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?

Sorry OP, but lots of people have had it tough. I've had friends who have caught the virus and luckily have survived. I have family members who are front line workers. Don't you think they've had it tough? We owe it to one another to do the right thing and protect one another from this shit virus.

I’m not saying at all that i know better than medics and scientists. I just meant I know my own body.

Maybe you can bulk buy some of the foods your son needs which are non perishable reducing the need to go so often.

You don't know your iwn body enough since people spread the virus BEFORE they have symptoms

I wear a mask 11 hours a day. Different masks depending on suspected covid cases.
Please wear one.
I'm loosing sympathy with the me me me people.
And if it messes your skin, coconut oil. Steaks up your glasses , buff them in soap or shaving foam.
No one is social distancing anymore. This is why we are being asked to wear them.
Bit late.

So you wearing a mask is going to disadvantage your autistic son then? You’d rather not wear a mask than have to go to multiple shops I presume?

We’ve all had our individual difficulties during the pandemic. I have been shielding due to a serious heart condition and even when shielding is paused I` am visually impaired so social distancing is a near impossibility so I still won’t be going out for some time.

Other people have had MH issues, others have actually contracted the illness or lost friends and family in different circumstances and not been able to attend funerals etc.

For everyone going through one thing there is someone else going through another.

But playing hardship top trumps achieves nothing other than to make the person feel worse for themselves.

Fact is we’re all in the same boat, and we all have to find ways through. And the quicker people comply and use common sense, the quicker we can resume some normality.

It’s miserable but if that’s the requirement, it will make shopping, for me, a once a week and as short as possible chore.
Everything planned in advance. Click and Collect as much as possible. No impulse buys. All very depressing.

Masks are the way to reopen society while Covid19 is still a threat. They are your ticket to ending the worst of lockdown. I really don't get the overreaction.

Rather than insisting that you cannot wear one, that your ds cannot, you should try to make it work for the both of you. Soft, cotton masks that don't itch or slide about, for example. Try them out at home, build up to half an hour. You do get used to them.

And 'I would know if I had Covid because I always do when I have a cold'? Come on. You know that one's ridiculous. It's a vascular disease and often presents with mild or no symptoms.

The comment about everyone’s mental health going down hill is the reason why in “real life” I haven’t moaned to anyone. Firstly because I don’t want to make people feel worse but also with some people, it’s like a competition of who’s have it worse throughout this pandemic, and I’m not playing that game. Bur then you wonder why people are pushed to the edge and don’t seek out support when their mental health goes downhill, maybe because they don’t feel like they’re listened to. And I’m not talking about masks here, I’m talking about people’s mental health in general.

Goodbye High Street, it was nice knowing you.

@Vivana

Great now I have to wear a mask at work as I work in a supermarket which will be unbearable for 10 plus hour shifts. I've worked right through this and been fine. It's no use now to wear one and should be left upto the individual.

If this thread has proved anything, it's that giving people individual choice in this case doesn't work. The sad fact is that many people don't care enough about the people around them to want to wear a mask to protect them.

Trust me, we do all get it. We're all living through this. Something like 40,000 families have lost loved ones to this. It's awful and it's shit. But, it's not going anywhere for the time being, so we have to get on with it.

Wearing a face mask really is a small thing to do. Kids will get used to them, adults will get used to them.

And I will not be urging customers to wear a face mask that's not my job. We have had enough abuse through this in the last few months. I'm not the police and certainly wont be enforcing it on customers at all.

Are people really moaning about wearing a bit of fabric on their face that may prevent someone losing their parents/grandparents/child to this virus?

Talk about selfish. And if you really don’t want to wear one, shop online. They’re not asking you to chop off a finger everytime you go in a shop, it’s a piece of fabric on your face.

Have you seen how much better the “deluded Mrs Sturgeon” has coronavirus under control than England, @Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow?

www.newscientist.com/article/2247462-scotland-could-eliminate-the-coronavirus-if-it-werent-for-england/

I’m not saying at all that i know better than medics and scientists. I just meant I know my own body.
OP, nearly four years ago I was one of the fittest people I knew. I could swim several kilometres, walk for miles, carry my 60lb plus guide dog on to an escalator. I “knew” my own body.

And then I caught the flu. It was horrible but I’d had the flu before. I even had swine flu when it did the rounds. Except this time it was different and after about ten days I woke up unable to breathe. Rang an ambulance and by the time I arrived I was collapsed on the kitchen floor. After they rushed me to hospital and put me on life support they discovered that I have a genetic heart condition which I was born with but never knew about. This meant that when the flu attacked my heart it caused further damage.

Four years later, after three stints in ICU, a couple of stints on a ventilator, time on oxygen, a couple of cardiac arrests and ultimate surgery to buy me some time I am actually in fairly decent health.... on the surface. But it is going to be short-lived and I am going to need a heart transplant.

Know your own body you say? People with underlying conditions they never knew existed are incredibly common.

It’s easy to say it will never happen to you....

Until it does.

Limpshade

Actually I do care about my colleagues bit the department I work in we are small and can social distance from colleagues and customers quite safely.

If you want to talk selfish, how about all the people who went out to the pub the weekend before lockdown was enforced, knowing lockdown would be announced the next day. People dragging their kids to crowded beaches, not social distancing, leaving rubbish and bags of excrement all over the place. People not keeping their distance and leaning over others when food shopping. People having large parties and gatherings!

Are you going to wash your piece of fabric everytime you wear it? Everytime you touch it?

This is a panacea, it is nonsense!

It will kill our High Streets and Shopping Centres, people will lose their livelihoods and maybe, just maybe.. prevent a couple of cases of Corona virus being passed on!l
It is nonsense!

I’m not saying at all that i know better than medics and scientists. I just meant I know my own body.

The fact that you alway feel every cold or whatever is completely meaningless here. Not all viruses behave the same. That you don’t believe you could be symptom-free and infectious absolutely is thinking that you know better than the experts. And is dangerous.

If you want to talk selfish, how about all the people who went out to the pub the weekend before lockdown was enforced, knowing lockdown would be announced the next day. People dragging their kids to crowded beaches, not social distancing, leaving rubbish and bags of excrement all over the place. People not keeping their distance and leaning over others when food shopping. People having large parties and gatherings!

I agree that that is selfish, so why would that be a reason for you to be selfish then?

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

I guarantee millions of people have struggled throughout this pandemic. And I bet some of them will have had it harder than you.

"People like me? Omg I’ve stuck to the “rules” 100% throughout all of this and even though now I’m allowed to do certain things eg go to the pub, have people in my home, have my hair cut, go on holiday or for days out, I haven’t!"

I would suggest that much of what you have done has been to protect you and your own family.

Now you are being asked to do something inconvenient that is mainly to protect other people, and you don't want to.

Everyone has had it tough in some way, and we are all living through it. I don't want to wear a mask either, but I will.

I genuinely don't understand all the fuss about this - it gets easier the more you do it, you get used to it, and it is now thought to inhibit the spread of infection, so just suck it up or stay at home.

@NiknicK

If you want to talk selfish, how about all the people who went out to the pub the weekend before lockdown was enforced, knowing lockdown would be announced the next day. People dragging their kids to crowded beaches, not social distancing, leaving rubbish and bags of excrement all over the place. People not keeping their distance and leaning over others when food shopping. People having large parties and gatherings!

Then don't be one of them 'selfish people' sorry op but I know too many nhs staff who have been mentally broken by covid. I'm recovering from it myself.

Can you even stop thinking about yourself for two minutes and think of tge people dying and suffocating? Or the people who lost parents, partners or their (mostly adult) children to this disease? How about those nicedoctors and nurses working to save people and being put in mortal danger?