Hacker News Reader

Comment by zzzeek | Hacker News Reader

cue the "it's just the flu!" army.

on this end, I do not want covid at all, straight up. I will keep wearing my N95 to all the dirty looks I keep getting and boost as much as the boosts are there.

View on HN

I think you should plan on getting it at some point. That’s what endemic means and that’s where we are. You’re just prolonging the inevitable.

"Prolonging the inevitable" still has a benefit for hospital capacity. If every uninfected person went and got it tomorrow, it wouldn't be pretty.

I'm still wearing my KN95 to busy indoor places in part because it's been nice not getting colds/flus for the last two years, too.

I can still remember my boss telling people with a cold to take a DayQuil and power through their workday.

I really hope that mentality never comes back.

It never went away if you were a non-exempt employee.

That would not have been a particularly good advice in times of polio.

Good thing this isn’t at all Polio.

People probably fear being paralyzed more than they fear death.

Neither are particularly desirable.

before delta hit the US and the pfizer vaccine granted 95% protection from infection against the dominant strain in the US at that time, that was a place I was comfortable with. There will be more boosters tailored towards whatever variants have come down the pike and at the point where the risk becomes tolerable, then sure of course some form of covid will be inevitable but it would be mostly indistinguishable from any other minor flu. that is, no chance of requiring a lung transplant post-recovery. covid is not there yet, the current variants and inadequate vaccine protection still leave the chance of permanent and severe lung damage too high for me to "plan" on getting it.

to be clear, one component of minor vs. major covid is how large of a viral load someone is initially exposed towards. I'm fairly certain if I take a deep breath near an infected person, the N95 should reduce the load I'm exposed towards, hopefully significantly.

I would advise receiving the vaccine and follow-up boosters. That way, when you inevitably contract COVID-19, your risk of death is unlikely.

But would you also engage in these behaviors if you couldn't go online and A) project action onto an "army" that neither exists or has occurred; and B) gain social prestige by allying with a dominant narrative?

The question isn't intended to be rude, or suggesting your motives are tarnished. Just a query into the extent online projection (and presumptions about it) affect our choices. Note also that I am distinguishing between your stated choices and the choices themselves.

Since zzzeek is an online identity, how much social prestige is he getting? Does he direct other people to posts that he wears a mask?

Maybe on Facebook where people often use their real name I could see that as a possible motive but here?

Why is it so hard to think that people who disagree with you about masks are wearing them because they want to be safe? I wonder if the divide and anger is because each side believes the other is taking action to make a point and nothing else.

> I will keep wearing my N95 to all the dirty looks I keep getting and boost as much as the boosts are there.

The masks have never been about protecting yourself but have at it. I don't care what you do just stop forcing your attitude on everyone else. At this point you're just trying to make a statement, not protect anyone.

Cloth masks are somewhat effective at protecting those around you, but only slightly effective at protecting you; masks like the N95 do both quite effectively, if you wear them properly.

Almost no one is wearing any mask appropriately. Even the n95 needs to be changed more than daily. I highly doubt any decent percentage of people are doing that. At this point it's just a statement and nothing to do with protecting themselves or anyone else. Alternatively, they're suffering from psychosis.

That's for hospital workers wearing them 18 hours a day in highly contaminated environments. I am exposed to other people for an hour a day with social distancing, tops. The N95 is much more protective than a cloth mask and it is entirely for self protection, the last thing in the world I want to do is make a "statement" in the places i go. However the intolerance for my silent practice is fairly frequent.

(I decided that I wasn't going to get a reasonable discussion out of this guy at his suggestion that people disagreeing with him are "suffering from psychosis", and that appears to have been borne out so far.)

You don't need a mask if you're social distancing. You've got some major cognitive dissonance going on. There's absolutely no scientific backing behind what you just said. Your own health anxiety is talking. People are looking at you weirdly because it looks like you're in full psychosis mode doing illogical things.

The biggest issue is that the minority of people like you are dictating how everyone else has to lead their lives. Dirty looks aren't "intolerance". Now, if they were telling you that you could not wear a mask that might be intolerant (see how that's similar to telling people they have to wear masks).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com