NY Times answers the question, "Are masks necessary outdoors?"

The one word answer - No. So now my true believer NY Times reader friends can unmask outdoors.

Here's the article and got to love that term below, "a culture of mask wearing".

We’re looking at two Covid questions people may have heading into summer.

On the issue of outdoor mask wearing, it helps to review a basic fact: There are few if any documented cases of brief outdoor interactions leading to Covid transmission. If you’re passing other people on a sidewalk or sitting near them on a park bench, the exposure of exhaled particles appears to be too small to lead to infection.

“Viral particles quickly disperse in outdoor air, and the risk of inhaling aerosolized virus from a jogger or passers-by are negligible,” my colleague Tara Parker-Pope writes, citing an interview she did with Linsey Marr of Virginia Tech. As Dr. Muge Cevik, an infectious-disease expert at the University of St. Andrews, says, outdoors is “not where the infection and transmission occurs.”

Still, why not try to eliminate even a minuscule potential risk and tell people to wear a mask at all times? Because that’s not an effective way to reduce overall risk. “I think the guidelines should be based on science and practicality,” Marr said. “People only have so much bandwidth to think about precautions.”

There are still important precautions to take, ones that are much more based in science than universal mask wearing. Unvaccinated people should wear masks when in close conversation with people outside their family — even outdoors — and should almost always wear a mask when indoors and not at home. Vaccinated people should continue to wear a mask in many indoor situations, to help contribute to a culture of mask wearing. It’s the decent thing to do when more than half of Americans still are not vaccinated.

Tara’s story includes a delightful graphic that summarizes the advice.

The second question has to do with vaccinations and children and if interested hit the link above. 

 

 

Comments

[maria]

Interesting statement: "Contribute to a culture of mask-wearing"...

[NW 332]

In these challenging times, the "culture of mask wearing" is simply the showing of respect for others by making an effort to try and keep your germs to yourself.

[tom faranda]

I agree, which is why I always have one I can pull up onto my face when out. Still, it's funny way to put it.