Y'all Masking: The Solidarity in Safety

It's taken off so much, it's making Twitter almost unusable for anything else. Picture after picture after picture of people wearing masks in their daily life. 

At first it was just a fun little thing - let's all post pics of ourselves in masks! There have been several other times a bunch of people have done this, but this time it's really different. I think it's because of the mask bans:

The fight is more focused now. It's no longer a gentle encouragement that masks can help stave off illness, but a revolt against barriers to preventing the spread of disease. 

Just for posterity, I think OmniAstral started it all on July 3. 

And it actually affects me seeing person after person in my feed in a mask when I see literally nobody in real life wearing a mask outside my own family. My kids are absolute rockstars for ignoring peer pressure and continuing to protect their brains!! It doesn't just bolster my spirits to see such solidarity, it warms my heart that there are people who care to prevent the possibility of unwittingly infecting others in public places. 

Of course there are comments about us all being sheep, and Covid's over, and it's just a cold, and "if you care about your health, lose some weight" and other gestures of outrage and opposition, but they disappear in the absolute sea of images. Check out #YallMasking. 

Potatum shared this encapsulation of the trend (along with others, so I'm not sure of the original source),

"In July 2024, a social media trend emerged where users shared their experiences and opinions on continuing to wear masks, particularly in light of ongoing concerns about Covid-19. The trend, marked by the hashtag #YallMasking, saw individuals from various backgrounds expressing their reasons for masking, ranging from personal health concerns to broader public health considerations. The posts highlighted a community of peopel who felt isolated in their decision to continue masking, finding solidarity and support through the shared hashtag. The trend also sparked discussions on the effectiveness and necessity of masking, with some users emphasizing the importance of continued vigilance against Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses."

Steve the Book Guy added,

"#YallMasking is doing MORE work than POTUS and CDC.gov combined. Folks, I fuckin love you guys, thank you for doing the right thing because it's the right thing. You guys are the only [reasonable] ones on the planet, and I thank you for existing." 

And Guiness Pig said, 

"#Yallmasking reminds me of a dystopian movie, like you're living underground, then you put a call out for other survivors over the radio, and people start answering, and you realize you're not alone; the resistance is everywhere. Y'all keep that shit up please; it's incredible." 

Covid is still here, and still lingering in people's bodies even if they feel well. Researchers have now found that infective SARS-CoV-2 in skull sawdust after death. Covid can mutate and spread beyond the grave!!  The more times you get it, the worse your prognosis, so it's NOT TOO LATE TO MASK!!

In the midst of it all, an ANS clinician claimed that we can't prevent LongCovid by trying to prevent Covid. "That ship has sailed." She got trounced, and concluded that, therefore, people don't care about Long Covid treatment. 

Wha...???

She seems to forget how long it took for public health to finally start a focused effort to get people wearing condoms to prevent HIV. But once that happened, in 1990, after DECADES of protests, the rate of infection decreased, and better treatments were found at the same time!! It doesn't have to be one or the other: either prevent it or treat it!! Why can't it be both?? I pointed out previously, 

"In 1985, the CDC complacently reported that 2/3 of men HIV+ for five years didn't develop AIDS, so no worries, right? Not so fast. Another five or ten years down the road, those men were all dead. THIS is why we need to use the precautionary principle when dealing with a novel virus."

It's imperative we have a focused campaign to prevent the spread of Covid. We don't know what it will look like in another five years time, and it's flippin' airborne!!! 

LongCovid is similar to AIDS, with a similar treatment on the horizon. But we CAN prevent it by promoting masks the way public health promoted condoms. The time to give up on people's capacity to change is never.

ETA: This got a mention in a Boing Boing article!