Travelling with Covid

I wouldn't have worn a mask while travelling if I had flu or a virus or even a bad cold before covid, because I didn't know how easy it is to get hold of FFP2 or FFP3 masks. I do now. They might not be perfect as not professionally fitted but they'd certainly reduce the amount of virus I breathe out. I'd wear one on the plane on my way out too - look how often people talk about having caught covid on the plane out when going on holiday. Why would I pay thousands for flights and a holiday and then not do all I could to avoid catching a virus on the outward flight, when for under a tenner I could get a few FFP2/3 masks and use them? Having a couple with me on holiday would also mean I'd be OK if I was ill on the way back or if one of my friends/family was. They're a really easy middle ground between total isolation and just breathing over everyone.

As for the beginning of the pandemic - I think they always knew cloth masks wouldn't do much but they didn't have enough of the good kind to have members of the public using them, so they made out the cloth masks did something. They would have done better to be honest and say that those masks wouldn't do anything much from the start, even if it meant admitting the general public would be unprotected. At least then you wouldn't get people going round saying 'masks don't work' when they mean 'cloth masks and flimsy surgical masks don't work'.

I really don't understand why it matters whether there is guidance, rules, or anything else in place. If you have Covid, then it's only basic decency to wear a mask if you're in a closed environment like a train. It's not exactly difficult or expensive to wear one. Why would anyone be so selfish as to not try to reduce the spread of infection from Covid, flu, or anything else contagious?

Here's something to help you understand how masks help. The vulnerable are likely to be wearing them, the infectious should also be to keep everyone safer.

And yes, if I knew I had something infectious that messes with the immune system, can cause long term disability or death and the risk increases with every infection I'd do everything I could to not catch it myself and if I did get it I'd try very hard not to pass it on. That's not a new thing for me and it saddens me that that's become something that people ridicule.

OP, stop getting hung up on whether guidelines are mandatory or not. Protecting vulnerable people shouldn’t be about rules or guidelines. It’s simply common courtesy. Just wear a mask when you’re travelling home and sit near an open window if you can. You’re overthinking this.

Not all rules are law

There are rules in swimming pools, beauticians, school, work places, games, sports even my house !

You don't get arrested if you don't follow them.

You're annoying me now

Absolutely agree.

Before Covid, did all those now so touchingly concerned about others safety, wear masks to protect the immunosuppressed or those undergoing chemo? Did they worry about the fact the cold they had might have been a death sentence to anyone in the aforementioned group. No they didn’t, because it didn’t impact them but hey, here comes Covid. I might catch it myself and die!

TBH, if masks really worked, countries in Asia that have had a culture of wearing them for decades would have fared a lot better - but ultimately, figures were pretty similar across the board. The only reason face coverings were ‘suddenly’ effective was governments realised they had scared their populations shitless and the only way they could restore confidence and encourage people out of their homes and to prevent economies completely tanking was to give them a form of ‘safety blanket’ The public bizarrely felt less vulnerable with a piece of material stretched across their noses.

Think about it, why on earth was it ok to sit down and eat food in a public area that was open to all sorts of airborne microbes, but to stand up was somehow ‘risky’?

Including the Covid paranoid friend ofOps, who spent time in close proximity to her before she got ill...

Unless she has also tested, just to be safe?

Not all rules are mandatory. They are a guide for conduct.

Yeah, odds are there will be covid present on both the ferry and the train even if OP doesn't board either. I just assume now that in any crowded place or busy public transport setting, there will be covid.

I think she should have stayed in her room, personally, or gone home early. I also think that as no one is testing for Covid now, rightly or wrongly, the whole ferry will probably be crawling with it as will all public spaces. Either everyone tests and self isolates or no one does (unless they are vulnerable). So I am afraid she'll just have to keep her distance.

(I do think you should wear a mask and stay away from others so far as possible whilst travelling.)

@JohnPrescottsPyjamas
I mean, people didn't realise it was airborne at first. WHO said it wasn't - a mistake. It wasn't until June 21 they admitted there was a 'possibility 'of 'short-range' aerosol transfer.

That's why the guidance was wrong at first.

So, no, mask wearers weren't and aren't paranoid, simply informed.

If you feel you have no alternative but to travel (unfortunately), please wear a mask - indeed, try double-masking & try to keep at a distance from others while you are a danger to the vulnerable.

As early as 3 February 2020 – long before anyone outside the Department of Health was taking the prospect of a pandemic seriously – ministers were told the masks make no significant difference. In April 2020, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) reiterated this advice. At the end of that month, the Sage committee said much the same thing, telling ministers that it would be unreasonable to claim a large benefit.

Surely that was much too early to tell if they were useful or not @JohnPrescottspyjamas?
The study results came later and showed them to be effective.

https://egc.yale.edu/largest-study-masks-and-covid-19-demonstrates-their-effectiveness-real-world

Don’t forget these little gems from the Matt Hancock WhatsApp’s :

“frighten the pants off everyone”

“We frighten the pants of everyone with the new strain,”

“When do we deploy the new variant?”

“Small stuff looks ridiculous. Ramping up messaging – the fear/guilt factor vital.“

Hancock, Whitty and Johnson knew full well that non-medical face masks do very little to prevent transmission of the virus. People were made to wear them anyway because Dominic Cummings was fixated with them; because Nicola Sturgeon liked them; and above all because they were symbolic of the public health emergency.

As early as 3 February 2020 – long before anyone outside the Department of Health was taking the prospect of a pandemic seriously – ministers were told the masks make no significant difference. In April 2020, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) reiterated this advice. At the end of that month, the Sage committee said much the same thing, telling ministers that it would be unreasonable to claim a large benefit. An ‘obsessed’ Cummings was the driving force behind mandating mask-wearing in all healthcare settings – and then in retail and hospitality.

But still there are the paranoid who just can’t let go.

I've just went on holiday with Covid. I've been keeping outside and in well ventilated places. If I'd been travelling on a train I'd have been wearing a mask and wiping surfaces.

Neither would I. The friend really has no business insisting anyone else test, just as it would be unreasonable for anyone else to tell the friend she shouldn't.

I am very sorry. I know a form of long covid can be extremely disabling and life changing, with people unable to work, some mainly housebound and some still remain bedbound, horrendous.

us nurses are expected to work now when we have Covid! Albeit with a mask, the only areas exempt from doing so in my trust is oncology wards

the nhs guidance:
If you or your child have tested positive for COVID-19:

• try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days after the day the test was taken if you or your child are under 18 years old – children and young people tend to be infectious to other people for less time than adults
• try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days after the day you took your test if you are 18 years old or over
• avoid meeting people who are more likely to get seriously ill from viruses, such as people with a weakened immune system, for 10 days after the day you took your test

Note it doesn't say 'try to' about people who are likely to get seriously ill. It says avoid them. Do you know the health status of everyone who will be on your ferry and train?

And also from the NHS, How to avoid spreading it:
avoid indoor or crowded places (including public transport or large social gatherings) or places where there is not much fresh air if you need to leave your home
wear a face covering when it's hard to stay away from other people

Wear a mask. Please.

I'm not too long after covid in Northern Ireland and couldn't find any specific guidelines for isolation. I was trying to find guidelines on isolation time (to work out when it would be safe to see the very vulnerable people around me). It's crazy that you guys have stats and restrictions/guidance like this. I'm gonna have a look see if there's any here as I'm interested. Covid is definitely everywhere here at the minute.

Once I knew I was positive, I isolated myself out of choice. I found out very very difficult to just say - to hell with it and put possible vulnerable people at risk.

Wearing a FFP3 mask will significantly decrease viral particles being breathed out, so they will decrease risk of the infected person spreading the virus.

It transmits by aerosol, it doesn't matter if you're not close to people. If you're in a crowded space it will just hang in the air for other people to inhale. You know you have it, if you don't wear a mask you will pass it onto a lot of people.

Excellent, common sense post.