Comment by renewiltord
25 days ago
Does everyone know how often their peers fall sick? I’ve had maybe two illnesses in the last five years and I don’t do all this. In fact, I was masks off as soon as we were allowed to, traveled often via plane and train. I also was at many EDM shows as soon as they opened up.
I used to wear masks whenever I fell sick but it’s been a while. After the pandemic, though, everyone started using these as political symbols and I want to opt out of that personally. A thing I’d been doing for decades is suddenly some kind of statement. I’ve no problem looking out for others but if there’s enough schoolmarming over this, I might just not.
I think people are neurotic about this stuff but probably the reality is that others fall sick often and need to take these precautions and I don’t and therefore see no need to.
At the population level, if it’s worth it, then that’s fine but I think it’s not a given that these things are worth it.
I used to get sick a lot more often, pretty consistently 3-4 times per year. Since I’ve started masking on trains (specifically because others who are sick and coughing aren’t wearing a mask) and other things (elderberry, zinc, NAC at signs of cold) I’ve gone down to 1-2 times per year. And that is mostly from hooking up with people who had COVID and didn’t realize it.
It’s hard to say exactly what led to the reduction in illnesses, but the N95 masks have the strongest evidence base of the interventions I’ve tried.
It is a given these things are worth it, as long as they're done properly.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Reduction-in-infection-r...
That paper is about mandatory masking and social distancing at the population level. It does not speak to the question of whether it's "worth it" to wear a mask on the train if you're the only one who is doing it.