People who wear masks, do you get hassle for it?

[Muffster]

I live abroad & am visiting UK family in August. I’m interested to know if people (& kids) who continue to mask in UK (or who’ve restarted) are experiencing any hassle/judgement/negativity for doing so?

Where I live, we have only recently made masks voluntary & many people still wear them for shopping, public transport. Masks are mandated in healthcare settings. As the UK is currently experiencing a lot of COVID cases, and as we are staying with frail elderly relatives we absolutely want to continue wearing our masks when out and about. We wear comfortable N95 or KN95/94; we are used to it, including DS (11). We are all vaccinated and adults are boosted; none of us have had COVID.

thanks

I still wear a mask when I go out or to answer the door.

Nobody has had any issue with it or commented, although delivery people do tend to step back or sometimes ask if I want them to mask up too.

I still wear mine in crowded places and I couldn't care less what people think of me. I've got 2 comebacks if anyone aggressively asks why I'm wearing a mask "because I'm fucking ugly" and "do you wear knickers/pants?"

Hi @AnyasAttic
A) antibody treatment at local hospital. Took 2 days to sort out via GP
B) milder than anyone else in my family - maybe due to antibody treatment or more recent booster. Totally fine after 5 days - back running etc.
C) I stopped 1 of my 2 meds for 48 hours, back to normal when I could see I was on the mend. For me this was the worst bit. V stressful.
D) kidney

But despite all this I'll keep wearing my mask 😷

If your SO is a fellow owner of a pre-loved kidney then you should come any find us on the crappy kidney thread under general health. Lots of chat on there about experiences getting COVID meds etc. Might even be helpful if it's a different type of transplant. We're all very lovely - come and say hi 😊

None at all. I wear one when in a train/bus or shop, remove once outside.

I don't wear them generally these days in the UK despite the uptick in cases, but did wear one on flight to southern Europe recently - no comments, but got a few looks which am happy to ignore.
I feel a mask offered me protection on the flight (others might disagree) and I didn't want to risk getting covid and it spoiling the holiday.

@Hbh17 genuinely interested to know the evidence on which you base that opinion.

I'm a scientist by training and given my medical history have a strong interest in this topic. I consider myself very well informed on the science of masks and infection control, and the evidence base seems pretty clear cut to me - masks do not prevent transmission, but do significantly reduce infection rates at a population level. But I'm always happy to learn, so am interested to know what has led you to your different view.

I would never insist that someone wears a mask. Im a strong advocate for personal freedom of choice, and believe that everyone is free to make their own risk-benefit analysis and do what suits them. but I do struggle a lot when I read posts like yours that state things as fact that are very very unlikely to be true. And that ignore large amounts of high quality research. Freedom to make personal decisions only really works if we all have access to accurate information.

Thank you very much for all the responses. I’m glad that people who are masking are reporting minimal pushback or non-interest from non-maskers. Hopefully it’s not such a political issue as it is in parts of the USA like Florida.

I have been quietly hoping that masking will be voluntarily taken up again by more people as I see that BA.5 is really surging in Europe, USA and UK. At least masking in airports and on planes before take off/de-planing when the HEPA filtration isn’t switched on? But the will to mitigate and protect doesn’t seem there any more.

We are desperate to see our UK family after not seeing them since the pandemic started - but the thought of getting sick on vacation, passing the infection on to elderly family we are staying with, and then trying to fly back ten days later (transatlantic) whilst sick is worrying us a lot. Good to know people won’t hassle us for trying to keep staying COVID-free.

Hi all, first time poster.

Judging from all the above posts, it would seem that very few (if any!) here have received/noticed any negativity around mask wearing.

Unfortunately, my tuppence worth is that both my wife and I have certainly noticed 'looks' in certain settings whilst wearing a face covering, and today I was definitely the intended target of a conversation between (and started by) a member of staff in a co-op and their friend/customer. The tone wasn't great at all, and felt quite pointed. "I didn't know you needed to wear masks again / you don't / it's crap isn't it" etc.

I'm really happy to hear so few of you have had bad experiences, but sadly that's not entirely the case here. Based in South Wales fwiw.

Thank you @ShinyHatStand for taking the time to answer. Not kidney but it reassures me a little more every time I hear about a transplant recipient who has been okay after catching covid. It sounds like you shook it off quite quickly if you were back running so quickly. I will come and lurk on your thread, it may help my anxiety over it all.
thank you, I really appreciate it.

No each to their own. I hate seeing them on people though but I'm a naturally smiley person. But I wouldn't pass judgement or give anyone dirty looks or anything like that.