foxbody

I question the "masks help protect others from the mask wearer" vs I think masks protect both myself from others and others from myself. In the hospital, we have historically worn masks (simple and cheap, but medical grade, same you can find at local stores) for droplet precaution rooms to protect the healthcare professional from the virus (usually flu, other viruses like RSV, etc). My own personal anecdotal evidence is that myself and many others that have worn simple medical masks and cloth masks have not been sick since this started in March 2020. Disclaimer, when we work in COVID+ rooms, we are in strict isolation precautions (gown, gloves, N95, eye protection) but we don't always know which patient may be infected and sometimes other workers are infected without knowing. In those instances, we are wearing medical masks (not N95). Also noteworthy, prior to COVID-19, practitioners reported getting ill more often when working with the pediatric population. Those practitioners opting to wear a mask with all patients then suffered illness much less after mask wearing with all patient interactions. Just more anecdotal evidence. Moving on to the current pandemic, I practice my own risk assessment and mitigation. My town does not require indoor masking at this point in time due to low infection rates. I personally wear a mask anytime indoors around people and never outdoors. I'm the only one in my gym mask wearing. Besides the virus, I don't want any illness that I can prevent. Flu, colds, strep throat, etc. I don't want any of it and this seems to be working at this point in time. Anyways, just wanted to add a quality link for everyone's reading enjoyment. Take care all. https://www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118?fbclid=IwAR1ygoJj9LGfOuhH3M7XU9OLs8hU-9L5e0oJMtoK5Az2Oaj31w2weHuv3nE