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?

[Itisbetter]

I find your posts baffling. You seem to be under the impression that you’re deserve the impact of Covid to be reduced because you’ve been good? Why do you think that? This is a disease, not a test or a punishment. It’s here for a long time and lots of people are much more impacted than you. Do you know anyone who’s had it? You do realise some people are living through bereavement, life altering illness and trauma? It’s a bit of cloth over your face, when you go to shops, not an arm or leg or more pertinently not the life of someone you love or leaving your vulnerable family without you. Focus on what you do have.

[kazzer2867]

The hypocrisy of some “medical professionals” too is unreal. I’m just sat watching GMB and doctor Hillary is sat there saying is wearing masks is a move in the right direction. Yet only two weeks ago he said the opposite and said that wearing masks offers very little protection if any at all.

I remember him saying at the beginning of the pandemic that there Public Health England said there was no strong evidence that healthy people going out to get their supplies and doing their essential things need to wear masks, but as we all know the scientific evidence now suggests different. This is a new virus and the scientific evidence will change. That's not being hypocritical, but learning about an unknown entity.

[MaidenMotherCrone]

Who likes wearing them? Seriously. Just find a more comfortable one and crack on. It's a little thing we need to do in the grand scale of things.

[MaidenMotherCrone]

Scheme not scale.

[Toomboom]

You do realise that masks are compulsory in a lot of other countries don't you?
If you want to go on holiday to most of Europe you will have to wear face masks or risk a fine. England has just been slow to follow suit.

You will just have to get used to it. If you don't like them, don't go out, You can get your shopping online.

[Unescorted]

I hope you are a vocal minority. There was plenty of evidence that masks are effective of passing on the virus to other people, but it was largely ignored. The narrative was "it doesn't stop me getting the virus" - but that is not the point. It is to stop you passing it onto other people. Along side trying not to touch your face and shopping by looking not touching.

So they are a bit uncomfortable, look a bit dickish, make my glasses ride up my nose, don't match my outfit, make me stand out for looking dickish, ruin my Insta tan, wasted all that money I paid for orthodontic treatment, smudges my makeup, makes me a bit sweaty..... make me look a bit dickish, but if it saves just one life then it is well worth it.

[GreenFingersWouldBeHandy]

aren’t we all completely fed up with this now?

Please get a grip. Yes, of course we are and yes the masks are uncomfortable, but this is a global pandemic. And it hasn't suddenly gone away. Do you not understand this? Would you rather have COVID than wear an uncomfortable mask for a few moments while you're in a shop?

I say this as someone with a friend who just come out of hospital after spending 3 months with it in ICU. She almost died twice. And she faces months of rehab before she will be able to work again.

So have a think about that. And please wear a mask.

[heysugar]

Oh yes, that famous infection control specialist Dr Hilary Jones. 😄

The thing is op, if you'd started a thread that said I'm really worried about this, I feel anxious wearing a mask and I worry about taking my son to shops then you wouldn't have got the same reaction.
Yes, you'd still have had the posters who just like telling people off and showing how perfect they are but mostly I think people would have discussed it and empathised.

Instead what you did was be whiny and stroppy, bitched about other people and made every excuse under the sun not to wear a mask. Other people being selfish doesn't mean you should be too. Focus on doing your bit, not just for your family but for your wider community including those elderly and medically vulnerable people who are starting to go out again and are probably scared shitless.
You even claimed you wouldn't be asymptomatic if you had Covid which you can't possibly know and frankly made you sound ridiculous.

I absolutely get the mental health aspect, I'm feeling it myself and has a panic attack last week when I went shopping and have really struggled through all this but you have to understand that whatever our personal struggles are, we have to do this and act responsibly.

That doesn't mean like a PP said, that we are to blame for our horrendous death figures. That blame lies firmly at the government's door. Shit and slow decision making, unclear advice, lack of PPE, no track and trace until it was far too late etc etc

And for the poster who says there's no PPE shortage now, that's not true. I know for a fact my local hospital ran out again very recently as they're still struggling to get what they need.

[JSW642]

I'm in Scotland, its mandatory here. I just wear one to cover my mouth not my nose unless I'm somewhere social distancing is hard. I feel way too anxious when my nose and mouth are covered and cant breathe properly and get dizzy. No one has pulled me up on the way I'm wearing it.

[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.

[juneisbustingout]

DD has a congenital heart and lung problem but is now back in work in a popular fashion shop.
Please wear a mask for her and her colleagues and for her little boy and all their families. These people are on minimum wage and have little choice about returning to work a few weeks ago. It was that or lose their job.
From what she tells me no one is socially distancing and she has to ask people on a daily basis to move away from her if she's been assigned a job to do on a particular area. At the tills they are more protected.
Please get over yourself, my DD wears a mask and can hardly breath while doing so. She's doing to protect customers, please return the favour

[Trinketsfor20]

I’m sure if I had coronavirus I’d know about it

WOW. The degree of exceptionalism here is breathtaking. A novel virus, on which there still is rapidly emerging evidence, which has spread like wildfire to become a blooming pandemic where the Medical community has hard evidence on asymptomatic carriers, and a person somewhere already is convinced they are themselves an exception to it all and can thus not wear a mask.

[EngTech]

There has been nothing to stop people wearing masks before the Government states that they have to wear masks in shops

I am just waiting for the first legal challenge from someone stating their “freedom” has been impinged and the Nanny State have over stepped the mark.

Masks will not stop CV19 as most are not air tight but it may cut down the spread assuming hand washing etc is kept up.

The medical profession is on a steep learning curve and as someone has said, hindsight is great 😳

[TheLegendOfZelda]

It's only shops. Online is better anyway. I'm just going to do that from now on. It will save me seriously a lot of money in incidental expenditure.
I would recommend those neckscarf things you can pull up a bit round your face. Those feel a lot less restrictive to me and I can breathe more easily with them. The paper masks trigger my asthma, I think they are too stuffy maybe?

If you get a job in a school you won't be allowed to wear one, so there's some respite there!

[CrowdedHouseinQuarantine]

the deaths in April were an extraordinary amount. Fact.
protect others
wear a mask
wash your hands
keep your distance.

[DarkMutterings]

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 live in a country just hitting its third wave - yep, third wave - everything is closing back down, normal isn't coming back any time soon. Sadly everywhere is going to hit different waves, subsequent closures, changes in routine. And people travelling around countries, even the world, going on vacations (or jumping from one hot spot, only to create another) are just going to keep it going.

Way way back at the beginning medical professionals were saying this is going to be at least a couple of years in resolving. It beggars belief that people think 3-4 months later everything is sorted and we go back to normal. And yes, we need to get economies working again but that means compromises and inconveniences for most people. Lots of habits will need to change and it's going to be a royal pain in the arse but a bit like the world wars, famines or floods, in a pandemic it really is down to how society steps up as a whole.

[EstuaryBird]

JSW642 if you don’t cover your nose then it’s pointless wearing a mask! If you are unlucky enough to be carrying Covid then you are still breathing it over other people through your nose.

[megletthesecond]

Yabu.
We'll go through a hell of a lot worse if we don't wear them.
I've been wearing them for weeks.

[Brefugee]

tbh I'm so over wearing a mask - but i do because where i live they're compulsory. And i haven't seen constant threads on SM about how everyone is so special they shouldn't have to and moan moan gripe gripe.

Fact is in the UK the way the government has handled the crisis has come secondary to Brexit and British Exceptionalism at every turn so it is no wonder we keep seeing posts like the OPs. And PP are correct: at the beginning when you couldn't buy loo roll or bleach for love nor money, imagine how it would have been for people working in care homes etc who have to source their own masks.

The point isn't even that "nobody wears them correctly yadda yadda" it is simply to greatly reduce droplet infection.

The focus on handwashing at the beginning was a real eye opener. I was at one of the last big events before everything was closed down and the men's toilet queue was really long because they were finally all washing their hands properly. It also seems that things like the winter vomiting bug and norovirus are much less widespread this year - and a lot of that is down to handwashing and people not being in close proximity with colleagues (etc) who go to work come hell or high water, sick or not.

If we learn anything from this it should be: handwashing and don't spread your germs if you know you're sick.

[EssentialHummus]

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.

Just thinking practically here, can you bulk buy these things ahead of the 24th with the aim of then going to a shop once a week instead of three times a week? Can you have a look at whether they are available online? Can you speak with a friend or neighbour who goes to those shops anyway, and ask them to add things to their trolley for you?

I get it OP. You're fed up, you've been law-abiding and now this is another thing to comply with.

[Roussette]

i feel really poorly when I have a simple cold, so I’m sure if I had coronavirus I’d know about it and I’d stay at home
So you know more than the medical experts because you know your own body? I've lived a lot longer than you no doubt, but I don't know enough to be aware if I am become asymptomatic with a novel virus no one had heard of last year.

I am sick to death of all these whinging people going on about hating wearing masks. And wishing it was all over. I loathe wearing one, I want life back to normal but it ain't happening. So I shall wear one to protect others.

peonypower
Please stop spreading rumours that it's nothing. And look up excess deaths.

What COVID has highlighted to me is.... there's a lot of selfish entitled people who live in this country, very me me me. Luckily there's also a lot of sensible selfless people who want to protect their fellow human beings.

[SarahBellam]

We have to wear masks because people are still catching and dying from COVID. We have completely failed to get this under control because of dithering, incompetence and mixed messages. The figure of 1 in 3900 might not sound like much but it means on average there’ll still be at least one person a day with it in your local supermarket. If our health professionals can wear them for 12 hours surely you can manage for 20 minutes. If you can’t you really need to seek help for your anxiety. Why wouldn’t you want to protect yourself an others?

[rawlikesushi]

"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."

This is the sort of nonsense being spouted on local Facebook pages and being lapped up by those who find it chimes with their own wishful thinking.

[JacobReesMogadishu]

I think it’s crazy that there’s a ten day wait until it’s law. People only need 24 hours notice surely?

[Mawbagz]

The ONLY reason they said masks didn’t matter was to stop a rush on them

Now that there’s enough PPE about it what you have to do

Get on with it, it’s a pandemic ffs

If you can’t manage a mask get yourself a scarf instead , wear a sunflower lanyard .... police are not going to fine you if you make an effort