If you wear a well-fitted n95 (consider sealing the edges to your skin with gentle surgical tape, if you’re making do with poorly fitted ones) and keep it on for the entire time, I think any masked activity is acceptable. Then again, wearing a well-fitted n95/KN95/KF94 or better and actually keeping it on is above and beyond what a depressingly high percentage of the population are doing, including most of the healthcare workers I know.
I personally wouldn’t consider it appropriate to share air with strangers until after a negative test, but then again, I go out of my way to avoid sharing air with strangers anyways these days and don’t find it a major hardship, so I’m probably biased.
I think the major ethical issue of covid these days is making sure not to force anyone to breathe your germs if they don’t want to. The argument in favor of doing the CDC-guidelines bare-minimum with respect to restaurants is that, if the restaurant offers a choice between takeaway and indoor seating, everyone who eats indoors is opting into the risk of breathing in what you’re breathing out, and not being forced or coerced to be near you in the same way that economic circumstances often force people to shop at grocery stores or ride buses. Those who would rather not breathe strangers’ germs, such as myself, get our food to go and eat at home, in a park, or anywhere else we can make ourselves comfortable with good airflow.
I totally agree that ideally I would test negative before sharing air with anyone, especially those who didn’t “opt-in” to the risk. Unfortunately antigen likely won’t be available in my area, and PCR seems to not be a great indicator of current viral load, so I’m left estimating based on my symptoms/days of isolation. Continuing to isolate is a significant inconvenience/quality of life downgrade for me, but I am able to do it indefinitely without impacting my basic survival needs.
If you wear a well-fitted n95 (consider sealing the edges to your skin with gentle surgical tape, if you’re making do with poorly fitted ones) and keep it on for the entire time, I think any masked activity is acceptable. Then again, wearing a well-fitted n95/KN95/KF94 or better and actually keeping it on is above and beyond what a depressingly high percentage of the population are doing, including most of the healthcare workers I know.
I personally wouldn’t consider it appropriate to share air with strangers until after a negative test, but then again, I go out of my way to avoid sharing air with strangers anyways these days and don’t find it a major hardship, so I’m probably biased.
I think the major ethical issue of covid these days is making sure not to force anyone to breathe your germs if they don’t want to. The argument in favor of doing the CDC-guidelines bare-minimum with respect to restaurants is that, if the restaurant offers a choice between takeaway and indoor seating, everyone who eats indoors is opting into the risk of breathing in what you’re breathing out, and not being forced or coerced to be near you in the same way that economic circumstances often force people to shop at grocery stores or ride buses. Those who would rather not breathe strangers’ germs, such as myself, get our food to go and eat at home, in a park, or anywhere else we can make ourselves comfortable with good airflow.
I totally agree that ideally I would test negative before sharing air with anyone, especially those who didn’t “opt-in” to the risk. Unfortunately antigen likely won’t be available in my area, and PCR seems to not be a great indicator of current viral load, so I’m left estimating based on my symptoms/days of isolation. Continuing to isolate is a significant inconvenience/quality of life downgrade for me, but I am able to do it indefinitely without impacting my basic survival needs.