Face masks. To feel that we have all been through enough....

[NiknicK]

And shouldn’t have to wear face masks if we don’t want to. I know it’s not officially been confirmed yet, but it’s expected to be today, and I don’t get it. If face masks truly help prevent the spreading of the virus, then why on earth wasn’t it made compulsory at the beginning of this pandemic, why now? I know you’ll all likely call me selfish but I can’t do it. I have to wear a mask for ten minutes once or twice month to collect mine and dh’s medication and I find it unbearable even for that small amount of time. They make my face itch and make me want to touch my face more, I can’t breathe properly and get panicky, they slide up as they’re too big for my face and hit my eye lids. My ds is autistic and I suspect I have some traits eg sensory issues, and the thought of having to wear these masks when I find shopping stressful enough as it is, fills me with dread. AIBU?

@NiknicK

Thanks I will. I know I’m coming across as selfish but aren’t we all completely fed up with this now? I’ve done my bit throughout like most other people and I was hoping that some degree of normality would resume. I don’t care about going out to the pub or on holiday right now, which for some people, it’s all they care about, I just want to be able to go about my daily life doing the most basic things like food shopping without being told i need to cover my face.

Yes, I am REALLY fed up. I hate all this and I'm running out of steam completely. It's horribly depressing.

But facemasks will mean that I CAN go out and do normal things again. Because other people wearing face masks will make it safer for me out there. I don't want to be confined to my home. I want to go out.

So for me, face masks are a positive thing. They're the thing that will get me out MORE, not less.

I have no idea why having to wear face masks in shops, is the hill people want to die on.

@Bladeofgrass

BelleSausage, Unhooking it necessitates touching it. From what I've read, that negates its efficiency, puts you at risk of spreading the virus to your hands and on to other surfaces, and allows any virus that has been trapped inside the mask to escape, so its pointless having one in the first place. Not that I've tried it, so I'll have to give it a go, but I'm not sure how practical it would be.

And I have no diagnosed hearing loss, but as I'm getting older I do struggle more and more to hear people without seeing their faces properly. I often need subtitles on tv, and have to ask people to repeat themselves and look at me for me to hear.

Thanks for worrying so much on my behalf.

But I see that @Standardy has answered your worries about the best way to adjust a mask before I could. 😘

Look, it’s either this or my parents don’t get to leave their house ever again. My dad also has hearing loss but would much rather be out and about with one on than stuck at home without one.

Just have a think about all those older people who have been too terrified to go out. Mandatory mask wearing is to protect them.

These are the face mask rules on TFL:

You also do not need to wear a face covering if you have a good reason not to; such as:

If you have a physical or mental illness or impairment, or a disability that means you cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering

If putting on, wearing or removing a face covering would cause you severe distress

If you are travelling with, or providing assistance to, someone who relies on lip reading to communicate

If you are travelling to avoid injury or escape the risk of harm, and you do not have a face covering with you

If you need to remove it during your journey to avoid harm or injury or the risk of harm or injury to yourself or others

If you need to eat, drink, or take medication you can remove your face covering

If you are asked to remove your face covering by a police officer or other official, for example to check your railcard

Mask reliance at the start would have been a disaster. You only have to look at how people wear them to realise this.

The virus isn’t spreading as fast and it’s now safe to be closer to others and masks will again help reduce the spread now.

I think the point of the £100 fine is to strengthen the message. I doubt that many people will have to pay it.

Just another reason to shop on-line.

@Vivana

Look up the actual information for retail staff before you blow a gasket.

OP - you are making excuses and talking utter rubbish.

You will know if you have the virus? Ok then. You are a very special person to be able to see those particles heading in your direction. Do be sure to inform the person who infects you that they should've been isolating.

You have to go shopping 3 times a week yet now you've decided you can bulk buy these items. Turns out the 3 times a week was unnecessary

You have a DH who is willing to shop with a mask, you haven't even tried your son with a snood or similar but have decided for him that he won't wear one

You are as selfish as those people who went for "one last pint". There isn't a selfishness scale. They all had excuses/reasons too. Just like you.

We can only hope that herd mentality ( like dashing off to the beach but for more positive reasons) will kick in and people who do not wear a face covering is shops will be made to feel embarrassed and like outcasts.

Yes, there will be the selfish buggers who just refuse even though they can wear one (citing medical issues when that's a lie).

I assume shops will produce a poster at the entrance saying masks are to be worn.

I hope they will and have a visible reminder of some sort and they will be wearing them too.

There is also the risk of £100 fine for not complying.

Where have I said they have to confirm it with me? You're making up stuff.
I want to know the shop is doing it's best to implement it. Otherwise why do I have to wear a mask, I hate it, I do it for others and when I shop I would like to think the the big majority of people wear masks unless there is a medical reason meaning they can't.

I do wonder how you think this is going to look if you actually try it.

Based on what you've said, if you see someone with no mask, you'll presumably go to a staff member to ask for the shopper's medical evidence. Which quite possibly won't be legally required in order to be exempt from wearing a mask in a shop anyway.

It's likely they'll be shop floor staff, so odds are they end up calling for a manager given the sensitivity of the issue and how delighted they'll be at you having raised it. You'll stand there for a while in the shop, thus extending your time in there with an unmasked person, while you wait for the manager and the person without the mask continues about their business.

The manager arrives, and the two of you then turn to the issue of whether the shop actually require a doctor to certify any medical exemption. If they don't, you're shit out of luck. If they do, time to actually find the unmasked person. In a small shop, they're probably located easily enough unless they've finished and left, thus rendering the whole exercise moot. If it's a big shop, the manager will go off to find them, with every minute increasing the possibility that they've left anyway. Meanwhile you're still in the shop, extending your time in a public place and your potential risk.

@sockyarn If I am in the back shop, socially distanced from colleagues i do not need to wear a mask. If I am on the till, behind my little perspex wall, I do not need to wear a mask both statements are incorrect, the mask stops the droplet from you to others, standing a distance away helps but is not enough as droplets can carry well beyond 2m in some environments including shops and enclosed spaces. The visor gives you extra protection, doesn't stop your droplets affecting others you should be wearing both. Watch the video about made by the czech republic. Watch the videos made by scientists to explain about droplets and transmission, with diagrams to show how droplets can travel. This refusal on your part and others is just not cool.

"From the 24th I will go to the information desk of the supermarket (if I am in a supermarket) and ask them why someone is not wearing a mask and if they are implementing it strictly."

Randomners have no right to know anyone else's business so they are not going to tell you why someone isn't wearing one.
Given that some people are medically exempt if you are not comfortable with being a store with someone who isn't wearing one you need to stay out of shops.
It's not your business to police it and if you don't think they are policing it then take your business elsewhere

We can only hope that herd mentality ( like dashing off to the beach but for more positive reasons) will kick in and people who do not wear a face covering is shops will be made to feel embarrassed and like outcasts I agree!

I really hope this doesn't get extended to wearing them in gyms.

I think I’ll have to turn to online shopping more, we’ll that’s if I can get a delivery slot

So you have not even tried. You go shopping 3 x a week when not necessary,

and my dh he’s happy to do more food shopping as masks don’t bother him.

so you are not a single parent with no option and no credit cards

I won’t be taking my ds into shops as I’m not willing to stand there and be grilled about why he is not wearing a mask, and having to tell all and sundry that he’s autistic

Why take your child anyway? it's not a jaunt, it's essential shopping.

Unbelievable @NiknicK

We can only hope that herd mentality ( like dashing off to the beach but for more positive reasons) will kick in and people who do not wear a face covering is shops will be made to feel embarrassed and like outcasts

Yes, what a great idea to shame people who have valid reasons not to wear them. So empathic.

Zombie

None of that. I will be doing nothing like that. If I go in Morrisons, and the majority of the people are not wearing masks, I would ask on the information desk if they are trying to implement it. If they shrugged and said no, people choose whether they want to or not. I would shop elsewhere.

You'll stand there for a while in the shop, thus extending your time in there with an unmasked person, while you wait for the manager and the person without the mask continues about their business
Oh purleeeease. As if!
I have said countless times, that I want to be reassured that the shops I go in or doing their best to implement the rules of face masking. If I feel they are not, I will speak to the information desk, if I feel they are not even trying to mention it to shoppers as they come in, I will shop elsewhere.

I've said this twice on this post because you have written some sort of scene and applied it to me, and it's daft

I’m starting to think some of these mask threads are from wind up merchants and we’re all biting nicely.

@NiknicK

I have to go to different shops to buy certain brands of food as my autistic son will only eat certain foods so this will be a nightmare. Sorry if no one understands that and just feels I’m being selfish.

I don't think you are being selfish. Perhaps rather silly coming on here hoping for a rational discussion and reassurance. Many people do agree with you and I've yet to see any reputable evidence that wearing anything other than proper pls grade masks without touching them does anything other than lead to a false sense of security.

Seems to me that the government are determined to kill off the High Street a and make Bezos st Albans even richer.

Underhisi
I have already explained I worded this wrong. I do not want to know anyone's medical history, I just want to feel reassured that shops are doing their best to implement the rule of wearing a face mask

if you don't think they are policing it then take your business elsewhere
If you actually read my posts, that is exactly what I've been saying

You are nitpicking. I think you can tell from my posts that I just want to know that the shop is doing it's best to implement this and I have said more than once that I do not want to know anyone's medical history.
I worded the first time I spoke of this, wrongly and you have latched on to it.

I’m not “nitpicking” or “latching” onto anything. I simply responded to what you said. And no, I can’t “tell” anything from your posts - I don’t make a point of tracking individual posters contributions through a thread. 🤷‍♀️

And is not the shop’s responsibility to “enforce” anything. It’s the police’s.

Demanding to know why so-and-so isn’t wearing a mask or what the shop is doing to enforce a policy will get you nowhere and probably only cause stress to the staff.

Take it up with your MP if you feel that strongly.

You may have not been through enough and struggled throughout this pandemic but lots of other people have including myself

We've all been through enough but we will all be guaranteed to be going through a lot more with a second wave.

Let's prevent going through even more, by wearing a mask.

Can’t you try a face shield instead? You know the clear Perspex thingummies that hang from a headband covering your eyes mouth and nose? Maybe less unpleasant for those with sensory issues?

I had surgery under deep sedation 2 weeks ago. If you see any kind of private consultant right now, you have to wear a mask at all times. So as I’ve had 10 appointments in the last month, I’ve had quite a lot of time in my mask (cloth anti pollution type).

For my sedation, they didn’t take the mask off at all - just popped the oxygen over the top. I woke up with it on.

If I can go through an entire anaesthetised procedure with a mask on then no one’s going to be starved of oxygen in Tesco

Funnily enough I got “mask shamed” yesterday by a man on the other side of the tube platform. I’d just had some devastating news from my consultant and absent mindedly pulled it down to my chin whilst I ruminated and waited for a train.

Do you know what I did? Rather than thinking screw him, I’ve just had devastating news and therefore can do what I want, I realised I’d broken the social contract and pulled it up again.

I want the world to re-open and life to go back to approximately normal and we ALL have a role to play in making sure that is possible. The longer we all claim we have very special personal reasons for not wearing a mask, the longer it takes.

Fucking Hell this thread has got massive, I guess most people telling OP she's an idiot.

Presumably OP objects to wearing seat belts too, or the smoking ban. The former to protect the wearer, and the latter to protect both the user and other. A mask is a simple bit of cloth. If wearing that puts you off going out, then stay the fuck in and look for that sense of perspective, or that shred of decency and humanity you seem to have lost.

Try wearing one for hours and hours at a time. Then try adding on top of that a face visor that's so tight against your forehead it leaves marks and gives you headache. Then you'll have something to complain about. Don't be a self entitled shit. The rest of us can manage to wear one and definitely don't come back on here in a few weeks/ months time begging for sympathy because you or a loved one caught Covid 19 or worse Someone you love died from it