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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

It feels like people think the coronavirus pandemic is over. People are taking off their masks more or being less strict, people are socializing, people went out for St. Patty's day and acted like things were normal. It is so strange to see while at the same time we continue to consider that any patient with a cough and general malaise might have coronavirus. I know that more and more people have at least 1 vaccine, but it is still less than 15% of the population in our state. I think people are really ready to move forward. This week I was in a store and they had homemade masks for sale for $1. They were discounted from $10, which has been the going rate I have seen for a while. I bought two because the cloth masks I have are all getting a bit worn and it is nice to have one around in the car. The woman I bought it from said "hopefully these are the last masks you will ever buy!" I told her I thought they would come in handy in the future. I know that the masks are part performance because many of them are badly fitted or clearly inadequate (synthetic neck gaiters, I am looking at you). But they also may be protective or at least lessen our risk of transmission. I feel like I will continue to wear masks when I am in contact with patients with URIs, and probably throughout flu season in the future. I had the flu once in 2010, I believe that it was the H1N1 variant because that was circulating at the university I was attending, and my room mate and many friends at the time had similar symptoms. I was so sick for 5 days, I missed a week of school and felt terrible. I have also caught multiple colds from interacting with patients when I go to work in clinic. I don't need to go through that every year! When I traveled in Asia in 2009 I bought a cloth face mask because it had a cute print on it. I didn't ever use it and I don't know what I did with it, but in 2020 I regretted that lost track of it. I saw many people in Korea and China wearing masks when they were out in public, especially when I was there in the winter. It seems like it is a respectful way to protect those around you or protect yourself. At times in China I wore N95 masks when I was out because the air quality was terrible and I would cough and sneeze as soon as I left the house. I think that masks will come in handy many times in the future. The way we interact with the world brings these infectious diseases into contact with more and more people all the time. Additionally, climate change and pollution make it likely that we will benefit from wearing these in the future when the air quality is bad.