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Comment by chiefalchemist | Hacker News Reader

If you don't have Covid then the only way to get Covid is to be exposed to someone who is contagious. I know that's stating the obvious. The point is, if you're outside and with no one but yourself, and not close to anyone else, there's no risk. A passing squirrel or a bird is not going to infect anyone.

People walking solo in open spaces with masks on - which I see a couple times per week on my morning run - perpetuates a scientifically false narrative. I'm not going to object. If that makes them comfortable. But it's also a false sense of comfort. I'm not sure that's a good thing.

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Mask is mandatory outdoors all the time in the big cities in France. Sometimes I think it’s just the government taking revenge for when we mocked them for not being able to procure masks — having destroyed their stock of 1 billion masks a year before the pandemic. “You want mask? Ok, wear them now. Who feels stupid now?”

France's is a different dynamic. After the yellow vests events certainly the gov wants to reestablish it's place.

That aside, I'm not in a big city. I'm in the suburbs. I'm talking about the local park and such. My morning run is through a local small university, currently closed. I see more deer than people some mornings. In that context, I've seen people from a distance walking alone with a mask on. It's 8 am. No one else around. There's no scientific reason for a mask.

I believe masks are important. They are essential. But that's no justification for unnecessary masks. In fact, we should be conserving masks. Not wearing them when they're not necessary.

> If you don't have Covid

That's a big "if". When's the last time you were tested?

Because that's the actual reason to wear a mask. Preventing yourself from getting infected is less relevant than preventing yourself from infecting others.

> A passing squirrel or a bird is not going to infect anyone.

I don't know about those two animals specifically, but it is very much possible for COVID to spread via animals (that is, indeed, in all likelihood how the COVID pandemic started in the first place).

> People walking solo in open spaces with masks on - which I see a couple times per week on my morning run - perpetuates a scientifically false narrative.

No, it perpetuates a narrative of "it's better to be safe than sorry", which is about as scientific of a narrative as it gets when it comes to infectious diseases. I wear my mask when out walking or hiking specifically because I don't trust others to keep their distance, and because I care more about the possibility that I might inadvertently spread COVID to someone who'd die from it than I do about messing up my beard with a mask.

If you're alone and no one is within 10+ yards of you, who is going to be infected? I agree with your concerns. I simply don't see the need for the unnecessary. We need a steady state of vigilance. Fear inflation only leads to fatigue. That's not helpful.

> If you're alone and no one is within 10+ yards of you, who is going to be infected?

If someone unexpectedly approaches and gets within 10 yards of me, how long will it take me to put on my mask? Can I do so before that person's within 2 yards?

Better to just leave it on and leave it be rather than spend all day fumbling with it. That is:

> We need a steady state of vigilance.

Wearing a mask when out in public is that steady state. Taking it off because you think you're alone is a deviation from that steady state.

I think it's patronizing to assume that someone is doing something out of a "false sense of comfort" instead of simply that it's easier for them to wear a mask 100% of the time than to take it on/off whenever they come near someone.

The open spaces by me are very narrow. When overtaking someone or passing by someone going the opposite direction, you can't avoid being close to them. Sure, it's brief, but you should probably have a mask on for that. For some people mask on/mask off is a lot more hassle than just leaving it on.

Yes, this. I can feel a nice cloud of moisture coming off runners that pass too close on the trails.

I think the key difference with the outdoors is that aerosols don’t accumulate easily, not that you couldn’t infect someone by blasting them with your breath.

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