3/3 This decision is reinforced by the fact that I am always the lone masker, and there are no CC communities where I live. I am very grateful to the online CC community (shout out to @juliadoubleday.bsky.social), but I fear it's not enough to extinguish the loneliness I feel.

2/ I have a lot of admiration for people in the CC community who are able to confidently socialize while masked.  If  I have to choose between staying home and socializing masked, I will almost always choose the former, mostly because I am not comfortable with the stigma.

People going through chemo or organ transplant wore masks in public before Covid and no one gave damn.

Ppl are not refusing to enter society we are in society but responsibly it's society that wants us to disappear. Sorry, not sorry if you feel guilty.

Yes. I will never fault someone for not masking or incorrectly masking because they cannot afford it. I see quite a few working class, and occasionally middle class SA wearing surgical masks from time to time.

7/7 And those who know you may be aware that the people you claim to protect don't mask, which could render your argument moot in their eyes.

6/ Part me believes that the easiest way to make people understand you is to tell them you are chronically ill, or that you care fro someone who is. But they will then ask what chronicle illness you have and I'm no comfortable sharing. I don't want to lie either by saying I have cancer.

5/ Yes, you can tell them, I mask because I want to protect my health. But that invites more questions. Any short answer invites more questions. I'm willing to go into the weeds and have a longer conversation, but most people are not, even if they may seem like they are.

4/ Not unless I am talking to a healthcare worker or a close friends/family. My family from North America, also think I'm crazy when they visit and see me masked. The hard thing about explaining yourself to regular people, is that you have to be able to do it in 30 sec, which is not easy.

3/ Having a community makes you considerably more credible, even if people don't agree. Not having one makes me come across as a crazy. I'll admit that I struggle to defend my decision to mask. What I mean is, most of the time, I don't give an explanation because I don't want to get into it.

2/ When it comes to the African continent and specifically SA, I haven't seen anything. Most of the CC voices I've seen are in the West. All this makes me wonder if the risk of being infected or disabled by COVID is much lower here, and the rest of the continent.

1/ Yeah, I heard about Mexico being better than the US when it comes to masking and healthcare for COVID. I am curious how some of the Asian countries that received high praise at height of the pandemic are doing now. Like Taiwan for example.

THANK YOU! I'm not on FB, but I will look into the sources you provided and will try to get in touch with some of those people. The social isolation is excruciating.

3/3 I saw the SA flag in your profile. If you know anyone who is COVID conscious here, whether they are a regular person or work in healthcare, I would love to get in touch with them because I am struggling mentally and physically from the isolation. #CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsAirBorne #Covid

2/ I don't know a single person who masks, let alone wears an N95/FFP2. Being CC in SA is extremely isolating. All the voices in the CC community are in the Global North. I don't see any in the Global South, let alone Africa or SA. It gives the impression it's exclusively Western problem.

1/ I'm very sorry to hear about your nephew's daughter. I sincerely hope she gets better and makes a full recovery. The state of public health in SA is abysmal. Do you by any chance know anyone there who is #COVIDConscious? I ask because I live there and am desperately looking for community.