Making the wearing of a mask manditory

[weepingwillow22]

Has anyone else noticed the worldometer projections for UK deaths have changed significantly since the relaxation of restrictions last week?
covid19.healthdata.org/united-kingdom

The deaths are now predicted to be back up to 800 a day by november with a second peak in cases surpassing the first one.

The graphs do however show that this can be avoided if mask wearing is made compulsory.

AIBU to think that the wearing of a mask or visor (excepting those eho cannot wear them for medical conditions) should be made manditory in all indoor public places in order to avoid this second peak.

If cases rise again to the extent projected here another national lockdown will be required resulting in more job losses, school closures and unnecessary deaths.

Surely the wearing of a mask is a small price to pay to avoid a second peak particularly as the scientific evidence now points to it being highly effective in preventing asymptomatic spread.
www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent

The kids are bubbled. The staff have to move round them. So they are more like sieves than bubbles!

I won't be wearing a mask. I don't want to, children struggle enough with communication, I need to lip read.

Sieves! I told her she was bubbled, now will have to change that to sieved!

It seems like it's a ' Saint Christopher' charm to protect you, irrationally, like cuddling your teddy -which most of us have grown out of.
Just make it optional for the superstitious and science-deniers. Definitely not for school children.

A part of development skills for language and eating come from being able to see the mouth. You need to see/feel how a sound is made to be able to process it.

We process the sounds we hear differently and a part of the formation comes from our other senses in addition to various external factors - body motion, facial expressions etc.

Obviously it's a lot more complex than this, but from what I recall that is one of the basics of language development, and whether we are 9 months or 90 it is still an important part of how we communicate with each other and potentially learn more as a result.

The number of times we have to hear a word to learn it is amazing. Worth reading up on.

@UmbrellaHat

It seems like it's a ' Saint Christopher' charm to protect you, irrationally, like cuddling your teddy -which most of us have grown out of. Just make it optional for the superstitious and science-deniers. Definitely not for school children.

You don’t live in Scotland, do you?

I was really surprised to see so many people wearing masks in a large Sainsbury’s this morning - right across the demographics, as well. Maybe 50 % ? Previously only seen them on a handful there. Outer London.

The shop itself has stopped monitoring entry ( though it’s still exit and entrance ), stopped wiping down the handles of trolleys ( though there is some sanitiser spray and paper towels sitting on a small side table once you are in. They never had directional arrows ( wide aisles ) but some aisles have 2 metre tape markers. Check out staff have screens but no staff wear masks.

Not bubbles...but blisters

Nope, I have to wear a mask all day when im at work, that is bad enough! I have asthma and since having to wear a mask at work/on public it has really affected my breathing. I constantly feel like i am being suffocated.

As a pp pointed put earlier some of us still went to work during lockdown when it was at its peak (i work in a hospital pharmacy) all of us working close together and no social distancing as theres no space, all day every day we were all ok.

A second wave may well be worse but the masks are to protect other people from you a shield does provide some protection for yourself but your have to wear both to even get some protection.

Add to the fact people dont wear them properly/touch them and move them on their face. They are pointless.

If there was substantial proof that they made a positive difference then i would wear them and not complain. But there isnt

@Vintagevixen

Cool it's your choice, but I don't want my DD wearing one. In her school year 7 they are keeping them in bubbles of 30 in September but I appreciate not every school may be the same.

They maybe in a bubble, But if one in the bubbles gets its they may well pass it on.

Add Into the mix that the bubble will only close if 2 children test positive in 14 days. I wonder if the schools will inform parents when one child test positives and risk panic at the school gates.

Also add into the mix the sports clubs, dance classes and brownies the bubble attend.

Feels more like a colander now than a sieve.

Freddiefox in terms of risk to my DD I'm good with that. We don't have any vulnerabilities health wise (my friend got it in her family with an immunocompromised son and it was very mild for him).

Even if she catches it, very mild for kids. I don't really mind her passing it onto me, that's life. There will be no panicking at the school gates from me!

Thanks @HelenaDove and @canigooutyet !

I was really surprised to see so many people wearing masks in a large Sainsbury’s this morning - right across the demographics, as well. Maybe 50 % ?

That really surprises me too. I rarely see anybody wearing one in a shop (or anywhere else really, unless they're about to get on or have just got off a bus). But I do think there's a good chance it will gradually become more widespread if people notice that hardly anybody is doing social distancing properly any more, especially if they also hear of a local rise in cases in their area. (There's been a very small one in my area recently, but the total number is still so low relative to many areas of the country that I think people will be complacent for a while longer.)

@UmbrellaHat

Was in a garage today getting car fixed. Lots of signs up but no SD or wanky masks. Men getting on my car, checking the manual I was hding, lots of surfaces touched etc-normal interaction, mercifully. Be customer came in wearing a mask, went for a coffee and came back not wearing it, clearly having realised not the protocol here. These are people doing really jobs on the real work with customers, unlike the pompous councils refusing to open kids' playgrounds as 'not safe for their employees' ditto schools. So mask up if you want, but let the rest of us who can read and understand stats get back to human existence.

I love this 😁

@UmbrellaHat

It seems like it's a ' Saint Christopher' charm to protect you, irrationally, like cuddling your teddy -which most of us have grown out of.
Just make it optional for the superstitious and science-deniers. Definitely not for school children.

So it should it be optional for you, just because you’re a science denier? But mandatory for normal people?

As the doctor quoted in this article says, not wearing a mask is like saying you don’t believe in gravity. It’s not a valid belief system.
apple.news/AK2Xd8HN9QkGt0Hqt9_6bdA

@UmbrellaHat

Was in a garage today getting car fixed. Lots of signs up but no SD or wanky masks. Men getting on my car, checking the manual I was hding, lots of surfaces touched etc-normal interaction, mercifully. Be customer came in wearing a mask, went for a coffee and came back not wearing it, clearly having realised not the protocol here. These are people doing really jobs on the real work with customers, unlike the pompous councils refusing to open kids' playgrounds as 'not safe for their employees' ditto schools. So mask up if you want, but let the rest of us who can read and understand stats get back to human existence.

Masks aren't "wanky". If someone coughs in my face, I'd much prefer to have a mask on than not - right? But arrogant people like yourself choose to look down on the choice of other people to protect their health - and others' - as something stupid. (And I don't think you understand stats, either.)

Thanks all for your responses. It will be interesting to repeat this poll in the autumn when cases are rising again.

I find the zoe site useful to assess my risk locally. If you look at the map it gives you the new daily cases per million.
covid.joinzoe.com/data

Currently there are around 23,000 symptomatic infections which suggests there are around 40,000 total infected in the UK or 1 in 1650 people. This means that if you come into contact with 40 people in a week who have also come into contact with 40 people in a week, one of these people will have been in contact with someone who is infected.

I would say that catching covid is quite a low risk personally at the moment but the problem with exponential growth is that things can change very rapidly, as they did in March and we need to look at the situation from a societal rather than and individual perspective.

In my view, which is shared by most scientists, masks or other face protection for those that do not have a medical reason not to wear them, are an important preventative measure in stopping this exponential growth and allowing society to remain functioning without needing another lockdown.

*The above should read -
'This means that if you come into contact with 40 people in a week who have also come into contact with 40 people in a week, one of these people will be infected'

I don't understand the reluctance, especially with men. If anything cheap and not painful means we can all keep the levels low, especially going into autumn, just do it

Maybe Nike should make masks and make them a fashion item!

We were told back in April masks did nothing and were pointless.

We were told in the 50s that smoking was good for us, going to take that up?

Things change as we learn more, why is that so difficult to understand.

Just wear a fucking mask and stop being fucking idiots.

What I've always wondered is how comes when the hospitals were hammered and they didn't have masks because of the shortage, then why didn't the NHS collapse from within?

They weren't immune to, they have to get up, close and personal. Of course there were deaths which is a natural tragedy. This went on right through the first wave.

Hygiene. They followed the cleaning protocols throughout as much as they could. If you are someone that scratches your ass and carries on, only ever washes their hands after toilet etc, then no amount of masks is going to make a damn difference.

Did any of you wear them during Avian Flu, chicken pox outbreaks etc? Nope, it was things like upping vit c for a part of the year, occasionally remembering to wash a bit more, maybe change bedding a bit more and things like that. Apart from the temp vitamin intake those are going to help more than wearing a mask.

Oh and how many when they go home isolate the mask/dispose of it correctly, go straight have a shower, get changed and wash/isolate your clothes?

@canigooutyet

Oh and how many when they go home isolate the mask/dispose of it correctly, go straight have a shower, get changed and wash/isolate your clothes?

Actually we do all those things. It is perfectly possible to wear a mask AND wash hands and practise good hygiene. It doesn’t have to be one or the other!

I don’t understand your point about the NHS and PPE shortage. Dozens of health workers died of Covid-19, you can read about some of them here. www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/doctors-nurses-porters-volunteers-the-uk-health-workers-who-have-died-from-covid-19

You seem to think that’s a good outcome somehow. I strongly disagree. PPE shortages, and people’s reluctance to wear masks, undoubtedly cost lives.

I'm reluctant, simply as when I've worn one people seem to then stop distancing. Same goes for others wearing them, there seems to be some presumption that it protects the wearer and they therefore don't keep to social distancing.

I think there needs to be more education on how they work, and the fact that they're PART of protection but don't give you immunity. Also, how to wear them properly. There's a massive amount of people wearing them in a way that's completely wrong. Here at least there's very visibly a gap in knowledge.

Did I say death is a good thing or just a natural part of live. You can acknowledge this without being gleeful about it. I even mentioned staff had died.

You have failed to see the point I am making. When masks weren't in use because of how it fastly spreads it technically should have wiped out the staff as well in terms of sickness. Even though they got people out of retirement it should have still been full of shortages. It wasn't though.

You might do all of that. Many don't. Remember the Bar nuts test, the buffet food tests etc that all show a lot of people don't follow any basic hygiene. Without that, no amount of masks is going to make a difference. If people want to help they can help by not spreading there shit around because they are too whatever to wash their hands.

But if people want to wear the mask properly they also have to do this and a whole lot more. They could live in a dump that Kim and Aggie would love, a mask won't do a thing if they have released droplets in the air whether the air is fresh or not. No amount of mask will stop the transference if people aren't washing properly and to the point of virus control.

There was a study done by the US center for disease control on a military ship which showed that mask wearing was actually more effective than handwashing in preventing transmission.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/13/facemasks-could-better-defence-against-covid-19-hand-washing/amp/

@canigooutyet, I think I understand the point you are making, which is that if masks are effective, even MORE NHS staff should have died of COVID-19 when there were shortages. I just don’t think it has any merit. To me it seems like a conspiracist point. You don’t have any data or counter factual to back that up, so it is pure conjecture.

On the other hand, science tells us that masks could reduce the risk of transmission by 60-80%. If there is less transmission, by definition there will be fewer deaths.