Yes.
My primary physician (who never got it either, despite two small school-age children) just told me how exasperated they are at the number of people who have to be reminded to wear a mask, despite it being spelled out in the reminder texts before appointments, a huge sign with picture on entrance door…
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I have to admit, I went to my orthopedist’s office yesterday and it wasn’t until I was checking in for my X ray that I remembered to out on my mask. It’s just not on my radar any longer.
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Most of our doctor/dentist offices haven’t required a mask in a year or two. Maybe longer.
I rarely wear one now.
Edit - that said, when I had covid, I cancelled my dentist appointment and skin check. I had to croak it out over the phone and they could barely understand me. Embarrassing. Not really, but still ugh.
Wow, interesting. Masks are still required in most medical/dental settings here.
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3 years in and I sometimes wonder if our health care campus will ever not require masks in public areas. Totally ok with that. In addition to treating illness, any health care venue should be promoting wellness. Our staff at entry areas must go through boxes of masks a day because so many people ignore “masks required” signs on doors and/or think required means optional. 
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My internist had me do a telehealth visit when I called them because I was ill. She otherwise didn’t have an opening for over a week.
My lung doc travels a lot and regularly goes to places where they are short of lung docs where he gets all his transportation and lodging plus a nice wage. He treated a lot of covid patients. He didn’t get covid himself until recently when he was on a cruise. My internist also got covid at the end of her cruise.
I believe both my mds were fully vaxed and boosted. Several of my sibs got covid connected with travel as well. All are fully vaxed & boosted. One got it after trip to orient. Another after tour to Canada and East Coast. One sib seems to have sone long covid symptoms but continues traveling.
Yes, I’m fine with masking forever in medical offices. Why not? There are bound to be vulnerable people all around me.
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I can’t imagine going to any health care visit if I was ill. Or at least checking with office staff if it was a really critical appointment. Previous to COVID maybe a cold, but now what we think may be a cold may be COVID.
But back to Covid or no Covid, long or not… I don’t make it a habit to ask anyone if they have had or not!!! I just don’t want them to have it when I’m spending time with them. Same with vaccinations.
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To my knowledge, I have not had Covid. I suspect a multitude of people have had it, but didn’t know it, if they were asymptomatic.
I had Covid in January of 2022 and January of 2023. I am up to date on all of my shots and boosters. The first time I got Covid H also got it, but not the second time (confirmed by home tests). I was not very sick either time. In January 2023 it was mostly a stomach issue for me that lasted less than a day. I was tired the next day as I had been vomiting and not sleeping, but was completely fine the day after that. It did take 10 days for me to test negative on home tests so I worked from home during that time.
In some types of medical offices, people may be bringing in other things like flu, RSV, etc. COVID-19 is not the only breathable infection.
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To the best of our knowledge, husband, son (in Seattle), and I, all fully vaxed and boosted, have not had Covid. Son did have a bad case of presumed flu (worst ever) at the start of February 2020. Since it has been shown that the virus was in the area prior to that date, it’s possible he had Covid but we likely will never know.
Son is quite concerned about long term Covid so is likely to continue as careful as possible.
We mask indoors (me and son for sure, husband less careful) and dine outdoors, easy to do here. I am going to stay cautious because I have Diabetes 2 and don’t know if even an asymptomatic case could affect my body’s glucose processing - I don’t think there have been specific long term studies on that. Easy enough to stay careful so I will.
I haven’t had even a cold in three years but came down with my first ever pneumonia right after Thanksgiving. I blame my brother - he and wife had traveled from Chicago to Oakland (to visit her relatives) to Hawaii to here. Even though brother is extremely careful due to immunocompromised condition, he showed up here with a cough. We were all Covid negative, but they ended up with sinus infections and me with pneumonia.
Medical offices etc. in California have been requiring masks but that mandate will end on April 3. Hospitals and health systems can of course make the choice to continue requiring them.
Health care facilities and other high-risk setting operators should develop and implement their own facility-specific plans based on their community, patient population, and other facility considerations incorporating CDPH and CDC recommendations.
Three weeks ago, I thought we were one of the luck few to not get Covid and then we did. Both me and my husband are fully vaccinated. Our bout with Covid wasn’t too bad. Tired and generally not feeling well. We both felt pretty good by day 10. Day 11 we were both hit either again or newly by a cold virus. No coughing but so much sneezing and runny noses. I felt worse than before. I am hoping that we are now good for a bit.
My family avoided it until this past January when my son brought it home from middle school. We’re all fully vaxxed. We were all miserable, and I still have covid brain and a cough, but so many people have died I guess I can’t complain.
To answer your question, though – I’ve had several medical appointments since I got covid, some shortly after testing positive, and I always informed the office immediately and asked if they wanted me to reschedule or take any extra precautions. One had me reschedule until I’d gone through my Paxlovid prescription, and the rest were fine with me just wearing my mask because they all still wear masks as well. But they all were exceedingly grateful that I mentioned it. I can’t imagine the lack of consideration it takes NOT to mention it.
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Legitimate. Long COVID upends lives.
I wonder, those of you who say you haven’t given covid a thought ever since you were vaccinated, or ever since restrictions were lifted … you have no concern about long COVID? Either for yourself or someone in your family? It’s so life-destructing. And not uncommon.
I also wonder why we have strayed so far from the concept of public health. “You do you” is not a public health strategy.
The other thing I wonder about is, what’s the big deal to don a mask when you go to the supermarket or to CVS? Why is that a problem? The benefit to yourself, your family, and to the public health of the country is so vast. I just don’t understand. I’m asking this in all earnestness. What’s the big deal? Do you not see the huge benefit?
I’m trying to understand why we all can’t do our utmost to interrupt transmission and deny the virus a platform for creating variants.
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My fav CVS pharmacist was very casual about masking and stopped masking as soon as he was allowed (& of course his staff followed his example). Recently, I’ve seen him wearing N95 masks and his staff is starting to mask up and I asked him why—his 30/40 year old wife was just diagnosed with cancer so now he’s decided to start being more careful so he won’t get HER sick. Yeah, the PUBLIC health aspect of our society is definitely not where I wish it were. There are so many vulnerable out there but folks are just tired of masking, I guess.
I don’t love masking but really hate being sick and definitely am NOT interested in long covid.
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“We were all miserable, and I still have covid brain and a cough, but so many people have died I guess I can’t complain.”
I wonder if many people are downplaying their post-covid symptoms?
“But they all were exceedingly grateful that I mentioned it. I can’t imagine the lack of consideration it takes NOT to mention it.”
They were probably exceedingly grateful because most people do NOT mention it. Heck, most people aren’t even testing anymore.
Question – are you masking now to avoid getting covid again?
I just am not afraid of covid at all. I don’t care about getting it anymore than I would care about getting a bad cold. I am not afraid of long covid. Most people I know have had covid by now. No one had anything more than a bad cold and most didn’t even have that. My sister said if she hadn’t tested because her husband had it she never would have known she was sick. Absolutely no symptoms. No one I know has long covid. My 88 year old mom who has leukemia doesn’t even bother masking. We have all gone back to normal before covid life and don’t even really think about it anymore.
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I don’t understand this, either. I wonder if the “you do you” public health practice will become the norm for other public health issues.
I don’t mind wearing a mask at all. There are comfortable N95s.
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I think some of it has to do with what “circles” you spend time in. Work in health care? You probably are still quite aware and taking some precautions. Work in retail where you’re constantly interacting with customers and maybe touching their money etc. - you may be more cautious. Have you had a friend/family terrible experience with Covid? - you’re probably more worried about contracting it.
But for much of the general population, while masking was a reminder that Covid still exists, not masking takes that reminder away. Let’s face it - lots of people saw masking as a big inconvenience (I am not one of them). The whole “back to normal and living my life thing”. Even though, news flash, many people were/are “back to normal and living life” - but wearing a mask when they feel it’s appropriate. A mask is a precaution just like you wear mittens when it’s frigid or a hat when you’re going to be standing in the sun for 5 hours. It’s a tool. A tool to help prevent illness.
My comment would be, if you are someone who masks 100% of the time in public, you are going to have to make some peace with others not doing that. Nope, you won’t understand it. Non-maskers are going to have to watch the judgement of those who choose to continue masking and not peg them as germ freaks - you don’t know what the person behind that mask has experienced, who is in their life they are protecting, etc.
And I would lastly say, that if your family has been unaffected by Covid, count your blessings. Health is everything and once a family member’s health has been threatened your mindset can do a 180.
This is another area of life we have to learn (all of us) to respect, not judge.
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