Are you keeping your mask on?

[dolphins4life]

I am for three reasons

1) it helps with my allergies

2) it protects against the flu

3) it means my customers cannot say I don’t smile

[Spider-Dan]

I'll probably wearing a mask on any form of mass public transit (bus, train, airplane) going forward, indefinitely.

Whenever I had to work in the Bay Area and ride their equivalent of the subway for more than a few days in a row, I would usually get sick.  Wearing a mask seems to have significantly cut down on catching colds, for me.

[ArtieChokePhin]

I don't wear government muzzles where I don't have to.  And now that Governor Desantis has dropped the mandate, I won't wear them.  The other day, this lady came in to Publix with a cute little puppy in a snugli pouch.  It had a service dog jacket so I kept my distance but admired how cute it was.  The lady was immediately hostile to me and said that it was a service dog and don't talk to it or her because I wasn't wearing a government muzzle.  My response, "This is Florida.  Government muzzles are not required.   So you can take that libtard bullshit back to whatever blue state you came here from."

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Whenever I had to work in the Bay Area and ride their equivalent of the subway for more than a few days in a row, I would usually get sick.  Wearing a mask seems to have significantly cut down on catching colds, for me.

2) it protects against the flu

My understanding is that masks do very little to protect the wearer.  It is everybody else wearing masks that protects you from catching the flu or cold.

I won’t be wearing masks when not required except when *I* am felling under the weather or someone in my household is sick, to prevent myself from spreading germs to other.  But unless *I* have reason to think *I* could be likely to spread germs, I wouldn’t wear one for protection because it doesn’t offer much protection.

[Fau Teixeira]

I'll wear one if I'm sick, or if the establishment requires one still. If I'm out with my kid, he's 9 so hasn't been vaccinated yet and I'm not going to require that he remain masked if I'm unwilling to wear one as well.

[Spider-Dan]

My understanding is that masks do very little to protect the wearer.  It is everybody else wearing masks that protects you from catching the flu or cold.

I believe that statement applies to COVID, but not necessarily to everything else.  Wearing a mask can help protect the wearer from other (airborne) diseases, according to a 2009 study published in the CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal.

Masks Protect Against Colds, Flu

They may look silly but a new study finds surgical masks are your best protection against a cold or the flu.

Donning a face mask — either a surgical mask or a P2/N95 respirator mask (high particulate filter mask) — boosts protection from severe respiratory illnesses such as influenza and SARS, say researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). These masks are not necessarily the same as the dust masks that some people use when cleaning or doing construction work.

In the study, adult mask wearers in the home were four times more likely than non-wearers to be protected against respiratory viruses, including the common cold.

The findings, detailed this week in Emerging Infectious Diseases, the journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have global implications and are particularly relevant to efforts to combat the spread of flu pandemics and other emerging respiratory diseases such as SARS.[...]

[EDGECRUSHER]

Whatever you want to do is fine, but if you want to consistently wear a mask, make sure you are brushing your teeth several times per day. Your mouth is like an exhaust pipe in that it exhales crap you shouldn't be breathing in. This has led to many mouth and sinus infections the past year. So, just take care of your teeth by brushing or using mouthwash and you should be okay.

[Spider-Dan]

Whatever you want to do is fine, but if you want to consistently wear a mask, make sure you are brushing your teeth several times per day. Your mouth is like an exhaust pipe in that it exhales crap you shouldn't be breathing in. This has led to many mouth and sinus infections the past year.

Source?  I haven't heard of anyone getting a mouth or sinus infection from their own breath.

I also don't know if brushing your teeth has disinfectant properties.  My understanding is that it primarily dislodges the bacteria that are feeding on food remnants on your teeth.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Source?  I haven't heard of anyone getting a mouth or sinus infection from their own breath.

I also don't know if brushing your teeth has disinfectant properties.  My understanding is that it primarily dislodges the bacteria that are feeding on food remnants on your teeth.

I do work in the medical field in terms of food and nutrition. Sources are entirely anecdotal, but I have spoken to many dentists in the past year and they all said the same thing. The number of patients coming in with infections has doubled and that's even with factoring in how business has been down across the board due to lockdowns. This is the NY/NJ area, maybe it's different in other parts of the country.

[Spider-Dan]

There may be more infections, but that doesn't necessarily link it to wearing a mask.

I've never seen anything saying that surgeons and other (pre-COVID) mask-wearing medical professionals have a higher incidence of oral and sinus infections.