Thread by @jonlevyBU

1. So much hostility and confusion from people who saw me (on a Zoom) wearing a mask in my office this week! The question is: Am I crazy, am I virtue signaling, am I fear mongering, or is there some rationale to wear a mask in a private office? Let’s discuss! 🧵

2. Let’s start with the basics. Here’s a screenshot an angry critic took and shared. You can see I am wearing an N95. I work at a mask-optional university, so no one is making me do it. You can also see I need to clean up my office, but that’s a separate topic.

3. I like to keep my door open whenever possible, so students or faculty can pop in. My office is also right outside of the bathrooms, which helps to ensure that I see a lot of people during the day. Part of having a good in-person university experience.

4. COVID is transmitted through the air via aerosols, and can linger for a long time. So just because a person isn’t there now doesn’t mean there is no COVID in the air.

5. We have multiple ways to remove COVID from the air, including ventilation and filtration. Unfortunately I work in an older building that doesn’t have everything needed to optimally reduce indoor concentrations. So masks are more important (portable HEPA too).

6. Now, there are 2 reasons to wear a mask - to protect me from you, and to protect you from me. My wife treats COVID patients, many unmasked, and my kids go to mask-optional schools. So I could be a source at any point, and I would rather not infect my department.

7. Of course, I want to also protect myself, as well as my family and community. My N95 helps. We can argue about the merits of cloth masks right now, but a well-fitting N95 reduces the amount of virus you inhale.

8. The question you might ask is: Come on, is it really worth it? How high is the risk of getting or giving COVID in your office?

What I would say is that the price to pay is very small, and the benefit hard to estimate in probability but very high in impact.

9. What price do I pay? The N95 costs me about a quarter per day of use (I use them around 3 times before discarding, and pay around $0.75 each). It’s really comfortable and I don’t notice it most of the time. People can hear me easily in person or on Zoom.

10. Sure, people miss my winning smile, and once on a Zoom, I was talking for a couple of minutes before realizing the other person had sound problems and couldn’t hear me (and didn’t know I was talking). But that’s no big deal. And I can handle occasional mockery.

11. So very low cost, and if it keeps a round of COVID out of my family, very large benefit. I guess what people should ask themselves is why they are so enraged to see someone perfectly happy in a comfortable yet protective mask while working outside of the house.

12. This isn’t virtue signaling, since most people don’t see me doing this on a typical day. And a lot of it is about me trying to do my job as well as possible and keep myself and my family healthy, which is me-focused.

13. It isn’t fear mongering. It is a rational decision to do something low-cost to protect against a novel virus that can have short-term and long-term effects. And we shouldn’t fear COVID, but we shouldn’t ignore it either.

14. Am I crazy? Perhaps. After all, I am crafting a thread about masks while sitting at a kids’ soccer game. But I think this is more about the fact that this brings up 2 specific things that drive me crazy.

15. The first is that you can’t know by looking at someone if they are immunocompromised, live with someone who is, or has something else that makes them higher risk if they get infected. Does that describe me? As my 8 year old says, “None ya”. As in “None of your business”.

16. No one should be required to reveal personal and private information about their health, or the health of their families. We should have some grace and assume those wearing masks when not required have a reason to do so.

17. The second is the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans. The mockery of mask wearing is connected to a broader public narrative that denies the current reality.

18. My guess is that people get upset to see a visible sign of the pandemic, which we would all like to forget.

19. What many would counter is that I am perfectly free to do what I choose, even if it seems crazy to them, but no one should be required to do the same. What I would say is that there are times when that is right and times when that is wrong.

20. When conditions are good, there shouldn’t be mask mandates. But when conditions are bad, we need them temporarily. On ramps and off ramps both, driven by data in both directions.

21. Ok, enough tweeting. The soccer game is about to start. And let’s do what we can to stay safe while still living our lives.

Wow, this blew up! Now I wish I had cleaned my office before that Zoom.

But seriously, thanks to those trying to make a difference even when it’s not popular to do. Let’s be guided by data and compassion to nimbly add and remove public health protections as best we can.