It is driving me crazy that I am constantly seeing people walking outside with masks worn on their chins and necks. I want to take their mis-used masks and strangle them with them.
I understand that masks are a pain to use and I get the mentality of those who are simply choosing to not wear them (though I think that’s a very bad idea). But if you’re bothering to wear it, WEAR IT RIGHT, MORON! Those things are meant to block virus from coming in or out of your respiratory tract, not the pores of your skin! What the hell is wrong with these people!
Y’know people with asthma type conditions can only tolerate a mask for a short time. Like perhaps while actually IN a shop. Longer can trigger an attack which can end at a hospital.
Consider giving people the benefit of the doubt. Kind of like seeing someone step out of a wheelchair and take a few steps, and declaring them a fraud. It’s not cool to my mind.
I thought that was the height of stupidity when I first noticed people doing it. But the last time I went out to buy milk, I saw someone who had a mask that was literally taped into place on his chin.
My DIL said she saw a Mom with several kids (a sign on the door said to limit shoppers to one person per family, forgivable if she had no where to leave the kids, I guess). DIL said all the kids had masks on, but not the Mother. :smack:
If a person is outside away from people, it should be acceptable to pull your mask down and leave it hanging over your chin until you need to put it back over your mouth and nose.
? I mean, if these are people walking around outdoors with nobody else near them, then I don’t quite get the issue?
Yes, as the New York guidelines mandate, everybody needs to wear a mask when they are “out in public and in situations where social distancing cannot be maintained”. And maybe in a busy urban are that does mean “all the time and everywhere as soon as you set foot outside your door”.
But in a smaller city upstate, I see people outside without masks all the time never getting within ten feet of anyone else. I think everybody who goes outside should at least have a mask with them in case they do have to get within ten feet of another person, but if you’re well outside the social-distancing proximity limits, is there anything actually wrong with the “deployment readiness” position of wearing your mask on your chin?
ETA: Ninja’d by the more concise and observant post of Elmer J. Fudd.
I am not sure but at a guess they are complying with the law and do not believe or care that they will get sick.
It has been 30 years now but I recall being in some European country (France or Switzerland…maybe Austria) and I saw all these people walking their dogs who had muzzles hanging off their collars.
I asked someone what the deal was and they said it was the law that all dogs had to have muzzles. The law said nothing about how they had to be worn, just that they had to have them when out and about. So this ridiculous charade played out all over the city every day. And, for whatever reason, no one pointed out how stupid it was and changed it.
Some bike helmet regulations are like that, leading to the ridiculous situation of people riding along wearing unfastened bike helmets with dangling straps, or even with their helmets slung on their handlebars. Not much use in an emergency.
But I think both those situations are somewhat different from the facemask one. Dog muzzles and bike helmets are most importantly meant to protect people in case of a sudden emergency where they don’t have time to adjust the protective equipment. So to do their job, they should be properly warn at all times when the dog is in public or the biker is on the road.
But anti-COVID face masks are meant to keep your germs to yourself when you have to be close to other people, not as a defensive protection against a sudden swift unpredictable event. Yes, if you’re walking down a busy street or going into a store, you should absolutely have your mask worn properly, precisely because you’re getting close to other people.
However, I am in your camp, sporting an enormous bushy beard because I cannot go to a barber for a trim. And I refuse to go at it with my moustache scissors because my face is reflected in a two dimensional mirror, and my head is in three dimensions.
I’m nervous that my various masks…both homemade from tee shirts (DRINK WINE) and decorative…don’t seal properly.
I don’t think anybody will object to you wearing a second vanity mask over your chin. Or, come to that, perhaps I could wear a big mask with large amounts of stuffing over my groin.
And how, pray tell, do you do that without touching your face? According to the experts, not touching your face is even more important than wearing a mask.
Ukulele Ike, it matters not that your mirror is two-dimensional, because the reflection in it is just as three-dimensional as your face.
And how, pray tell, do you do that without touching your face? According to the experts, not touching your face is even more important than wearing a mask.
Ukulele Ike, it matters not that your mirror is two-dimensional, because the reflection in it is just as three-dimensional as your face.
Well, when I adjust my mask, I mostly touch the straps. And I guess my ears. But “don’t touch your face” is really shorthand for “don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth”. You probably don’t catch the virus from touching your chin or cheek. Nor through your hand, nor from touching your knee… Just be very careful about washing your hands when you get back home.
I live in New York City and I wear my face mask around my neck or chin when I’m not going to be near others or can easily maintain my social distance. I take it off when I get in the car.
I am in complete compliance with my local guidelines. I am behaving rationally in light of the best medical evidence for how this virus is spread. I accept that I am being judged by reflexively judgemental douchebags that don’t understand context.
But if I can chime in on this rant – I had an emergency eye exam yesterday. And in the waiting room, there was a guy with no mask. (Hospital rules required masks in the building.) A receptionist came to give him a mask, and asked how he’d gotten in, since there are people at all the entrances making sure that everyone puts on a mask. He was vague about how he’d gotten in, and belligerent about the mask. “Whose policy is that?” he pressed. “I don’t need a mask, I’m healthy”, he said. She told him it was hospital policy that he had to wear it. (It was also hospital policy that you weren’t supposed to be in the opthomology waiting room if you didn’t feel healthy, fwiw.) He grudgingly accept the mask, and then put it over his mouth, leaving his nose open, for easier breathing, I suppose.
After a while, he shoved the mask down onto his chin. After about 15 minutes, another woman who worked there told him he had to wear the mask. He grumbled, but moved it over his nose. He didn’t do any of the things you might if you gave a shit – like adjust the flexible nose piece to fit. But he did minimally cover his nose and mouth.
Was he 6 feet from other people? Probably. It’s still an enclosed place, he was still breaking the hospital’s rules, and he was an asshole.
I guess it depends on one’s definition of ‘more important’ - to protect oneself, a mask matters little, but rubbing your eyes after your hands are potentially carrying virus on them could be lethal.
But to protect society in general and minimize transmission of the virus, what I’m hearing is that if everybody wore masks (correctly) in public, we’d have way less transmission than we do. While your touching your face will only make a difference with you.
Muzzles and facemasks are meant to protects others.
In the case of facemasks and muzzles you can’t say you will always be far enough away from others. You might come around a corner or turn into an aisle in a store or be entering/leaving an elevator where you might come close to someone else.
If you are ambling down a sidewalk and can see all ahead of you fine. But there are so many times when you may come into close contact it is reasonable to demand you just keep your mask on.
Not to mention I have read that touching your mask is bad. Most do not completely block COVID-19. Your best bet is to put it on and leave it on from home and back.