Feel free to quote where I wrote that…because I didn’t.
That professor should never have agreed to teach in person. Whether intentional or not, it was a show down waiting to happen. If his teachings were truly unique, then he should have shared them remotely…to a large group of unmasked, vaccinated, and otherwise healthy young people who need a return to as much normalcy as possible to grow into mentally healthy people.
I appreciate your response. Will have to check that out.
That being said, my kid has trained at altitude. Without a mask. In fact, peers would wear masks for periods of time while training (well before the pandemic, in places that were not at altitude) to simulate altitude conditions. But only briefly.
My kid found the experience of training at altitude entirely different than wearing a mask for long periods of time, even with frequent changes (which I insist upon; our masks are cloth and washable, made of batik so that the weave is stronger, but still in no way effective like an N95 is). They wore masks well past the 6-month mark. Headaches increased while training, just felt worse. I have no reason to doubt their feedback on the matter.
I can’t imagine how challenging it’s been for my kid’s peers to train at altitude in masks.
I assume that to mean you don’t think it was safe for this professor to be in that situation?
That would mean it was a totally reasonable request for the professor to ask the student to mask. Even if as nothing more then a simple courtesy!!
You commented…“Her selfishness serves herself and a belief. Like selfish colonists not paying British taxes, or a selfish black woman refusing to sit at the back of the bus, etc”
I now am totally at a loss with your comparing this interaction (protest as you refer) to the colonialists protesting taxation without representation and Rosa Parks resisting institutional bigotry.
Please help me understand the moral equivalence or imperative?
Your interaction with students is far different than mine. I know plenty who prefer in person to remote even if masks are involved. Remote has been a larger psychological (and learning) problem. Few teachers like it and even fewer think it’s a good substitute for in person.
But I agree that an 88 year old is right to consider his health and quit rather than staying in such a situation. Someone who won’t mask also isn’t as likely to stay isolated if she’s feeling sick. Vaccines at his age aren’t as reliable. I bet he has little interest in remote teaching.
I hope the other 24 were able to find class replacements, esp if they needed it to graduate.
Given the lead times for hiring instructors, the agreement for him to teach was probably made at the low point of COVID-19 infections/hospitalizations/deaths a few months ago, when all parties involved believed it would be reasonably safe, before the Delta variant and its much greater contagiousness and viral loads blew things up.
I told my own school in the spring l I’d be back this year, albeit just part time subbing with no interest in full time (due to travel and spending a bit of time with FIL). It looked like Covid would be mostly in the past by now.
With Covid’s rise I haven’t been back yet and quite honestly might retire. I’m nowhere near 88. I just have no desire to spend hours in classrooms with unvaxed kids knowing how easily even the common cold spreads each fall.
With subbing I can put off the retirement question.
Our school is short a lot of subs (far more than the old days) and school just started. Apparently I’m not the only one who feels it isn’t worth it.
Glad to know when I’m 80+, you’ll throw me in the trash heap.
Yep, and I have trained with one. https://www.roguefitness.com/elevation-training-mask-3-0
If you run races, like I do occasionally in Lake Tahoe at elevation, but you live at sea level, like I do, they’re fantastic for simulating conditions at elevation.
Companies also make “high performance” masks for athletes too.
Wear a mask, it’s not a big deal. And if you’re obese, then stop overeating and exercise.
What gets people back to normal is being able to interact in-person. Under current circumstances, masks are the way to do that.
I appreciate the links. Will look at them with interest.
Again, that being said, for many of the athletes my kid trains with (an international group of varying ages) the masks are uncomfortable, an impediment, and my kid hates the headaches. Those started with prolonged mask use.
These are not special snowflakes with an agenda. These are highly fit, health-conscious athletes that are used to training in uncomfortable conditions with very tough coaching. Their lived experience, if I may use the parlance of our times, is one that I have no reason to doubt. So if this is their feedback, I respect their first-hand experience.
The reality is - entire districts (not masked) in TN are closed through Labor Day. Guess who’s having much less issues - the districts who say screw the governor, we’re going to do what’s right and that means no exemptions.
It’s shocking to me we debate this.
I agree. Masks are uncomfortable and they are an impediment. All true.
I guess I was “old school” taught that you train under varied conditions and that you make the adjustment to the existing conditions.
My father was fighting in the European Theatre at age 18, so my old school (Greatest Generation) dad raised me (Gen-X) to suck it up and deal. Old school is where it’s at if you’re looking to raise resilient adults!
So, as a parent that is raising their kid with very much an eye towards resilience (everyone’s definition of this differs) it’s interesting to hear the feedback. Again, a lot of these athletes are from around the world and up to age 26. They are used to adjusting to existing conditions - living in another continent, training with limited means, being away from family and friends, many other considerations.
They have personal experience, and find the changes to be physically and mentally a detriment. And they followed regulations for well over a year to keep training. So their feedback, after trying what was recommended, is that performance was definitely impacted. I have no reason to doubt them since they were the ones to experience this training first-hand for a considerable amount of time.
What kind of masks?
Most typical cloth masks are restrictive enough to be uncomfortable during physical exertion. They also are only passable at outbound filtering and not that good at inbound filtering. Their main advantage is washability and reusability, but are best limited to lower to moderate risk situations where there is not much physical exertion. Surgical mask material masks are less restrictive while being better at filtering, but are not reusable.
Masks with a larger surface area of filter material can use better filter material while minimizing restriction of air flow. Some have used such masks for outdoor exercise when the air quality is poor due to wildfire smoke.
Of course, outdoor athletic activity that does not involve crowds or frequent or extended close contact is not much risk of COVID-19 transmission to begin with, so wearing masks would not add much value for COVID-19 purposes (as opposed to air quality issues).
Very good question. There were a variety of masks used - everything from N95s to flat folded medical ones to cloth. Universally, the athletes wanted them off. The only reason why they have been worn so long is due to mandates and this being a pandemic. Athletes have a vested interest in remaining healthy. And this group, which trains in somewhat of a bubble in the facility, had people eager to return back to pre-pandemic conditions for many reasons.
There is still a suctioning that can happen with many masks when they are performing at peak exertion. Different than when you are sitting in a lecture hall, to bring things back to the original content of the posting.
Indeed they are. I re-wear both procedure masks and N95s on a rotating basis. Coronaviruses are very fragile. They dehydrate easily. Waiting 72h is plenty of time according to the man that invented the N95. That said, I work in a non-aerosolizing, ambulatory setting caring for patients that have been screened for symptomatic disease. I also don’t sweat in them.
I bought a cloth mask designed by a company that makes Skimo clothing. There’s NO WAY I could exert in that thing. It sucked right in when I was exerting. I resorted to wearing a well fit procedure mask.
This, I think, is the key. To me, being in a crowded classroom where viruses in the past have been known to be easily passed from one to another, and then having at risk people inside is totally different from many other situations.
Vaxes help, no doubt there, but among the older folks (and some health related conditions), they aren’t reliable. I don’t think older folks should have to stay holed up if they don’t want to. I also don’t think it’s unreasonable in a college classroom setting to expect everyone to wear a mask for an hour or hour and a half (duration of class). It’s hardly hurting their health to do so.
We Creeklanders have taken plenty of risks post vax. Readers on the Cafe travel or post vax threads likely know we’ve been on a 2 week Amtrak trip, eat in restaurants, meet in person with our medical lad (and other kids - all vaxed), and more. But be in a classroom all day with teens (high school) and Covid’s fall spread in an area where the vax rate is only 45%? I’ll pass.
The risk of death to me is slim (post vax and all). The risk of being a long hauler (as my 20 something son was in 2020, so genetically possible if there’s a genetic link, plus an uncle blood relative died in 2020) is higher. The risk of taking Covid to 93 year old FIL with one lung and heart issues - but still capable of living on his own, fishing, hunting, etc - is a risk we won’t take. We don’t do other risky behaviors the last couple of weeks prior to visiting him either.
What we do is looked at situationally, not across the board with one rule.
In this situation (the OP), the girl acted like a selfish brat.
Perhaps they may want to check some mask ratings for both filtration (higher) and pressure drop (lower) to find better masks than what they are using. Also, other aspects are noted in reviews.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eE2BERAvRzs28kG87ft3a27FS9-gHvdC
Thanks for the link. Will check it out and pass it on.
But a large part of their sport involves having the face be in view at all times, so long-term mask wearing is in direct opposition to what they train for. Just how it is for what they do and how they compete.
WHAT?!
I actually served in the military between the ages of 18 and 21, who, in that period, saw combat and buried friends.
I know what sacrificing looks like. I have personally sacrificed three years of my life for others when I was that age. I had friends who sacrificed their lives to help others.
I am sorry, but wearing a mask in the classroom is NOT “sacrificing”, and calling it “sacrificing” is spitting in the faces of the healthcare workers who sacrificed lives and health in order to treat the people who got sick and died because some little privileged brat decided that wearing a mask was Just Too Difficult For their Delicate Little Constitution.
How privileged is thinking that having to wear a stupid mask is “sacrificing one’s life”?
Seriously.