one in a mask. But I really want to encourage you to learn to accept such discomfort, because often in life you will have the chance to be the first to do what is right and it usually feels better than going along with what is wrong.
Thats the big reason why i do it.
I'm all out of safety nets, if i get Long Covid and my productivity goes down the drain, i am literally DONE for in this day and age.
I went to a week long work conference back in February where I was the only person at my big company's sales and marketing meeting to wear a mask, and I wore my Flo mask so it stood out even more. It sucks to feel alienated, and I get it. Without the mask on I'm weird enough as it is.
The cognitive dissonance of people having fun unmasked vs me in my moderately sweaty mask knowing that I am making the right decision for the long run fucking sucks ass. But then a ton of them got covid from each other on the trip. It's a lifelong ant and grasshopper story at this point.
Ill never know how many trips and outings I took when I masked without needing to. But I've decided I'd rather choose that than know for SURE that I didn't mask when I should have.
I first read this as Autistic masking and was like WTF? Then I figured out what you meant and I totally approve. I’ve been masking my whole trip and I’m about the only person I’ve seen wearing a mask at all.
i have had several appointments in the public hospital as i’ve been dealing with my broken wrist, and the sheer number of people not even wearing a surgical mask correctly four years into this has boggled my mind every time as i sat there in an n95
