Welcome to the first edition of Forums Friday, a new thing we’re doing to highlight notable posts from the BikePortland Forums (you should grab a log-in and join us!).
We know. It’s a bummer. Wearing a mask while riding a bike isn’t great — especially when it’s above 50-degrees. They cause glasses to fog up, they make you breathe your own warm breathe, they fill with sweat and snot, they make it impossible to eat and drink on-the-fly.
But they also might save your life or the life another person. And you should be wearing one.
As we adjust to this new normal, I felt the post from Forum member “amandaSEPDX” deserved more attention. Here’s (a slightly edited version of) what she posted:
Please cover your faces. Please
Dear Fellow Bike Portland People,
Can we talk about all the cyclists out and about not wearing face-coverings?
Look, I don’t want to breathe my own hot breath on a bike ride anymore than the rest of you all do… but my husband and I have been pretty appalled by what we’re seeing on the daily.
Maybe 2 in 100 cyclists are covering their mouths/noses.
Can we please agree to do better?
Advertisement
I get it… I really do… it’s gonna mess up your Strava time or whatever.
It’s not fun.
I do not like it either.
But cover your faces up please.
You feel fine. I know you do. I do too. But that doesn’t mean we’re not capable of putting other people in danger. In fact, when you’re still feeling ok is when you’re most likely to spread the COVID funk about. So grab a bandanna. I know you have like four laying around at least because they all come out for the naked ride!
…Not giving a shit about keeping our germs contained during a global pandemic is hypocritical, especially when cyclists are quick to cite the importance of environment, community, and health values around biking.
People are quick to think of cyclist as self-important jerks. I know we’re not. So let’s do better.
Stay safe out there,
–Amanda
SE Portland
Read and reply to Amanda’s full post in the Forums. If you want to read more about wearing masks while you ride, this NY Times article has clear and concise information.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
— Get our headlines delivered to your inbox.
— Support this independent community media outlet with a one-time contribution or monthly subscription.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
Ugh. I mean…she has a point. But of course, it is really unpleasant and I can do a road ride and only come across 5 other cyclists in 2 hours. Say I had a mask in a jersey pocket and put it on when other cyclists/pedestrians are in sight, does that achieve the goal? Of course, I’d have to check my six more often than usual, but that seems like a good tradeoff to not wear a mask the whole ride.
Please show me evidence that bicycling outside solo without a mask and keeping 6 feet from other bikes and pedestrians is risky to anyone. Be careful in grocery stores and indoor places. Don’t stand next to people outside, but don’t worry too much about riding outside by yourself.
https://www.wired.com/story/are-running-or-cycling-actually-risks-for-spreading-covid-19/
https://news.yahoo.com/sunlight-destroys-coronavirus-very-quickly-new-government-tests-find-but-experts-say-pandemic-could-still-last-through-summer-200745675.html
Here’s some science on how far our germs can travel while biking. https://medium.com/@jurgenthoelen/belgian-dutch-study-why-in-times-of-covid-19-you-can-not-walk-run-bike-close-to-each-other-a5df19c77d08
Except that was a study in aerodynamics, not epidemiology or any field of medicine. The relevant question isn’t how far can the virus spread from an infected individual, it’s how far can the virus spread while still being in high enough concentrations that it can infect another individual. The study in question doesn’t answer that.
The study referred to in this post has not been properly peer reviewed as this article describes: https://www.wired.com/story/are-running-or-cycling-actually-risks-for-spreading-covid-19/ I’m not saying that the authors of the study are necessarily wrong, but getting safety precautions correct is not easy. Wear a mask if you want to, and if I was riding in the more popular areas I would to, but I agree with Jonathan, I ride on low traffic streets when people are less likely to be out.
Thank you for pointing me towards those articles and asking great questions. It’s hard to figure out real facts from false. I’ll share some of these with people I’ve shared the article with. Thank you.
I’m waiting for better information: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74az9/the-viral-study-about-runners-spreading-coronavirus-is-not-actually-a-study
The general guidance from authorities is that if you can’t maintain social distancing (regardless of the activity) you should wear a mask or some form of face covering. It would follow that if you are riding alone, away from others, a mask would not be necessary. If you are riding in heavily populated areas where social distancing cannot be maintained, cover your face holes.
I am pretty special and my comfort is more important to me than the health and security of others. Also I have read reports on Breitbart and Fox that claim masks don’t protect me (only others) and that the pandemic is a hoax. Those are adequate excuses tor me to ignore CDC recommendations and the Governor’s directive. /s
Directly from the CDC FAQ: “A cloth face covering should be worn whenever people are in a community setting, especially in situations where you may be near people. These settings include grocery stores and pharmacies. These face coverings are not a substitute for social distancing. Cloth face coverings are especially important to wear in public in areas of widespread COVID-19 illness.”
Oregon has the lowest or 2nd to lowest per capita Covid rate. If I’m biking inside a grocery store or pharmacy I’ll use a mask just like I do when I visit anyplace indoors besides my house now. In the mean time I’ll ride on my local roads by myself without a mask because I am not endangering anyone or risking my own health. I would not ride on the Springwater or Portland Waterfront on a sunny day because you can’t keep 6 feet from people but there are thousands of miles of roads in town that are nearly car free and easy to keep distance from everyone. Go out and enjoy the sun!
I was amazed this morning when I read that Deschutes County has had 61 confirmed cases, 39 fully recovered, and zero deaths, in a population of 200,000. Talk about a low incidence threat. It makes me think that we need better metrics of judging risk-reward. The damage to peoples’ lives from the economic fallout is not fatal, but cannot be undervalued in the whole equation. I mean, do we ban driving, because it results in 10’s of thousands of deaths every year?
You should probably start taking hydroxychloroquine immediately. Clearly, it only seems to work in vitro, but i’ve heard it’s a “game changer.” Any chance is better than none, right?
Don’t like the forum’s password requirements. Had to use something I’ll have trouble remembering.
Thanks for the feedback. Haven’t heard that about passwords from anyone else yet. I personally find the Forums to be awesome and much easier to use than this comment section! I encourage everyone to try them out. I’m trying to build a community there that’s not beholden to tech billionaires, that fosters respectful discussion of a wide variety of perspectives, that empowers people to learn and share their own ideas, and for a lot of other reasons. Forum members are also eligible for random prizes and contests and stuff so you should join today!
I have never experienced an easier account creation, and the login has optional 2FA with the user’s choice of token or key. Titanium badge!
I wonder if this thread is how bike shop workers feel when, upon seeing a tube with screwdriver-shaped holes and a rim with its bead scraped up, they show the customer a set of tire levers, and the customer says, “naw, I’ve never needed those…”?
I feel that password managers are insecure. They can also be hacked. Harder to hack my brain, and since I keep typing them in I don’t forget them.
Password requirement have been found to be less secure, forcing people to use passwords that are easier to compromise.
I’ve been using computers since the early 80’s and have never had an issue with my passwords. The only issue I have is when I’m forced to use capitals, symbols, numbers, long passwords, etc.
Passwords are only as secure as the hackers want them to be. It’s like a bike lock, they’re not foolproof. Imagine putting so many restrictions on a U-lock that people just give up and start using a cable lock. Same with password security.
As someone who works on a web browser, please use a password manager.
A password manger does not need to be software. It could be something simple as notebook kept somewhere safe. Though using an online service can be useful if you use a few different computers or phones. The major online services (e.g. 1password, lastpass or bitwarden) are good choices and allow you to create strong individual passwords for each website. If you want a solution local to your computer KeePass (KeePassXC on MacOS) is an option.
I’m unsure why people keep pushing for a password manager. My passwords are random characters I hashtag in my head. You cannot crack it without several days worth of brute force effort. I can use my passwords anywhere, without requiring access to another application.
I’m not putting my password in a file for somebody to steal and then crack that file and get all my passwords. That sounds insane to me.
A password manager doesn’t keep your passwords in a file that someone can steal. It keeps them in an encrypted database (which someone could steal, but which they couldn’t decrypt without some NSA level know-how). It’s not hack-proof, but it’s pretty good if you’re not targeted. If you are targeted, you’re probably screwed anyway. The keylogger they install will capture your bikeportland.org password, and then where will you be?
For those that are interested, this is by far the best article I’ve seen about masks and other protection against covid. The author talks about why the work, and why a homemade mask, combined with other precautions, is probably as effective as a much better mask.
https://www.linkedin.com/content-guest/article/saving-your-health-one-mask-time-peter-tippett-md-phd/
@#$%^ Once again, Hell Kitty shows mastery of the nesting system. Not.
At this point, JBC has to be a parody/troll account, right? Real people don’t make such a stink about these things, right?
Bless you. I am old and not tech savvy, so I use a notebook to keep all my passwords I have many But I use a code to tell me what accounts they refer to and some short-hand too. It’s funny, my fingers automatically type passwords (each different) for each account, even though I have probably 10 or more accounts that matter.
A notebook in your house is not a terrible idea. If the bad guys are in your house, they probably have other priorities than your password for the BikePortland forums 🙂
You’re right, which is funny because for years we were admonished for writing down passwords.
The most secure password is a line or passage from a memorable book. Password depth is far more secure than complexity. And as you point out, human readable is more memorable. Two limiting factors prevent a paradigm shift to longer passwords; system constraints and ideology.
If you are concerned about something like Last Pass that keeps your passwords in the cloud, try KeePass. It uses a local DB file that is encrypted with a master password. It provides all of the esoteric password generation tools you will need, in order to accommodate the various requirement schemes on the web.
The World Health Organization says to only wear a mask if you’re infected or are around infected people. They say to stay 3 feet away from others.
We are being advised that masks don’t help enough to warrant their use. We aren’t under order to wear them. We aren’t even under order to stay distant.
You should not be mask-shaming anybody.
Nesting fail. Will it ever be fixed?
There is a lot of conjecture in Amanda’s post. Amanda and Amanda’s husband are entitled to feel appalled seeing people not wear masks. Your feeling is valid, sure. It is a weird time and we are not used to seeing people wear masks in our culture. Amanda is entitled to throw shade at strava users too. Sure.
But the evidence is not there that masks are doing anything during a bike ride. The CDC says it “recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.”
It feels like a stretch to shame people for not biking with a mask if they are keeping their distance, avoiding crowds, being mindful not to spit and blow snot rockets, touch things along the ride, etc.
Yes, but I will say that passing someone in a bike lane (e.g., on Hwy 30) probably involves getting closer than 6 feet, as well as spending some time in or adjacent to their slipstream. So if airborne transmission is a significant concern (the jury is out?), I could see how that behavior might not be OK.
Generally, it’s pretty easy to maintain distance from people in the PDX area. Except in certain areas, the typical block has zero peds or cyclists on it so minor adjustments to route or trajectory allow way more than enough clearance.
There are some roads that don’t quite work like that, HWY 30 being one of them. The traffic is too fast to allow tons of clearance. However, the speed disparities between cyclists on such roads typically aren’t that great and they’re not going that far, so they’ll rarely encounter each other.
For example, I’ve never been passed on HWY 30 and if I find myself catching someone I just hang back since I know either they will turn off relatively soon, or I can turn off on a different road if I don’t feel like hanging out behind them.
I do that even in nonpandemic times because too many cyclists here can’t resist drag racing or wheel sucking everyone they encounter. If someone catches you, they’re faster — let them through. If you’re going to catch someone, pass them and maintain speed — don’t suck their wheel or slow down as soon as you’ve gotten by them.
I’ve been riding Hwy 30 recently, which is why I brought it up. I’ve found that there’s reasonably heavy bike traffic, both people heading out to the St. John’s Bridge, and people heading to Sauvie and points further west, so many people don’t turn off. I have been passing and being passed on that stretch of road — I must be the perfect median rider — hence the extent to which covid transmission is a concern is on my mind.
Maybe don’t ride highway 30 right now if you are concerned. It seems like you are conflicted about it already and it’s much more effective than a mask.
But…but…my Strava times! 😉
Pro pandemic tip: DONT RIDE IN THE POPULAR SPOTS, and that, of course, includes highway 30 during primetime hours. Even if you’re wearing a mask while doing this, you’re messing the social distancing up. Stop it.
I always wear a mask on my face, I am so used to having my nose down covered I would feel weird and naked otherwise
I have to wear glasses, so coola** goggles are not an option, sad
my problem is that pedestrians are ALL OVER the place now, bobbing and weaving in and out of the roadway against the flow of traffic, which is especially dicey in protected bikelanes where I am trapped between them, the curb, and the cars parked to my immediate left. It is super bad on NW Front between 9th and 18th Ave!! sooooo sketchy and unpredictable.
I have given up on using any protected/wanded lanes now, since I am done being trapped/forced to breathe the runner/jogger spitty air.
Back to taking the road and slowing down cars, just like the good ol’ days!!
The study/simulation [linked above] have not been published or peer reviewed.
That said, the data there seem to match what one might reasonably think might be true, just based on common sense.
However, it’s really very theoretical. If you have 5-6 riders all riding along, drafting each other, then the risk is obviously likely to be, relatively, quite high.
If you’re mostly riding alone, but pass someone fairly quickly (with some lateral separation), and put 20-30 feet between you quickly, then I think the calculus is *very* different.
So, I think making dramatic statements about it _always_ being a terrible choice not to wear a face covering when outside riding seems a little far out on the limb. [At least *I* wouldn’t make those kinds of statements.]
I can’t control what others think and say, but it seems a bit over the top to semi-shame people for not wearing a face covering when they’re biking.
If you are in places where there are quite a number of riders, then you should probably consider riding elsewhere [IMO simply not being close to other people is far more protective than a face covering!] and if that’s not possible (say you’re commuting and no other reasonable route works) then a face covering is probably next best.
A 4,000 lbs steel box is still a bigger threat to me then a cyclist/jogger/pedestrian without a mask. Close, dense constant contact is the greatest risk of spreading COVID-19, so the risk of getting it passing someone outside is fairly low. My recommendation would be if you feel the risk is too great to be outside with those without a mask you are free to stay indoors. Just as I accept the risk of riding on roads with traffic, I’ll accept the risk of riding by folks without masks, and I will not be judging, because I will be one of those without a mask.
I have so far resisted responding to calls to ride with masks, but can’t resist any longer. I strongly believe that wearing masks while cycling or running outdoors is irrational.
I in no way deny the seriousness of this disease. I have a very strong stake in limiting the spread of infection. I am Internal Medicine hospitalist who is admitting and taking care of patients with COVID-19. I also have master’s level training in biostatistics and epidemiology. I am not claiming to be an expert in COVID-19, but I have more than layperson’s knowledge. There is a proliferation of study and scientific knowledge and it is being created faster than most can assimilate. The news is also rife with junk science and junk interpretations of basic science.
COVID-19 is spread by prolonged (30-60 minutes, to be conservative let’s say 15 minutes) exposure to some with symptoms or within 1-2 days of developing symptoms. Physical contact and close proximity conversation are the major risks. You do not get infected by transiently walking by someone. The main sources of infection are congregate living situations (such as nursing homes), household spread, and health care exposure. Even within households, the transmission rate is less than 10%, and probably less than 5%.
Under experimental conditions, droplets and aerosols can travel more than 6 feet with viral RNA detection. That doesn’t mean it is also a significant source of infection. You should take precautions when indoors. However, you are not going to become infected with transient passing of someone in the outdoors.
If you feel like you should wear a mask, you should continue to do so. However, please stop shaming others for not doing so. The science just doesn’t support it and the governor’s orders do not mandate it.
Name and creds or not real.
I struggled over the past few days of whether or not to say something but I do agree with JJ about credentials.
For the record, I agree with everything Scott posted and it seems very reasonable to me. But just because I want something to be true, doesn’t mean it is. In the era of misinformation, and especially given the gravity of the situation, I feel people who are dispensing medical advice or public health advice from a position of supposed authority should have their names attached to it. Otherwise, it’s just advice solicited on the internet to reinforce confirmation bias.
I do want to respect Scott’s privacy here..and obviously he doesn’t have to share anything if he doesn’t want to. But I definitely want good information coming from verified medical or public health professionals, especially if they are reading it from a blog on the internet. I hope this makes sense and isn’t unreasonable.
CDC Guidelines and recommendations from healthcare professionals; these are valid sources of information about how we should behave during a Pandemic. Thank you Scott!
Baseless assumptions that we should wear masks outside by ourselves, elevated by people who don’t know any better; not so valid.
This town is full of people who are dying to tell you what to do.
You can feel their vibe from across the street. Scolds!!!
(Adding this line here so it will let me post because the message threading failed above)
The World Health Organization says to only wear a mask if you’re infected or are around infected people. They say to stay 3 feet away from others.
We are being advised that masks don’t help enough to warrant their use. We aren’t under order to wear them. We aren’t even under order to stay distant.
You should not be mask-shaming anybody.
As of today, only 4 states require wearing a mask in public: Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
That’s not really accurate. Some aren’t in effect yet, and they don’t require them everywhere in public.
Maryland: Required starting Saturday, only at stores and on transit.
New York: Required starting @ 8PM tonight, only if you can’t stay 6 feet apart.
New Jersey: Already required, only for customers and workers at essential businesses.
Pennsylvania: Required starting Sunday @ 8PM, only for workers (and some customers) at essential businesses.
Without a mask I feel like I’m putting out a slow drizzle of vapor that dissipates quickly.
With my flimsy mask (it’s just a face buff) I feel that huge amounts of vapor are accumulating so that when I exhale you’ll get a super huge explosive dose of vapor (and now mucus) that’s been building up in my mask. The mask makes it harder to breathe and so you’re putting out more vapor than if you didn’t have it on.
Isn’t that worse?
Most things I’m reading say to only wear the mask when you’re around people, not when you’re just riding around. Put it on when you are at a destination.
She sounds very authoritarian and condescending. Heading out on this beautiful day to enjoy a mask-free ride and hopefully not get steamrolled by a speeding motorist. Yay enforcement!
It seems that words like “authoritarian” and “totalitarian” are thrown around with reckless abandon lately. Might I suggest being judicious in using such words so that we don’t end up semantically bleaching those words? Trump has authoritarian tendencies. Putin is a full-on authoritarian. A person with strong views on mask-wearing is not authoritarian, regardless of whether or not you agree with them.
Well according to experts on the internet and an informal poll conducted on a regional bicycling blog, wearing masks is for suckers.
Sigh
Right. Just ignore what the epidemiologists are saying and get your info from Nextdoor types who are citing non-reviewed, unpublished studies.
I’m curious about how we got to a place where folks are adamantly arguing WEAR A MASK WHILE BIKING IT SAVES LIVES when neither the WHO nor the CDC actually recommend that people wear masks while exercising?
If those organizations start recommending that folks wear masks while exercising, I’m happy to do so, but there’s a substantial difference between the recommendations of a credible medical authority and the opinions of some random person on an internet forum.
THIS IS JUST ONE PERSON’S OPINION AS SHARED IN OUR FORUMS. I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUN TO SHARE HERE. THAT IS ALL. PLEASE CARRY ON.
Neither the time nor the topic (nor the tone) for “fun.”
be vewy, vewy quiet. i’m hunting wabbits.
And who are you to tell others how they should feel?
Are you asking me or the folks who are telling you how to feel about wearing a mask when you’re not near anyone?
Ok Jonathan, but you’re choosing to boost this one person’s opinion, which comes off as an endorsement of their viewpoint.
If you don’t agree with this stance, perhaps you could highlight some alternative takes that have been expressed here. Or maybe tell us what your opinion on the matter is?
I’ve published several things about masks in the past few days/weeks.
These responses could be interpreted as a roundabout way of saying “I’m not endorsing an opinion on the subject, I’m just presenting an argument as an objective journalist should.” However, by clearly stating in the article “you should be wearing one” and posting a picture of yourself wearing a mask, indeed there is a specific endorsement of one opinion. It _is_ a controversial subject because we are all making a lot of changes to accommodate this pandemic and do what is necessary to flatten the curve and save lives. There is also a point at which actions become extremely invasive, and if actually not needed, burdensome. That is why there is so much pushback on this issue.
Thanks for explaining that to me. Keep in mind I am not objective. No one truly is. I’m a human with opinions and I often share them on this site. Sorry if you and others don’t like this post or the tone around masks here in general. I will be more careful of this type of thing in the future. Always learning!
It’s not just tone, it’s factually wrong, and replacing what healthcare professionals are recommending with opinion. I had to dive into the comments for actual information about whether or not wearing a mask while riding is recommended by the authorities.
The reaction to Amanda’s post is over the top. She has opinions which she aired in appropriate way and Jonathan raised the visibility to promote discussion.
The pileon she received would discourage a lot of people — especially women — from sharing their thoughts again. It will also discourage people who share that view/
With regards to tone, I see more issues in the responses (a number of which are quite defensive) than in her post.
So Amanda, if you see this, don’t let these guys get you down. Sometimes anchovies make more racket than whales.
In thinking more about this post, I regret sharing it here on the Front Page. I want the Forums to be an alternative place where people feel comfortable sharing pretty much anything and where they know their posts won’t be put here. My mistake. I won’t be doing this in the future. Instead I will share notable Forums posts in the Monday Roundup. Thanks everyone. I hope some of you will sign up for the Forums and use them as a resource! I’m on there a lot!
Thank you for continuing to post interesting stories/opinions, and for giving us a place to discuss in the comments and forums. Sorry we’ve all been cranky lately and are taking it out on each other and you. I hope you and your family are staying healthy and sane!
Thank you Pat. That is so nice to hear. My family and I are doing well. Hope you and yours are too.
I think the issue is that while it is one persons opinion it is a very problematic one and it has been inappropriately elevated
I took the idea DIY mask-makers are using re: a wire to help the mask fit around your nose, and hacked a buff with an unfolded paper clip and some hot glue. Works like a charm – my glasses don’t fog up anymore.
Mask shaming? If it were body shaming or slut shaming a rebuke would be in order as those are not anyone’s business, but we are discussing diminishing risk on a global pandemic, which is everyone’s business. Talk on this blog cites rationale for doing the LEAST allowable in risk reduction as if that were a virtue to be proud of. I contend that arguing justifications for doing the least to decrease the risk to the general populace, and enforcing your high risk tolerance on others is not virtuous, but shameful.
If you are going to flout Best Practices, don’t come on a public forum and disparage their use. Slink into the shadows and exhale on others in secret and silence. To join the chorus of shame victimization, I feel proponents of mask wearing, for their compliance with recommendations, tolerance of discomfort and willingness to sacrifice small personal freedoms for societal good are being shaming shamed. The mad dog looks you will get from masked strangers is shaming that bothers you. Perhaps your sensitivity to the issue is your conscience trying to tell you something.
Actually it’s not my conscience, it’s the unreasonably judgemental attitude behind that look which is bothering me. As others have stated, it is completely possible to take this pandemic seriously and still use common sense and brain power to determine what reasonable actions look like that are effective in helping stem the spread of this virus. If it were true that there is no minimum concentration of virus necessary to cause infection, then probably all air is unsafe to breathe. Advocating for extreme positions like wearing a mask while biking outside are just as ignorant and damaging to the psyche as calls and protests for immediately ending stay-at-home orders.
Yes, people are going to look at all the information and disinformation available and make their own calls about what are or are not necessary actions. There really is no reason to shame others for following official guidelines and looking after their physical and mental health. They are still being socially responsible.
“Perhaps your sensitivity to the issue is your conscience trying to tell you something.”
Man, that can be applied to so much 🙂
I found a mask very usefully for frostbite protection on the coldest winter days, and some level of air pollution protection during fire season and high PM2.5 days (needs to the right kind of mask). I’m hoping a result of widespread use will result in some innovation and better mask designs that are more comfortable.
I’m also glad this will put an end to PPDs previous ridiculous campaign to ban mask wearing in public. People have a basic human right to protect themselves from frostbite, smoke, and now viruses also if they choose to. I often need to ride around downtown protests, just trying to get home from work, and don’t want to be targeting just for wearing an air pollution or cold protection mask. Its my basic human right to wear a protective mask. You can not ban appropriate protective clothing.
Specialized masks may also be the only defense against a new wave of disruptive companies that have been compiling massive picture data bases and associated data, with the hope of selling the information to private companies looking to do cheap expanded background checks. There is already one company selling this data. The problem of course is that the software is only <85% accurate. So hopefully if you want to rent an apartment you don't happen to look like someone with a bunch of evictions. Or if you want a job, hopefully you don't look like someone who has a bunch of felonies. Same thing for loans and many other things. You will never know that they rejected you become of a incorrect face id, as they won't need to disclose it. They will just come up with some other reason to reject you.
I’m currently nesting in place…
Yeah, I mean I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Writing down forum passwords seems reasonable, but in this day of endemic identity theft, I wouldn’t write down a password that I use at a financial institution unless I kept it in such a way that I would know if it was compromised, e.g., in a safe.
I’m not convinced masks will actually keep your droplets contained very well when you’re breathing hard. I don’t think in that situation most of the air is actually being filtered by that tightly woven cloth. Remember, we’ve been warned to keep it tight around your face when you’re in a store, because it’s easy for your breath to escape out the side when you’re just walking around.
Remember, the goal is NOT to get the transmission rate to zero: we want to eventually reach herd immunity, because we don’t really know when a vaccine may be coming. The objective here is merely to reduce the transmission rate enough that the curve flattens beneath hospital capacity (which is gradually increasing in response to the crisis).
And by all accounts we have accomplished that. We’re even talking about gradually lifting some restrictions in the near future, contingent on more widespread testing at least. I don’t think we need to be talking about imposing further restrictions beyond what we’ve already done, including a demand that everyone exercising outdoors – even away from groups – wear a mask. Let’s keep a little perspective here and not let germophobia run away with this thing.
i’m not wearing a mask when i ride
i’m only riding for exercise at this point — if it comes to only being able to ride if a mask is worn, i will retreat to the trainer and be pretty unhappy about it.
i try not to ride in busy corridors, meaning few pedestrians or riders, tho fewer cars also makes the ride better too.
please let’s not go there on a mask requirement for exercise
and, yes, snot rockets are inevitable, but where they come out is carefully controlled to be away from others by a few hundred yards
More of the “Look at how I’m so responsible over others.” Ooh, wow, you wear a mask to venture out and look down at those who don’t. Stay the F home. The mask guideline is for people who need to be in situations where they may come in contact with others, like essential trips to the grocery store. A leisure bike ride is optional at best and you’re putting other in harm’s way, mask or not.
How is riding a bicycle an act of putting other in harm’s way?