I was wondering the same thing recently when I saw a person walking outdoors wearing a lose fitting fabric mask covering only their mouth, not their nose. The conclusion I came to is that person must be aware that their breath smells terrible, so they wear the mask to prevent others from smelling their breath. And the mask is worn under their nose so they don’t have to smell their own breath.

FWIW, I wear an N95. It fits well, and I wear it properly. In my office everyone wears a mask. And I make sure they (patients and staff) wear it correctly. Imagine, knowing the way to significantly reduce the chance of getting any respiratory infection, to the point where one might never have that again. Colds, influenza, RSV, Covid, etc could all be so minimal. But then not using that knowledge (masking, hand washing, distancing and isolation if one is sick), and getting sick. And getting other people sick, too.

A lot of misinformation was spread through the course of the pandemic, which had adverse consequences - increased mortality and morbidity.

I’ve met people who are fine with, and seem to understand the reason for wearing a mask… but then in practice it’s “it makes it harder to breathe”, “my glasses fog up”, “I don’t feel like they understand me without seeing my mouth”… well, covering your mouth while spitting speaking is a big part of the reason to wear a mask… but they’ll wear the mask all right outside, then come inside and move it down to their chin to speak 🤦

I honestly don’t understand why wearing a mask seem such a big deal for a lot of people.

From where I live, people wear masks are pretty common, when they are sick, when they go to congested locations (trains, buses), when they just don’t feel like wearing make up. And this is **BEFORE **COVID.

Now people just returned to normal circumstances, which is they wear mask when they feel the need to instead of everywhere.

Its good. It makes you less likely to get influenza. It makes people more comfortable in meetings because their saliva can’t fly into your face. It makes facial recognition more difficult. Its good for privacy.

It’s so surreal to see posts about masks and Covid.

I live in Denmark. At the beginning of last year, the government decided that Covid was no longer a critical threat, and all restrictions were removed on February 1st, 2022.

I have not seen a single mask since. I’ve heard Covid mentioned here maybe twice in the past year, with maybe one family I know getting infected in that period (that I know of…).

My wife and I were Team Restrictions, in the aggressively cautious (and scared) end of the spectrum. Two young daughters; those of you with kids (especially little ones) will probably know the crippling fear of losing your children.

Then one day the government decides it’s just over, we can’t be bothered with this anymore, and there was nothing we could do about it. Most of the country seemed very happy with the whole thing, certainly most people we know (and most of them had received our secret scorn for their borderline indifference to caution and protocol).

And then time passed, and some more time, and I went from checking in on the hardcore epidemiologists on Twitter daily — the ones constantly (and correctly!) pointing out that the decision to “cancel Covid” was insane, 100% political and in complete denial of the available data — to completely forgetting Covid happened.

2 years of hell, and for more than a year it’s been completely out of my thoughts. It’s absolutely mind-blowing. Especially since this is not the reality everywhere else. I don’t think about Covid anymore, at all, unless something like this post reminds me it’s still alive and kicking.

I would understand if they wore it on their chin outside or not near people and put it back up when inside or close or talking to people. Still good practice to do so if you’re sick and contagious. And fine to take a rest from wearing it outside.

Yesterday while grocery shopping two men walked by as I was contemplating bread choices. One of them was saying, “yeah, it’s ok, I’ve got the sore throat but I don’t have the rest of the Covid symptoms yet.”

At that moment I really wished both he and I (and everyone else in the store) were wearing masks.

Probably nothing more interesting than being absent minded.

They pull them down when outdoors, then forget to pull them back up upon entering an enclosed space.

So many years after covid and you still don’t know how to wear it. I consider you to be irredeemably dumb.

I’m sure it’s a mix of things. Some of it’s probably a lack of understanding, and sometimes it’s a “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” situation. They might have their mask on and ready to go for situations where they might want to mask up or where somebody else might want them to mask up… Or… Whatever. Maybe even some people take it off to talk (which is frustrating) because they think it’s easier to communicate that way and worth the risk to themselves and others and they’ll pull it back up after because it still does limit exposure overall? I dunno. Maybe I shouldn’t speculate too much. I guess I’ve been on the other side of this where a bunch of people were complaining about people wearing masks outside alone because it’s “stupid and pointless” and I’ve definitely done that when going between places because it was just easier to keep the thing on for me (especially since I try to have it fit really well).

We have one person in our office like this. He also only wears it occasionally!

I asked myself this often. I think it’s absentmindedness but I still find myself annoyed. Wear it or don’t but halfway just gets to me.