Throughout the pandemic I was a proponent of the individual choice to mask. I favored airlines imposing their own mask requirements in spring 2020, long before the federal government made existing airline rules a legal requirement. I liked, though, that some airlines handled their exception policies differently, for instance Delta was more flexible with young children and so wasn’t kicking two and three year olds off of planes.
I’ve been a fan of properly wearing a high quality mask. A fitted N95 mask isn’t perfect protection, but it seems to afford quite a bit both to the wearer (from others) and to others (from the wearer, in case they are asymptomatically infected).
I do not understand those who continue to wear cloth masks in an airport and on planes at this point. It made sense when someone didn’t really want to wear a mask – these didn’t really provide meaningful protection, but were the most comfortable way to meet the requirement. Now I understand someone who doesn’t mas, and I understand someone who wears a P100. Voluntarily wearing low quality masks doesn’t seem to achieve any clear goal.
One Mile at a Time explains his approach to masking during travel. He will “still choose to selectively wear a [KN95] mask when traveling” in crowded airport spaces like security, and during boarding and deplaning and sitting in close proximity to others in economy. That’s less about Covid-19 and more about how people get sick generally and how to prevent spread of airborne illnesses. That framework seems right to me, though I’d note that the quality of KN95 masks varies greatly.
I no longer mask because of Covid either.
- I’m quadruple vaccinated. The long timeframe for the U.S. government to consider and approve updates to the vaccines means that by the time an updated formulation is released it’s largely out of date relative to the circulating virus, but it continues to confer strong protection against severe illness.
- I’ve recovered from infection. Vaccination plus prior infection confers the strongest protection. There’s still some debate over whether the current circulating virus is actually less severe or the tremendous amount of background immunity means outcomes aren’t nearly as bad. Either way, I have about the most protection possible.
- There are great treatments now. Paxlovid is basically a cure. When I get sick, I test myself for Covid. I can get treatment. We now also know that pegylated interferon lambda is highly effective against hospitalization as well, but we no longer consider Covid enough of a public health emergency where it is even likely to be approved.
[A] new class of variant-proof treatments could help restock the country’s armory. Scientists on Wednesday reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that a single injection of a so-called interferon drug slashed by half a Covid patient’s odds of being hospitalized.
The results, demonstrated in a clinical trial of nearly 2,000 patients, rivaled those achieved by Paxlovid. And the interferon shots hold even bigger promise, scientists said. By fortifying the body’s own mechanisms for quashing an invading virus, they can potentially help defend against not only Covid, but also the flu and other viruses with the potential to kindle future pandemics.
However I carry masks in my laptop bag – and I’m grateful for the changing culture around mask-wearing since prior to the pandemic. I hate getting sick, I just don’t have the space for down time.
I don’t just write this blog (by myself, some similar sites have 100 or more employees) but I also have a full time job and other projects as well. I don’t want to get sick and I’ve long felt like I wanted to mask during flu season, something much more accepted in Asia over the couple of decades since SARS, but I’d have been looked at like a space alien in the U.S. for doing so.
Masks have become way too political. I always thought that Republicans should have been pro-mask in 2020 as the conservative alternative to lockdowns. Now they’re a choice. I don’t wear it for Covid-19 on its own, but am happy to wear it where my risk of flu, RSV, and other viruses is elevated.
I’m grateful not to have to wear a mask on a long haul flight in business class, but I’ve gotten sick after sitting next to ill seat mates too many times to want that for myself. Masks certainly aren’t going to provide protection against viruses spread via fomites. Instead they’re a limited strategic tool that won’t make sense for me in many situations. I am not masking close to a majority of the time when I fly throughout the year.
Just don’t rag on individuals who have a medical requirement to wear a mask.
Masks don’t protect against viruses now and they never have.
Masks don’t do sht to stop covid or any other airborne respiratory virus of that size. You’ve all been duped.
Masks do protect against viruses. Just look at the death rate among doctors and nurses that work with Covid patients.
The pandemic is ongoing. Every day, hundreds of Americans die from Covid, far, far worse and more than the flu. Proper fitting N95 masks should be worn by all on the plane unless there is a valid medical reason (not a made up reason) and, if so, then a tight surgical masks instead.
@Samuel
They do stop it. The reason is that viruses are bound to saliva particles or moisture from the lungs.
This pandemic has shown how awful peoples’ medical judgment is. Their judgment is in the toilet.
That face diaper and all those injections did jack squat to save you, or anyone else, from catching the Vid. People are dying from unhealthy lifestyle choices which make them unable to survive infection. Start eating cleaner and get to the gym. You’ve had 3 years now.
The Japanese tradition of wearing a mask when you are sick seems like a good place to settle.
So, if masks offer no protection against the virus (now or ever), how come I have never been infected with the virus? While many stayed home during the pandemic, I never did. I traveled all over the world during the pandemic. I simply followed the rules that were in place at each destination and I wore a mask. When they restarted cruising, I also did a few of them towards the end of the pandemic and when they lifted all of the protocols, I just kept wearing my mask and tested when I thought it necessary for peace of mind. On one cruise from New York to Italy, masks were no longer required. Most decided not to wear them. A few even laughed at us for wearing ours. In an elevator, one man saw us with our masks and proceed to cough all over the place. By the time the ship got to Italy, hundreds had tested positive and were isolated. Most found out that their stay in Italy would be extended at their own expense and many had to repurchase airline tickets. I will be wearing my mask on the three cruises that I still have scheduled before the end of the year. But I have changed my opinion about the pandemic, wearing a mask, getting vaccinated, and just doing the right thing. I’m actually looking forward to the next pandemic. Maybe mother nature will get it right the next time. But I really don’t give a shit. People should just do whatever they want. After all, they believe that they have a constitutional right to be assholes. The world is overpopulated as it is and maybe the next pandemic will help solve that problem. I no longer glance at the news in regard to people getting sick or dying. I could care less when there is a mass shooting. And if people believe that they have a right to infect others, including those close to them, with a deadly virus, so be it.
Four years. Four years, since the start of the pandemic, and I always masked and managed to never get COVID despite traveling by air each month.
I had to unexpectedly fly to Europe for a funeral. We flew SAS. We relented and did not mask. I am just now recovering from COVID. Of course, I am not sure where or how I got it. But both my wife and I did, mere days after returning (returned Monday night, in bed by Wednesday night). So yeah, I am going back to masking as I take to the skies again next week.
I hate getting sick and prior to covid I was a the virus police in my workplace, I would always tell anyone coughing or sneezing to go home and take a paid day off (that is why we have them), I have been traveling since 2021 with a mask on whenever I can’t stay away from people. There are far to many inconsiderate travelers that cough and sneeze all over their neighbors without any guilt
enough with the masks already ! It has been known for 60 years that the are useless against an aerosolized virus. Why are we still discussing this??
@ Robert. After reading your comments, “they” are obviously not the only ones that have “a constitutional right to be assholes.”
BTW, the WORLD in not overpopulated . . . some countries may be, but NOT the world.
More than 500 people a day are still dying from Covid 19. That’s 182,500 dead per year!!! At one level I understand why healthy people under 60 no longer wear masks. But they must understand that those of us who are older or who are at high risk are the victims of non-mask wearers. It is we that are dying and/or getting very ill. We are sacrificial lambs, collateral damage. Please keep this in mind when you decide whether to mask.
I tried my best to get C19 2020-23. I never wore a mask unless it was required, and even then I cheated as much as possible, in every way technically conceivable, rendering the masks completely useless. I didn’t wash my hands more than usual, and I never socially distanced. I went to the most crowded parties. I walked against the arrows on the floor. I have never been vaccinated. I fly nearly 200K miles per year across multiple continents, even when overall travel was down 80% or whatever. Result: I did not have a single sick day in 3 years.
Didn’t you post this EXACT same blog a few weeks (or maybe a month) ago?! Do whatever you want but don’t tell me what I should do. I’ll never wear a mask unless mandated by law (and then I do comply). If you want to wear one and look strange go for it.
@Bob – vaccinated and with a properly-fitted and worn N95 those over 60 are at very low risk, and having someone who probably doesn’t have Covid wearing a cloth mask (which always met the mandate requirement) wouldn’t protect you.
@Gary. Did you write this just to stir up the mask trolls?
BTW, your dissing of Kansas City last week was pretty pathetic. I’m sitting in the new terminal and it’s pretty great. Now if American will just bring us a lounge, we’ll truly be better than the dump called Austin.
Cheers
Bill
I wear a mask in places like airports and planes because I don’t trust the assholes, like those posting up-thread, that are incubators for everything awful on the planet. Plus it pisses those people off, so even more reason.
Some of these comments are literally hilarious.
From, mask don’t work to vaccines don’t work and the best so far is trying to get Covid.
Regardless of your political view, after you get your doctorate in contagious diseases and spend time in the ICU or Covid Ward, as it was designated, watching people die daily with their loved ones unable to physically be by their side and their bodies thrown in a truck trailer, feel free to come back and we can have a chat. I guarantee your view will change when your educated outside google and the news.
@Gary, why did you have to go down this rabbit hole again? Is it because the other site did and it was easy content?
Where were all the masks in 2019? The incremental risk between then and now is absolutely zero. This is an indisputable fact. If you were comfortable walking on a plane without a mask in 2019 and are not now – you have been duped.
I will not jump into the discussion of whether masks work or not because people will believe what they want despite the substantial evidence which exists now – and was not allowed to be discussed during the pandemic.
I will respond to the statement that the red party politicized the issue when it was clear that it became a political choice to control people and take away choice by the blue folks as evidence began to pour in around the world that many of the accepted public health measures weren’t making much if any difference. The fact that it was the blue parts of the country that were last to back away from mandates instead of allowing personal choice highlights precisely the issue.
There are a growing number of countries that took steps that were counter to what the blue team did. So the notion that this became a political issue because of the red team is actually counter to reality
Bill Cummings,
Delta has sparking new lounges in both AUS and MCI (plus BNA among non-hub cities). AA took a hard pass on a lounge in MCI.
Derek. with not from Covid. With not from. The bogus death numbers have been used to scare dumb people from the very beginning. Really sad to see they are still doing that today. Ask yourself one simple question – how many of those people would be alive today if Covid did not exist. The answer is about 4%. Death sucks. I wish it never happened. But it does. To make the whole world wear a useless mask because a few… less informed people are afraid is just plain silly.
*just here for the comments*
@ Meidcal geniuses — Yeah, and condoms don’t stop the spread of HIV either. Believe what you want, at your own detriment.
Mature take:
If you wear a mask – leave others alone.
If you do not wear a mast – leave others alone.
It’s fascinating that, with all the available evidence, Gary continues to spout his ignorant half–truths and more likely, outright lies. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. Face diapers do nothing to stop the spread, check out the Cochran Study, the experimental gene therapies are an abject failure, along with Paxlovid, and every protection measure that was employed was more about control and had little to do with health.
I’ve sent Gary numerous articles, studies and evidence that has effectively destroyed the narrative he continues to promote. It’s patently obvious his ego won’t allow him admit his mistakes. He simply lacks the moral fortitude.
Of course, anyone who admits to being quadruple “vaxxed”, couldn’t possibly be in a normal state of mind.
I would agree with Gary’s take in the article if Long Covid didn’t exist.
There are more outcomes from Covid than recovery and death. Millions are out of the workforce because of lingering debilitating symptoms from Long Covid. It is akin to unemployment rates. If you have a job, you don’t care about job loss. If you or someone in your family has never gotten long covid, then it isn’t a factor in your decision-making.
https://news.vumc.org/2022/03/30/team-helps-patients-battle-post-covid-cognitive-issues/
Cahn’t make this stuff up.
There you have it in full view: the unhinged MAGA conspiracy theories and paranoia that politicized sensible mitigatory measures designed to limit the devastation of the greatest threat to global health in more than a century.
@James N — Please do not latched onto the poorly done and widely criticized “Cochran Study” to spread more canard. Mitigatory measures like “social distancing” and, yes, masking did save countless lives by “flattening the curve” until effective vaccines were developed.
So many medical and research scientist degrees inferred by FOX News onto millions of heretofore untrained people.
MT, or, alternatively, a little common sense in a covid mad world. The man on CNN was lying to you. I’m sorry to break the news.
Gary,
Being quadrupled vaccinated does not protect you from Covid or severe Covid symptoms. Actually, vaccinated people are more likely to have more severe reactions to Covid than people who are pure blood. Vaccinated people are more likely to get Covid. Of course, vaccinated people are more likely to suffer from complications due to the vaccine than they would if they got Covid and were unvaccinated.
I continue to wear a mask at all times in public as a personal choice. I think it’s great I can wear a mask without stigma to protect myself from the air of so many gross people. If in business class I don’t wear a mask after boarding is done because there is enough space.
Mask mandates are anti freedom and anyone who supports the government enforcing mask rules is a criminal in my book. Your body your choice means it should be your choice.
Pre-covid: On almost every long vacation we’ve taken I’ve come back with a cold, usually a pretty nasty one. Since we resumed traveling and we’re religiously wearing masks as much as possible, I’ve come back from all of our trips without being sick. Now, this isn’t a double blind study or anything with huge scientific merit, but I know we’re going to keep wearing masks when we travel for the forseeable future. and, you just never know what the next variant is going to do… For those of you who think wearing a mask us useless that’s fine, nothing is going to change your opinion. But, please consider wearing one anyway if you”re sick and contagious. That’s just common courtesy.
Amazing how many people here have no understanding of the situation.
@Heck Farr: “Masks” don’t provide much protection–but what you’re missing is the N95/KN95/KF94 and above are actually called respirators, not masks. When you lump them with masks you get very poor data.
@Lowe
> That face diaper and all those injections did jack squat to save you, or anyone else, from catching the Vid. People are dying from unhealthy lifestyle choices which make them unable to survive infection. Start eating cleaner and get to the gym. You’ve had 3 years now.
First, explain the more than one million excess deaths–did Covid cause a huge switch to unhealthy lifestyle choices?! And why is it so concentrated amongst the Republicans? Since the vaccines came out the Republicans have had about twice the excess death rate than the Democrats.
And you’re using death as the only yardstick of importance–we probably have more disabled by Covid than killed by it. (And the experience with SARS says they probably won’t recover.)
@Bob
> Where were all the masks in 2019? The incremental risk between then and now is absolutely zero. This is an indisputable fact. If you were comfortable walking on a plane without a mask in 2019 and are not now – you have been duped.
Risk is the same? 2019, zero Covid deaths. Now it’s competing for the #3 cause of death in the CDC lists.
@Dave
> Derek. with not from Covid. With not from. The bogus death numbers have been used to scare dumb people from the very beginning. Really sad to see they are still doing that today. Ask yourself one simple question – how many of those people would be alive today if Covid did not exist. The answer is about 4%. Death sucks. I wish it never happened. But it does. To make the whole world wear a useless mask because a few… less informed people are afraid is just plain silly.
Except for the little detail that the total excess deaths are well above the Covid deaths. We are undercounting, not overcounting. (It’s quite possible to die of Covid without ever being tested–Covid causes clotting issues. A clot into a bad enough place and you’re found dead, you never go to the hospital and thus are never tested.)
If they would have died anyway the excess death count should have gone negative, but it didn’t.
@Gene
> @ Meidcal geniuses — Yeah, and condoms don’t stop the spread of HIV either. Believe what you want, at your own detriment.
I recently noticed that the effectiveness of respirators against Covid is pretty close to the real-world effectiveness of condoms against pregnancy.
@James
> It’s fascinating that, with all the available evidence, Gary continues to spout his ignorant half–truths and more likely, outright lies. The evidence is clear and overwhelming. Face diapers do nothing to stop the spread, check out the Cochran Study, the experimental gene therapies are an abject failure, along with Paxlovid, and every protection measure that was employed was more about control and had little to do with health.
He’s understating the threat, not overstating it. Paxlovid is a big help but by no means a complete cure and a lot of people can’t take it. (It has a long list of contraindicated medicines, including several that apply even from recent use–discontinuing them doesn’t help.)
The Cochran study really blew it because they looked only at the best of studies–almost none of which were about Covid in the first place! And even their own data shows they help if you disregard influenza–the signal was being buried in noise.
@MT
> So many medical and research scientist degrees inferred by FOX News onto millions of heretofore untrained people.
Yup, a huge number of graduates of Faux U. Sorry, they’re not accredited.
@Bob
> MT, or, alternatively, a little common sense in a covid mad world. The man on CNN was lying to you. I’m sorry to break the news.
While CNN isn’t too good they’re vastly above Fox. You’re better off with no news than Fox “News.” (People who watch Fox score worse than those who don’t follow any news on tests of knowledge of current events.)
Cahn’t make this stuff up! According to comments like the one below, vaccines have been ineffective. We are to believe that COVID simply decided to close shot and stop infecting people around the world !
Got any proof, as every single one of those claims is the opposite of what hard science has established, or did you make it all up to support Faux News- and MAGA-promulgated conspiracy theory, paranoia and unhinged view that
“Your body your choice means it should be your choice.”, except when it comes to a woman’s right to chose, right?
DCS,
ALL of the US including red states DID employ measures including masking and closing businesses and schools.
but they did NOT continue doing those things to the same degree as blue states when it became apparent that there was little statistical difference in outcomes.
Again, many countries in the rest of the world moved on from strategies that blue states held onto.
The US continues to refuse to allow the world’s best tennis player (unvaccinated) access to a US tournament – not because he is a risk to anyone but because a political ideology refuses to die.
you are free to call whoever you want paranoid and unhinged but the evidence is considerably contrary to what you espouse.
“choose”
*still here and really enjoying it*
@Tim Dunn — There is no hard science in anything that you said. The world was faced with a largely unknown global health threat and governments did what they could to address it, initially based on limited knowledge and then increasingly based on scientific evidence as it accumulated.
The notion the “the red party politicized the issue when it was clear that it became a political choice to control people and take away choice by the blue folks as evidence began to pour in” is just pure paranoid and unhinged bunk
Started wearing masks on flights long before Covid. JAL used to give them out as moisture masks and I found that they allowed me to arrive at my destination more refreshed and less likely to have bloody noses.
I still use cloth masks with disposable hepa filters and have continued to travel without illness. But to each their own… whether with their imaginary medical skills, knowledge or conspiracy theories.
SARS-Covid isn’t magical or evil—its a brainless corona virus transmitted through the air (and some surfaces) just like the common cold. It’s contagious and we lost two family members to it in the first wave before vaccinations were available.
Very serious infections are decreasing due to evolution, vaccinations and some community immunity buildup by infections. We’ve had five doses of vax, but each of us got very mild cases in the early stages of Omicron that went away quickly. Both infections were during travel when we were dining in groups with people who were infected (and knew they had symptoms at the time that they didn’t disclose).
We travel intensively around the world (205 day this year scheduled so far). We don’t want to get infected anywhere with anything, whether Covid, flu, or just the common cold. All sickness can lay us up and screw with our plans, even for just a few days.
So we’ve adopted a practical sense approach to masking: We wear KN94 masks when in crowded situations. That means airport lines, restrooms, and on airplanes until boarding is completed. Once boarding is complete and the full air circulation is turned on we assess whether anyone nearby is coughing or sneezing and make our judgment call. In almost all cases we are now comfortable without our masks for the flight until deboarding.
Surprisingly, we’ve notice a lot less coughing and sneezing while traveling now than we did before Covid. It could be that people are in the habit of washing their hands better now. (Except in Spain—COME ON GUYS—WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER GOING TO THE BATHROOM!!) E-coli and related yuck can also lay you up in a matter of a few hours.
On a recent flight, an A-hole across the aisle was hacking and sneezing openly throughout our flight and never bothered to cover his orifices at any point. That’s A-hole behavior in any environment except when alone at home.
We find they KN94 brands from Korea to fit the face better and be much more comfortable and easier to breath through than the N95 or C95 masks. Once we made the switch masking is only a minor inconvenience and not truly uncomfortable. Masks even have a separate side benefit: On long haul flights, wearing a mask for a while can help to trap and recycle your exhaled humidity to help moisturize your breathing passages.
Bon voyage and problem-free travels to all! Thank you all, except the bots, for your thoughtful comments. By bots I mean both the digital versions and the human versions. Both have been pre-programmed to spout the same nonsensical replies at the mere appearance of certain words, phrases, or viewpoints in the comments section.
@ Tim Dunn. You are correct on so many of your posts, but those who criticize opposing researched opinions in favor of MSM propaganda will never be convinced. Don’t give up to those who have already surrendered to groupthink.
Someone needs to let the WH and CDC know that Covid 19 is essentially over as a world health treat, just as the rest of the Western World has determined.
I’m glad to have the option of wearing a mask in whatever situation I feel vulnerable to ANY kind of illness. If others don’t want to, that’s fine. I wear a seat belt in my car too, even though my chances of an accident are small. If masks didn’t work reducing the transmission of virus, why do surgeons, dentists, etc. wear them? It’s all about risk tolerance and we are each unique in both how we think about it as well as our own physical health. Happy Travels!
Gary and Lucky in the year 2090: We are still masking-join us.
It’s unbelievable the number of people who still haven’t figured out the scam and most likely, never will.
My approach is not to wear one! I am double vaxxed with two boosters. Nuff said.
DCS says “ Your body your choice means it should be your choice.”, except when it comes to a woman’s right to chose, right?“
Curious DCS shouldn’t the baby have a choice to live or die?
Scientists say that when it comes to airborne pathogens, dilution is the solution. Although most airplane filtration systems are capable of removing pathogens, the systems are almost always turned off or are operated at very low levels when a plane is on the ground. If stagnant air was visible as mist or fog, most travelers who understood the potential risk posed by it would don high quality masks.
My senses had always told me the air is often stagnant when a plane is parked at the gate. I had no proof until I started traveling with an aranet4, a hand-held carbon dioxide meter. The data is rather alarming. While at the gate the air is always stagnant and, in some cases, extremely so. On some occasions I’ve measured unacceptably stagnant air throughout the entire flight.
While the air quality at airports and airport lounges is almost always good, it’s a different story on planes.
Look for me. I’m the healthy guy in the front row window seat with the N95 mask. That little device in my hand is a carbon dioxide meter. I’m monitoring the unacceptably high carbon dioxide levels that continue to climb ever higher throughout the boarding process. It’s fascinating to watch you walk by totally oblivious to the potential health risks associated with the stagnant air you’re breathing.
@Gary Must have been a slow day on the blog, huh? You had to know what you were doing posting this one up. 🙂
I will refrain from opining, for once, since I know for sure on this subject, no-one’s having their opinion changed.
I write this as someone who used to wear (charcoal) masks on long flights pre-pandemic. Aerotoxic syndrome is real. Combustion by-products in on board air used to really F me up on occasion. AA 777s being the most prevalent offenders.