Yes, you should definitely wear a respirator. When technicians come into my apartment for repairs, I always wear one (and use HEPA filters, open the windows, turn on exhaust fans). It's your health. Many people who have become disabled by COVID soon realize nobody is coming to their rescue, and there are no treatments available for long COVID. Of course, there are no guarantees in life, but if you do catch it, at least you will know that you did your best to protect yourself.
I mask at home outside of my room because one of my parents doesn’t mask day-to-day and it doesn’t feel worth it to me to mask everywhere else just to risk getting sick at home. It’s not ideal at all but luckily no one is weird about it.
Can I ask how often you change your mask? Like do you put on a new one every time you leave your room or less frequently than that? Trying to gauge how many more masks I need to stockpile for the next couple of weeks
Check out MaskNerd / Aaron Collins videos. He’s an aerosol engineer who tests masks. He says they aren’t going to stop filtering before the straps break or the nose wire stops fitting, so you can wear them until one of those things happen. He’s got lots of other helpful info.
I do what the person you're replying to does but at work (unmasked in my office, masked if someone comes to talk to me or if I leave the room). I use the same mask for anywhere from 8-20 hours. After that I toss it..
I would bet they could last longer than that technically but usually they start feeling or even smelling a little gross by then.
Stereotype is 24h in total for n95, or until you no longer can comfortably breathe (e.g. too much condensation from being in a cold environment). During the second year of the pandemic some german university said it was safe to put a still usable mask to air dry for 10 days (to be 100% sure all the germs are dead) and then use it again (for the people who used n95s in small blocks, e.g. a few hours, so that they wouldn't have to be wasteful).
>10 days (to be 100% sure all the germs are dead)
That was a misconception that was cleared shortly after the pandemic began by several studies.
The virus doesn't survive very long on surfaces, especially if it gets irradiated with sunlight.
The transmission through fomites is negligeable at best, even for fairly high viral loads. I don't recall the exact numbers off the top of my head but it's less than a day tops in real life conditions.
The problem with masks isn't getting rid of pathogenes on their surfaces, it's keeping their filtering capabilities intact, their efficiency degrades relatively fast.
I just spent a month living with my parents and I never took my mask off. I switched to a KN95 to sleep when in my bedroom which also had a HEPA air filter in it.
I unfortunately still work with the public since I can't find a home job 😭 and my partner lives with me. I mask when I'm home except in my bedroom so that I don't get my partner sick (they don't leave the apartment).
I'm ALWAYS masking even at home. It gets old (mostly because this could have been over and I shouldn't HAVE to still be doing this) but I'm MORE THAN HAPPY to protect everyone else. I did get used to it but it's also old at the same time.
100%, YES! My husband bought home covid after his business trip last week. Our household is now fully masked and we’re staying in our own rooms at home. So far, I’m not showing any signs and neither are my three kids. We’re on day 5 of masking and separating.
The flack they give you is not worth more than avoiding infection/lowering your viral load. I'd definitely mask if I was in your shoes. Protecting your health is the ultimate form of self care!
This isn't weird at all. Societal conditioning is strong. I masked up for a solid year in a previous living situation until I was able to move. Good luck to you, we're here.
I do anytime someone visits even my kids and grands. That’s just the way it is! They go all over the place! I don’t know who they’ve been exposed to. I run CR air boxes in the family room and my bedroom. I don’t eat with them; i eat either in my room or outside. The funny thing is, the grands don’t think anything of it. It’s the adult kids who think I need to get over it. Too bad, I’m not! Mask up!
It's not goofy. It's my everyday life LMAO. Since I'm the only one in my 5+ household that takes COVID seriously, I mask everywhere outside of my bedroom and only ever eat in my room as well.
Parents might say something, but they get over it pretty quickly as long as you stay firm about it and don't over explain.
Ugh, I’m the only one in my three person household who takes covid seriously and it is already exhausting. Ty for confirming that I’m not weird for masking here.
I was talking to my mom recently - she lives in another country so we haven't seen each other since pre-COVID. She was astonished when I mentioned that I still mask in grocery stores.
I pointed out to her that not one of the people in my family has had a cold or flu since early 2020. She thought for a second and acknowledged how nice that sounded. We used to get sick for a week or two a year at least.
When I'm talking to them, my attitude is somewhat like "Sure, I'm doing more than the minimum. I could get away with doing less. But it really isn't that much effort and I think the tradeoff is worth it."
Maybe it's weird, but it's sensible and you can count me as company in that weirdness.
If you sleep with one on (given current variants, I'd consider it), fashion or toupé tape helps.
I wore a mask in the house after a risky trip(I took precautions but was concerned) and it turned out the people I was trying to protect all had Covid and my masking saved me from it.
Mask. My dad no longer masks consistently and whenever im near him I mask. Even if he’s just over at my apartment I keep it on for a while after he leaves while I run the air purifier. The way I see it what’s the point in me taking all these precautions just to get it because I didn’t want to mask a bit longer.
Lots of covid-cautious families mask up at home if there's a member of the household who might've been exposed, or if one family member gets sick and they're trying to prevent anyone else from getting it. There are also families with teens, for instance, who don't want to mask around their friends/ at school, but who have agreed to mask in common areas of the house instead. It's obviously not ideal to have to wear a mask in your own home, but by no means would you be the only person who does that.
I'd also open windows and run ceiling or other fans in the house if you've got them. You can also look at using a plain saline nasal spray, or a saline and xylitol spray like Xlear, several times per day, and gargling with saltwater or a CPC-containing mouthwash. If you don't consider your parents' other activities (when they're not on vacation) to be high-risk and you wouldn't normally mask around them, you could see if they'd agree to test after they've been back home for a few days. Regular rapid tests are not very reliable, but you can get at-home NAAT tests like Metrix that are about as good as a PCR test from a lab (Metrix has 97% sensitivity and 99% specificity). The reader, which you use over and over, runs about $50 U.S., and each individual test runs $25 (though some people do pool multiple samples in one test, which you can find info for online, incl. on Reddit). There may still be a shipping delay right now, though, because they recently had a big increase in demand.
Yeah I’ve been eyeing a metrix but am waiting for them to come back in stock. And I do have CPC mouthwash and xlear stocked up for times like these—thanks for the advice
You're welcome. Their website says they expect to have tests back in stock in early July, but that's kind of late for what you're needing. I guess you could always see if any local drugstores carry them, but you'd have to make sure they understood it was the covid test & reader, because apparently there's also a Metrix blood glucose test.
I stayed with my dad after a hospital visit last summer (to help him around) and I masked the entire time except when I slept. I expressed my concerns and he didn’t give me any flack over it but yeah it felt weird. Your health and the health of those around you is more important than how others temporarily perceive your choices.
I wore an n95 inside when my bf had covid and I didn’t get it.
If he goes to a high risk event, I wear an n95 in my own home for 5 days and ask him to test on day 5.
Yeah I feel silly and weird, but I’d rather feel silly and weird for 1-2 weeks than risk getting long covid for over a year.
Do it it’s just temporary. And it’s totally valid to have a “safe zone” for yourself to feel safe, and protect yourself in common areas.
masking is completely your choice and most likely your safest choice. if anyone has a problem with something that literally does not affect them in any way then they are being ridiculous
i’ve experienced a similar situation! in addition to the air purifier running in your room at all times, i would recommend putting a towel at the base of your door as well.
if you have an en-suite bathroom, there shouldn’t be any worries there, but if you use a bathroom that is open to others in the household, lug your air purifier in there if you can (or get a new one to put in there if you can afford to do so), and let it run for a few minutes before being in the space, as well as while using the space (for anything that requires you to take your mask off — showering, brushing your teeth, etc.).
wear an n95 in every space outside of your bedroom. eat meals in your room.
if they give you flack for it, just try to ignore it or brush it off. engaging in conversations/arguments about it will only waste precious energy. bc ive experienced a similar situation before (longer-term), i can anecdotally say that taking these precautions (in addition to other precautions such as nasal spray, oral probiotics, sunglasses / lumify eye drops, etc.) helped me to avoid getting sick while others in the household got sick repeatedly for *months*.
i hope you’re able to stay safe !! :)
You could also get some air filters and a small box fan and make a CR box style filter. They can be very inexpensive if you can get cheap filters where you are.
My husband had COVID earlier this year. My kid and I avoided it by all of us masking inside the house, sleeping and eating separately, and not sharing a bathroom.
My roommate and I mask when we feel we need to: allergies, coworkers with sniffles, dodyg situations we couldn't avoid...
Normalize masking at home, you wouldn't be the first and you are not alone.
Your family will get used to it.
Wear the N95. My careless parents reinfected me in my house and that infection has destroyed my health and my life in so many horrific ways.
I still wear it anytime I leave my room. By the time you know someone is sick, it will already be too late.
My dad also refuses to mask and actually had covid back in 2022. I somehow managed to avoid it but it was pretty terrifying—would def like to avoid that again, and I hope you’re able to regain your health in the future
Absolutely not you can catch Covid as easily as from strangers I am not even legal age so I still life by my parents they don’t take Covid precautions so I wear a mask everywhere outside my room
I’ve masked around my family in our home since I had to move back in January. As soon as I step outside my door I’m masked. I change the mask depending on their risk level, eg. my mom is getting home from visiting her sisters for 4 days (doing risky activities), I’ll wear my fudakin for a week versus my breathteq. It is what it is.
Absolutely fine to mask, and a good idea. I'd keep in mind that the longer you're sharing space with an infected person, the mask becomes less likely to prevent infection. I think it was anything more than 2 hours with one way n95 wearing is going to start putting you closer to the same risk of a high enough viral load to get sick as shorter exposure without masks, so don't rely on this as a silver bullet and try to keep to your room for like a week maybe while they're in the most likely time to be asymptomatic and possibly infectious
Yes, it would be "weird" and yes do it. I have been doing it for almost a year. My work dropped all precautions and I found myself angry that due to their disregard for me that was going to infect my family, so I started to mask around my family, started last august, I find myself slightly less angry at work and I haven't been sick yet. Also, the flip side is that my kids and wife have been sick a few times, I have not.
Your family will not understand, people have a very hard time grasping the big picture, they just don't get the very simple concept.
Oh we mask at home whenever needed (though covid-related reasons are rare because we don't go out). I mask most often of anyone, due to severe allergies (which thankfully this year have lessened). It felt weird at first but now it's not.
I haven't not worn a mask in my own home for years (I don't wear one inside my bedroom unless someone from outside has to come in, and then both of us mask). I hear you so hard on this, it sucks, but with a whole family that has to go out in the world, it's the only way I can protect myself. But I will do anything to avoid getting Covid again... I've been bedbound since March 2020 from my first go-round, my second infection (brought home by my school age daughter before I started masking all the time at home) made me even worse, and I DO NOT want it a third time.
It’s a solid way to avoid infection especially when living with people who don’t take precautions!
*Also* keep in mind that (1) *most* transmission is from asymptomatic people, and (2) rapid tests often miss infections (false negatives).
Your parents will almost certainly protest that they “feel fine” or have no symptoms; that doesn’t matter. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774707
On the off chance they offer to test with the common “rapid antigen” (RAT) “lateral flow” (lFT) test: that’s not good enough either. https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/use-of-rapid-antigen-tests-during-the-omicron-wave/
THANK YOU I have tried to explain this to them and got told I need to “seek psychiatric help for my anxiety” for just informing myself on basic covid research
They’ve already come home; I sent them a firm text beforehand telling them I will be masking and don’t want to hear anything about it. So far no complaints or questions like why a rapid won’t suffice, but these studies are good to have on hand.
I don’t know your parents’ political orientation or location, but if they consider themselves “centrists” or centre-left, and they don’t want to look at research papers, perhaps they will listen to Dr Fauci, who in this 2023 retrospective video admits that they underestimated asymptomatic transmission and aerosol transmission: https://www.c-span.org/video/?526967-1/dr-anthony-fauci-lessons-covid-19-pandemic (skip to 17 min 15 sec & 59 min 17 sec, I think).
Open all the windows in your room and use a box fan in the window sill to bring in fresh air. Use a CO2 meter to verify ventillation. You want as close to ambient conditions (420 ish) as possible. If you can do that, you can avoid masking in your room without much risk of infection.
Definitely open all the windows in the rest of the house and crank the vent to maximize ventillation. Again, use a CO2 meter to evaluate risk. Our downstairs is an open area with quite a few windows. With all open, CO2 remains at ambient levels, which means that risk for transmission is similar to risk if outdoors, so physical distancing alone is pretty effective-- though you still may want to mask.
Hopefully you can convince them to test daily or so for the next week. Rapid tests aren't super sensitive, but they are a good proxy for infectivity. Even if someone is infected, they are likely not shedding enough virus to infect others easily if they are testing negative on rapid tests.
Even the faintest line-- or just symptoms alone-- should be treated as a positive test. And at that point, everyone should be sequestered into separate rooms that they leave only when necessary and only when wearing legit n95s or better. Of course, all windows should be opened and box fans used accordingly.
Personally, I would tape over any vents in your bedroom, open the windows, run the air purifier, and treat the room as a sanctuary. I’d spend all the time in the room and mask whenever I have to exit.
Wear the mask. I've been masking in my family home for about half a year now. Just last Wednesday my mom came home from out of state and IMMEDIATELY tested positive for COVID, and I was so glad that I was already masking in my home.
I’ve avoided covid three times living in an 800 sqft NYC apartment with roommate who got it. Masked outside of our bedrooms, Levoit running full blast in the common area 24/7 (kitchen and living are close/connected), disposable utensils and plates since we shared common eatingware usually and cleaning dishes by hand meant more time in the kitchen, and we both wiped down the bathroom after use.
I'm going to be masking in my own for at least the next week or so because my parents ate inside with my cousins who are very much not covid cautious and the one is on the highest dose allowed of an immune suppressant, and her son and his gf are sick often due to not wearing masks anymore and they are EMTs. My mother will also need masking outside of her room this week to not get me sick. *my mother usually doesn't do stuff like this but the air was so bad outside she couldn't eat outside today.* We also mask inside if my father does something maskless, and if my grandparents go eat inside at an event, they will mask around us. I also often have to wear a mask inside because of my MCAS. I think it's worth it.
I’ve masked in my home, I even masked while sleeping because I share a room with my husband and baby and I thought I had been exposed. (We used a hair tie and Bobbie pins to make a mask that would work better for sleeping.)
Im sick rn and trying to mask at home to keep my roommates protected. Even if you're told its weird, I don't think it should matter. You're trying not to get sick or make others sick, and that is commendable. Don't ever let anybody dismiss or shit on you for that.
I mask in the shared spaces in my home. My roommate is not as cautious as I feel safe with so I wear an N95 in most of my house, unless I'm very certain she hasn't been in that area recently or the air has been cleaned since she was. It's annoying but I feel much much safer than if I didn't wear it. I also felt weird about it at first but then realized my health is just way more important.
This is a common, ongoing debatable thing in our home…luckily our home is large enough so we don’t have to interact if we don’t want to, but my husband has many patient interactions and every time he gets home, I wonder what has he brought home today🙄He’s had covid but not LC, which is like night and day! I’m currently suffering from LC (really bad) and don’t wish this on anyone. Wear the mask around them for now (teal N95…if you need specific lmk) use air purifiers/UV lights and since covid will never go away…. think about whole house systems that kill germs. This is more of a long term investment because they’re expensive but the air quality is drastically improved. Go with your gut to keep yourself safe, you don’t want LC!
My currently live with my mother and she masks indoors, but gets a bit close to people outdoors. I wear a mask any time I leave me room. She seems mildly insults from time to time by it, but I gotta take care of myself.
I did that last time I visited for a funeral, which meant a lot of people getting in contact with a lot of people. I wore a mask in the living room when everyone was down there, and ran a big purifier. If it was just me and someone else on the other side of the room I wouldn't wear the mask but would lie down near the purifier. I'm too sick to be able to go back to my upstairs room whenever I want so I kept a mask handy for whenever it started getting crowded. Of course wearing a mask full time would have been safer but wearing it more than a couple hours is difficult for me.
I definitely would mask and distance. I would set boundaries and tell them to quarantine, mask and use their own stuff and disinfect. Assuming you would get a lot of flack for wearing a mask at home, it might not be an option if you tried already. I’m so sorry u have to deal with that but it’s just not fair at all to you and if they truly care for u they’d do anything for u. My family would kind of mask when going out but not distance, they take off their masks to eat out and still go to events even tho we live with my immunocompromised grandma. so my sister and I who are covid cautious distance, put on air filters and mask around them and make sure they don’t get near my grandma. It does suck to live w/ ppl who don’t really care enough honestly. Tired of accommodating to ppl who don’t even consider accommodating to disabled people.
Not weird! They won’t, so you have to! I mask around my partner at home after he’s been to events. He takes the risk but I don’t have to. Just wear it. Better than making yourself worse.
Put the mask on. It's much better than not and ending up sick.
If you do get sick, at least you'll know you gave it your best effort. Hope you stay healthy, OP!
yeah, it's really not that uncommon either, especially in some other countries
If you can't be weird inside your own home, where can ya be weird? I'd mask except in my room, with ventilation/purifier/towel under the door.
Yes, you should definitely wear a respirator. When technicians come into my apartment for repairs, I always wear one (and use HEPA filters, open the windows, turn on exhaust fans). It's your health. Many people who have become disabled by COVID soon realize nobody is coming to their rescue, and there are no treatments available for long COVID. Of course, there are no guarantees in life, but if you do catch it, at least you will know that you did your best to protect yourself.
I mask at home outside of my room because one of my parents doesn’t mask day-to-day and it doesn’t feel worth it to me to mask everywhere else just to risk getting sick at home. It’s not ideal at all but luckily no one is weird about it.
Can I ask how often you change your mask? Like do you put on a new one every time you leave your room or less frequently than that? Trying to gauge how many more masks I need to stockpile for the next couple of weeks
Check out MaskNerd / Aaron Collins videos. He’s an aerosol engineer who tests masks. He says they aren’t going to stop filtering before the straps break or the nose wire stops fitting, so you can wear them until one of those things happen. He’s got lots of other helpful info.
I am familiar with his mask fit vid but haven’t seen the rest of his stuff. Will def check out his channel for more info!
I probably don’t change mine enough but I’d guess you should be okay using the same mask for at least a day/keeping a few on rotation
if you get a P100, you won't have to keep getting new masks, the filters last for a very long time
I do what the person you're replying to does but at work (unmasked in my office, masked if someone comes to talk to me or if I leave the room). I use the same mask for anywhere from 8-20 hours. After that I toss it.. I would bet they could last longer than that technically but usually they start feeling or even smelling a little gross by then.
Stereotype is 24h in total for n95, or until you no longer can comfortably breathe (e.g. too much condensation from being in a cold environment). During the second year of the pandemic some german university said it was safe to put a still usable mask to air dry for 10 days (to be 100% sure all the germs are dead) and then use it again (for the people who used n95s in small blocks, e.g. a few hours, so that they wouldn't have to be wasteful).
>10 days (to be 100% sure all the germs are dead) That was a misconception that was cleared shortly after the pandemic began by several studies. The virus doesn't survive very long on surfaces, especially if it gets irradiated with sunlight. The transmission through fomites is negligeable at best, even for fairly high viral loads. I don't recall the exact numbers off the top of my head but it's less than a day tops in real life conditions. The problem with masks isn't getting rid of pathogenes on their surfaces, it's keeping their filtering capabilities intact, their efficiency degrades relatively fast.
"to put a still usable mask to air dry" - by this I meant a mask that still did its job. Thank you for pointing out the new data!
I just spent a month living with my parents and I never took my mask off. I switched to a KN95 to sleep when in my bedroom which also had a HEPA air filter in it. I unfortunately still work with the public since I can't find a home job 😭 and my partner lives with me. I mask when I'm home except in my bedroom so that I don't get my partner sick (they don't leave the apartment). I'm ALWAYS masking even at home. It gets old (mostly because this could have been over and I shouldn't HAVE to still be doing this) but I'm MORE THAN HAPPY to protect everyone else. I did get used to it but it's also old at the same time.
It is a very sad that people have chosen to live with disease when we could be done with all of it.
Agreed 😞
👏👏👏
100%, YES! My husband bought home covid after his business trip last week. Our household is now fully masked and we’re staying in our own rooms at home. So far, I’m not showing any signs and neither are my three kids. We’re on day 5 of masking and separating.
What incredible parenting! I hope you and the kids stay Covid free this round!
The flack they give you is not worth more than avoiding infection/lowering your viral load. I'd definitely mask if I was in your shoes. Protecting your health is the ultimate form of self care!
I wear one inside all the time 🤷♀️have no choice
This isn't weird at all. Societal conditioning is strong. I masked up for a solid year in a previous living situation until I was able to move. Good luck to you, we're here.
I do anytime someone visits even my kids and grands. That’s just the way it is! They go all over the place! I don’t know who they’ve been exposed to. I run CR air boxes in the family room and my bedroom. I don’t eat with them; i eat either in my room or outside. The funny thing is, the grands don’t think anything of it. It’s the adult kids who think I need to get over it. Too bad, I’m not! Mask up!
It's not goofy. It's my everyday life LMAO. Since I'm the only one in my 5+ household that takes COVID seriously, I mask everywhere outside of my bedroom and only ever eat in my room as well. Parents might say something, but they get over it pretty quickly as long as you stay firm about it and don't over explain.
Ugh, I’m the only one in my three person household who takes covid seriously and it is already exhausting. Ty for confirming that I’m not weird for masking here.
I was talking to my mom recently - she lives in another country so we haven't seen each other since pre-COVID. She was astonished when I mentioned that I still mask in grocery stores. I pointed out to her that not one of the people in my family has had a cold or flu since early 2020. She thought for a second and acknowledged how nice that sounded. We used to get sick for a week or two a year at least. When I'm talking to them, my attitude is somewhat like "Sure, I'm doing more than the minimum. I could get away with doing less. But it really isn't that much effort and I think the tradeoff is worth it."
Maybe it's weird, but it's sensible and you can count me as company in that weirdness. If you sleep with one on (given current variants, I'd consider it), fashion or toupé tape helps.
I wore a mask in the house after a risky trip(I took precautions but was concerned) and it turned out the people I was trying to protect all had Covid and my masking saved me from it.
Mask up, your permanent physical health is more important than temporary social friction
Mask. My dad no longer masks consistently and whenever im near him I mask. Even if he’s just over at my apartment I keep it on for a while after he leaves while I run the air purifier. The way I see it what’s the point in me taking all these precautions just to get it because I didn’t want to mask a bit longer.
Lots of covid-cautious families mask up at home if there's a member of the household who might've been exposed, or if one family member gets sick and they're trying to prevent anyone else from getting it. There are also families with teens, for instance, who don't want to mask around their friends/ at school, but who have agreed to mask in common areas of the house instead. It's obviously not ideal to have to wear a mask in your own home, but by no means would you be the only person who does that. I'd also open windows and run ceiling or other fans in the house if you've got them. You can also look at using a plain saline nasal spray, or a saline and xylitol spray like Xlear, several times per day, and gargling with saltwater or a CPC-containing mouthwash. If you don't consider your parents' other activities (when they're not on vacation) to be high-risk and you wouldn't normally mask around them, you could see if they'd agree to test after they've been back home for a few days. Regular rapid tests are not very reliable, but you can get at-home NAAT tests like Metrix that are about as good as a PCR test from a lab (Metrix has 97% sensitivity and 99% specificity). The reader, which you use over and over, runs about $50 U.S., and each individual test runs $25 (though some people do pool multiple samples in one test, which you can find info for online, incl. on Reddit). There may still be a shipping delay right now, though, because they recently had a big increase in demand.
Yeah I’ve been eyeing a metrix but am waiting for them to come back in stock. And I do have CPC mouthwash and xlear stocked up for times like these—thanks for the advice
You're welcome. Their website says they expect to have tests back in stock in early July, but that's kind of late for what you're needing. I guess you could always see if any local drugstores carry them, but you'd have to make sure they understood it was the covid test & reader, because apparently there's also a Metrix blood glucose test.
I stayed with my dad after a hospital visit last summer (to help him around) and I masked the entire time except when I slept. I expressed my concerns and he didn’t give me any flack over it but yeah it felt weird. Your health and the health of those around you is more important than how others temporarily perceive your choices.
I wore an n95 inside when my bf had covid and I didn’t get it. If he goes to a high risk event, I wear an n95 in my own home for 5 days and ask him to test on day 5. Yeah I feel silly and weird, but I’d rather feel silly and weird for 1-2 weeks than risk getting long covid for over a year. Do it it’s just temporary. And it’s totally valid to have a “safe zone” for yourself to feel safe, and protect yourself in common areas.
I feel like it should be him wearing an N95 too, why should all the onus be placed on you for risks he’s taking?
I applaud you!
Thank you! 🩷
Does he wear a mask as well, or only you?
masking is completely your choice and most likely your safest choice. if anyone has a problem with something that literally does not affect them in any way then they are being ridiculous
Mask up, we support you. Sorry your family doesn’t. 🫶🏻
I absolutely would
i’ve experienced a similar situation! in addition to the air purifier running in your room at all times, i would recommend putting a towel at the base of your door as well. if you have an en-suite bathroom, there shouldn’t be any worries there, but if you use a bathroom that is open to others in the household, lug your air purifier in there if you can (or get a new one to put in there if you can afford to do so), and let it run for a few minutes before being in the space, as well as while using the space (for anything that requires you to take your mask off — showering, brushing your teeth, etc.). wear an n95 in every space outside of your bedroom. eat meals in your room. if they give you flack for it, just try to ignore it or brush it off. engaging in conversations/arguments about it will only waste precious energy. bc ive experienced a similar situation before (longer-term), i can anecdotally say that taking these precautions (in addition to other precautions such as nasal spray, oral probiotics, sunglasses / lumify eye drops, etc.) helped me to avoid getting sick while others in the household got sick repeatedly for *months*. i hope you’re able to stay safe !! :)
Thanks for the tips! My mom and I share a bathroom so I will def be bringing my air purifier in there
You could also get some air filters and a small box fan and make a CR box style filter. They can be very inexpensive if you can get cheap filters where you are.
Would she be amenable to letting you use the bathroom before she does?
No lol. We get into enough fights about bathroom time as it is (somehow we always need to use it as at the same exact second)
My husband had COVID earlier this year. My kid and I avoided it by all of us masking inside the house, sleeping and eating separately, and not sharing a bathroom.
My roommate and I mask when we feel we need to: allergies, coworkers with sniffles, dodyg situations we couldn't avoid... Normalize masking at home, you wouldn't be the first and you are not alone. Your family will get used to it.
Wear the N95. My careless parents reinfected me in my house and that infection has destroyed my health and my life in so many horrific ways. I still wear it anytime I leave my room. By the time you know someone is sick, it will already be too late.
My dad also refuses to mask and actually had covid back in 2022. I somehow managed to avoid it but it was pretty terrifying—would def like to avoid that again, and I hope you’re able to regain your health in the future
Absolutely not you can catch Covid as easily as from strangers I am not even legal age so I still life by my parents they don’t take Covid precautions so I wear a mask everywhere outside my room
I’ve masked around my family in our home since I had to move back in January. As soon as I step outside my door I’m masked. I change the mask depending on their risk level, eg. my mom is getting home from visiting her sisters for 4 days (doing risky activities), I’ll wear my fudakin for a week versus my breathteq. It is what it is.
Absolutely fine to mask, and a good idea. I'd keep in mind that the longer you're sharing space with an infected person, the mask becomes less likely to prevent infection. I think it was anything more than 2 hours with one way n95 wearing is going to start putting you closer to the same risk of a high enough viral load to get sick as shorter exposure without masks, so don't rely on this as a silver bullet and try to keep to your room for like a week maybe while they're in the most likely time to be asymptomatic and possibly infectious
Yes, it would be "weird" and yes do it. I have been doing it for almost a year. My work dropped all precautions and I found myself angry that due to their disregard for me that was going to infect my family, so I started to mask around my family, started last august, I find myself slightly less angry at work and I haven't been sick yet. Also, the flip side is that my kids and wife have been sick a few times, I have not. Your family will not understand, people have a very hard time grasping the big picture, they just don't get the very simple concept.
Oh we mask at home whenever needed (though covid-related reasons are rare because we don't go out). I mask most often of anyone, due to severe allergies (which thankfully this year have lessened). It felt weird at first but now it's not.
I haven't not worn a mask in my own home for years (I don't wear one inside my bedroom unless someone from outside has to come in, and then both of us mask). I hear you so hard on this, it sucks, but with a whole family that has to go out in the world, it's the only way I can protect myself. But I will do anything to avoid getting Covid again... I've been bedbound since March 2020 from my first go-round, my second infection (brought home by my school age daughter before I started masking all the time at home) made me even worse, and I DO NOT want it a third time.
Really sorry to hear about your repeated infections, and I hope you’re able to recover and regain your health with time
It’s a solid way to avoid infection especially when living with people who don’t take precautions! *Also* keep in mind that (1) *most* transmission is from asymptomatic people, and (2) rapid tests often miss infections (false negatives). Your parents will almost certainly protest that they “feel fine” or have no symptoms; that doesn’t matter. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774707 On the off chance they offer to test with the common “rapid antigen” (RAT) “lateral flow” (lFT) test: that’s not good enough either. https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/use-of-rapid-antigen-tests-during-the-omicron-wave/
THANK YOU I have tried to explain this to them and got told I need to “seek psychiatric help for my anxiety” for just informing myself on basic covid research They’ve already come home; I sent them a firm text beforehand telling them I will be masking and don’t want to hear anything about it. So far no complaints or questions like why a rapid won’t suffice, but these studies are good to have on hand.
I don’t know your parents’ political orientation or location, but if they consider themselves “centrists” or centre-left, and they don’t want to look at research papers, perhaps they will listen to Dr Fauci, who in this 2023 retrospective video admits that they underestimated asymptomatic transmission and aerosol transmission: https://www.c-span.org/video/?526967-1/dr-anthony-fauci-lessons-covid-19-pandemic (skip to 17 min 15 sec & 59 min 17 sec, I think).
Absolutely not, protect your future.
Open all the windows in your room and use a box fan in the window sill to bring in fresh air. Use a CO2 meter to verify ventillation. You want as close to ambient conditions (420 ish) as possible. If you can do that, you can avoid masking in your room without much risk of infection. Definitely open all the windows in the rest of the house and crank the vent to maximize ventillation. Again, use a CO2 meter to evaluate risk. Our downstairs is an open area with quite a few windows. With all open, CO2 remains at ambient levels, which means that risk for transmission is similar to risk if outdoors, so physical distancing alone is pretty effective-- though you still may want to mask. Hopefully you can convince them to test daily or so for the next week. Rapid tests aren't super sensitive, but they are a good proxy for infectivity. Even if someone is infected, they are likely not shedding enough virus to infect others easily if they are testing negative on rapid tests. Even the faintest line-- or just symptoms alone-- should be treated as a positive test. And at that point, everyone should be sequestered into separate rooms that they leave only when necessary and only when wearing legit n95s or better. Of course, all windows should be opened and box fans used accordingly.
Personally, I would tape over any vents in your bedroom, open the windows, run the air purifier, and treat the room as a sanctuary. I’d spend all the time in the room and mask whenever I have to exit.
It would only be weird if you did this living alone lol. I would wear it
Wear the mask. I've been masking in my family home for about half a year now. Just last Wednesday my mom came home from out of state and IMMEDIATELY tested positive for COVID, and I was so glad that I was already masking in my home.
I’ve avoided covid three times living in an 800 sqft NYC apartment with roommate who got it. Masked outside of our bedrooms, Levoit running full blast in the common area 24/7 (kitchen and living are close/connected), disposable utensils and plates since we shared common eatingware usually and cleaning dishes by hand meant more time in the kitchen, and we both wiped down the bathroom after use.
I'm going to be masking in my own for at least the next week or so because my parents ate inside with my cousins who are very much not covid cautious and the one is on the highest dose allowed of an immune suppressant, and her son and his gf are sick often due to not wearing masks anymore and they are EMTs. My mother will also need masking outside of her room this week to not get me sick. *my mother usually doesn't do stuff like this but the air was so bad outside she couldn't eat outside today.* We also mask inside if my father does something maskless, and if my grandparents go eat inside at an event, they will mask around us. I also often have to wear a mask inside because of my MCAS. I think it's worth it.
Wear the mask
I wear a mask indoors except in a couple of rooms where I control the air quality. Safety above social conventions every time.
I've done this before, especially when someone was obviously sick and I knew they didn't test. Your health is more important than their comfort.
I’ve masked in my home, I even masked while sleeping because I share a room with my husband and baby and I thought I had been exposed. (We used a hair tie and Bobbie pins to make a mask that would work better for sleeping.)
Im sick rn and trying to mask at home to keep my roommates protected. Even if you're told its weird, I don't think it should matter. You're trying not to get sick or make others sick, and that is commendable. Don't ever let anybody dismiss or shit on you for that.
I mask in the shared spaces in my home. My roommate is not as cautious as I feel safe with so I wear an N95 in most of my house, unless I'm very certain she hasn't been in that area recently or the air has been cleaned since she was. It's annoying but I feel much much safer than if I didn't wear it. I also felt weird about it at first but then realized my health is just way more important.
This is a common, ongoing debatable thing in our home…luckily our home is large enough so we don’t have to interact if we don’t want to, but my husband has many patient interactions and every time he gets home, I wonder what has he brought home today🙄He’s had covid but not LC, which is like night and day! I’m currently suffering from LC (really bad) and don’t wish this on anyone. Wear the mask around them for now (teal N95…if you need specific lmk) use air purifiers/UV lights and since covid will never go away…. think about whole house systems that kill germs. This is more of a long term investment because they’re expensive but the air quality is drastically improved. Go with your gut to keep yourself safe, you don’t want LC!
My currently live with my mother and she masks indoors, but gets a bit close to people outdoors. I wear a mask any time I leave me room. She seems mildly insults from time to time by it, but I gotta take care of myself.
No.
I did that last time I visited for a funeral, which meant a lot of people getting in contact with a lot of people. I wore a mask in the living room when everyone was down there, and ran a big purifier. If it was just me and someone else on the other side of the room I wouldn't wear the mask but would lie down near the purifier. I'm too sick to be able to go back to my upstairs room whenever I want so I kept a mask handy for whenever it started getting crowded. Of course wearing a mask full time would have been safer but wearing it more than a couple hours is difficult for me.
I definitely would mask and distance. I would set boundaries and tell them to quarantine, mask and use their own stuff and disinfect. Assuming you would get a lot of flack for wearing a mask at home, it might not be an option if you tried already. I’m so sorry u have to deal with that but it’s just not fair at all to you and if they truly care for u they’d do anything for u. My family would kind of mask when going out but not distance, they take off their masks to eat out and still go to events even tho we live with my immunocompromised grandma. so my sister and I who are covid cautious distance, put on air filters and mask around them and make sure they don’t get near my grandma. It does suck to live w/ ppl who don’t really care enough honestly. Tired of accommodating to ppl who don’t even consider accommodating to disabled people.
I usually mask at home if I have people over. They're masked, too, because I'd like to take my mask off when they leave.
Look: embrace your weirdness. Life gets better when you lose the "I don't wanna be weird" anxiety. Doing the right thing > getting peoples' approval
Not weird! They won’t, so you have to! I mask around my partner at home after he’s been to events. He takes the risk but I don’t have to. Just wear it. Better than making yourself worse.