Especially considering it being one of the cheapest (financially, legally, impact on freedom) measures we have at our disposal.
Maybe some HN reader knows about some cost that I am not aware of (ie a few of pounds and a small inconvenience).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3PSISAZL8
I just.. don't get it man.
Where I live (which is part of the US), I’d say 100% of people wear masks inside of businesses (other than dodgy corner stores selling illegal cigarettes), and about 90% on the street.
Where I live, in America, it is something like 70% of people with masks. And it is required in stores in my area. Some stores enforce, some do not. Some people wear a mask past the greeter in the store, and then take off their mask once inside.
I could find multiple people in France to say on video that vaccines cause multiple sclerosis - a French person could rightfully object if someone claimed that that sums up the French view on vaccines.
You don't have to wear one outside, but if you want to use any public or private business that's located inside of a building - you are required to wear a mask.
My biggest problem with covid interventions, including masks, is not the cost itself, but a lack of objective/quantitative criteria for deciding when to lift them, rather than “when it doesn’t feel scary anymore”.
(As for the direct costs of masks, well, they are uncomfortable, prevent me from seeing people’s faces which I enjoy doing, and make me feel depressed because they make the world look like a dystopia. Yes, the costs are relatively low, but IMO the difference in probability of death or maiming from covid with and without a mask is also quite low.)
Example Criteria: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/~/media/de...
Example Dashboard: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/key-indica...
Personally don’t care about people’s feelings. Normalize masks already.
Right now, my company is saying "we're going back to the office 2 weeks after the province fully reopens". This is great! It's tied to the progression of the virus and gives me expectations about the post-covid world.
I am OK wearing a mask right now. I don't want to be wearing one in 10 years. I want an expectation similar to above, something like "mask wearing will end 2 weeks after the last known case".
I went to the dentist the other day and it was less stress than ordering from my local Thai food place. It really seems like masks are people's way of externalizing their fears, I want to see proper leadership in this area so we don't let these fears get out of hand.
I wish this could become a new norm in the western countries.
Ideally, we would have better metrics.
How do you feel about refrigerated trucks handling morgue overflow of dead grandparents, in terms of dystopia appearance?
> but IMO the difference in probability of death or maiming from covid with and without a mask is also quite low
The probability of death for _you_ is likely quite low, but it's not about you. If masks slow transmission even slightly (and evidence is mounting that they do), that will save lives. Possibly a lot of lives.
That's why special needs schools haven't been able to re-open, even though in theory a ten-year old should be trusted to keep on a mask, due to various developmental conditions (e.g. autism, down syndrome, etc) they sometimes cannot. So we should consider edge cases when discussing mask mandates.
And I acknowledge that some able-bodied adults will abuse any exception provided, but those exceptions remain important otherwise you're just persecuting a subset of the population who are unable to comply.
They have finally been made mandatory in shops and on public transport in the UK after quite a bit of public pressure. Kind of ridiculous that this wasn't done in March, but better late than never I guess.