I do this only because it’s safer to just leave my mask on than continually handle it. It’s literally less effort to just leave it on, so why bother taking it off/putting it back on and risk handling a potentially contaminated surface any more than I need to?
(Then again, I also wash masks after every use - no re-wearing. At this point I have a whole stack of reusable masks at home and couple spares in the glove box just in case.)
As far as things like continually wiping down surfaces and scrubbing groceries? Nah, forget about it. That’s not to say I don’t take precautions that I didn’t used to - I am now careful to place things from the outside like groceries and mail into a designated spot until I can put it away, I disinfect high touch surfaces every few days, and wash my hands any time I handle anything that was outside. Call it what you want, but these seem like low-effort common sense things rather than “hygiene theater”.
About that tall building example - doesn’t that also show that there was almost no transmission via airflow between floors through the HVAC system? And doesn’t that, in turn, give us an estimate of how much and how far and how fast a group of infected and constantly talking people can spread covid through indoor air (let alone outdoor, where dilution will be much greater except in very crowded environments)? It never made sense to say that social distancing meant six feet no matter where you were, or to have mask requirements that are the same indoors and outdoors like some places do, except as theater and/or a way of making rules seem simple to follow.
I do really appreciate that Lancet article. If covid really only lives a handful of hours on surfaces at any realistic concentration, then there’s no need to wipe down any food packages I buy unless I’m going to eat the food immediately. I stopped wiping down groceries in May when studies like that started coming out and making reasonable arguments. This is especially true given that I grocery shop every other week, and drive to a store half an hour away, so that by the time I got home and put everything away, it had already been over an hour since they’d potentially come into contact with anyone or anything that could have been contaminated.
I have a cloth mask hanging on the rear-view mirror, and since we’ve actually had sun and high temps, I figure it’s getting heat & uv treatment of some sort. It’s easier for us to keep a couple of cloth masks in the car, and hang them from their ties between uses. There’s a whole dance that we’ve developed about not touching things and keeping a ‘special pen’ that can be disinfected and what sequence to do things then sanitize with the squirt bottle.
I’ve realized that I’m really lucky to have some sewing skills. I’ve made 3 different styles of cloth masks for the 3 of us, custom fitted, and able to be washed in hot water. We have back-up masks and car masks. The daughter and her husband requested tie-dye masks, and they need two different styles than what we wear.
I’ve seen a real change in how many people are wearing masks in businesses. I had to go out for prescriptions and groceries and the CSA share, and everyone was masked inside, and of course all the farm market people were masked. It’s the law here now, and I think people are cooperating with it because of fashion.
Your mask doesn’t have to be a blue disposable one - it can be sequinned! bedazzled! tie-dye! matching your shirt (they sell combos at Walmart & Target now)! camo or sports-themed for the butch!
IMHO, masks are going to be with us for a long time, as courtesy and protection. If you can get someone to wear masks because they like them, think they’re cool or whatever the phrase is nowadays, that’s a plus. I think masks will become like T-shirts, in that you can tell personality from the cloth and type of the mask. Sports-themed gaiter is very different from “fabulous” in crystals on black rectangle with ear elastics (I saw both of these in the same store yesterday).
Heat maybe but not UV. Windshields have UV filtration.
The variety of masks is fun, and I’m glad cloth masks can work as source control masks, but given the number of mask slackers out there, I think real respirator grade masks (which are now increasingly available) are needed for the general public so that we can both avoid spreading Covid (source control) and avoid catching it (PPE).
