I frankly don’t understand how people can even wear masks while doing anything physical. I never wore one until Coof came along, and then I didn’t wear one until the stores wouldn’t let people in without them. It was equally a physical discomfort thing as it was political, for me. Plus I thought if everyone was going to get the damn virus, like they were saying, I might as well get it sooner than later. I attribute the fact that I didn’t get it to having taken all the right supplements for many years before I knew they’d be the ones recommended to prevent Coof.
Anyway, I had seen the writing on the wall before the mask mandates happened, though, and one day I spent several times longer making a cotton cloth mask (because I’m a sewing machine klutz, lol) than I ended up wearing it, as it turned out. Soon afterward, I went to the wholesale club with hubby (who wore a t-shirt around his neck that he’d pull up over his face). We had a coupon for several bucks off a case of paper towels, and at the checkout, each of us thought that the other had grabbed them, and neither of us had. They were toward the rear of the store, so I sprinted to get them, and sprinted back carrying them on my shoulder.
By the time I returned to the checkout, I was gasping for air and breathing so heavily I thought I’d pass out, so I pulled the mask out from my face so I could breathe. After I got home, I punched several big holes in the nostril area of that mask, and a few days later, got the bright idea to take some leftover patio screening, pleat it and add earloops for a “Compliant Face Covering”. (This was many months before someone got the idea to make and sell Fakemasks, but in the same vein.) I never looked back. My husband wanted one too, so I made him one.
I took a leave of absence from my favorite music gig this past season, because although they held it outdoors and had everyone socially distanced, from the audience to the singers to the musicians, they also demanded that everyone who didn’t play a wind instrument wear a mask - which they would provide, and of the N95 type. My “Compliant (everywhere else) Face Covering” wouldn’t have passed muster with them, and I knew it would be very difficult for me to participate, as the work can be physically strenuous. So I declined, rather than put it to the test.
Some people can do it, I’m just not one of them.
I’m good in one for a couple of hours even with my asthma but only inside. Even with the COVID I never wore one in summer, never outside or in the car. I did wear one in winter in crowds or if a business requested we do so. Since we haven’t been under mandates I didn’t wear one if there wasn’t a crowd and the business didn’t request it. My main reason for wearing one during COVID was to try and not get it and give it to my husband. With asthma I almost always have a dry cough in winter and I scared people if I didn’t have one on. 😁 I think that if worn right they offer minimal protection if you are sneezed on but the government pushed them on people with no instruction and led people to think they protect more than they do. People were too confident when wearing them.