A family friend told me when I mentioned masking that "so many bacteria get trapped under masks, we need to live more in tune with nature" — I am so tired. I don't want to tolerate that nonsense but I also feel like she's too far gone to be reached.
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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As an aside, I have a genuine concern to be made about proper mask hygiene and maybe environmental concerns from all the used masks.
What is the best way to mask properly over a long period of time?
Wash hands, don mask. (Don’t touch it). Doff mask. Wash hands. Some masks are meant to only touched at the tabs, i.e. 3M Aura 1870+.
Been thinking about this too because I use disposables and been meaning to look into a reusable option that is effective without looking like I’m a plague doctor.
We need to start a cult of some sort that incorporates these.
Like Earth Astronauts or something.
People at work would just think I road my bike, until I never took it off and they realized I don’t own a bike.
Well that's all well and good, but what about the bike owners? 
I wish I could bike to work… 50 miles one way is a bit much lol.
Lol well obviously you have to camp at work and charge them for transit time. 
Hygiene:
If disposable: I generally rotate a disposable after each long use, let it air out for a couple days and use a different one. Honestly, the headstraps tend to break just from repeated donning and doffing and that prevents overuse. But if the straps don't break, eventually a disposable respirator may get beat up or kind of visibly gross and then I toss it and use a new one.
If elastomeric: Disassemble and wipe down with a bit of water every few uses or after a long use. It depends. Wash it occasionally. The biggest problem I ran into with my elastomeric was that it traps a lot of water and I forgot to disassemble and dry it after use, let it sit for a few days, and came back to find it was really musty. Disassembled it and washed it but the mildew was growing in the filters so I had to just toss the filters and get a new one.
Other than that there isn't really a concern. How quickly a respirator will get gross will vary based on your activities while wearing it and how long you wear it. If you're working a physical job in a respirator all day, you may want a fresh one every day just because you don't want to be pushing old sweat and body grime onto your face at the seals.
Environmental: I mean, we are just individuals trying not to get fucked up by the plague. Our impact is minimal compared to the environmental devastation that Capitalism and its related imperialist wars drive. I don't worry about it, except for one thing: When I'm done with a mask I always rip the straps on one end so that if some animal encounters it in a landfill or the wind picks it up, they don't get tangled in the straps. A thing I read about back in 2020.
Not an expert, but work in a hospital: I've always been told to ditch the disposals after a shift as the moist environment is a concern for bacteria. Definitely don't reuse them.
Cloth masks are less effective, so probably don't use them in a high-risk environment. If you do, probably wash them after each use for the same reason as above.
As far as environmental concerns: I promise you that a single hospital visit generates an order of magnitude more waste than any amount of masking will. It's fine.
I’ve given up trying to reach people. I’m already too tired to exist, and don’t feel like I can expend more energy convincing people to acknowledge the reality. Showing somebody my google searches and begging them to believe my lived experiences just seems so useless at this point.
It's hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person
yea honkeys are dum
What about, "it's worse than the flu, but no individual action I take will prevent me from getting reinfected every year, so I've just resigned myself to reinfection for the rest of my life"
i haven't even had a cold in over five years but i don't have a public-facing job and don't have anyone to socialize with.
I haven't been sick in over two years, and I have a public facing job where people will lean over and breathe directly on me.
Huh masking works and will almost certainly prevent some of those infections. I mask and use iota carrageenan nasal spray any time I’m in a public indoor space and have never gotten covid. Of course also get your vaccines, shockingly few people are boosted and thus have lost the immunity
I'm a teacher.
I'm stuffed in a room with 15 - 25 students who don't mask. When it spreads, it spreads like wildfire through the campus.
I wore a mask every day for 3 years and got every vaccination, but I still get it every year. There's really no avoiding it.
I work in a popular children’s arcade in my city and see dozens if not hundreds of different unmasked kids a day and yet I never get sick and am reasonably sure I have never had covid. My unmasked coworkers sure get sick a lot though!
Sorry you keep getting infected but you’re wrong about it being unavoidable. Maybe you’re doing something wrong or maybe you are just really unlucky or something, I don’t know, but respirators work. IIRC even when they fail to prevent an infection, they help reduce the severity of illness since they reduce viral load, but I’d have to do some digging for the source on that. In any case, the science supports masking to reduce the spread of covid.
Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review
The mask will still decrease your initial exposure "load," which correlates with the severity of your infection. Fewer starter viruses means a less impactful infection (as far as COVID is concerned).
For me, it's felt more like strep plus being super tired. Not sure it's worse than the flu, just different. I'd rather have it occasionally than wear a mask for the rest of my life.
I still wear a mask EVERYWHERE. I barely leave the house without it. I cannot stand the idea that the health risks aren't worth the discomfort.
I've seen people coughing and sneezing barely covering their face, and I do mask as well everywhere since my job interacts with people all the time
My conservative dad is basically like 'COVID doesn't exist in Canada, but does still exist in foreign places like China' so I don't know where that fits in but it's white supremacist COVID response anyway.
synthesis of brainworm dialectics
I remember when news of the virus had just spread to Europe and some people immediately claimed it would only effect asians. Very normal brain activity
That's wild lmao
I have a normies sentiment like your dad. I've seen a few posts on Lemmy about covid cases in the US but haven't heard about the cases in Europe. I'm sure they exist though, just not talked about
The resentment I feel for my normie friends over this is untenable. It’s really really sad and I really wish I could change how I feel.
I'm in category 3 tbh.
I know it's bad, but I have so many things that worry me already and I'm so deep in my depression that I'm just glad I have something that helps me cope with the risks of covid at least.
Masks help you cope with the risks of covid better
oki
have something that helps me cope with the risks of covid
In category 3, you do not. You've just been lucky and asymptomatic.
I don't know maybe I didn't use the correct word, my English bad. What I meant is I already have so many things that worry me and I have daily suicidal ideation, so I'm glad that I can tell me (even if it's wrong) that COVID isn't an issue for me. Because if I also had to worry about that when thinking to go outside, I don't know what I would do.
Because if I also had to worry about that when thinking to go outside, I don't know what I would do.
please just wear a mask
Nah you can fuck right off with that ableist shit. I explained clearly why I can't add any more worries to my life.
I'll cough on you.
You have explained nothing that indicates why you can't wear a mask and it isn't ableist to ask people to wear a mask rather than take literally no precautions besides crossing their fingers and hoping they don't get infected
I'll cough on you.
you think asking others to mask is ableist but coughing on people isn't?
- covid was invented by gyna, and it's also fake because viruses don't exist