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?

@byvirtue

Mask wearing is a fallacy based on the assumption that everyone you come in contact with has coronavirus which is simply not true. Last stats I saw were 1 in 3900 have covid.

But sure, anyone who questions whether mask wearing should be compulsory or optional is deemed selfish for even considering not wearing one.

Yes, thanks for that, all the global expert health professionals and scientists that strongly recommend masks are wrong and byvirtue is right!!! 👏👏👏👏👏

Do you want to share your medical or health qualifications with the class?

Thankfully it is becoming mandatory so the rest of us are protected from the amateur epidemiologists.

The point of face masks is to stop you spreading it if you’re symptom free not to protect yourself. People saying they’ve had it / don’t like masks / can’t deal with it are frankly being selfish and reckless with the lives of others. If you can’t cover your face and your not exempt then stay out of shops and the like and shop online.

Fed up of selfish people making it higher risk for others.

@youhave4substitutes

What a bunch of flakes 😂

I'll faint if I have to wrap a scarf loosely around my face - get a grip people

This ^^ times a million. I can't believe the shite I read on here sometimes.

"you can not wear one then you should not be going into a situation where it will be mandatory."

If you are exempt then you can. Change that to don't want to and I would agree with you.

The dramatics over this on these boards. Can everyone just get over themselves already? It’s really not the end of the world.

Which is why supermarket staff have been falling in in huge numbers. Oh wait.... they haven't.

In my local supermarket vulnerable staff have been furloughed, and complete customer sectors - tourists, students - have been removed from the market. That is all going to change over the next 1-3 months.

Nobody can predict what will happen, but for the vast majority of people wearing a mask is just a very minor annoyance.

Actual science has proved that there is no difference to the air you get in through a mask.
Those talking about "air thirst"... LOL

Picture a surgeon carrying out a 2 hour operation... By your argument he'd be dead on the floor within a minute! Utter nonsense.

Yes, they take a minute or two to get used to, but it's psychological.

Whinge moan moan whinge.

Just wear a bloody mask for god's sake.

If you think you are exempt then don't wear it. Why must the British public act like bloody children all the time?

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?

This is a new disease, so we're having to learn about it very fast. Little was known at the beginning.

Also, annoyingly, our government hasn't done anything sensible, just reacted in a panic to each new event. I think every country that has had a low death rate closed their borders and imposed quarantine on all arrivals at the start of the pandemic. Over here we didn't start quarantine till late June, after we'd had many thousand deaths, then stopped it in July!

A few years ago I needed to get a night-guard for teeth clenching. I hated it so much, and it made me gag, my eyes stream, and I knew I would never get used to it. But if I wanted to keep my teeth, I knew I had to. So I started to wear it watching TV in the evenings, with a timer set - five minutes, out. Ten minutes, out. The first time I made it to a full episode of Coronation Street I cheered! Now even if I lie down for 15 minutes with a headache, i can’t not wear it.

I got (fabric) masks for me and DP back in April because I had a feeling this was coming. We’re in Scotland so it was “recommended” long before it became mandatory. I had to do night-guard training with the mask. I still don’t like wearing it, but you do get used to it. I have learned to breathe in a slightly different way with it on. Could you try building up to it?

God, what a load of whingers the anti-maskers are! I don’t see what all the fuss is about. It’s only inside shops isn’t it? Not like we have to wear them outdoors too. If I had to wear a mask and couldn’t blow my husband on our woodland walks THEN I’d be fucking furious.

Just a question for those not complaining. Is everybody just planning on starting to wear masks today (I am) if you've not already? No point waiting until 24th if you've already got one?

@peonypower

What?! 45,000 deaths in 6 months isn’t very deadly? Try saying that to someone that had a loved one die from covid. What a spectacularly ridiculous comment.

It's not ridiculous. It's numerate.

1500 people die a day anyway. 45,000 are deaths WITH not OF COVID. It's not out of kilter with a bad flu season. The excess mortality spike looks more dramatic because the flu season comparable is more Dec-Jan and not April.

So you see nothing strange about a death spike that normally occurs in the winter months happening during spring/summer? Nothing odd about an additional 45,000 dying of covid19 no apparent reason?

If there is the much predicted second wave of Covid19 in the autumn /winter resulting in an abnormal death spike well above the expected numbers for the flu season what made up reason are you going to offer up. Mass food poisoning? Too many people not looking before they cross the road? Zombie apocalypse?

Btw many people think the 45,000 is an huge underestimate , doesn't for example factor in the people in care homes who died , probably of Covid related illnesses, or by your reckoning , that handy statistic , old age .

Yes @TokyoSushi we wear them here.

But being out and about without a mask is not dangerous given that prevalence rates are low and dropping all the time, and that just walking past someone in the shop is not sufficient "close contact" to give them "the Covid".

Prevalance was even lower back in November 2019.

Nobody really knows the long term effect of the virus or exactly how it is transmitted or the likely effect of lower temperatures as summer ends.

Prevalance is low now because of the lockdown, but as everyone tries to return to normal, transmission rates are expected to increase, and there is evidence from other countries that wearing masks slows transmission. Of course masks might be completely irrelevant, but why not try something that is easy to do?

It's not out of kilter with a bad flu season.

Bad flu seasons do not completely halt all non emergency care in hospitals.

There have been nearly 70,000 excess deaths in the UK over this period. EXCESS. That, by anyone's calculations, is not normal.

@peasaregood because we just know that the next step will be compulsory wearing for schools. Why don’t you want the children wearing masks in school particularly?

because we just know that the next step will be compulsory wearing for schools. Fuck that

So whinge about it at that point, if indeed that actually happens (if you really must)

@TokyoSushi

Just a question for those not complaining. Is everybody just planning on starting to wear masks today (I am) if you've not already? No point waiting until 24th if you've already got one?

Yes. I just nipped to the village store and wore a mask. It was noticeable the amount of people wearing them..easily most people. Last week it was very unusual to see anyone wearing one.

because we just know that the next step will be compulsory wearing for schools

The over 11 element suggests this might be the case for secondary schools, but not primary, but only speculation. Also to a PP, yep been wearing one for a few weeks because the science has said it's a good idea for a while. Been nice today to see many, many more people wearing one, as it's been more or less pointless previously for me.

Fab, on with the masks it is then, I'm going to Asda later so I'll have my first experience then!

selfish

@TokyoSushi I wore a mask when out shopping this morning. It wasn't difficult to do; I wore it when inside a shop then took it off when walking back to the car. Simples.

What a lot of fuss about what people in other countries have been doing for months.