Kind of unnerving knowing that all around you the environment is waiting to kill you.
The masks we wear are the same as firefighters with a supplied air hose with a SCBA tank emergency spare.
It gets even more unnerving when you have to put on a plastic suit and tape the sleeves to rubber gloves, pant cuffs to rubber boots and the jacket hood gets taped to your mask.
All because a vapor or drop is either corrosive to your skin, or that the vapor will leach into your bloodstream, through your skin...and kill you.
Loooong before we ever heard of coronavirus, I've been extensively trained in proper mask fit up and use.
Every time I go on a job requiring mask use, I go through a 2 hour refresher course.
before Covid, 99% of all doctors and nurses would have told you that surgical masks are strictly for preventing contaminating fluid (aka,sneezing or saliva) from contaminating a sterilized surface.
Before Covid, doctors and nurses knew that the surgical masks didn't protect them.
Now everyone is wearing surgical type masks, simple cloth masks, gators and bandanas.
Oh, and face shields 4" from your face.
I'm sorry, part of my training and job prep is mask fit up. I can't have more than 24 hours growth of facial hair, in order to insure a good face to mask seal.
But now, with the "DEADLIEST" virus in human history, anything over your face is
OKAY
I wear dust masks and or N/R or P95 masks.
I have also taken one of these mask off at the end of the day and had dirt on my face, wear the dust mask was protecting me.
The powers that be try to convince you that virus droplets attach themselves to human exhalation vapors and aerosols and attach themselves to the mask.
The problem is that the virus particle can then transfer it way fiber by fiber through the mask through normal breathing.
I read of a study recently, where 78% of questioned people infected with Covid, were people who wore mask extended periods of time or nearly always.
As length of time decreased, so did the infection percentage.
Your post touches on my beliefs about this but brings much amplification.
And the heart is this, at least for me: “...strictly for preventing contaminating fluid (aka,sneezing or saliva) from contaminating a sterilized surface.”
Our bodies were designed with a protective covering, epidermis, also known as “skin”. In surgery, our internal parts are being exposed without their protective skin covering. When we are shopping at Safeway, our skin is doing its job.
I see facemasks in public as a purely political thing and not only not helping, but hurting.