Why We Might Want to Thank People Still Masking!

I was asked, again, if I'd consider using exposure therapy to help me cope with potential viruses inside buildings. The first time was from a therapist who suggested I could better protect myself with a 5G deflector than an N95. This time was from someone dear to me. I'll try to explain my reasoning.

Wearing a mask is not an anxiety issue. I'm no more anxious about getting Covid than I am getting into a car accident. I know the risks and take precautions. So, suggesting exposure therapy to stop all this mask stuff feels on par with suggesting I gradually no longer wear a seatbelt then dismantle the air bags in the car, at a time when we've all decided to no longer maintain rules of the road. It just doesn't make sense. An N95 doesn't prevent me from doing anything I typically do, except eating and drinking in restaurants, which isn't a huge cost for me. It's about as annoying as a seatbelt. The difference is how my precautions affect others, particularly those triggered by the sight of a mask. I get that, but I'm still going to wear one. I have developed much greater confidence in N95s, so I have much less concern about other people wearing them now, but I won't hang out indoors with non-maskers without a CR box running! 

Because I know people will sometimes drive too close or cut in front of me, I wear a seatbelt despite how statistically rare fatalities are. Just because they only affect a fraction of a percentage of people, I'm aware that one of the those fatalities could be me. In Ontario, yearly deaths from collisions only affect about 0.004% of the population, and this low number is partly because we take precautions. It doesn't follow that low risk should provoke us to drop precautions when the risk still exists and can be devastating. I also understand people who choose to take off their seatbelt on quiet country roads. We all do our own risk assessment. 

Covid is very much still here, and I've posted a cajillion studies that make it clear that Covid doesn't just strike and leave. It sticks around in the body affecting multiple organs, which people might not notice for months or years. So it might feel like it's just a cold or flu, but it's very different. HIV first presents as a flu, then, sometimes years later, comes back to dramatically affect immunity. That's one of the many things Covid does in the body. 

Just in the last week or so, we've seen a study confirming the brain effects of Covid:

"The finding indicate that the virus affects regions responsible for memory, emotion, and executive function, which may help explain the neurological symptoms many patients experience ... loss of top-down cognitive control ... difficulties processing sound ... working memory tasks..."

And another confirming that Covid leads to persistent viral reactivation with over ten different viruses noted in the first 40 days after hospital admission, which can affect the immune system. And an article that reminds us, 

"Millions of people in the US are living with long Covid, a chronic condition with wide-ranging symptoms - including fatigue, difficulty breathing, neurological and digestive issues. ... 1 in 6 people who are infected with Covid-19 may develop the condition."

There's also a vaccination on the horizon that might actually prevent transmission, which would be a game changer. It's currently at the mice stage still, but, if it works, that might get me to take off my mask!

I think we should be thanked for continuing to play it safe. Those who keep taking precautions will be here to help those who don't if they succumb to Long Covid! 

My argument hasn't change much since I posted this in November 2022 after mask mandates were removed everywhere: 

It's still harming people although the numbers of smaller, it still hangs out to do massive damage in the body and brain even after a very mild acute case, it can be fairly easily prevented with N95s and CR boxes, so why would I stop taking precautions to stop the spread?