Do you support the current ending of the mask mandate?

[Austina]

Very few people have been wearing masks here anyway, but we continue to wear ours, and will do so until we feel safe. This pandemic isn’t over yet, and although several people we know have now had Covid and are OK, we’d rather not get it.

I wore a mask for work for years, and it’s no big deal to wear one now when we’re in shops or crowded places (which we try to avoid anyway).

 

[autumngems]

50/50 I don't go out much. I go to work and to the store maybe 1 time a week, I do wear them for any medical appointments because that is where I tend to see all the coughing, sneezing etc. people the most. I am vaccinated and boosted.

 

[kenny]

I still feel very bad about how pre covid we used to laugh at the Asian English language students outside their school in downtown Wellington who wore masks out on the street
those kids were smart
Smarter than me

Excellent point!

 

[Mreader]

I was 50-50 bc when I am outdoors or in a big public space then I don't wear it; I also teach and it's freeing not to wear it. But I also got Covid in Feb, so once I got the virus despite being vaxxed, boosted and masked, I ditched the mask bc I knew that being vaccinated as well as having gotten it that I was unlikely to get it again (yet). BUT I definitely don't like that the planes have gotten rid of the mandate, thanks to that FL federal judge. In my mind, having a mask on in a cramped space protects not only from Covid but other icky illnesses that you are likely to get from people on planes and other small spaces. So why not wear it?

 

[Matata]

If I’m the only person wearing a mask on a plane or subway train, in a store or at another indoor location, am I really protected from infection?
It’s true that masks work best when everyone around you is wearing one. That’s because when an infected person wears a mask, a large percentage of the infectious particles they exhale are trapped, stopping viral spread at the source. And when fewer viral particles are floating around the room, the masks others are wearing are likely to block those particles that have escaped.
But there is also plenty of evidence showing that masks protect the wearer, even when others around them are mask-free.
The amount of protection depends on the quality of the mask and how well it fits. Health experts recommend using an N95, KN95 or KF94 to protect yourself against the Omicron subvariant BA.2, which is now the dominant version of the coronavirus and is far more infectious than previous strains.
Other variables, such as how much time you are exposed to an infected person and how well a space is ventilated also will affect your risk.
On most planes, for example, the cabin air is frequently pumped through high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters that are pretty good at reducing virus transmission. But that doesn’t completely eliminate your risk. In a modeling study published in December 2021, researchers found that passengers sitting in the same row or one row away from someone who had Covid-19 still had a high risk of being infected through direct respiratory droplets. Wearing a mask reduced the risk of infection by 54 percent.
In closed settings like a plane, it can be hard to avoid a mixed group of vaccinated and unvaccinated people, symptomatic or asymptomatic people, all of whom may transmit the coronavirus at varying levels. And the flight may not even be the riskiest part of a trip.
Air circulation may be running at low strength or completely turned off during boarding and deplaning, so those periods, as well as the time you spend at the airport, may be when you are at most risk of exposure and may benefit from wearing a mask.
Other settings may be even more worrisome.
“I know everyone talks about planes, but I would say buses are probably the riskiest, then trains and then planes, in order of highest to lowest,” said Linsey Marr of Virginia Tech, an expert in airborne transmission of viruses.
“People talk about planes having great ventilation filtration, and they do and that greatly helps reduce the risk of transmission,” she added. “But the virus is going to be in the air, no question in my mind, because there’s still large numbers of cases.”
A number of laboratory studies, too, have documented that a mask protects the person who is wearing it, though the level of that protection can vary depending on the type of mask, the material it’s made from, the experimental setup and how particle exposure was measured.
But the bottom line of all the studies is that a mask reduces the potential exposure of the person wearing it. Here are some of the findings:

• One study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that a standard surgical mask protected the wearer only from about 7.5 percent of the particles generated by a simulated cough. But knotting the loops and tucking in the sides of the medical mask reduced exposure by nearly 65 percent. (Watch this video to see the “knot and tuck” method.) Covering the surgical mask with a cloth mask, a technique known as double masking, reduced exposure to the simulated cough particles by 83 percent.
• A Virginia Tech study looked at how well homemade masks, surgical masks and face shields protected the wearer, based on virus particle size. The research showed that most masks could block very large particles, like those from a sneeze. But when the researchers looked at smaller aerosolized particles that are hardest to block, protection ranged from near zero with a face shield to about 30 percent protection with a surgical mask. (The percentages in the study can’t be directly compared to the C.D.C. knot-and-tuck study because the testing methods were different.)
  Based on the findings, Dr. Marr and her colleagues concluded that a two-layer cloth mask made of flexible, tightly woven fabric, combined with a filter material (like a coffee filter or surgical mask), could offer good protection, reducing 70 percent of the most penetrating particles and trapping 90 percent or more of the larger particles. They also found that head straps or ties created a better fit than ear loops.
• A study from Tokyo tested how well different types of masks protected the wearer from actual coronavirus particles. The study showed that even a simple cotton mask offered some protection (17 percent to 27 percent) to the wearer. Medical masks performed better, including a surgical mask (47 percent to 50 percent protection), a loosefitting N95 (57 percent to 86 percent protection) and a tightly sealed N95 (79 percent to 90 percent protection).
• While many lab studies test masks using mannequin heads, a 2008 study used real people to measure how well masks could protect the wearer against a respiratory virus. The study subjects wore different kinds of masks fitted with special receptors that could measure particle concentration on both sides of the masks. In this study, cloth masks reduced exposure by 60 percent, surgical masks by 76 percent and N95 masks by 99 percent.
• While the lab studies all show a mask can protect the wearer, how well the masks perform in the real world depends on a number of variables, including how consistently people use them, whether a person is in high-risk situations and the rate of infection in the community.
  
  The laboratory studies showed that a high-quality medical mask, like an N95, KN95 or KF94, works best. While vaccination and a booster shot is the best protection against infection with the coronavirus, even vaccinated people should be cautious around crowds or large groups indoors when the vaccination status of others isn’t known.
  
  Dr. Marr recommends wearing the highest-quality mask possible when you can’t keep your distance or be outdoors — or when nobody around you is masking up. That means an N95 or equivalent.
  
  
  

  Does My Mask Protect Me if Nobody Else Is Wearing One?

  Masks work best when everyone in the room has one on, but you’ll still benefit from masking up even when those around you aren’t.

  www.nytimes.com

 

[Lookinagain]

now that we've entered the endemic period, that's why we have vaccines.

It's interesting that you say that we have entered the endemic phase, as what I'm hearing is that we are still in the pandemic phase.

Coronavirus FAQ: What does endemic mean — and are we there yet?

Two years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. Now there's talk that we may be approaching a new stage for SARS-CoV-2. Let's unpack the word "endemic."

www.npr.org

I guess it's somewhat fluid as far as when one stops and the other begins, but I haven't heard anyone say that we are all the way to endemic. I wish we were.

 

[SomethingNew]

No, VERY VERY Strongly. We are no where near the end of pandemic, wearing masks help protecting others around you as well as yourself. My family will continue to wear masks, it doesn't bother us at all.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Still no.
Although the rules are bl**dy stupid
you have to wear then in a shop but not a night club

but its frustrating
Excerpt for one of my workmates (who caught it on annual leave on a canoe trip for her birthday off someone who knew he should have been self isolating) no one at my store has had it
and i dont want it
but its like half the customers dont care
Its arrogant and selfish to not care about shop staff
We dont have the luxury of working from home

you still have to wear a mask in orange (traffic light covid system)