More U.S. hospitals are requiring masks and limiting visitors as health officials face an expected but still nasty post-holiday spike in flu, COVID-19 and other illnesses.
While many experts say this season likely won’t prove to be as deadly as some other recent winters, it still could mean hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and many thousands of deaths across the country.
New York City last week instituted a mask mandate for the city’s 11 public hospitals. Similar measures were ordered last week at some hospitals in Los Angeles and Massachusetts. Some hospitals reinstated masking rules for employees months ago, in anticipation of a seasonal rush of sick people.
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I understand I am an outlier for still masking up in stores and other crowded spaces where I won’t be eating or whatever but…
I do not understand how people were not masking at hospitals the entire time. At the best of times that is a den of germs and mrsa. Hell, any given waiting room is usually full of people who are there BECAUSE they are sick. But, every time I head in for blood work or whatever, even a lot of the nurses and doctors don’t bother to mask up. Let alone the people in the waiting room.
I still wear a mask pretty much everywhere indoors. I’m healthy, and I would like to stay that way. Also, it’s just plain considerate to all immunocompromised people. I’m so furious with all the people disregarding the health of others. Recently had a long meeting with scientists, and two of them were plainly sick, not wearing masks. Of course my colleagues got sick a few days later. Jesus Christ.
because masks are that uncomfortable to the point where people would rather risk illness than constantly wear a thing on their face that makes breathing and talking and emoting more challenging
If a (K)N95 mask is making breathing “more challenging” then you need to mask up immediately and go see a doctor because you already have serious respiratory issues and any illness is that much more dangerous.
Regarding speaking (BS) and emoting (I’ll give you that): I can see an argument for medical professionals who would have to wear them almost all day. But… they already do have to wear them in a lot of situations and you kind of learn how to communicate.
But for a normal person? Are you really having those long and heartfelt conversations in a hospital waiting room?
Surgical tech here - I’ve been working in a hospital for this whole crazy ride. N95s work via seal and filter - they absolutely make it harder to breathe, by design. If yours isn’t, you probably don’t have a good seal. BUT the resistance it adds to in-/exhaling is an annoyance at worse: the folks gasping and complaining that they “can’t breathe” are dramatic little shits.
They do chew your face up a bit after even a week or so of wearing it from start to finish of every shift. Little sore, little raw - again, an annoyance, not a show-stopper.
Hospital staff are just as whiney and petty as any other slice of the population though, so when you ask them to tolerate an annoyance like that, they bitch and refuse to comply until the policy is either changed or blatantly not enforced. And we can’t just fire all the idiots, cuz we’re already short staffed EVERYWHERE, and even though Kyle in the Ortho clinic is spreading misinformation as fast as he is pathogens, he can run an ORIF fucking quick, and we’re booked out till March, so we’re stuck with him.
The biggest problem is that we politicized a fucking virus, and apparently our education and expertise go out the window the second some Nazi on Fox says he knows better than the entirety of the medical field.
Anyway, you and the previous poster are both mostly right, just remember that harder to breathe ≠ can’t breathe; and don’t underestimate the amount of damage a healthcare worker will do under the influence of Fox.
A slightly higher pollen count in the air can make it “harder to breathe”. Hell, someone who doesn’t understand how to wear cologne/perfume makes it “harder to breathe”. Entertaining that even slightly just emboldens the idiots.
But yeah. Masking every day from 9 to 5 (or 4 to 23…) sucks. I would kind of expect the associated callouses to be developed by this point, but I do “get it” at the crazier hospitals/floors. But the waiting rooms and lab techs tend to have significantly more “down time” while also having a LOT more exposure to people who are actively sick. Which, ignoring covid for the moment… is still shitty.
If a (K)N95 mask is making breathing “more challenging” then you need to mask up immediately and go see a doctor because you already have serious respiratory issues and any illness is that much more dangerous.
Sure, it’s not Very Challenging like the right wing loons kept saying, but it is objectively more uncomfortable, having fabric right next to your nose and mouth, getting soggy from the condensation. Having to do that all day, especially four years later when most of society has decided this is over and wants zero reminders of 2020, isn’t going to win a lot of fans. I think it’s human nature that you’d rather just get sick at some point than do something every day, indefinitely, that you [the royal you] find uncomfortable.
Regarding speaking (BS)
Some people have quiet voices, some people have speech impediments, some people have to work in loud environments where they already had to strain to be heard. Asking someone to put up with that all day at work shouldn’t be treated trivially.
But… they already do have to wear them in a lot of situations and you kind of learn how to communicate.
I guess, but generally it feels somewhat alien and off trying to converse with someone with a mask. Especially for sensitive medical conversations, it can feel that much more hostile or unsettling.
Are you really having those long and heartfelt conversations in a hospital waiting room?
In a hospital at least. Some of the worst stories I read in 2020 were the ones about people who had to say goodbye to loved ones through a plastic sheet – or who weren’t allowed in the room at all, due to arbitrary protocol. I guarantee 100% of people would rather get COVID for a few weeks if it meant they could say a proper goodbye to a parent.
Sure, they’re effective devices when worn properly. But people aren’t going to want to wear them properly, in year four of this, when they present so many irritating little barriers to normal human life. It’s fatiguing to the mind and spirit having to do this day in, day out, especially if you’ve already got a shot and/or gotten sick already anyway. People in general would rather just take their chances and hope their immune system is strong.
having fabric right next to your nose and mouth, getting soggy from the condensation
An actual N95, KN95, or KF94 mask does not stick to your nose and mouth and will have an air pocket. I’ve played basketball wearing a KF94 mask and had no problems breathing. And that’s coming from someone with shit conditioning and runs out of breath quickly. A basic cloth or surgical mask was definitely worse because it felt like being waterboarded when it was full of sweat and directly on my nose and mouth.
If you think a mask is uncomfortable, you should try a respirator.
Sure, it’s not Very Challenging like the right wing loons kept saying, but it is objectively more uncomfortable, having fabric right next to your nose and mouth, getting soggy from the condensation. Having to do that all day, especially four years later when most of society has decided this is over and wants zero reminders of 2020, isn’t going to win a lot of fans. I think it’s human nature that you’d rather just get sick at some point than do something every day, indefinitely, that you [the royal you] find uncomfortable.
It isn’t just right wing loons propagating FUD because they are so privileged they have never even stood next to someone with BO on a train. So many things in life are “objectively more uncomfortable” and the impact of a (K)N95 is nothing compared to things like perfume, pollen, or congestion because of illness.
And if your mask is getting “soggy from the condensation”: Assuming you are wearing an actual (K)N95 and not just a shitty do-rag you hold up to your mouth: Go see a fucking doctor.
Some people have quiet voices, some people have speech impediments, some people have to work in loud environments where they already had to strain to be heard. Asking someone to put up with that all day at work shouldn’t be treated trivially.
Again, if you are wearing a real mask, yelling is not at all an issue. As for the “close talkers”: Those are the people who probably SHOULD mask up since they need to lean in super close for anyone to hear them.
Also, it isn’t like we didn’t have a year or two of practice in all this…
In a hospital at least. Some of the worst stories I read in 2020 were the ones about people who had to say goodbye to loved ones through a plastic sheet – or who weren’t allowed in the room at all, due to arbitrary protocol. I guarantee 100% of people would rather get COVID for a few weeks if it meant they could say a proper goodbye to a parent.
I can’t speak to every single hospital, but I have only ever seen people being treated and cordoned off in the waiting room during a really nasty earthquake that I was doing volunteer work during. So… not sure how that is at all relevant to sitting in the hospital waiting room next to the people queueing for blood work, the girl with a sprained ankle, and the ten people coughing up a lung.
But also: If you are in a situation where people would need to be cordoned off with plastic sheets… well, I guess some people want to see their loved ones again ASAP.
No they aren’t. Grow some balls. Grab those bootstraps. Be a patriot. Wear a mask to protect other people if you have no concern for yourself.
An entire company full of truckers in my store every day is infected. They don’t care. They’re in there every day. “Wheeeeeze, wheeeeeze, snot, suck, snot. I gawt tuh coe vid uh-geeyun. Cough, cough, hack, hack!”
Proceeds to walk out side and spray snot and loogies everywhere.
And it’s looking like my poor old coworker is infected and I’m gonna be pulling a double. Yippeee.
It’s no wonder it keeps getting bad.
Shit when did Lil Wayne get COVID
