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.
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.
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
Matt Blaze
Flaming Cheeto