It'll be interesting to see what happens on June 15 when the mask mandate goes away in CA (theoretically).
This claim is patently false. Even though outside spaces are safer than indoors, it's still possible to spread covid-19 outdoors, moreso if you do not respect social distancing.
https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-55680305
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/i...
It seems that anti-maskers grab the claim that masks are not necessary if you're sitting quietly at a table on a plaza on a sunny day while preserving the min >2m social distancing, but completely disregard all other scenarios such as the journey to said plaza and unexpectedly finding yourself in high-risk scenarios while you move around.
To put things in perspective, there are documented cases where COVID spread through person's that stopped to chat outdoors while not wearing a mask.
What makes this sort of argument regarding the use of mask particularly dangerous is that it starts with a premise based on a very specific scenario combining key factors that are known to be safe (i.e., sit outside without a mask on a sunny day while preserving social distancing) but ends up trying to justify discarding each and every key safety factor (social distancing while outdoors in sunny, hot days, and even the need to wear a mask while going to a public place).
Lastly, although wearing a mask is important to keep you from catching COVID (or any airborne respiratory disease) the main goal of wearing a mask is to ensure that asymptomatic people (and specially symptomatic people) don't unwittingly spread the virus.
The whole spring pollen thing hasn't hit me in any way this year - the cottonwood seeds are also in the air.
I notice that I don't feel as bad about all of that with an N95 this year, though I'm conserving some N95s for the eventual fire season this year.
Most people spend 99% of their time with friends, family, or trusted coworkers anyway.
This probably depends a lot on the neighborhood.
I'd be curious to know what percentage of people in poor neighborhoods like the Tenderloin and in homeless encampments (who are some of the most vulnerable) are wearing masks.
Edit: "Indoors, fully vaccinated workers without COVID-19 symptoms do not need to wear face coverings in a room where everyone else is fully vaccinated and not showing symptoms. However, where there is a mixture of vaccinated and unvaccinated persons in a room, all workers will continue to be required to wear a face covering."
I genuinely don't understand the anti-mask mania, I really don't. Mask use is almost free. Virtually no activities are precluded by wearing a mask (even eating, frankly, just lift it up and put it back to chew). Masks should be the first mitigation rule enforced in a respiratory disease environment and the last one relaxed.
Restaurant and event closures, quarantines, travel restrictions, testing requirements, vaccine registries... All of those have significant real costs and should be done only when masks aren't sufficient. And they should all be relaxed first before we give up masks.
But yet, everyone points to masks as somehow the opposite: in the minds of so many people (even seemingly scientifically literate people here) they're the worst thing imaginable, and... why? They're just masks. Wear 'em. It's cheap and easy.
Masks fucking suck.
They cost $10 for a box of five here for masks that ideally should be one time use, if used properly. I've noticed a ton of 'mask pollution' over last year. Masks lying on the ground, masks in waterbodies, masks on the beach.
The only places that offer masks on entry are government run places, despite it being legally mandatory everywhere. Otherwise, you pay out of your pocket.
In the end, i see people wearing masks incorrectly everywhere, we have such rules as 'wear a mask inside, unless you're sitting at a table' Which makes absolutely no sense.
The masks used by 90% of people use are no better than tying a t-shirt over your face.
The way it's been implemented most places, people's attitudes towards it both the for and against people and generally everything with masks are over the top or not enough.
If you are in a small enclosed place in close proximity to other people and you wear an appropriate face covering you don't touch and you dispose of properly afterwards or wash as soon as possible, you are doing something effective.
Otherwise, it seems to be more about appearances and making people feel better than anything.
Hell, most of the covid signs at businesses around here pretty much say everyone needs to wear a mask so 'people feel comfortable'.
And it looks like ~10% of SF is under 12, so unvaccinated plus another 20% of those over 12, so maybe 20-25% of all people are unvaccinated. Is that still herd immunity?
SF got herd immunity from infections, which is why it was rare that we came anywhere close to ICU capacity. I watched the graphs daily for months, and while the rest of the country was losing their minds, we just didn't see much of a dent, typically in the range of 10% of total beds.
The only hysteria was from Newsom, who has ambitions of running for President.
