^ The world must not accommodate irrational and anti-science nonsense like this.

Anybody who understands food borne illness (and you obviously don't) realizes that the majority of the time it comes from poor hand washing, not from the air.

Having food service workers regularly wash their hands is the most important, and effective, way to prevent your arrogant ass from getting sick at a restaurant.

what orders?

i still see it everywhere -- it remains a common sense courtesy.


let me remind you of latest in daily, never ending long covid news:

Recently, researchers from Harvard Medical School examined individuals with no prior neuropathy history who developed neuropathic conditions after recovering from a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

They found that some people with long COVID have long lasting nerve damage resulting from infection-triggered immune dysfunction.


more:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/art...ne-dysfunction

Well if you're that freaked out then wear a mask from now until the end of time.

Nobody is stopping you.

i didn't say i was wearing a mask. :shrug:

I don't.

Mask mandates are dropped now here in Chicago. I was downtown over the week for st. Paddy's day festivities, and spent the afternoon in a very over-crowded pub for several hours, >95% of the people in there were maskless. It was wonderful!

The CTA's mask requirement still remains in place for now, but for the first time on Saturday, I saw the people's revolt starting. People, en masse, we're riding the trains without masks, and when people saw other people doing it, some were taking their masks off too. I did the same. Safety in numbers and all that.

I just sent my kids to school maskless this morning for the first time in 2 years.

Most people do not care anymore. 2 years was way more than enough.

^ It's not so much about the time (2 years).

It's about the acceptance of COVID's endemic status. If we still feel like we are going to eradicate a very dangerous virus, then yes, mask away.

But it is a strategy that no longer serves a purpose, as COVID will continue to circulate, so your best bet is to acquire immunity through vaccination, or if you insist, infection.

But people can always wear a mask if they want.

^ Good for your kids.

I feel that looking into faces, reading peoples' expressions, etc is an important part of being human, and an important part of child development. Especially at your kids' ages, as I believe they have not even experienced school without masks until now

I'm not sure why you think that. Masks are very effective in preventing the spread of COVID. I wore a mask when I was positive and avoided spreading it to people who were in close contact.

they both went to preschool for a number of years pre-pandemic, but with my daughter in 1st grade, and son in kindergarten, this was the first day of elementary school for them without masks.

they were both so friggin happy and excited about it!

because they're humans, and even they intrinsically know how wrong and anti-social perpetual mask wearing is for our extremely social species.

How dare you think of others. Goes against everything we believe as Americans.

My wife was masked this weekend at my son's soccer practices, as she was coughing up a lung due to seasonal allergies, and didn't want to freak out the other parents. Especially bc the parents are all packed-in very confined quarters. I guess it's more of that smug liberalism at work.

Yeah, seriously. This should be a thing. They already have to wear gloves and hair nets. After what we've learned about respiratory droplets being transmitted through the air, this makes sense.

No, it shouldn't be a "thing"

Stupid things should not become "things" for reasons I stated above.

Just don't dine out if you're so freaked out that you want wait staff to wear masks. The restaurant industry will be fine without you. We need less obnoxious people dining out anyhow :tup:

exactly. even just a cloth mask is great for that, as it always has been. a kn95 is of course even better. :tup:

This is a wonderful discussion.

People who are spooked can still wear masks

And sane people can do what they wish.

That's what I call normalcy. Everybody wins!

so when are you going to do you part by not heckling people in other situations than yours? :shrug:

the masking will continue to fall off for everyone as covid fades naturally. there is nothing to debate really. asian cultures wiull continue to mask as they do, maybe western more often now, or at least it wont seem weird for someone to mask if they are sick or something. thats a good thing.

yes. if you're feeling ill or displaying symptoms of a respiratory infection and you have to be out in public, then wearing a mask is a very nice courtesy. and it would be nice if that part of masking does become more normalized in or society.

do you have a fever, are you coughing, and do you still have to go to the grocery store this morning? then by all means, put a mask on as a courtesy to others. nothing at all wrong with that.

but for those that are healthy, it's time to go back to wearing our faces in public.

Why didn't you quarantine and isolate yourself? Your mask did very little from spreading it to other people.

The mask worked, hence my comment. If people were following the mask guidance all along then we wouldn't have the case counts that we do in this country. That was the problem.

People being "freaked out" by someone with seasonal allergies is a symptom of the mask wearing hysteria in parts of the US. "I'm coughing up a lung, but it's ok, I'm wearing a face covering!"

It's ok to be around people with the sniffles, sneezing, coughing, especially if you've been vaccinated or you've had Covid, which is about 100% of the population at this point.

How do you know it worked? Did you go around and contact trace every single person and place you went to?