I’ve been traveling a lot lately and am seeing a gradual increase in public mask wearing across the country and worldwide.
I was in Colombia last month. There were no mask requirements when I arrived. In less than three weeks, masks were required in the airport and on all flights to and from the country. At the same time I had friends traveling in Germany, Iceland, and Bali. All reported that masks were mandatory in those countries when utilizing any type of public transportation. In fact, Germany is considering reinstating travel restrictions in addition to mandating masks.
Two weeks ago I flew through the Columbus, Ohio airport. All airport staff (police, airline staff, TSA, restaurant employees) were required to wear masks in the airport. The US Government even suggested masks as a preventative measure against monkeypox (but later retracted this advice). Clearly, masks don’t seem to be going anywhere soon. I worry that they might become mandated everywhere again when Covid-19 kicks up this winter.
I personally question the effectiveness of wearing cloth masks. I caught Covid last year in Ecuador despite wearing surgical masks in all public places in the country.
Wearing a mask while waiting for a Covid test as I was dying in Ecuador
The evidence is pretty clear that if you really want to protect yourself, you need to wear an N95 or equivalent respirator. I would never discourage anyone from wearing one of those. Here are some options for acquiring them.
It’s the cloth masks that bother me. They seem useless in preventing the wearers from getting sick. They may have some utility in preventing already sick people from spreading large liquid droplets to uninfected folks. In my mind, a better option is encouraging sick folks to stay home rather than putting everyone in cloth masks.
Not looking forward to going back to this
Even though I don’t believe the hassle of wearing cloth masks is worth the marginal protection they provide, I don’t like to make waves. I prefer to be “the grey man” as much as possible. Nothing attracts unwanted attention from many different types of people than refusing to wear a mask where it is a community standard to be masked in public.
There is another answer. For the last year, I have been wearing masks made by Fake Masks Worldwide. The masks are comfortable. They are super thin and don’t impede my breathing nearly as much as other masks.
While the company makes fake N95 masks and fake surgical masks, I have no experience with those. I have been wearing the Double Incognito and Triple Incognito masks. Of the two, I prefer the Triple Incognito. It’s very easy to breathe through and appears to be more solid than the Double Incognito.
The Triple Incognito Mask
I’ve worn the Triple Incognito all over the world during the pandemic. No one has ever noticed that it is virtually sheer. I haven’t found any other masks on the market that are as comfortable to wear.
I will caution you that the Fake Masks Worldwide site is very clearly right-wing and sells items making fun of Progressive politicians. I just ignore that junk. I don’t do politics. Fair warning that if you are left leaning, you probably won’t like the website that sells these masks.
If you’ve taken training with me, you know I’m all about providing people with options. This is an option for those of you who want to appear like you are complying with mask mandates while still being able to breathe somewhat normally. I think this is a far safer solution that refusing to wear masks and attracting negative attention from folks that may endanger your physical safety.
I set up an affiliate link with the company to get you all a discount if you are interested. If you buy them through this link, you’ll get a 10% discount on your order.