If you’re very high risk and you’re getting the vaccine somewhere that you don’t know the “pandemic culture,” I highly suggest taking additional precautions beyond a cloth mask. This could include double masking or getting a better mask, and possibly wearing eye protection. N95s are pretty easy to come by now, but if you can’t find one, maybe you can borrow a buddy’s P100 respirator for a few hours.

At the small town Hy-Vee I went to, maybe 25% of the people had masks. Not even the pharmacy workers were wearing masks, except the one who was actually giving the injections. She told me that almost all of their doses were going to out-of-towners because most of the locals don’t believe the pandemic is real and have no desire to get the vaccine.

Keep in mind that you have to sit in the waiting area for 15 minutes after your shot, so you can’t exactly avoid people breathing on you. In my situation, all the other people who had gotten vaccinated were wearing masks, but the other customers who were shopping and waiting for prescriptions mostly were not.

Stay safe! If you’re still looking for an appointment, there are a bunch of locations on Vaccine Hunter as of right now.