Many T riders not ready to ditch masks

By adamg on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 9:25pm

WBUR reports.

Topics:

The T

Free tagging:

Covid-19

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Comments

Good!

By robo on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 10:07pm.

Keep them on, but they shouldn’t make people that don’t want to wear a mask feel like they need to. Just like people that don’t want to wear a mask shouldn’t make people that do feel like they shouldn’t wear one.

Personal choice and comfort should be respected both ways, equally.

Cover your mouth when you

By Bob Leponge on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 10:24pm.

Cover your mouth when you sneeze, but they shouldn’t make people that prefer to spray those nearby and don’t want to cover their mouth feel like they need to. Just like people that want to spray those nearby and don’t want to cover their mouth when they sneeze shouldn’t make people that do cover their mouths feel like they shouldn’t. Personal choice must always take precedence over respect for others around us.

Ok, Bob

By robo on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 6:07am.

Go back to your cave where it’s safe. And never take your mask off. You never know what evil might be lurking in the air.

I’m not worried about me

By Bob Leponge on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 6:49am.

I’m not worried about me at all. I have been happily enjoying restaurants, bars, and theater while the numbers are down. I just don’t want to show contempt for the health and safety and comfort of the people around me. That’s why I cover my mouth when I sneeze, refrain from farting in crowded elevators, and wear a mask on the subway.

I just can’t understand why this basic respect concept seems to escape so many people. Masks are cheap, not particularly uncomfortable or inconvenient to wear, and spare everyone around me any worry about breathing my exhaust. People in places with a stronger culture of community have been wearing them on public transit whenever there’s the slightest chance that they might be carrying a disease since way, way before COVID — not because they’re hypochondriac germophobes but out of simple respect for their neighbors.

Well said.

By Lee on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 7:10am.

Besides protecting me from Covid, I’ve enjoyed not having caught the common cold or flu in two years.
I’ll be keeping my mask on in most crowded indoor places and certainly anywhere where there are vulnerable people, such as children too young to be vaccinated. It just makes sense.

Thank you!

By Ross on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:14am.

Thank you for thinking of the children who are not able to be vaccinated and who are also too young to wear a mask. With cases rising and the mask mandate being lifted we are far from being able to get back to “normal life”.

Stop pushing your agenda on people

By robo on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 7:34am.

That’s great you like to wear a mask. No problem, but don’t tell me what to do. Deal?

“ Stop pushing your agenda on

By Lee on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 8:23am.

“ Stop pushing your agenda on people“

LOL!

You’re the one who told him to go back to his cave.

I wish there was a block user feature

By robo on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 8:38am.

You’d be #1.

You talk in circles and rarely make sense.

Just use some self control.

By Lee on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 8:54am.

Don’t read my posts. It’s mainly what I do with yours ever since I realized you are just here for attention and not genuine discussion.

I wish

By robo on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 9:15am.

Your posts are like a car accident. I don’t want to look, but can’t help myself and regret it every time I give in.

just take the L

By berkleealum on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:02am.

it really doesn’t take much to just admit that you were wrong.

if you can’t muster the self-respect to do that, then just stop commenting on this post and come back with more bs on another one. jfc.

Wrong?

By robo on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:05am.

Wrong about what? Masks are optional now and masked people shouldn’t give a stink eye to people not wearing them.

I’ve readily admitted when I’ve been wrong in the past on this site so I have zero clue what you’re talking about.

Speaking of optional

By Bob Leponge on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:31am.

Masks are optional now and masked people shouldn’t give a stink eye to people not wearing them.

Covering your mouth when you sneeze continues to be optional, and people shouldn’t give the stink eye to people choosing not to do so and spraying everybody nearby on the T.

I hope you were being sarcastic /s

By Don't Panic on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:18pm.

Or are you from that generation that wasn't taught Civics in the classroom? Optional, seriously?

Well, yeah...

By lbb on Fri, 04/22/2022 - 11:03am.

They were paraphrasing robo. See earlier comment.

Paraphrasing?

By robo on Fri, 04/22/2022 - 12:04pm.

You think not wearing a mask and sneezing in someone’s face are the same thing?

I mean...

By lbb on Fri, 04/22/2022 - 12:48pm.

...wearing a mask and not sneezing in someone's face are both optional, and "optional" is what seems to be the most important thing to you, so...

Death, taxes and big mad robo

By spin_o_rama on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 2:20pm.

and another thing: im not mad. please dont put in the newspaper that i got mad.

https://twitter.com/dril/status/549425182767861760

what were you wrong about?

By berkleealum on Fri, 04/22/2022 - 7:29am.

oh i don’t know, just the core concept of how masks work? i think you knew that though, otherwise you would have mounted a defense 4 posts ago rather than doubling down with insults.

Ok, bud

By robo on Fri, 04/22/2022 - 9:50am.

You win. I don’t know what you’re talking about and clearly you have a bone to pick. Enjoy the victory.

Police? Police!

By dan r on Fri, 04/22/2022 - 12:00pm.

I’d like to report a murder.

don’t try to make this about me lol

By berkleealum on Sat, 04/23/2022 - 8:19am.

i haven’t insulted you once

If people don't want to sit

By Omri on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 12:45pm.

If people don't want to sit near my unmasked visage in a bar, they can walk out.

If people don't want to share a bus with my unmasked self, it can cost them the job they are trying to reach. Do you understand the difference here? We have a lot of working class people who have to take a risk with their health to get to work and pay their rent. So your decision to mask or not affects them too, and not just you.

Public health is a public

By anon on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 1:14pm.

Public health is a public responsibility.

Do you call people “Soyboys”?

By anon on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 1:13pm.

Do you call people “Soyboys”?

So you're okay with people

By anon on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 11:08pm.

So you're okay with people that want to openly masturbate on the T so long as it's about their personal choice and comfort, and other people aren't obligated to do the same?

Or if personal choice and comfort aren't the end-all-be-all and sometimes we will have to tell people that they can't do that for a good reason, why is a deadly and injurious global pandemic that can be mitigated through universal mask-wearing not a good reason?

well, you see

By berkleealum on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:03am.

that’s different because uh.. something

yep...

By passing_thru on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 6:15am.

also, when the rules were set to mask up, I did so without fail for two years or so. Now that it's been deemed optional, I generally don't bother. And if others want to continue wearing them, that's totally fine with me.

If the rules get changed back, I'll mask up again without complaint. But for now, I'll be riding mask free.

Sad about the whole “rules” thing

By Bob Leponge on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 9:10am.

It’s sad that people need the government to tell them to be decent towards others, and announce their intention to stop doing so as soon as the government stops commanding it.

Hmm...

By lbb on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 9:13am.

they shouldn’t make people that don’t want to wear a mask feel like they need to

It seems a wee bit fragile to complain about other people "making you feel" some way about wearing a mask.

(particularly when so many of these complaints originate from the "Fuck your feelings" crowd, not saying that's you, but...they do)

and while at it..

By ANON GUY on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:24am.

forget about those pesky seatbelts and helmets! and heck, those traffic lights? Ignore 'em! Dont feel the need to follow those annoying things either, get out there and do you!

I expect to see little change

By Ari O on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 10:09pm.

Most people who have been wearing masks on the T will continue doing so. The people who haven't wanted to wear masks on the T haven't been for quite some time, mandate or not. Sure there are probably some edge cases, but they've probably been surgical-below-the-nose for a while anyway. Not a lot of folks ditching their N95s any time real soon.

This

By BostonDog on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 6:41am.

Few people care about the regulations. Those that didn’t want to wear masks wore them in such a way to be useless, if at all. Those that fear an infection or just prefer masking aren’t going to unmask because they have the option to do so.

Give it a few days. Once non

By Refugee on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 10:16am.

Give it a few days. Once non-mask wearers reach critical mass, then less motivated mask wearers will feel less pressure to stay masked and ditch them. That's how it's played out in other places where mask mandates were dropped.

Projection

By perruptor on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 10:44am.

Once non-mask wearers reach critical mass, then less motivated mask wearers will feel less pressure to stay masked and ditch them.

I don't think I'm speaking only for myself when I say that I still wear one even when I'm surrounded by maskless people not because I feel pressured, but because it continues to make sense. That they fall so quickly into carelessness is not persuasive to me, especially when the impetus is a decree from an unqualified Trump appointee.

"critical mass"

By lbb on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 12:03pm.

Once non-mask wearers reach critical mass

People who noped out of science class in the ninth grade shouldn't use terms they don't understand.

Yup, exactly. Most people don

By cden4 on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 6:19pm.

Yup, exactly. Most people don't like to stick out from the crowd. I've seen it myself.

Unspoken words

By Mark- on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 10:31pm.

On the Orange Line this morning 95% of the riders were still wearing masks. Me too. I made quick eye contact with the guy who wasn’t. It felt like he was thinking “What’s wrong with you?” I was thinking, “Nothing at all. This is what freedom is all about.”

I guarantee you he was

By HCL on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 8:10am.

I guarantee you he was thinking a) nothing, or b) "the fuck you looking at me for?"

What kind of crazy person

By ScottB on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:44am.

Makes eye contact on the T?

After 2 years many people,

By Don't Panic on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 12:08am.

After 2 years many people, not just T-riders have realized masks are good for things other than just slowing COVID-19.

Just ask Elroy Brown!

By NL on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 6:26pm.

From the article:

Elroy Brown of Dorchester said he rides the T every day and also plans to continue masking up. He’s gotten used to it after wearing a mask for so long, he said.

“You got people out here sneezing in public, not covering their mouths. So like, I’m [going to] wear my f------ mask,” he said.

Mask mandates

By anon on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 7:08am.

The mask mandate has been lifted for passengers but can the T still mandate that all its bus drivers, train drivers and cops wear masks as a condition of employment?

I had a very different experience

By anon on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 7:43am.

On the Needham line from the Sq yesterday. I’d say it was about 60/40. 40% of people didn’t have a mask on.

I'm going to take a wild guess

By jmeltzer on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 8:50am.

and say that there will be less likelihood of mask wearing on trains that go to the outer 'burbs. On the Red Line yesterday, it looked like about 85%, though.

Maybe, maybe not

By anon on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 8:57am.

It very well could have been just which train cars we both decided to get on at that time.

Laws of probability.

Many T riders not ready to ditch masks

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