A Concerned Scientist @BE@qoto.org

@ixtility@urbanists.social

I found the BBC article I had looked at before. My takeaway is that what we called "mask mandates" in the US were probably "face covering rules" in the UK, but if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will tell me :)

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51205344

@ixtility@urbanists.social

That's totally fair, and I did wonder this at one point and did a little looking into it. The BBC, at least, distinguished between them in an article, so I made the assumption. I still could be wrong!

I know I've disparaged Trish Greenhalgh here previously for a couple of things, but, specifically refusing to say the word "mask" before, and instead using "face coverings" in places like her Oxford bio. So it's only fair that I post about her latest paper. I'd reply directly to where I said that before, but I can't search on this instance and I can't find it.

This is really good work, and specifically discusses different masks and respirators clearly.

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00124-23

@PartPurple

You're right, but, also, the way it was nearly enforced on my wife was that the grocery store called the cops about a woman following my wife around, and then the cop decided once she was in the parking lot she was violating the law. Scary times.

@Laukidh

I always appreciate more info an hadn't seen that one yet 👍

@Laukidh

Thank you for sharing that! I'd read both 8 and 13 in other articles, so I thought I was safe with "at least 8" but I'll see how it shakes out and correct accordingly. While I don't want to put out wrong info, I think the fact that it was anyone is the main takeaway here.

And here we go. Thanks to a couple of people for pointing this article out to me this morning.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/04/29/police-make-first-arrests-in-florida-of-pro-palestinian-protesters-at-two-university-campuses/

At least 8 people in Florida were charged with wearing a mask in public during these protests.

@PacificNic

Even when I started this thread, just 17 months ago, I was just starting to see it, too. I'm afraid that's where everywhere is headed, but I sincerely hope to be wrong. Maybe I just, somehow, have a seriously unhealthy cohort of friends and family, even though they mostly eat healthy, hike and work out a lot, etc.

I mean, if we take my wife's friend here, she lives in California, eats super healthy, is probably a medically perfect weight, goes to the gym every morning etc. This is not the person you would suspect to have health problems outside of a raging pandemic.

Having slept on this, and discussed over tea with my wife, we realized that with this latest health situation, we now can't think of a single person whom we interact with in real life that hasn't had a new onset health problem in the last 4 years. Not. One.

Small sample size, for sure, especially because we keep a small family and friend circle(we're both only children, for example). They range in age from my wife's friend, in just her 30's and now probably dealing with PEM, to my dad who is now in his upper 70's. We, literally, can't think of one person who we would describe as "fine" at this point.

I know it's not a statistically important sample size, but, if you really step back, imagine May of 2019, and think hard about it, who would have thought we'd be saying that 5 years later? And that everyone would say that it's normal and acceptable?

This week in 2019 we were preparing for a huge trip. We had Amtrak tickets and rental cars all lined up, and we visited 14 states, and spent some time in Washington DC, on a genealogical expedition throughout the whole summer. It was probably the best trip of our lives.

Mind blowing. That's all.