0 voters
Just a quick ad-hoc poll.
Yes, any masking could be considered medical necessity, but that choice is intended for people who are in higher risk groups. If you’re masking out of an abundance of caution, please choose Personal preference.
We were unmasked in public over the last week only to eat. Both got COVID. Both entirely vaxxed. You bet we’re continuing masking.
Fully Moderna vaxxed; living in a low-risk milieu; seldom go out of hermit mode; yes, I still mask whenever I’m inside any public space, and won’t eat out.
I mask in airplanes and airports
I answered “no,” but I would have liked the choice “depends on the situation.”
I don’t mask at the grocery store anymore. I haven’t been masking in the church choir, but several people have had recent bouts of covid, so I will be masking there again. For a while. That’s probably something like superstition. Appropriate for church, eh?
I’m still completely avoiding closely-packed crowds of strangers. Not sure a mask will help there.
Just as many of us are accepting COVID as endemic and permanent, I’ve provisionally accepted masking as something I may be doing for the rest of my life.
Fully vaccinated, will mask if the location requests it (such as a medical facility) or if I’m having upper respiratory symptoms myself (even if I’m sure it’s just seasonal allergies). Just seems polite, as nervous as people get about sneezes, sniffles, throat-clearing, etc., these days.
I’ve had to for entry to a couple medical facilities in the last month or so but not otherwise and I voted no.
I voted yes, personal preference, but with provisos.
I can’t at work, so there I do my best to avoid the breakroom and other high-traffic areas. If I’m out doing errands indoors, such as groceries, I always mask. If I’m outdoors and capable of keeping distance though, I generally don’t.
But it’s not just COVID, there’s just enough stuff going around this time of year, and with COVID, and my tendency to post-viral bronchitis that I just see no reason NOT to. Although, I’m using my tight fitting cloth masks with replaceable 2.5 PM filters because at least it’s more economic and less wasteful than boxes and boxes of disposables.
Nope. Only in places required. I was at the dentist today and had to mask in the waiting room – I was lucky to even find a mask in my car (but I did notice they had their own, so I would have been fine.) Same with my veterinarian.
Same here. We’re in our seventies, fully vaxxed. We aren’t willing to gamble with something (our health) we aren’t willing to lose.
I have continued to mask whenever going out in public, but have not worn a mask at vaccinated friends’ houses. I just have enough on my plate that minimizing the risk of getting sick is worth it. And, honestly, this would be true even without a pandemic or COVID-19.
I was quite happy the local hospital still had a mask requirement, seeing as they make you come in through the ER. I even wore a mask when getting an MRI yesterday–I still had my (heretofore unused) stick-on N95s that don’t need a nosepiece.
I was less impressed with the neurology clinic that didn’t have one, even for the staff.
I leave a mask in my car. It gets used 15 minutes per month at most.
Went to have outpatient surgery yesterday, removing skin cancers. Doc & medical staff wearing masks, receptionists and checkout/billing people not. No patients wearing masks and no expectation that any would. I didn’t.
Went to our condo Halloween party back around then. 70-plus guests, all elderly mostly vigorous people indoors sharing food, drink, dancing & singing. No masks anywhere. I expect the same at our Christmas party next week.
I now live in an apartment building with about 1,000 residents all told. Plus probably 30 employees. I see lots of people coming and going every day. I see one mask every couple of days or so. Looks decidedly odd.
At the grocery store I might see a customer or two wearing a mask. Or I might not. Some stores all the staff do. Other stores no staff do.
Masked restaurant staff are now very rare. Ate dinner tonight at an open-air eatery among a group of similar open-air restaurants in a tourist zone. Probably saw 1,000 people wandering around or eating here or there. Lots of groups, lots of laughing & carousing. Mostly outdoors, but dense outdoors. Saw zero masks, not even on staffers.
At work I definitely see it’s regional both within the US and internationally. Some flights most passengers are masked, other flights it’s maybe 5%. Depends totally on where we are. But the mask-heavy flights are increasingly rare. Substantially zero airline employees wear them anywhere, much less everywhere.
Just about every country my employer services, over 100, have withdrawn masking requirements in airports and on airplanes.
COVID may not be over, but Masking. Is. Over. At least around here and most of the many other places I visit.
Only in required places and also on the subway.
I go to dialysis 3x a week and am required to wear a mask. The CDC is also now recommending a mask indoors. I’m vaccinated and boosted and caught Covid last month, so I’m still masking when I go out.
Same here. The poll should have included at least one choice for “Sometimes I mask and sometimes I don’t.”
When in doubt, I mask - basically that means at the grocery store or at a public event such as a theatrical performance or an art opening.
However, I have a small group of people I am in regular contact with - basically, my music group and a few staff/volunteers where I work - with whom I don’t regularly mask. The music group meets in an extremely well ventilated area that is essentially open-air, and the staff/volunteers are practically family that I see constantly.
However, all of us in this small group mask if we think we’ve been potentially exposed to Covid, or have tested negative but are feeling a little “off.” And I masked for everything for several days AFTER I tested negative for Covid and felt well enough to emerge into the world.
I’m currently wearing a mask about half the time when I’m in a public venue. I generally put one on if I see somebody else wearing one; I figure if another person is concerned, I should wear a mask to make them feel more comfortable.
Where required or encouraged, and in many places (crowded indoor spaces) where it’s totally optional.
Masking isn’t over, any more than wearing condoms was over after the main surge of the AIDS epidemic. In both cases, a lot of people were glad to give up using the protection when they had a chance, but the overall societal awareness of the potential benefits of that protection is here to stay.
People will be making their individual choices about whether/when to mask (assuming we don’t have more pandemic waves leading to mask mandates again), just as people make individual choices about whether/when to use condoms. But now most people (except the ignorant who turned anti-masking into a defiant ideological cause) understand that even imperfect protection can be better than no protection.
I spent over $100 on fancy customized facemasks. I’m grimly determined to keep on wearing them just get my money’s worth. So, yes.
I’m in the same situation as LSLGuy. I mask where it’s required, but otherwise not. I’ll see three or four people at Walmart or the mall with masks, but that’s about it.
If I go somewhere where masks are required I’ll mask up without complaint. It’s really not worth making a scene over. People making a fuss over their rights other nonsense just annoy me and I’ve been lucky enough never to have witnessed such crap.