“We may not know the exact illness affecting the Macbeth cast, but we do know that Covid is a serious vascular disease requiring extended recovery times,” noted Charles Waltz, founder of Protect the Heart of the Arts:
Reinfections weaken immunity to other pathogens, so without measures like air purification and adequate recovery time, we risk ongoing illness cycles that could impact health and stability across the industry. Clean air and flexible recovery policies are essential to protect the performance community’s long-term health.
Not a single mention of masking though.
Think the nerds will finally revolt if Covid kills Tennant?
Honestly love wearing a mask. Nobody knows what I look like, its great for my lungs, and cameras can't identify me very well because I've been doing it for so long.
100% same and anytime I mention the anonymity aspect to other people they tend to agree (still haven't seen that change their behavior, unfortunately). I also like how uncomfortable it makes some people in public settings, and enjoy the knowing look I give/get from the remaining maskers in my area when our paths cross. It feels nice seeing people who still attempt to give a shit.
I feel similarly! I no longer worry as much about allergies and I haven't had a cold in > 4 years. Random people are less likely to sit or stand close to me in public spaces, and I love that I can feel the discomfort it gives the people who know better but cave to social pressures or their own excuses.
I am fairly lucky to have only been harassed over wearing a mask once (in 2022), and I'm expecting that to get worse the longer the pandemic drags on.
Regardless, the top reason people tell me they won't be masking (or more often, would mask generally, but won't in this specific context or instance) justify their decision to themselves with the physical discomfort they say they'd feel if they were to wear one.
I once got shit from a cab driver (long story) about wearing a mask, the conversation went roughly like this.
Why do you wear a mask? You can't even breathe! (He said, gagging at the scent near where I was standing-i barely noticed)
My lungs are fine.
But that fresh air, feel it!
Yeah that famously sweet Los Angeles air. I'm missing out, aren't I?
But youre so beautiful! Let the world see your face!
And you can tell! The government can't, though.
I've gotten this one too! Why is it that the people clinging to specious "enjoy the fresh air" justifications seemingly don't attend to the quality of the air around them?!
Literally in downtown los Angeles thirty seconds after gagging at a stench.
yeah, mine was from a bargoer in a crowd of cigarette smokers
I guess it's consistent at least for antimaskers to think carcinogen rich gasses are essentially "fresh air"? Maybe their olfactory systems have been disabled by covid?
It's genuinely so bizarre. I understand why people don't want to wear a mask all the time, but I will never understand the collective excitement to go back to rawdogging the disgusting air of a crowded bus or room.
Right? Imagine using a public bathroom without one
cw gross:
spoiler
and choosing to put microscopic chunks of someone else's poop in your own lungs
like wtf????
Or maybe they're stochastic parrot philosophical zombies and this is why they seem to be mostly the same people who think a large language model is the same as AI, because its the same as them. The words they say are just copies of cop>es of copies, denatured simulacra, because they have shed their humanity for whatever reason, determined to exist but unwilling or unable to live.
idk I don't want to opine too strongly on the nature of social pressure and consciousness but it really feels like that sometimes
Also, pissing them off by doing basic public health is fun.