I'm immunocompromised and still mask indoors. I haven't been sick at all since 2020 and it's awesome!
Between 40-60% of people have some form of permanent brain damage and 70-80% have long covid problems from Covid. The damage to the body compounds every time a person gest re-infected, so the numbers are terrifyingly high.
I have a postmortem science degree and it required 4 years of pre-med/pathology. With all that and what we know about the virus, I am honestly not sure I'll stop wearing a mask indoors until we find a cure or better vaccine. I can't stand that politicians are trying to ban masks, essentially sacrificing the elderly, disabled, and ill. A government making medical decisions, creating an environment where a person can't mask up, regardless of if they have cancer and want to stay safe; or if they're severely sick with something else but need to pick up medication at a pharmacy... it's dark. It's fucked up
Long covid is generally definied as having any symptoms persisiting greater than 6 (?IIRC) months after first detection, so having a niggling cough that hung around that long would count as long covid. Some form of permenant brain damage is incredibly vague and sounds like it would apply to a night of heavy drinking.
I was very serious about masking, and noticed that for that two years I never even got a cold. Not once did I test positive and I did it once a week for the first year. So, fist bump for taking masking seriously.
If I do, there’s usually hand sanitizer in my bag. But no one really shakes hands anymore. Dirty habit anyway. We may as well cup each others genitalia.