Wearing masks everywhere indoors is so depressing

[Sossen]

AIBU to feel frustrated and, at times, a bit upset that I can’t really do anything indoors now, either on my own or with my kids, without wearing a god damn face mask? I’ve just about been able to tolerate wearing them whilst food shopping but that’s because I now take a lot of time to write out a list and meal plan beforehand and I get in and get out, as opposed to before, when I took the time to browse, picked out what I fancied, and maybe tried on some clothes whilst there. I can cope with this ok but what is depressing me is that my ds is desperate to go to a few indoor places like the trampoline park (our local one has strict guidelines in hygiene social distancing and staggering sessions) and I’ll take him but the thought of sitting there for an hour and a half opposite my dh trying to talk to him with a mask on or watching my ds play and he can’t hear me because of the mask, well it fills me with dread. I had a cinema pass which i’ve has for years but I’ve already cancelled It as there is no way I can sit for up to 3 hours with a mask on, it would be unbearable. Every day out we go on that is predominantly outdoors but have some indoor areas I’ll have to remember to take masks with me. If I nip to post a letter, pick up my medication, go into a public car park to get my car after work I have to wear a mask. I expect to be told I’m moaning but I can’t help it. I fully resent the fact that I am being told to cover my face and I have no choice in the matter. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Becoming normal to cover the face in public - that will never be normal.

It becomes normal, keys, phone, wallet and mask.
It doesn't mean that we like it or that it will be permanent but humans are more adaptable than you give them credit for.

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-07-08-oxford-covid-19-study-face-masks-and-coverings-work-act-now

www.researchgate.net/publication/340603522_Face_Masks_Against_COVID-19_An_Evidence_Review

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7191274/

www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818

www.researchgate.net/publication/342198360_Association_of_country-wide_coronavirus_mortality_with_demographics_testing_lockdowns_and_public_wearing_of_masks_Update_June_15_2020

Actual mask wearing yes will reduce spread but only if all other rules to reduce spread are followed and masks are worn correctly

You could say the same for hand-washing. That doesn't mean we just give up on washing our hands. We obviously continue to wash them AND follow other prevention measures too. And we educate people on how to wash them properly.

They simply give people a false sense of security

I've heard that said plenty of times, but never seen any evidence of it.

I have a thin cotton mask. It’s incredibly difficult to communicate.

Do you have a hearing disability or impairment? Or as speech one?

Otherwise I don't understand why a thin cotton mask makes communication difficult. They don't prevent sound from travelling and aren't thick enough to cause muffling.

Medical staff complete technical and lengthy surgery wearing masks, talking and communicating with one another all the time throughout. They don't appear to have communication difficulties with them.

Many workers have worn masks before and again much thin jet and more complex masks but manage to listen and communicate fine.

Many people across the world, albeit mainly women, have had face and mouth coverings for years. They have managed to communicate with one another and others without issue. I've spoken to many a parent in this situation, well before Covid was in the scene, and always been able to speak with them effectively.

Dh's gearing isn't great but he manages perfectly fine with masks. He does know, and he did pre Covid when speaking with clients with face coverings and when we were were in Japan, etc.

Maybe too many people go around mumbling and not really listening to others. It might eventually actually help people to speak more clearly in time and to actually listen more carefully. We probably all know people guilty of both of those things, well before Covid came on the scene.

Obviously it's a different matter for those with hearing and speech impairments. But they and those with them are often exempt. And whilst it must be harder for those people right now, just like it's been difficult for those who have had to shield until recently, or those who have longer lasting effects from Covid itself, it won't be forever and we will move on from this in time.

@Vintagevixen Sat 08-Aug-20 14:34:26
I disagree there is convincing evidence, not one RCT on masks, and as I said countries that are wearing masks such as Argentina sine April seeing lots of infections. Even the Oxford meta analysis (which came down weakly on the side of masks) stated that social distancing/hand hygiene are really key. Masks are just one variable that has a thin sliver of observational studies on their side.

Totally agree. I made that point a couple of weeks ago and got told by someone I was thick and stupid because I wasn't reading the figures properly and 'anyone that understands these things' knows that conclusions only ever state 'MAY' confer some protection.

Realised the discussion was over and I was being lectured by someone who clearly is far more educated and intelligent than me.

magine this scenario: you are shopping and a chemical smell spreads throughout the area.

In all my years I have never encountered such a scenario and I doubt I ever will its hardly a regular occurance.

Oh no, we have to wear masks to try and keep one another safer. It's clearly the end of the world. 🙄

@Aragog You're a classic case of the 'wishing it were so' school I was talking about (and again, another classic example are the people who insist the virus is no worse than flu because they want it to be - I'm not coming from some place of Covid-denial).

I know that you want children to wear masks in schools, and so I know that you want it to be the case that people don't find them at all difficult, that they never cause problems with communication and that everyone can easily and happily wear them for six hour stretches. But wishing it were so doesn't make it so, and nor does insisting to people that they must be mistaken if their experience isn't what you want it to be.

You are not being unreasonable - because you are wearing it.

I've been wearing a mask since March, before lock down started. Always wear it during my shopping trips and have no problem. Most of the masks now on the high street are probably made of thicker material, hence the reason why people find it difficult to wear for long - or even short moments to pop into a corner shop because they cant breath through it. (The reusable ones).

@lakesidesummer

Becoming normal to cover the face in public - that will never be normal.

It becomes normal, keys, phone, wallet and mask.
It doesn't mean that we like it or that it will be permanent but humans are more adaptable than you give them credit for.

If it becomes 'Normal and everyone just accepts it then it will be forever.

It is only by people making clear their feelings that it must not become normal will we ever be free of the damn things.

Change and progress is never achieved by passive acceptance - especially of the rules of government.

Why would we wear them forever? Unless the pandemic were to last forever... which it won't. So..?

This notion it won't be forever...says who?

There's no vaccine. Our employer (huge household name company) is strategic planning based on there NEVER being a vaccine, or not for at least 2 years.

You want to wear a mask for 2 years, or 3?

What about when the next version of this virus hits, as inevitably it will and any vaccine won't protect us. You want to live with masks and lock down and curfews and other restrictions that may in future be deemed necessary forever?

Honestly I don't think I do. It's all rather half a life at the moment. We won't get this time back. It's gone.

Just had a brief skim thought the articles, two appear to be meta analysis in the same vein as the Oxford Uni one. I will read them properly later, but the first one seems similar in that it comes down weakly on the side of masks. But not enough to convince me, lots of "coulds" and "maybes" similar to Oxford.

The nursing one actually states in the summary of results that "medical masks were not effective and cloth masks even less effective." Possibly the studies were done using FFP masks only? Will have a proper read later, after feeding DD and hiding from the heat!

Jojo, I agree and the nation is divided over this. I would rather increase my risk of death by 10x and remove the mandatory parts of the new laws. We should move to a voluntary basis ASAP.

Well if mask wearing is so easy and has no downsides why wouldn't we wear them forever? 17,000 people die of flu each year, immunosuppressed and other vulnerable people have always existed - if it's worth us all wearing masks if it 'stops a single particle of coronavirus being transmitted', as someone said upthread, then why isn't it worth it to protect people from other diseases?

Will have a proper read later, after feeding DD and hiding from the heat!

I wouldn't bother tbh. I was posting it more for people who may not have made up their minds yet.

why has no RCT on masks been able to prove it? Plenty have been done. None have shown that

Why are you demanding science prove it, when 90% of all scientists already recommend it? Either you trust science or you don't.

Interventions need evidence is why. Coming from the medical side of things I have seen treatments being used on the basis of very flimsy evidence and causing harm, majority of these drug related obviously but also some treatments where really rigorous testing/questioning/discussing were skipped because voices of concern were ridiculed and open discussion discouraged.

@PurpleDaisies It’s been widely reported that the British public have been far more compliant with the measures than anyone expected.

Indeed. In fact, I think that's part of the problem, and why the government keep stringing us along, for so long, much longer than they originally said. Saint Boris was surprised that there was not a shred of resistance to the highly restrictive measures: instead he saw that Project Fear is working beautifully, and that we're still docile, terrified, compliant, eager to do his enforcement for him, and willing to go along with whatever "new normal" (vomit) he picks out of his magic bag to throw at us. I say we need to be resisting and showing that we're not going to put up with this "new abnormal" for ever, if we don't want to lose more freedoms for the sake of a threat of questionable seriousness.

That, and obviously the UK restrictions not being that restrictive obvs.

Why are you demanding science prove it, when 90% of all scientists already recommend it?

I would like to see your evidence that 90% if all scientists already recommend it.

And well said @Jojobar. It's not mask-wearing in itself I object to: it's making it compulsory. I might have accepted muzzles (and I reserve the right to call them that, for those trying to police my language earlier) if they had been "strongly recommended"; but mandating what we put on our bodies is the thin end of a dangerous wedge. And no, I don't think I am exaggerating; we'll end up in overalls a la 1984 if we allow the government to mandate our lives like this.