Can I unmask while working in an office alone on a Saturday?

fricking Zero Covid

quote:

---

frick. I just gotta vent... I'm so glad this subreddit exists. Until very recently, I was misinformed that zero-covid people are "fearful of everything" and need to "get over it". The stigma is so strong in my circles that I assumed, because the people I trusted are community-oriented and not ableist in other respects, they must be right about how vaccinated, non-immunocompromised people don't need to worry about COVID. I had no idea you could still spread it and kill more vulnerable people, I had no idea that even mild cases can still cause heart problems and 1 in 10 chance of disability??! I really don't like those odds!

Meanwhile, I have been dealing with "mysterious symptoms" for like an entire year after my covid infection and I didn't even think to consider it could be long covid until I started to recover recently, and now my brain feels like it is actually functional again. It strikes me how I could only realize that it was disabling after the fact. In the moment, I just adapted around it and minimized what I was going through.

What I want to make clear, which is not an excuse but may bring light to helping others understand - When I was drowning in constant anxiety, a feeling of helplessness/incompetence from not being able to do basic tasks due to brain fog, and fear of rising fascism (I'm trans) - this made it impossible to confront the even more painful reality that the pandemic is ongoing and a disabling illness. Just reading a phrase like "permanent brain damage" made my cortisol spike so much I could not continue reading. The resources I did try to look at were too full of sciencey jargon and overwhelming. I'm not kidding, there need to be ones with big bold text and simple graphics like for babies. Or crude trash-zines like this. Please communicate 100x more simplified and condescending, this is not a joke.

Truthfully, I don't think I would have ever woke up to reality if I hadn't recovered first, and my nervous system wasn't calmed down in general. I needed to laugh more, cry more, not be completely isolated, have space for hard conversations, address my own shite. Now I feel like I can take a breath. Now I can calmly sit down and read through the resources in the sidebar without my cortisol spiking and think yeah, now I can see why zero covid isn't crazy. It's not crazy to care about public health. It is the bare minimum, not radical or extreme at all.

I am wondering how many people are stuck in their own personal hell, minimizing the effects of an illness. It is probably very high. But, on the other side, I am happy that I know better now, and can do better, and one at a time, shite can still get better! ?? IT CAN STILL GET BETTER

so yeah. I guess I'm going to start masking again? even though I hate masking, I hate this virus, but it is important, and I love you all and thank you T_T And really, thank you guys for still protecting misinformed idiots like me by masking! Like, goddamn. I hate that I looked at you guys with fear / suspicion / pity and not feelings of hope.

---

That’s fareplay

The replies are priceless.

quote:

---

u/deftlydexterous avatar
deftlydexterous
•
19h ago
You are completely fine after that period of time. The reason you’re having a hard time finding information on how quickly Covid drops out of the air is because it varies depending on the situation. Even in the worst situations though, ventilation will dominate over degradation, and after 12 hours, the risk is negligible.

As a personal reference point: In situations with ample filtration, I generally wait half an hour, and in situations with minimal ventilation I generally wait two hours.

54
chicfromcanada
•
16h ago
doesn’t hurt to ventilate for maybe 20-30 mins or so but I’d be comfortable unmasking

11
OddMasterpiece4443
•
17h ago
The longest estimate I’ve seen was 24 hours. Probably just a statistical outlier. But if it’s been that poorly ventilated for 12 hours or more, I’d ventilate first for a while. I’m not sure how long you need to wait. It depends how quickly the air inside gets exchanged with outside air, and I don’t know how you’d measure that. Do you know how good the ventilation and filtration is once the AC is turned on?

7
u/PrestigiousTomato8 avatar
PrestigiousTomato8
•
19h ago
I'd ventilate first.

There is a UK group's study that says it inactivates very quickly. But their study is based on artificial saliva.

The Goldberg drum study has it infectious longer than your 12-15 hours.

1 micron aerosols are airborne for 12 hours or so, if I remember correctly? But they get kicked back up super easily, and re-suspended.

The longest known empty room infection is roughly 5 hours, which makes measles 2 hours pale in comparison.

I'd ventilate.....

19
u/Blaubeermuffin1215 avatar
Blaubeermuffin1215
•
16h ago
I would air it out before unmasking.

10
u/Standard-Band2423 avatar
Standard-Band2423
•
15h ago
Without ventilation or an air purifier, I would be comfortable after 17 hours.

1
u/Dr-Bunny23 avatar
Dr-Bunny23
•
18h ago
I wouldn't risk it. You don't know who's been in there before you

-3

---

quote:

---

I work on Saturdays and some weekends

---

Uummm.

It’s ZeroCovidCommunity on Reddit.

Honestly, the tigerdroppings obsession with that sub is kind of old. Nobody except for tigerdroppings seems to realize that that sub exists. And if people even on highly liberal Reddit knew that sub existed, they’d probably think it was pretty nutty.

Even if those were all views from separate people, 30,000 is a tiny percentage of the world’s population.

And in reality, the 30,000 views are probably from no more than about 3,000 people who view the subreddit multiple times per week. In addition, some of those viewers are looking at the subreddit in order to laugh at it. For example, this very tigerdroppings thread might have given the subreddit something like 500 or 1,000 views.

quote:

---

It’s ZeroCovidCommunity on Reddit. Honestly, the tigerdroppings obsession with that sub is kind of old

---

yeah, it’s TD that’s odd for noticing the weirdos.