Folks who live with or have a pod that extends beyond your romantic partner: how do you think about wearing masks and distancing with other folks indoors? My understanding is that most people with a pod that goes beyond a romantic partner hang out with their pod indoors, without distancing or wearing masks.
Is that true? If so, is it because you have reason to believe masks and distancing are ineffective indoors? Or do you think masks / distancing would help, but not enough to be worth it?
From a quick search, I was only able to find one study on the impact of masks and distancing within a household (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7264640/). It shows that both make a significant impact, but this is surprising to me given I’d expect aerosols to concentrate indoors such that with prolonged exposure, you’d breathe in the virus anyway unless you are wearing a highly protective mask.
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Ventilation also helps to reduce the density of viral particles in the air, making infection less likely. This is easier during summer than during winter, though.
It does help. It reduces the amount of virus particles that you inhale, and the severity of the disease. And if you’re ventilating well, there’s an even lower risk. For what it’s worth, I’ve been on my own since March, and haven’t really interacted with anyone else since then.
“Not enough to be worth it” hides a lot of room for variation.
Just this morning I was talking to someone who told me their niece, in her 20s, has such crippling fear of covid that she hasn’t left her room, except to use the bathroom, in months. Her parents feed her my leaving plates of food at her door and then walking away. An extreme case, clearly.
My brother in law lives alone, and only goes out to pick up drive through takeout once in a while. He, my in-laws, and one other couple are part of my wife and my bubble. Of that group, only my mother in law works outside the home currently. We do not socially distance, because the odds make it not worth it for us.