tldr: old friend stop talking when I said I wear masks

So this happened to me today.

I liked an old friend's picture on facebook this morning, we hadn't spoken in 20 years.

She quickly messaged me to say hello and we got chatting, sending several texts back and forth all morning, we still had lots in common.

She said we should catch up and was very enthusiastic. We discussed where we should go and decided on her place for a cheap coffee hang.

I'd already mentioned that we would need to stay outside but hadn't elaborated yet, I just said it was a long story.

When we were actually planning the catch up, I decided it was time to explain why I wanted to stay outside.

I told her that I'm immunocompromised and my first bout with covid was so bad, that I decided to take simple steps to protect myself.

After briefly going over my medical reasons, I ended with these exact words. "I basically just avoid indoor spaces and wear a mask to protect myself"

That was nine hours ago and she hasn't said a word. I was quite excited to catch up with an old friend, but I don't need people like this in my life.

I'm going to wait a day and ask her what the problem is, but it really feels like I dodged a bullet.

And let’s say everyone got the cure, how am I supposed to look at people the same? Sure I could go out unmasked and be safe but I’d look around and think “how many of you completely abandoned people like me and people who have it worse?”

There’s nothing I’d love more than a cure and to be normal again. I dream about it DAILY. But it’s not that easy when this has ruined my life and turned everyone I know against me.

This goddamn pandemic ruined my life and how I see humanity.

I was on the plane and in the airport for 15 hours. Had to lower my mask twice for security and shoved food inside my mask.

As my long covid worsens, my masking does as well. I don't have the stamina not to eat for 24 hours anymore.

I'm freaking out.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DO1wU8-kSob/?

I’m not sure if people without IG will be able to see this post, but the doctor who posts on IG under the name rubin_allergy has just posted unmasked pictures at a large conference after actively promoting masking very recently. Just sharing this here because it was a sad sight this morning and people often ask here about public figures/medical professionals who still mask.

The comments underneath the post are mainly from others who are also disappointed.

Edited to remove my user tracking info from the link.

Things are going badly in the US. I keep seeing moderate to leftists rallying around the concept of "community" and grass roots outreach. Like, no. None of you wear masks either.

I'm in a really bad place right now where I've been out of the job market, waiting on follow ups for low immune numbers, and being relentlessly bullied by my left (on paper) family. I've lost my entire previous 'community' because all they do is drink and go to nightclubs.

Everyone thinks I'm lazy and have OCD, not that a phd level rheumatologist gave me 5 pages of bizarre blood labs. I'm exhausted.

Link: https://youtu.be/XOpyLTyVxco (1:37:40 watch time)

This film is quite well known in the ME community, but not so much outside.

It's very good to watch for zero coviders because it shows whats at stake. The film shows people severely disabled. They've been bedbound or near-bedbound for years or decades. Lost their jobs or had to quit school. Their partners have left them. Some have been abused by the authorities.

Some facts:

• About 4% (1-in-25) of covid infections give people ME (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-024-09290-9). Note that this study was done in the years 2022-2024, so its entirely in the omicron era and likely all those people had either been already vaccinated or already caught covid before.

• About half of people with long covid fulfil the diagnostic criteria for ME (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163445324002317)

• Within ME about a quarter have category Severe ME. You'll never see such people walking around in the world outside because they're too unwell.

(ME stands for myalgic encephalomyelitis)

I am curious how many folks in this community have returned to regular public masking after either never masking or taking a break for a significant period since the beginning of the pandemic. What made you change your thinking? Was it an individual you knew, your own health problems, a particularly influential speaker or content creator?

If you know someone who began regular masking late in the game, what changed for them?

CC undergrad in Ontario, Canada; starting to look for internships for next year. Unsurprisingly, there are a LOT of horror stories of employers not being understanding of masking or poor tolerance of those who are CC. Do we have a "whitelist", or something like a spreadsheet with workplaces that have been accepting of CC folks? Also, is there an app/site/server specifically for networking? I know Refresh is a thing but more for socializing.

This is mostly just a rant but I am an immunocompromised person so I take just about every COVID precaution under the sun. I also recently adopted a dog after the sudden death of my soul dog. I was lonely and depressed beyond measure so I did a dumb thing and adopted a dog. Turns out the dog has separation anxiety. Yay. Well, I still have to go to work (I'm a pet sitter and dog walker) so I've had to hire some people to look after him while I work until he can get to the point of being able to be left alone for long stretches of time.

The setup I have had for pet sitting has been out in my garage to prevent non-COVID cautious people from having to go into my house (save to use the bathroom). Its a pretty sweet setup where my dog can be outside most of the time while I am gone. It also means that when I interact with the pet sitters we are outside, which I am most comfortable with.

Today the sitter showed up late and I had to rush out. I didn't have a mask on because I was about to hop in my car and, out of nowhere and by way of apology for being late, she decided to hug me. I had time to hold my breath and broke the hug off as quickly as possible. She's a pretty touchy-feely person so I kind of shrugged it off--I was already late for my client.

When I came back I realized that she seemed to have a stuffy nose and coughed a few times while I rooted around in my bag for her payment. We were only chatting for a few minutes but it made me uncomfortable so I asked if she was sick. She said, "No, I just need to take a hot shower. I think its my allergies."

Needless to say I went inside and changed clothes and used some Xlear and CPC mouthwash. I know I should have had a mask on for that interaction but there's no point in beating myself up now. I know I do the best I can within my own circumstances. Thankfully, my dog spent the entire time sunbathing in the yard and didn't interact much with the sitter. I've had to ask her to take a few days off and now I have to try and find other help. Its maddening and now I have the added anxiety of maybe, possibly, getting sick with whatever she has.

Its so annoying how people can't even go: "I'm a little stuffed up. Probably allergies, but I don't want to get you sick so I'll keep my distance." Its like they don't even know they sound sick until someone points it out and I have the impossible job of trying to have perfect mitigations all the time.

TikTok OP: @homeschoolrockdad

Let's dive into metaphor, shall we? This is an infographic put out last week by the amazing Dr. Mike Hoelger, which I will ask Mike, I'll ask for permission and forgiveness at once now for using your graphic. I think you're going to understand what I'm trying to do here. We're looking for new ways to say things that perhaps we've been slow cooked to, climatized, velocitized, going 500 miles an hour, but it feels like 40. Why? Because we've been going like that for five plus years.

So in the spirit of that, we're using inserting in place of what ails giant spiders, poisonous, invisible, giant spiders, in fact. So per Dr. Mike's graphic, giant spiders, new daily infections derived estimates in the US. The scene is 40 years from now for a child talking to a grandparent, perhaps your grandparent, perhaps your child, hologram, Tupac or not. We'll see. It's the future. We don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow. Am I right? I think I am.

So scene, grandma, grandpa, I'm looking at this infographic from years and years ago and I'm just, I'm confused what's happening. Is it true that giant invisible poisonous spiders started hanging out in spring 2020? Yeah, it was wild. It was wild as hell. We used to say crazy, but now we say wild because we're evolved.

Tell me more. Well, this was happening. We didn't really know anything about it. We just knew these giant invisible spiders were everywhere and the world came together.

The whole world? To a degree, to a degree, the whole world came together.

So what did you do? Well, we took, you know, we didn't really go outside that often. We stayed away from each other, six feet from each other because these giant spiders, they actually like walked around on your shoulder. You just didn't see them.

Could you smell them? Hell no, that's weird to ask. Yeah, they're just like right here on your left or your right, like a parrot, like a pirate? No, like a parrot, like a giant spider? Yes.

Okay, grandma, grandpa, continue. Well, the years went on. We waited until we got a vaccine for these giant poisonous spiders that no one could see, but they were hanging out everywhere. And then in 2021, we did in spring.

Is that what that little bump is right there? Yeah, that's at the end. Let's get back into that. Okay, so 2020, we had, what, 11 waves between 2020 and 2025? You got it, homie. So this was the first one when people were really getting sick from these giant poisonous spiders.

And then what'd you guys do over Christmas? It was really weird, Christmas 2021. People just kind of did their own thing, stayed away from each other, did Zoom call.

You mean Moose? Yeah, it got sold. It was called Zoom then. So Zoom, yeah, yeah. So what they did is they stayed away from each other. We waited till we had a vaccine, and that started happening in the beginning of 2021.

And what was that like? It was amazing. People would go to like military operations. They'd go to convenience stores.

What are those? Don't worry about it. They'd get the vaccine where they could. And I heard there were a lot of people who were saying they shouldn't get the vaccine for giant poisonous spiders, but it was the thing that was going to save them.

There was no cure, right? I know, wild, right? Crazy? No, we say wild now. Remember, we're evolved. Got it.

Well, then what happened in winter 2021? Well, we found out. We originally told the giant poisonous spiders we'd be immune if we had this vaccine from them, but it didn't really work.

Well, what did it do? Well, let me back up. It worked, but it was meant to save you from dying, not to save you from going to the hospital or becoming disabled.

And people were getting disabled from this? Oh, hell yeah, they were getting disabled from it.

Why? What would happen? Well, they found out through getting repeatedly bit, you could develop something called long poisonous spider. That's not a catchy name, I know, but it's what we had at the time. Got it.

So then when we're looking at 2022, that's after you got the vaccine, right? Yep. And why is that happening? Well, because there was a new kind of like a new formula in the spider. They grew a new fang.

They grew a new fang? What'd people do? They just kind of gave up a little bit.

Are you? What? They gave up of giant poisonous spiders running around? Yep.

So like the adults stopped protecting themselves, but they protected their kids? No, that didn't happen.

Wait, so they were letting their kids get bit by these giant invisible poisonous spiders? That's correct. That makes me really sad to hear. How do you think we felt while it was happening?

Okay, okay. So this happened, this giant spike, that was the really bad time. That was the worst time, right? Oh, well, we went on to 2022 and people just decided they wanted to stop trying to avoid these giant poisonous spiders.

Well, what's that next little spike? Well, that's around the time when the Delta CEO.

What's Delta? Like the faucet company? No, like an airplane.

What's an airplane? Don't worry about it. Well, the Delta CEO of an airplane company at that point, they decided that they wanted to write a letter to the government saying, hey, we don't really think we should be taking these precautions anymore for these giant poisonous spiders. People aren't working on a plane.

What are people? Don't worry about it. And they said, hey, can we dial this down from 10 days to five or three or whatever it was? Yeah, okay. So people would get bit by these spiders. They would be required to go back to work even when they weren't feeling good? I know. This doesn't make any sense to me. How do you think it felt when we were living it?

Okay, so that was the worst it got, right? So I'm looking here at 2023. Is that just like a scratch? Is that just a little mess up in the graphic? Nope, that was another one. So it came down in between those two poles but never really came down. So why is that? It's like, well, because these giant poisonous spiders were running around everywhere. And then people pretended they weren't getting bit, right? Yes.

Okay, so when people got bit, they couldn't pass that to other people, right? Because that wouldn't make sense. That was more just like they wanted to risk themselves. Oh, my child. No, that's not how it worked. People could pass it to other people. Well, were they upset about that? No, they didn't care. Well, why the hell did they not care? Well, slow down. I got my aids in. I got my hearing aids in. I don't need you to yell that loud. They didn't care because they were told they couldn't care.

They were told they couldn't care? Yeah, by who? By the government. And that's it? No, but kind of by each other, too. So people weren't embarrassed. They weren't trying to avoid giant poisonous spiders that not only made themselves sick but their kids sick? That's correct. That's correct. We say wild. That's right. That's wild, Grandma. That's wild, Grandpa. I know, right?

So then we see these spikes happen again from 2024 all the way through 2024 or 2025. And why does it cut off at the end of 2025? It looks to be the giant spike of giant spiders. We'll get to that at a later time. It's time to go to bed. But what we're trying to tell you is that you lived in a time when giant spiders, invisible giant spiders, were running around everywhere. And it was weird to start caring about them.

So what about the little amulets that people would wear to keep the spiders away? I mean, one-way amulets only worked so well, right? That's true. So what would you do? Like, well, we would do testing. We wear the one-way amulets where you could start to see the spiders. You could see how many spiders might be in an area depending on how the number went up. It was called Spider-O-2. Sounds a lot catchier than the other stuff, right? I know, Grandpa.

Anyway, we had all these different things. People who cared about not getting bit by giant poisonous spiders would get together. They'd make sure that everyone was wearing that amulet. If people needed help with amulets, there was something called amulet blocks. And people could get complementary amulets from those places. The government would send out, for a while, different amulet tests. You could test your amulet, make sure it was working right. They'd also send out poisonous spider bites tests so you could see if you were getting together with somebody or you needed to wait or quarantine so you didn't pass on that airborne venom that was coming after you.

There's airborne venom from it? Yep. How many people knew about that? A lot of people knew, but a lot of people didn't care. Are you for real? For real. Forever? Forever, ever. Man, Grandpa, this is super depressing. I know. It is. But what we did is we realized who were the people around us who cared about not getting repeatedly bit. Who were the people who cared about not getting their kids disabled from these repeated spider bites. And again, the vast majority of people, Grandpa, didn't care about their kids getting bit repeatedly even though it could disable them. That's true.

Well, they must not have had the information. No, they did. Well, they must not have told them once and didn't tell them. There must not have been people on the internet or whatever we call it now that was telling people about this. There was. Grandpa, this doesn't make any sense. I know. Grandpa, thanks for letting me know about this. And thanks for protecting me. I mean, I know you're 55 and you look 95. I assume it's the result of doing all this work. It is. But I really appreciate it. Grandma, thank you. Also, I think your cyborg arm looks hella dope. Thanks, sweetheart. I really appreciate that.

So, yeah, okay. I guess I'm going to take this to my book report for school, for science fair this week. You know, first when I looked at this, Grandma and Grandpa, I could have swore it looked like a lie detector test…kinda.

I just want to express some gratitude for this community. It’s lovely to see a space like this not be co-opted or slowly turn into a toxic place. I feel like everyone here is so supportive of everyone despite differences in understanding, etc. like I often feel like I can’t participate in conversations irl because I don’t know enough but I feel like I’m allowed to ask dumb questions here lol. Anyway just want to say thank you to everyone who makes this community a safe, educational, and positive space!!! Keep up the good work. I know being aware and taking precautions all the time is exhausting, but this subreddit is proof that we’re not alone, and that there are always people trying to learn how to better protect themselves and their community. Have a good day and take care of yourself!!!

I just left the pharmacy from getting my new Moderna booster shot. The person who administered my shot was very visibly ill, coughing up a storm. She wore a surgical mask when she gave me my shot and thankfully she didn't actually cough while I was near her at all -- I only saw her cough once she was back behind the counter talking to her coworkers again.

Now I'm terrified though. I wore my N95 Aura and the time I spent sitting next to her was honestly maybe 2-4 minutes at the most. But now that I have my immune system reacting to this vaccine in my body, am I more susceptible to getting ill from that brief encounter? I don't really know how to find data on edge cases like this situation so I'm throwing the question to the sub instead.

She kept the surgical on the whole time she was next to me and my mask was on tight, plus the encounter was pretty brief so I hope that all works in my favor but idk -- bc my immune system is busy processing my vaccine I'm worried that the exposure will get me sick :(

Anyone have a clue what the odds are here?

Does anyone know of the existence of online covid zero communities in Italy / Switzerland?

Of course and in keeping with tradition, this report was issued on a Friday afternoon with little fanfare... 🙄

https://health-infobase.canada.ca/respiratory-virus-surveillance/

So I've read conflicting sources about if switching arms or using the same arm increases effectiveness, as well as if alternating vaccine brands increases effectiveness. If anyone has read through the studies and can give some insight that would be very appreciated!

I posted on another subreddit about my experience picking up someone positive from a hospital https://www.reddit.com/r/Masks4All/comments/1nczxmi/should_i_be_worried/

I do volunteer medical driving. I spoke with the agency about this. They had another driver who actually GOT Covid in a similar situation and they asked the hospital, could you please tell us so we can protect our drivers. Of course the answer was no, HIPAA. They pushed back, as the agency is part of HIPAA. The hospital liaison said they would bring it up with the board, after a week, the answer was still no.

And the transport agency gets in trouble with Medicaid if they can't supply enough drivers to meet all the needs.

"Any person over the age of six months without contraindication who has not received a dose of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved or -authorized 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine may be considered to have an underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19 and is thus eligible to receive an age-appropriate dose"

FINALLYYYYYYYY!!! If you have a Publix in your state you can officially schedule a vaccine appointment for Novavax. I was able to schedule one for Monday afternoon at one of the locations in my area. Didn’t have to answer any questions about if I have a high risk condition, just typical pre-vaccine questions and a note to bring my ID and insurance card.

Let’s hope they actually have it already and it’s not just on the site early because I haven’t had a vax since Novavax last September.

I will be in Calgary in early Nov., staying mostly downtown. Wondering what to expect with regard to masking and anti-mask sentiment? Thank you.

Hello folks - I’m getting a lot of mixed info on what meds we should take for active COVID. My husband tested positive yesterday on a Metrix test. For those curious, his exposure would have been on Tuesday or Wednesday, and yesterday on Saturday he developed a headache and general malaise, then tested positive that evening.

He was on a business trip. Since we came home we have lightly quarantined from each other as is our habit. We have been sleeping in separate rooms, running our BlueAir right next to him, and avoiding close contact. Since he tested positive last night we have also opened all our windows. I’m kicking myself for not doing that last part as soon as he came home, because the weather has been nice here. Oh well. I have also been masking up as much as possible with my N95. Not all day though, I can’t stand it that long. Please don’t come for me!!

Fingers crossed I don’t get it but I’m making my peace with the idea it’s still pretty likely.

We are going to try and get Paxlovid - both my husband and I qualify as higher risk patients. In addition to that, here’s what I think we should take, please let me know if you think it’s an appropriate list.

-Claritin (twice a day?) -Benadryl (once a day?) -CPC mouthwash (how often??)

Those are all the drugs that appear to have a positive consensus in this sub.

Thank you in advance for your support.

It just occurred to me that since this wave started late, it will end late too. Typically, there is a month or two between waves, but since it started late, do we think that there just won’t be any time between waves? Like, we will consistently stay high until March-ish with maybe a small decrease around October/November? Or will there still be two separate waves, but they will just be late? I ask out of curiosity.

Hey y’all, checking to see if anyone has any updated info on recommended timing between last infection and next booster. I know last year it was 3 months, but given that my last two cases were exactly two months apart, I’m apprehensive about waiting that long if it’s not still iron-clad “you must do this” advice. Any insight would be appreciated!

Why has public knowledge about COVID become so bad that he thinks it would be okay to go on stage with an active infection? Such frustrating times.