Poll - COVID-19 Mask-Wearing

[San Bernardhinault]

You're an optimistic man.

[S. aureus]

So when I put it on I have this pinkish and massively oversized smile. It is incredibly creepy and makes me feel pretty unwell..

But when you have it on you don't need to look at it, or is your house full of mirrors?
I can see how your wife wearing it would be strange, though.

[Femme Folle]

[Femme Folle]

Mine are all handmade.

[ursus arctos]

Those are lovely

[Incandenza]

SB, why is your wife wearing a mask inside your house?

Mrs. Inca has been sewing them for a while now. I'll have to take some photos. She bought some from a local artist that I think look nice (they have his signature graffiti art look), and they are very soft, which is nice, but there is no structural element that goes on the bridge of the nose, and my glasses start fogging immediately. I've tried the "wash your lenses with soap and let them air dry" trick, but that only lasts for a little bit, it seems.

I have been considering going back to contacts since glasses with a mask can be annoying. My glasses hide the black circles under my eyes that make me look almost catatonic, though.

[San Bernardhinault]

SB, why is your wife wearing a mask inside your house?

Purely to mock me and make me feel uncomfortable.

[Femme Folle]

SB, why is your wife wearing a mask inside your house?

Mrs. Inca has been sewing them for a while now. I'll have to take some photos. She bought some from a local artist that I think look nice (they have his signature graffiti art look), and they are very soft, which is nice, but there is no structural element that goes on the bridge of the nose, and my glasses start fogging immediately. I've tried the "wash your lenses with soap and let them air dry" trick, but that only lasts for a little bit, it seems.

I have been considering going back to contacts since glasses with a mask can be annoying. My glasses hide the black circles under my eyes that make me look almost catatonic, though.

One of my friends posted a meme thing on FB showing how you can use a strip of surgical tape across the top of your mask to keep the air from leaking up and fogging your glasses.

[Sporting]

Any updates or changes? Here masks are still obligatory outside and compliance is pretty much universal, though masks do frequently drop down the face, as it were.

Also, how long do people here keep using one mask? I'm working from home a lot more than before so need to wear a mask only for maybe an hour a day on average. That said, perhaps two weeks is rather too long between the changing of the masks?

Finally, are people washing or discarding masks?

[Sam]

Missed this first time round. Here they're obligatory in public, which in practice means a significant minority don't bother with them outdoors but pretty much everyone wears them indoors. We both wear ours everywhere, although I've started not wearing mine when I'm on my bike (which is allowed) as I find it quite uncomfortable when breathing deeply while wearing one. We have two cloth ones each which were given to us by my girlfriend's aunt who decided, presumably because I'm a BLOODY BLOKE, that a nice macho military camo pattern would be the design I'd want for both of mine, so I wear them the other way round (fortunately they're reversible) and have a rather boring single colour as a result. I'd prefer something prettier but they're about as comfortable as I can hope for, although the way the seams are done means they'd be more comfortable if I wore them camo side out. Next time we're in her part of town I'll probably pop into the shop she bought them in and get a nicer design for myself.

We hand-wash ours about once a week.

[ad hoc]

Here it's mixed. In towns it;s pretty much universal, whereas in villages it seems to be connected to who the mayor is. I've been in villages where everyone wears them (not in the fields, but walking around the village and so on), which appears to be because there are signs everywhere and encouragement coming from the commune's authorities. In others (like the one I live in), there is no such nudging and encouragement and very few people wear them, even in the shops.

In Istanbul as mentioned in that other thread, wearing was pretty much universal, at least 95% or higher.

[Sporting]

as I find it quite uncomfortable when breathing deeply while wearing one

Me too.

[ad hoc]

One thing that came to mind in Istanbul was the fact that I have yet to see a mask in football colours. Anyone familiar with the city will know that wearing the colours of one of the big three teams there is pretty common...and yet I noted that I have yet to see anyone in any form of football-colour mask anywhere. Do these exist anywhere? Do you in your city, wherever you may be, see people walking around in football team branded masks?

[Nefertiti2]

I saw someone in a Spurs mask yesterday

[Benjm]

I've got a couple of Wolves masks because they were fast out of the blocks into production when non-disposable masks were still quite hard to find. They aren't in the everyday rotation now.

Covering one's face in a football context doesn't have entirely positive connotations. Dunno whether that's a factor in uptake of football branded masks though.

[DCI Harry Batt]

We sell a couple, and I've seen photos of people in them. Not for me.

[hobbes]

Still using a combo of my New Wave bands ones (comfortable, but fairly ineffective without a filter as they're stitched all the way through both layers)) the British Designers ones (good but VERY thick) and a couple I got from some place in Italy when masks were like gold dust.

[Patrick Thistle]

We tend to use them once and then chuck them in the wash. Mrs Thistle bought several packs reduced in the Disney Store so we have a mix of Disney Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel ones. I also have a Welsh flag one and we have some plain white ones that are getting a bit tatty.

Most people wear them in shops and stuff. It's rare to see a person not wearing them. More kids than I'd expect wear them as well.

[Satchmo Distel]

Florida has a similar urban/rural split to the one ad hoc describes, as does the GOP south generally. It's mainly perilous if you're driving and need to make a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. The split even extends to waiting and counter staff, who will be maskless in a rural (Trump) county. De Santis has obviously been a disgrace on the issue. I imagine that Georgia and N Carolina still have that split, which we encountered last summer, whereby Savannah was strict but rural Georgia couldn't give a fuck.

[jwdd27]

I wear one all day at work, those get put in the wash after a day's use, but my popping to the shop ones get a few outings before they get chucked in.

Compliance in store is about 85%, of the 15% about half have lanyards self-proclaiming themselves exempt, the rest are too thick or obnoxious to put one on - young, conventionally attractive females and black men of all ages most likely to just not wear one.
The two beer car parks (well, they weren't gardens) that I passed yesterday were packed, with no masks in sight. And the amount of people pissing it up at midday on a Monday was shameful.

[San Bernardhinault]

We wash the cloth ones after a couple of days. The high-ish quality paper ones we throw out after a handful of uses.

There's pretty much universal wearing indoors, here. I've been into one plumbing supply shop where nobody was masked and it was obviously a political statement and completely weird and I'm never going back there, but otherwise I don't think I've seen someone indoors unmasked except for indoor dining which has resumed.

I think technically the mask mandate applies to "all public spaces" still. This is obviously nonsense and people are beginning to show a bit more common sense in the outdoors. You'll still see someone walking alone on a trail with a mask on, which is just ridiculous. Or when there are people on opposite sides of the road they remain masked - and there are sometimes very disapproving looks when you aren't masked. Even though we all know that outdoor transmission when in the presence of another person for less than a few minutes is almost completely impossible. If I'm in the city I'll wear a mask because then you can be close to people, but out here in the sticks I never do. I certainly never wear one on the bike. I have seen joggers desperately pulling up their mask as I cycle past and that feels like some extreme overkill.

Meanwhile, 6 miles north of here there's no state mask mandate at all - New Hampshire rescinded theirs last week. Some cities are keeping mask mandates in place, but there are places in the state where you can shop indoors unmasked. And that feels very premature even though they are well ahead on vaxxing.

[Satchmo Distel]

SB, what did you make of Charleston? I was there in July: gorgeous but another world. Masking compliance seemed OK, unlike the rest of the state, which was abysmal (the worst I experienced; mayors and police were walking into restaurants without masks).

[ad hoc]

SB: I've assumed that the benefits of outdoor mask wearing are primarily about alertness and awareness. In the village I live in where people don't typically wear masks outside, they also don't in shops. In places where people do wear masks outside, there is, in general, a lot more caution and so on (plus of course people are wearing masks inside too). So, while the actual wearing of masks outside is probably not making a lot of difference there, it is making a significant difference in general

[San Bernardhinault]

That's interesting, ad hoc. In San Diego masking was universal indoors but largely relaxed outdoors. But, yes, elsewhere the choice seems to lie between either overkill or no masks at all. It doesn't help that the CDC and others have not been giving good guidelines on this and seem to be a long way behind the science. Which does nothing for confidence in their decision making.

Satchmo - I absolutely love Charleston as a place. And I love that it is its own other world. Very southern, with all the southern charm. But without a lot of the more politically problematic elements of the South. Which meant, as you noted, that mask protocol was fairly good. Mostly people unmasked on the street but sometimes pulled one up when walking past you. Fully masked in the very few indoor places I went.

[Antepli Ejderha]

One thing that came to mind in Istanbul was the fact that I have yet to see a mask in football colours. Anyone familiar with the city will know that wearing the colours of one of the big three teams there is pretty common...and yet I noted that I have yet to see anyone in any form of football-colour mask anywhere. Do these exist anywhere? Do you in your city, wherever you may be, see people walking around in football team branded masks?

A quick Google search has many available for Beşiktaş, I cannot believe they aren't being worn. Football colours are everywhere.

https://www.kartalyuvasi.com.tr/urun...-maske-832873/