Data Report

I took a break for about a week and a half. In the meanwhile, I did some traveling. While I traveled, I observed how many people wore masks (N95s, KN95s, cloth or surgical). Naturally, I always wore one.

Overall, very few people wore masks but there were still people who wore masks.

I attended an outdoor graduation ceremony. Unfortunately, EXTREMELY FEW people wore masks. To say that 0.1% of the attendees (graduates, audience, faculty) wore masks at the event would be an over-estimation. None of the faculty wore a mask and I didn't see any of the graduates wear masks either (to be fair, though, how the event was structured made it impossible to see if all of them did or not). There was one family that all wore masks and I saw a smattering (not including myself) of others who also wore masks.

I took public transportation and while using it I was slightly heartened to see at least a few people wearing masks. 0.25% might be stretching the estimate and 1% would definitely be stretching it but at least you could always see at least one person wearing a mask.

I walked through a few museums and became a bit disappointed with mask-wearing. Overall, the estimate was far more closer to the outdoor graduation. I did see a group of Asians (perhaps all related but I shouldn't judge as they may have been close friends or simply part of a larger group) who mostly wore masks; That skewed the statistics ever-so-slightly at least for one incident.

I attended a small concert (less than 200 attendees) and was heartened by the mask wearing in both the crowd and the musicians; While 5% might be stretching it, it was definitely the highest percentage during the entire break.

Overall, though, I am extremely disappointed in the level of mask-wearing for where I went (a major city and urban center). I didn't see a single person of considerable authority wearing a mask; They were all individuals such as myself.

During my break, I didn't feel the onset of any symptoms and, hopefully, will not feel them in the coming weeks. I did not see anyone around me fall ill.

If anyone else would like to share their experiences in places outside of your local area, please feel free to do so in this thread.

I am still quarantining, save the grocery store and doctors. Grocery store (in a busy suburb of TX) maybe 1 in 50 people mask. Doctors’ offices-maybe 1 in 10.

It’s becoming progressively more difficult to find doctors and staff that will mask, especially in the dental field.

There is a clear divide between those who understand COVID is real, and those who are coughing with their heads in the sand.

I live in the Washington, DC metropolitan area where masking and other mitigation measures were encouraged and followed, but that all went to the wayside in the last year or so. I'm still not taking public transportation, but when I walk in the street and a bus drives by, I don't see many people wearing masks —- maybe just one or two occasionally. I'm the only person left in my entire complex wearing a mask every time I leave my apartment. At the grocery store (where I go sporadically as I prefer to get my groceries delivered) I'm lucky if I run across one single masked person at this point. The staff at my vet clinic stopped masking early/mid-2022 as well as many other veterinary and human clinics. County government facilities and hospitals were the last stronghold, but they also lifted the mask mandate in March this year. Sadly, most people have moved on and act as if covid is over.