The Air is Not Trying to Kill You
Aug. 3rd, 2020 07:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsThere was something that happened repeatedly on the hiking trails this past week that bugged the hell out of me: People wore masks on the trails.
SAR-COV-2 is a scary virus. It’s killed a lot of people, and it’s probably going to kill many more before this whole thing is over. Its infection profile is now fairly well-established and incidental encounters, outdoors, is not one of the vectors. There are exactly zero cases of SAR-COV-2 being transmitted by fleeting encounters with strangers.
Zero.
In over 1,200 cases of documented spread events, there is exactly one case of outdoor transmission, a jogger gave it to his running partner. It’s impossible to know how long they were in the same space, and how much they shared the same air. Another 40 happened at indoor/outdoor venues, where “it happened outdoors” could not be ruled out by investigators. 99.91% of all documented transmission cases outside of family or hospital settings happened indoors, in poorly ventilated locations. There is not a single case of transmission between strangers in a fleeting outdoor encounter.
I wear my masks all the time; I wore them long before Omaha accepted their necessity. I wear them reliably in any indoor setting: gas station, grocery store, wherever I have to be with other people. While camping, there was a flush bathroom with three stalls and I always put on my mask before entering.
But almost every time we were within ten meters of another group, they would mask up. One of the people I spoke with said “It’s about respecting the other person.”
But it’s not. Not in that setting.
In that setting, it says, “I think the world is out to kill me.”
SAR-COV-2 is not “in the air.” It’s in very specific locations– those inhabited by people in the early stages of infection, usually in enclosed venues with poor ventilation where people are vocalizing loudly. (“Venue, Ventilation, Vocalization.”) And yes, that means it can be transmitted from one person to another in that location, in that time, if you’re exposed to it long enough for the virus to overwhelm your lungs’ first-line defenses.
We are human beings, and we use each other’s faces and expressions through which to judge trustworthiness, value, and friendliness. I’ve never met anyone hostile on the trail; some taciturn and wanting to be left alone, but that’s not hostility. Some friendly and wanting to talk. The great outdoors, in a literal sense, is the one place where we can continue to be that so long as we stay apart and the breeze is fresh. To mask up in that environment is to mis-judge the nature of the beast, and to constrain yourself unnecessarily.
But more than that, it communicates not respect, but fear. Fear that the very air is out to kill you. We need to get past that, to understand the risks better, and to communicate those risks clearly. Indoors, mask up always. Outdoors in a crowd, mask up. Outdoors, ten feet apart or brushing past one another on a hiking trail, exposed to the sun and wind? It’s not necessary, and it shows ignorance and fear.
SAR-COV-2 is a scary virus. It’s killed a lot of people, and it’s probably going to kill many more before this whole thing is over. Its infection profile is now fairly well-established and incidental encounters, outdoors, is not one of the vectors. There are exactly zero cases of SAR-COV-2 being transmitted by fleeting encounters with strangers.
Zero.
In over 1,200 cases of documented spread events, there is exactly one case of outdoor transmission, a jogger gave it to his running partner. It’s impossible to know how long they were in the same space, and how much they shared the same air. Another 40 happened at indoor/outdoor venues, where “it happened outdoors” could not be ruled out by investigators. 99.91% of all documented transmission cases outside of family or hospital settings happened indoors, in poorly ventilated locations. There is not a single case of transmission between strangers in a fleeting outdoor encounter.
I wear my masks all the time; I wore them long before Omaha accepted their necessity. I wear them reliably in any indoor setting: gas station, grocery store, wherever I have to be with other people. While camping, there was a flush bathroom with three stalls and I always put on my mask before entering.
But almost every time we were within ten meters of another group, they would mask up. One of the people I spoke with said “It’s about respecting the other person.”
But it’s not. Not in that setting.
In that setting, it says, “I think the world is out to kill me.”
SAR-COV-2 is not “in the air.” It’s in very specific locations– those inhabited by people in the early stages of infection, usually in enclosed venues with poor ventilation where people are vocalizing loudly. (“Venue, Ventilation, Vocalization.”) And yes, that means it can be transmitted from one person to another in that location, in that time, if you’re exposed to it long enough for the virus to overwhelm your lungs’ first-line defenses.
We are human beings, and we use each other’s faces and expressions through which to judge trustworthiness, value, and friendliness. I’ve never met anyone hostile on the trail; some taciturn and wanting to be left alone, but that’s not hostility. Some friendly and wanting to talk. The great outdoors, in a literal sense, is the one place where we can continue to be that so long as we stay apart and the breeze is fresh. To mask up in that environment is to mis-judge the nature of the beast, and to constrain yourself unnecessarily.
But more than that, it communicates not respect, but fear. Fear that the very air is out to kill you. We need to get past that, to understand the risks better, and to communicate those risks clearly. Indoors, mask up always. Outdoors in a crowd, mask up. Outdoors, ten feet apart or brushing past one another on a hiking trail, exposed to the sun and wind? It’s not necessary, and it shows ignorance and fear.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-03 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-03 10:14 pm (UTC)Especially with whatever nightmare is coming with schools.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-06 12:29 am (UTC)