Matt BlazeMay 28, 2025

With new COVID-19 variants looming and renewed attacks on vaccines, masks, and other basic preventative measures, I just want to mention that:

- I still routinely mask up in crowded or poorly ventilated spaces. I mask on planes and trains. I teach with my mask on.

- I test any time I'm feeling under the weather.

- I plan to get the updated vaccine.

I'd *prefer* not to do any of this, but at worst, it's in the "mild inconvenience" category, and far preferable to long-term disability.

Show threadMatt BlazeMay 28, 2025
The COVID virus doesn't care who you voted for. I'm not masking up and getting vaccinated to make a political statement. I'm doing it to protect my health.
Show threadMatt Blaze

There are all sorts of inconveniences I put up with. I wait in lines. I take out the trash. I pay my taxes and bills. I wait at red lights. All that stuff “wastes” valuable time, money, and energy, yet most of us still do them.

Putting on a mask is a drop in the bucket by comparison.

May 28, 2025 at 8:37pmWeb
Show threadlnmnkatzMay 28, 2025
@mattblaze But, putting on a mask is a sign of weakness ... it could indicate that you might actually consider other people besides yourself. Can't do that!
Show threadNorman WilsonMay 28, 2025
@mattblaze You wait at red lights? I thought you were a New Yorker.
Show threadlnmnkatzMay 28, 2025
@oclsc @mattblaze Certainly not a Bostonian
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 28, 2025
@lou @oclsc move to DC and you die if you don’t adapt.
Show threadNorman WilsonMay 29, 2025
@mattblaze @lou I find myself having to code-switch. When I was a youngster in California, everyone took traffic lights seriously. Then I moved to New Jersey where it didn't matter because nobody expected pedestrians, but when I visited Manhattan I had to learn to be willing to walk through red lights when there was a crowd or get run over. Then I moved to Toronto, where (back then, not so much now) people don't, but occasionally visited New York/urban New Jersey, where they do.
Show threadNorman WilsonMay 29, 2025
@mattblaze @lou I suppose motorists feel the same about right-turn-on-red, though perhaps not since motorists seem everywhere to have become self-centred and outraged at the very concept of rules of the road.
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 29, 2025
@oclsc @lou Yep. Definitely a thing where in some places you get killed if you jaywalk, in other places it marks you as a tourist if you don't and everyone around you eats you alive.
Show threadNorman WilsonMay 29, 2025
@mattblaze @lou In Toronto in the 1990s you wouldn't get killed, just embarrassed. People would say hey buddy, you're supposed to wait for the green light.
Show threadmathewMay 29, 2025
@mattblaze @lou @oclsc Move to Minnesota and people sometimes stop even when there are no lights and no stop signs.
Show threadlnmnkatzJun 1, 2025
@mathew @mattblaze @oclsc They have to stop to take another bite of their lutefisk and lefse.
Show threadChristian HuitemaMay 28, 2025
@mattblaze Putting on a mask is not that hard, but it really is a tradeoff. A large part of human communication is non-verbal, and looking at faces is part of that because faces convey emotions. Masking goes in the way of that. So we have a tradeoff between safety and human connections. I would expect different people resolving that tradeoff differently based on circumstances.
Show threadRichard JohnsonMay 28, 2025

@huitema @mattblaze

Clear-faced N95 filter masks are a win both ways. Most of the nonverbal comes through fine

Show threadMatt BlazeMay 28, 2025

@huitema There are some things wearing a mask can impede. But so what? People deal with risks and benefits all the time. And we can weigh things differently. It’s fine.

But this underlying premise that any inconvenience is inherently unacceptable is complete bullshit. The only answer to that is “grow up already”.

Show threadBob CollinsMay 28, 2025

@mattblaze @huitema

My guess is that the prime offenders are the conservatives who decry that any change is an offense.

Show threadMozMay 28, 2025

@huitema @mattblaze people who are concerned about that can buy transparent masks with everything from a window over just the lips to (reusable) transparent bubbles with filters at the sides.

But right now going out of my way to make maskless people comfortable doesn't seem worth while. They DGAF about my safety, let's focus on that.

Show threadNorman WilsonMay 29, 2025
@huitema @mattblaze Putting on pants is not that hard, but it really is a tradeoff. A large part of human communication these days, at least amongst those who complain about wearing masks, is obsessing about others' genitals. Wearing pants gets in the way of that.
Show threadMax LeibmanMay 28, 2025
@mattblaze Exactly. I do dozens of things each day that are a bigger hassle and more annoying than putting on a mask. If I have to drive to the goddamn grocery store and shop, anyhow, putting on a mask wow I am there doesn’t even register.
Show threadD2May 28, 2025
@mattblaze yes! In return I don’t have to grow my food, maintain a horse paddock (or make a car), buy & run my own labs for food and water quality, make and maintain roads and firefighting capability and bridges and etc.
Show threadFlaming CheetoMay 28, 2025

@mattblaze

https://mastodon.online/@PizzaDemon/114095883708584391

Flaming Cheeto (@[email protected])

Murphy's Law of masking: if you pause outside a shop to put on a mask, at least one group of unmasked people will enter while you're donning it. Now you get to defend yourself against their exhalations as well Correllary: if ordering at a counter, you will know what you want and the unmasked group in front of you will not #CovidIsNotOver

Mastodon
Show threadPeter LudemannMay 28, 2025

@mattblaze In Japan, you wear a mask when you're a little sick, to protect *other* people. And other people in turn wear masks to protect you - quid pro quo.

Why doesn't this kind of reasoning work in the US?