the mask

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Comments

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    I am required to wear a mask at work, but only when there are customers in the store. I work in a small family owned gourmet kitchen and gift store. Thankfully, I get to choose the mask. I do not enjoy wearing one, but as it is required I comply. I don't necessarily wear it for me. I wear it out of courtesy to my employers, co-workers (my 67 year old co-worker is not only struggling through what has happened in the past few months, but has also had cancer hit her son and then her husband in that same time period) and to the mostly 60 and older population that comes in.

    We appreciate it when those who wish to shop with us follow the requirement. The majority of the population that walk through the doors are wearing a mask. There is a small percentage however that are belligerent and rude to us. We only work there, we don't make the rules. We politely stand our ground and they generally concede after a few angry words. If not, they leave with great drama. We get it, you're frustrated, but really, they are adults. There doesn't need to be tantrums, harsh words, eye rolling or a you're stepping on my rights - I can sue you mentality aimed at us. Requiring a mask is no different than No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service. Please be gracious to the employees. Please be gracious to everyone, no one knows what others are battling in all of this.

  • dalans
    dalans Posts: 35 ✭✭✭

    I am a Registered Nurse and work in a Long Term Care/Skilled Nursing facility. We are required to wear a mask if we are within 6 foot of a resident. Mask are great until you wear one all day. It is not recommended to wear masks with vents in them as it's easier for the virus to pass through. @shllnzl if your sister is wearing her mask until it becomes wet, the mask is no longer doing any good. If the company is requiring the workers to wear a specific mask so they all look the same, your sister and the other workers need to ask the company to provide an extra one or two so they can switch out. Tell her not to grab the mask in the front, to take it off by the straps. It would be a good idea to have a ziplock bag to put the wet one in, then take it home and drop it straight in a hot water washing. @VickiP and @andrea745 the face shield isn't a good idea if you're not wearing a mask as the virus can be in the air coming under the shield. Besides wearing a mask some of the most important things to remember is not to touch your face and eyes with unwashed hands, wash hands with soap and water frequently for at least 20 seconds, and when you can't wash your hands use alcohol gel. It is true that asymptomatic people with the virus can pass the virus to others. I know of a facility in another city close to mine that had 1 asymptomatic worker that tested positive. The entire facility had to be tested. They ended up with many residents and staff testing positive. All of them were asymptomatic. So you never know and you can never be too careful.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We need to get a solution, that's for sure. Have you heard the so-called plans for re-opening K-12 schools? Social distancing and making young kids wear masks all day? The same teacher all day that MIGHT work for elementary school.

    Have none of these people been in our crowded schools? I used to work for a school district -- I went into a middle school classroom where there were so many kids that some had to sit on the desk writing surfaces just so they could sit down. One of the high schools was so crowded that they converted a janitor closet into a classroom.

    I vote that we let the kids attend school the old-fashioned way and we susceptible people protect ourselves.

  • One thing I haven't seen yet in this discussion is a summary of the science behind these health recommendations, so here is one from 26 June 2020 on where the current medical thinking is.

    It's a good introductory article, but cites the studies it is quoting, so you can follow the science back to the source and make your own decision.

    This is a very emotional issue for me, since my wife is in a high risk category, and I don't think I can participate in this discussion in any further useful way.

    This will be my only post here.

    I believe in giving people access to the facts, to let them understand the science that drove policy makers to make the current recommendations. This isn't a perfect situation for anyone.

    https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent?fbclid=IwAR2sorLv0yxMAG7Z0uEjnNKUd46clrXb2_iqoLCOUZiWrJMv4Q-BwA6cO9I

  • sunflowerstressrelief
    sunflowerstressrelief Posts: 29 ✭✭✭

    As the mask is mandatory (for now) we are apparently without choice in how we protect ourselves while in public. The circumstance is very frustrating, particularly if wearing a mask makes us feel bad, or worse, if we feel that wearing one is detrimental to our physical, mental and emotional health.

    Some convincing studies are circulating on Mercola.com and elsewhere and I’m sure many have heard the news: The new studies state there are serious physical and psychological health risks associated with wearing this contraption long term. The masking process is also shown as quite ineffective in stopping viral spread, and as many medical workers are saying so, (at the least the brave ones are); we have to develop another solution, and yes, our personal choice and research in how to boost our immune systems is key one. Thank goodness we have our plant savvy group here to brainstorm this one!

    There is also some convincing evidence that gut health is key to a vibrant and well-operating immune system (as well as optimum brain functioning) so I went wild this past weekend and made large batches of kefir, yoghurt, kimchi and sauerkraut for my friends and family. It was super relaxing and felt nice to make the contribution.

  • sunflowerstressrelief
    sunflowerstressrelief Posts: 29 ✭✭✭

    Back to breathing for one last round: Our immune systems are negatively impacted because while masked we are not exhaling waste normally and completely. We are also repetitively inhaling more so germs and bacteria-laden moisture bred within the masking environment and —well, our nervous systems are irritated for good reason because we are taking in at least 20% less oxygen! Reduced oxygen levels are of prime concern not only because of brain function issues and other hemoglobin issues but as well, most of us are no-nonsense and unwilling to participate in practices that make us sick—This is pretty simple. All at once our freedom of choice in how we manage our personal health is at risk of being taken however, and our collective health is now being managed by an unseen and very diligent group of policy-driven controllers, and their rules when enforced remind us to obey (or else).

    As we deal with these freedom and personal health rights issues, we must remain active and diligent in focusing on proving or disproving whether this mask contraption and social distancing are really helpful or harmful and then we must speak up because if we don’t...well, um, after weighing all of the evidence thus far I will add that nope and not so much does the mask seem to be proven as helpful for anything but blocking our inherent ability to smell, for one, and to communicate clearly through our speech and facial expressions for another, and this is clearly debilitating psychologically...

    To then view one another as a potentially harmful health hazard if exposed (even if we are without symptoms); the entire process of mask-wearing and social distancing yields results—results that unfortunately compromise our immune and nervous systems and how we relate to one another. Here we find ourselves then in conflict or cognitive dissonance and as we learn to cope many are super-emotionally charged about this life-or-death issue for grand reason: our quality of life is at risk of being taken.

    With some solutions in mind, as we continue with our personal research on the mask, and as we hopefully focus furthermore on caring for our own immune systems, I’m wondering if we might add something to the mask as a retrofit like some drops of soothing essential oil or perhaps we might sew or velcro a little pocket for a sprig of fragrant herbs. This small add-on might help to reduce that panicky feeling and as well might prove to be a nice and profitable little DIY home project for our sewing aficionados!

  • MelissaLynne
    MelissaLynne Posts: 205 ✭✭✭

    Here is another summary of the science of masks pros/cons from Dr Sarah Ballantyne’s blog. She is really good at giving the science behind things in a practical way. We are required to wear them in public in Washington, but living in a small town rural area you see a lot of people ignoring the guidelines...some have valid reasons, but largely just laziness, or because it is ‘uncool’ and uncomfortable.

    https://www.thepaleomom.com/covid-19-face-masks/

  • Adantae
    Adantae Posts: 13 ✭✭✭

    Really appreciating the liberty of full expression here with the above post and there's so much to on both sides of the aisle but one thing remains: practice common sense based on the timeless principles of good solid science is not necessarily the flavor of the day, opinion or what appears to be a party line.

    As a former emergency medical technician we understood the value of ambient air oxygen and the percentage of oxygen when it's available as you breathe every day which according to New York State is 21% were slightly lower when you breathe out you breathe out CO2 and very little oxygen or as they say utilizable or functional oxygen. If that CO2 does not have the ability to be exhausted by your body as a natural form of detoxifying via your daily breath and maintaining homeostasis within your body chemistry as a result of this natural exhaustion, then naturally of course your internal metabolic process i.e. blood pH saliva pH urine pH and other necessary functions i.e. again vital functions will be compromised. Whenever CO2 is backed up in the body, the oxygen rate lowers it's a chemistry law there cannot be an abundance of oxygen running through your body when your CO2 rate is increasing its just not possible, but yet it is possible but it's consequential I digress.

    If children in the field picking food with a mask and the heat is rising the molecules of CO2 are expanding and they exhaust their breath this creates a very volatile as well as a stressor on the body triggering inflammation so the body now has to cope with another stressor second by second, this can be a burden based on the irrefutable nonnegotiable evidence-based timeless principles of physiology and basic biochemistry that has never been questioned because it so necessary for life the actual exchange dare I say the proper exchange a breathing.

    I can add a millennial of references at each sentence of statement here but I am so excited and thrilled and I do feel well comforted by our community that is so highly intelligent and common sense driven that for the first time in a long while I feel that there is no need to provide additional references that have already been so well place above this post.

    Here's to breathing again :-)