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Melina Rudman's avatar

A few weeks ago another woman and I were speaking (through our masks) as we browsed a local florist shop. She said, "I am going to keep wearing mine. I didn't even catch a cold last year. This really works!" She is right, it does work. I will continue to wear my mask indoors.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

I read that somewhere, back in the winter, and realized I hadn't had a single one of my traditional three really nasty colds. I lost my voice only once (I'm prone to that, which is God's way of telling me to STFU, I think) and was generally healthier.

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Melina Rudman's avatar

Well, if God really wanted you to STFU, She would probably break your fingers along with giving you laryngitis. Thank goodness God is all for speaking up.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Excellent point. And God knows if that happened, I'd type with my feet. So...

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Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

I never stopped masking.

Two days ago, my son fell ill with flu-y symptoms and a fever over 101, so yesterday we went for a COVID test for him. Negative, thank goodness: the doctor told us that there are a lot of viruses-in-general going around now, which I hadn't known.

Republican undergraduates in Michigan told me in the mid-1990s that infection is no longer significant: I haven't heard that directly since, but I suspect that it's still endemic in that population. (Like the bizarre belief that everyone acknowledges that Republicans are The Adults, the Moral Ones. the Fiscally Sane Ones.)

We are subject to a lot of ideological disease as well, I'm afraid not just nationally, but as a pandemic.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

So glad your son tested negative. It's a scary time, and I hadn't heard there were a lot of viruses going around, either. Good to know. More reason for me to wear my mask.

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Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

It may just be Colorado, where our conservatives tend to-- well, Lauren Boebert was elected here.

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Sharon Foster (CT)'s avatar

I haven't stopped wearing a mask in the grocery stores. My local outdoor concert venue still requires a mask to go inside to use the restroom. The local sandwich and salad-type Greek place recently changed their mask policy, but I still wear a mask inside and eat outside whenever possible.

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Sharon Foster (CT)'s avatar

Oh, and my book group that meets at the Cheshire Senior Center, where masks are still required for the unvaccinated, met once in person and has had to go back to Zoom meetings because two unvaccinated people refused to wear facemasks. If they hadn't announced their status, no one would have known, but they did.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Just wow.

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Theresa Taylor's avatar

I'll be masking up when grocery shopping. We are attending our first indoor concert next month. Fortunately, the venue (The Gilson in Winsted) has cafe seating (I think that's what they call it - tables and chairs and not seats right next to each other). Masking will ensue.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

It isn’t that hard, is it? Mask up.

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Theresa Taylor's avatar

I'm down with any opportunity to wear the penis and boobies masks!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Those are great masks. I still wear my mask (above) but mostly, I wear the most comfortable one, which says VOTE and celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

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Thomas Dombroski's avatar

I have been wearing a mask indoors since the start of the pandemic but I started to wear it indoors or outdoors since I heard tuckums carlson say if you see someone wearing a mask you should ask them firmly but politely to please take it off

So far no one has asked me that unfortunately

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Paul Ashton's avatar

I don't go inside anyplace without putting a mask on first. I don't see that changing anytime soon. With the exception of the grocery store, I'm increasingly in the minority and frequently the only one. Besides a couple of looks I haven't gotten any pushback from strangers (unlike a couple of months ago). With of extremely infectious viral load of the people with delta strain, breakthrough cases are increasing and I don't want to be one of them. One of the things I find disturbing is hearing vaccinated people, including friends, say they won't wear a mask anymore because if they get infected the symptoms will be mild. I've heard people even say it about their kids! I know a whole family that, with one exception, had mild symptoms a few months ago and it looks like they're all turning into long haulers.

We're getting to the point in time where deaths and serious damage from the current surge should start adding up. Maybe that will wake people up. If that doesn't do it, then I don't know what it will take. I have a hard time being optimistic about the fall and winter.

BTW, my deletion was the result of missing an edit before posting. Substack should fix that.

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Paul Ashton's avatar

This from a HuffPo article.

One Alabama ER doc recently shared the haunting tales of dying coronavirus patients who begged for the vaccine that they had previously refused.

“I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late,” Dr. Brytney Cobia wrote on Facebook.

If stuff like this doesn't move people to do the right thing, we're fucked.

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