Thread by @FurnessColin

An expansive musing thread on mask non-use, which I am now calling "mask akinesia".

Every class I teach, I walk in with my mask and my Aranet4 CO2 detector, to measure air quality. I'm lucky: the rooms I teach in are always below 800ppm and often below 700ppm.

1/20

I make a show of measuring air quality with my mask on.

I often remind them that the air is excellent but that doesn't lower the risk from people sitting immediately around them.

~4% of my students wear masks. ~30% have missed class because of COVID, some cough in class.

2/20

One day, CO2 was 1800ppm, too high! Two of 3 air exchangers weren't operating. I told the class that the air wasn't safe, and to put on a mask if they had one.

They heard me and looked concerned. And nobody moved.

Alright, I thought, none of them have a mask.

No masks.

3/20

I messaged them all the day before the NEXT class to say that I had reported the problem but it may not be fixed yet, and to consider bringing a mask.

Sure enough, it hadn't been fixed.

And sure enough when I announced the air was still risky ... nobody moved.

No masks.

4/20

Many of them know that I stay informed about COVID and that I have a genuine interest in safety.

And I'm testing the air right in front of them. And telling them that they need a mask to be safe in this room.

And no masks.

5/20

I don't get the sense that they are dismissive. I see concerned faces, not eye rolling.

I point to the growing number of empty seats, and tell them about the number of students I have heard from who need extensions because they are too ill to work.

And no masks.

6/20

These are bright, ambitious people on the whole. They're graduate students. They are investing a lot of money in their education. They're being told directly by me, in person, in detail what the present risk is.

And no masks.

7/20

This is "mask akinesia" - the inability to initiate the activity of having a mask or donning it.

What is the cause of this dangerous condition?

I think the answer is easy. I also think that means we need to come at COVID safety entirely differently.

8/20

Mask akinesia is about being normal. Normal.

Normal is defined as what the herd does. It's not about what is right or good or safe or natural or just. It's ONLY about what everybody does.

Masking was never normal, even though everyone did do it for some time.

9/20

Psychologists frame "social conformity" - which comes in a few different flavours - to talk about our tendency to conform with the herd as a way of belonging to it. (Maybe it's a sociobiological drive?)

Sociologists see "organizational culture" in much the same way.

10/20

The implication here is that going against normal isn't typically sustainable. Changing what is normal absolutely happens, but over very long time frames.

Drunk driving and smoking were very normal. It took generations to change that.

11/20

What concerns me about normal is that in choosing to believe flu is mild (which is quite normal) we also maintain normality in dying of an avoidable infectious disease.

When we started pretending COVID is like flu, we make it all even MORE normal.

That's why no masks.

12/20

My class not masking (described earlier) demonstrated to me just how determined we are to be normal, & not risk losing normal like we did 2020-2021.

Mask akinesia is normal.

Changing normal can take decades; fighting against normal is unsustainable and also untenable.

13/20

Instead of going AGAINST normal, I think the sustainable path forward is to try to ADD to it.

I want to make indoor air quality monitoring normal. By which I mean not only measured and displayed for everyone to see, but with the public understanding what it means.

14/20

We started doing this years ago with a UV Index in summer weather reports. That's normal and introducing it didn't require fighting against normal.

The UV index enables people to consider this invisible, dangerous reality, when planning their activities.

15/20

Now, a convoy type might point out that because UV light kills COVID, bring on the sunburn. That would be missing the point.

My point is that we have a social model for making an invisible danger visible, increasing awareness and consequent safety behaviours.

16/20

And here is the best part, IMO:

We don't have to fight against <COVID-is-over> normal, because indoor air quality has a whole bunch of beneficial effects, and not a lot of detractors.

(Remember wood smoke from summer forest fires? That's another normal we can't change.)

17/20

If air quality is excellent, there's less disease circulating; both mean less need to mask.

The large rooms I teach in have great air so I can lecture "au naturel" (b/c nobody is near me - but mask is always on before, after, & during break).

That's a safe normal.

18/20

Great air quality has no detractors except for governments and employers, of course. They'd have to pay.

What's normal for them is to only pay for what they have to, but also to yield to sufficient pressure.

I'm looking for opportunities to motivate that pressure.

19/20

One last thought. Very few people I know have HEPA filters or CO2 monitors. Many can't afford it, but I'm talking about people who easily can.

If you can afford this vital equipment, I'd like to ask you to help enact a new, healthy normal. We have to start somewhere.

20/20