I'm going to mask for as long as the conditions do
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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I got covid 4x (shoutout hospitality industry wooo), the first strain put me on my ass, even as a healthy young adult. Had a lot of trouble breathing, needed a rescue inhaler just to get by. The new strains didn't, felt like the common cold.
It doesn't really matter how I feel from the new strains, to someone who's immunocompromised, the newer strains can be just as bad as I felt with the OG version.
Also, anecdotally, there's a lot of pneumonia and RSV going around this time of year. Hospitals are packed right now, all my coworkers are referencing the same kinds of symptoms. Just wear a mask yo
I've conceptualized my masking as a sort of "Six Degrees of Separation Swiss Cheese Model". Which is to say that I broadly don't mask for "my" sake; I mask because I'm trying to see from the perspective of a COVID-conscious immunocompromised person, right?
Imagining for a moment that I am immunocompromised: I have my personal connections as my last line of defense from disease, right? And my personal connections' personal connections are then my second-to-last line of defense; and their personal connections are my third-to-last line of defense; and so on, up to my sixth-to-last line of defense — that is, my very first line of defense — which contains the majority of the planet. Only six lines of defense is not many at all, though, is it? I have to wonder how many safety mechanisms things like nuclear reactors have by comparison.
Now in real life, I am not immunocompromised, but I am bound to be part of the second-to-last, third-to-last, fourth-to-last, and fifth-to-last lines of defense for maaany immunocompromised people around the world, and assuming we believe in Six Degrees of Separation, I'm going to be the sixth-to-last line of defense for all the remaining immunocompromised people on the entire planet. Also in real life, many immunocompromised people cannot rely on even their very last line of defense to actually consider their needs or do anything to stop disease transmission, and many immunocompromised people lack access to quality healthcare, which makes it even more important to strengthen their second-to-sixth-to-last lines of defense, right?
That's how I understand things, at least.
Which I suppose is to say that I'm fine with masking in crowded indoor spaces for basically the rest of my life, even if the COVID pandemic is declared wholly and unquestionably over.
Masking not just for yourself but for others too? 
Caring about other people originally got me to start taking masking seriously. Now I do it for my own sake and other people but it was a good entry point.
There were a few times I went out without one right after the vaccines were available but my adoptive family is anti vaxx and mask and there were a few times they got covid, didnt tell me, and then id go around after being exposed and the guilt got to me
Put on the fucking mask, shinji
Dunno what you mean by "Shinji"
"Get in the X Shinji" is a meme format that references the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. In it, the main character Shinji 
, a mecha pilot, is often reluctant to enter the mecha, much to the frustration of the people around him. While no character ever said "Get in the mecha, Shinji," the sentiment is well recognized by fans of the show
Who's outside my house yelling at me to stop masking? I will never stop masking!
Why would I go maskless when I can go masked? There's no harm to me wearing a mask and I don't want long covid. Hell, even without the fear of long covid I hate to get a cold!
I've been applying to tipped service jobs where a mask might be detrimental to my income.
I'm a freak shit who lives in the middle of nowhere currently and I've never stopped masking up, and I'd go months without seeing another person wearing one. I will continue to do so until covid is finally taken care of. The social price to pay will never outweigh my fear of long covid.
That being said, I don't have the emotional energy to judge people for not masking at this point. This was a large scale social problem that was unfairly turned into a personal consumer choice to mask or not, and it's not like shits gonna get better anytime soon. I just can't pretend like we live in a state of normal.
The only times I don't mask is if I'm on a walk outside in a non-crowded area, or inside my own home.
Sucks that the person you're living with won't mask, I've had to cut people off for that but I'm fortunate enough to live on my own.
They actually care about masking, but sometimes they won't. I'll have to ask why.
Edit: They say at the gym it interrupts workouts because it shifts around, and the heat and sweat irritates their shaved face. In stores, it's when they feel it's not too crowded, and they hold their breath while passing people.
Gym: skill issue. I lift in a respirator. I do cardio in a respirator. They should find a better fitting mask. Buy small quantities of different masks to try and then experiment. I had a problem like that with some masks and then found better ones. Ones with headstraps tend to sit tighter/more securely, which means they protect better and don't shift as much.
If their shaved face is prone to irritation then there's something wrong with their shaving regimen. They should invest in the effort to learn how to use a safety razor because once you get good with them they tend to leave much less razor burn than disposable razors. Idk why. The initial investment is a bit higher than just buying a pack of disposable razors but it works out cheaper in the long run
Store: this makes no sense. Covid is airborne, and they could very well be walking through suspended aerosols someone exhaled a few minutes ago in that empty aisle they're walking through.
I do not buy their explanations; these sound like excuses. They need to actually take a measured look at why they want to not mask in these situations. When I've run into trouble masking, I figured out how to improve my system so that I would not have trouble masking, because I care very much about not getting Long Covid. And, being realistic, nowadays most of the "I don't want to protect myself" sentiment just comes from conformity, or not wanting to deal "weak"/" vulnerable".
If this person is your partner you two should have a serious talk about what either of you would do if you or the other got Long Covid.
Do you mean N95 respirators?
P.S. The gym is one of the worst places to unmask, because people are breathing very heavily there. If someone's contagious (which, again, they can be contagious before symptoms even set in!), they're spewing more infectious aerosols in the same amount of time because the volume of air they're exhaling is greater than if they were just sitting on the bus. Meanwhile, people are breathing in more air than normal as well, which also means a higher dose of aerosols
There's an inherent contradiction in going to the gym and unmasking. Going to the gym: working out, trying to get/stay fit and healthy. Unmasking: gambling with your health, when if the gamble goes badly you may become too fatigued to ever work out again. May have messed up cardiovascular health. May struggle to walk up and down the stairs without getting winded anymore. I've known so many semi-competitive athletes who got wrecked by covid years after the pandemic supposedly "ended".
At this point, wearing a mask is akin to not picking up the habit of chain-smoking. Actually that's a bad analogy, because it would be far healthier and safer to smoke a whole pack of cigarettes in once sitting once every 6 months than to get Covid once every 6 months.
P.P.S. Is getting erections important to them? Better keep that mask on: https://hexbear.net/comment/6685613
Yep!
As CommunistCuddlefish said, their rationale for stores especially makes no sense and definitely needs to be reevaluated. Airborne pathogens can stay viable for several hours and travel long distances, and are still shed by people with asymptomatic infections, so you can't just judge it based off of whether people nearby seem sick or not. This is why even unmasking outdoors in public is still not without risk. For that matter, a gym is a pretty bad place to unmask as well, since particles containing COVID pathogens are continuously shed through heavy breathing.
I never go maskless unless I'm outside and away from crowds. Anything less is playing with fire while covered in gasoline.
What is your reasoning for going maskless?
When I have a medical procedure where my mask would obstruct medical equipment and where not going through with the medical procedure would impact my health greater than long Covid.
Surgery is performed in clean rooms...right?
I don't want to know the answer.
Surgery is performed in clean rooms...right?
Surgical masks (which surgeons in most of the world use most of the time instead of proper respirators) are not airtight, so it is a clean room but everyone in it is breathing out the aerosolized contents of their respiratory systems for the entire procedure.
Went out recently. Didn’t think to wear a mask at all. Regret it as the transit was absolutely slammed. Will be masking going forward!
If you are cohabiting with someone that doesn’t automatically mean you get all their illnesses. I’ve missed things my partner gets and we sleep next to each other. I also don’t go everywhere that they do and vice versa.
If you are cohabiting with someone that doesn’t automatically mean you get all their illnesses. I’ve missed things my partner gets and we sleep next to each other.
That's comforting to hear. Maybe I will try masking up more when they don't.
You could look into getting a portable HEPA filter for where you live as well, these will help reduce risk of one of you infecting the other while at home. They aren't as good as proper source control with a respirator is of course, but definitely are still helpful. When my roommate caught COVID, my wife and them were interacting in the same room before we knew they had it and could take stricter precautions, and neither of us were infected thankfully.
so, fuck the person you live with.
outside on a breezy day is the lowest risk, but if you're going to be in a dense crowd you should still mask even outside.
Can't afford them anymore
potentially unwanted/useless advice
were you reusing them? to my understanding most masks can be used unless wet/soiled/deformed beyond providing a proper seal. we usually put a few (3-5 min) days in between usages and just keep multiple in rotation. apologies if you were doing stuff like this already and this was unhelpful but i hate to imagine someone who wants to mask but can't.
Potentially unwanted incredible deal on masks that might make it affordable
Have you seen the amazon deal I think still up for 440 masks for $30? Check the covid community.
With 3 re-uses each that's 3.5 years of daily masking. They're 7 cents each.
Only time I don’t mask is when no one is around.
I sympathize with the situation of living with people who don’t mask though. I only very recently was able to move out of my parents house, and from 2023 (when they stopped masking) to a couple of months ago was masking in the house. Only place I didn’t mask was my room (where I had a window open) and when taking a shower. Was able to have a window open and have the vent open when taking a shower though.
Fortunately in my situation I was in a mid-sized and very old middle class house, so there was a good amount of space and the house was very porous (for air exchange with the outside). My mom was working in a library the whole time and as far as I know I never got Covid. This was pretty extreme though and was very stressful, so I’m not sure if it is what you want to do. If you are in cramped living quarters it might be even harder. Even if you don’t mask at home though, I don’t think masking out of the home would have no benefit. Things like viral load affect the severity of the disease and chances of developing long Covid. Also as someone else said just cause your roommate gets Covid doesn’t mean you will. If you are able to keep air flow in your living space good it will be more possible to avoid. It’s easier to avoid Covid in a space with one other person than in a cramped space with a bunch of people. So I suppose it depends if you feel those benefits are substantial enough to justify continuing to mask. Or start masking in the house if it’s important to you.
I wear a mask on airplanes and public transit to protect against general respiratory illness. I do BJJ where it isn't really viable to wear a mask, which is probably my highest exposure risk. For grocery stores I had always been wearing a mask until recently, when some undiscernible shift started making it feel pointless. But I'm thinking I'll keep it as a flu season practice at least. Other than that I work from home; before I started working from home (pre-2020) I always picked up various illnesses from the office. I never wear a mask when just walking around outside on the street. Mostly I follow the lead of my spouse who is a doctor, although I'm more of a masker than they are outside of work.
One person I know professionally is still in total lockdown on a farm somewhere outside the city because of his immunocompromised wife. Another couple I know still wears masks everywhere, even just walking around outside. Nobody else I know wears a mask at all.
I mask around others if I'm not feeling well, or if flu or covid are spiking and I'm not up on my boosters yet, or if I'm in a crowded/higher risk space. most of the time I don't & it hasn't really mattered.
I'm really not convinced that being in the <5% of masked people is going to meaningfully help anyone else & I'm fine with the risk I've taken on for myself.
Yeah, helping people not die or develop crippling lifelong illnesses doesnt really help them
I live in a deeply reactionary area where widespread masking was literally never a thing. I can't tell you how many times I've been harassed for wearing a mask, and at times I've gone without after calculating whether the increased protection from COVID is worth the increase in physical threats in certain CHUD-rich environments.
Luckily the angry reactions seem to have died down a bit now that "the pandemic is over."
you're being dumb
I usually mask around anyone i wouldn't kiss or share smokes with. Doesn't feel right to share unfiltered air like that. I do go to house parties on occasion with no mask, but the first rule applies there usually which is why I don't.
I'm no longer masking, but Western Australia never had a lot of covid (this is hard to overstate - we had very, very little!), even less in the regional centre I live near (first confirmed case was 2022, and greater Bunbury is the second largest regional centre in the state) plus I'm a borderline hermit anyway. I'm considering taking it back up as a flu season practice but it really isn't a big issue, here. I wouldn't be masking over covid specifically, I would be masking to lower disease transmission more generally.