To be upfront, I'm not OP of the Lemmygrad thread. Masking obviously is important and a good thing to do for your community. Personally, however, living in a place like Texas where almost nobody still masks though, 54 months (4.5 years) after the initial declaration, and everybody says COVID is relatively a non-issue like the flu, I understand why the OP would be demoralized.
クロスポスト: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5723508
Basically, wanted to know where people are at with mask wearing (as it relates to containing covid and all), I know it's been a while since it started. And I've seen people who say covid can still be threatening, like through long covid and such, even if the initial impact doesn't tend to be as bad. Being in the US, it's especially hard to tell what makes sense because the gov sorta gave up on containment a while back and only ever half-assed pushing mask wearing. And wearing a mask alone was a controversial thing in some places, even in the very beginning. Then there's vaccines, which of course help, but seems to be a thing like the flu where you have to get boosters to be fully covered for variant strains.
So in general, I'm wondering stuff like:
Do you still wear a mask or not and why? And do you have distinctions like large crowds or anything like that?
How does mask wearing compare by country, from what you know? For example, I'm sure China has a more pro-mask-wearing culture and policy overall, but I'm not clear on where they're at this late into it.
Partly asking cause I want to re-assess my own position on it, see if it makes sense to change it at all by now. I've still been doing it, in part out of inertia, but the US management of it is such a mess, in gov and culture, it's hard to tell when it makes sense to stop vs. just caving to peer pressure of people who were never acting responsibly to begin with.
How much money do you people spend on masking every day? Cheapest ffp2 masks I can buy are like 50 cents per piece so if I were to wear one every day I’d have to spend 15 euros a month which is pretty expensive. And that’s not taking into account that you’re supposed to change your mask every 3 hours. (I’m stuck at home a lot of the time which is why I don’t mask daily)
I don't have an exact number but I watch for deals on Amazon for aura n95s. Give a couple days between use to air out and reuse them till the strap breaks. Been thinking it might be more cost effective to get an elastomeric though.
I reuse them. I use one per for example travel and put the mask in a box on our balcony to chill out for a few days. My kid was at school at the start of this and I had this whole system of numbered weekly paper bags for him for one mask per bag and a chill out box for the ffp2 masks where we circulated them from. Afaik good masks can easily be reused for quite a while and any masking is better than none.
Edit. To answer your question I think I've spent maybe 100€ on masks during the entire pandemic, but then again we have dropped all unnecessary socializing for good. A box of 20 is 5,90€ and these days a box will last me for months.
Edit. 2 I do work and travel to meet clients in public transport sometimes several times/day and study at uni. I do remote work as much as I can, but there is still plenty of mask use. They still last me for months. The total cost is for a family of 3, two working adults and a kid in school.
It’s more up front cost, but you can save a lot in the long run with an elastomeric respirator, plus it has a lower environmental impact. Before that we were buying 3M N95s from a bulk reseller and splitting the cost between my wife and I, and our roommate, which was a lot cheaper in the long run. I wish I had more specific numbers for you but unfortunately I don’t at the moment. Depending on where you are, there may be a covid conscious mutual aid group nearby that could help as well.
Do you have a source for this? Not trying to interrogate you, just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing and giving people in my life good advice. I’m pretty sure an N95 filter should last a lot longer than that, although the elastic straps on disposable ones will wear out much sooner so maybe that’s why?
National health agencies of different countries have different advices for mask use. The 3 hours comes from my own national health agency but I found an Australian agency that says 4 hours https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/environment/factsheets/Pages/face-mask.aspx
Most US sources I could find say that you can use them until they become dirty or moist, but that you can wear them several times (I would assume if you use them for short duration). Personally my masks become smelly and moist after a few hours so that’s when I throw them away.