Originally Posted by
jfsully
The subjective response to mask-wearing is quite variable. I work in a hospital, and all staff have been masked during work hours for months. I haven't heard anything except for mild annoyance. I have a colleague who is a regular smoker who is very worried about getting covid, and wears an N95 (which is more restrictive and uncomfortable) with a surgical mask over it. For the record, he's nuts, but he has managed fine and does this voluntarily.
They don't meaningfully reduce O2. They might increase heart rate during exercise. Yes they might cause anxiety. I don't give a shit about cortisol and nobody knows if they raise cortisol or what that would even mean if they did. The question of whether kids should wear them is complicated, but the harm to them from wearing or not wearing them is likely mostly related to the behavior of adults around them. I am not worried about their physical health one way or the other.
I think that humans can do fine with a pretty wide range of O2 partial pressures, and that the alarms are set to alert you that something is wrong with your equipment that could cause a problem if it gets out of hand, not that you are in immediate mortal danger at 19%. Otherwise we would have those alarms all over the place and have supplemental oxygen ready in the event someone ripped a fart in an elevator. Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea given some elevators I've been in. I could be wrong about this, though. Maybe you could look it up and report back, since you brought it up?
So you think that a slightly elevated heart rate during moderate exercise is a "clinically-significant risk to public health?" I think it just means that if I wear a mask I don't have to push the prowler as fast to get the same benefit. We have a major problem in this country with sedentary people who don't ever get their heart rates up. Now that you mention it, I think masks could save lives on a much wider scale, and should be mandatory for everyone with BMI>30 forever! For real, though, I'm not concerned with O2 or RPE or anything else when it comes to masks. I am trying to avoid both pro- and anti-mask hysteria. I truly don't give a shit, basically. I only come across as Captain Mask-em-up on this forum in comparison to the anti-mask virtue signallers who feel that since they are right the science must be on their side. If everyone here was advocating for universal lockdowns and vaccine verification chips, I would probably sound more like Rip, and just repeatedly post about a 99.3% survival rate.