To ask the mask police to please PLEASE stop

[PennyDreadfuI]

Another mask thread but I'm not going to apologise because I'm absolutely at the end of my tether with this sort of thing.

I can't wear a mask because I have trigeminal neuralgia and I've lost count of the stares, comments and filthy looks I've had (and yes, I do wear a lanyard, even though I'm not keen on advertising the fact that I have a hidden health condition). I've heard of people not being allowed on buses, being challenged by staff to explain their reason for exemption and being told they can't enter shops despite being exempt (none of which is legal). I've been told I should wear a visor (I can't, and they're next to useless anyway - Scotland have just banned them unless they're worn with a mask), that I should just stay at home (I can't and neither do government guidelines suggest I should), that I shouldn't use buses (I don't drive and can't walk long distances or cycle because I have inflammatory arthritis) and that I'm selfish (I'm not - if I could wear a mask, I would).

I understand this is a contentious issue but please, can people just think for a minute before they judge or comment? Exemptions are there for a reason - those who are sticklers for The Rules should surely accept and respect this one, too. It's awful that people are too scared to go out for fear of what's essentially discrimination.

The pandemic is bad enough by itself - let's not lose our sense of empathy and humanity, too.

@NoMoreFlowers

I'm genuinely interested in people's opinions about this as they mostly seem to differ from mine, and I'm questioning what I think. I understand the government guidelines but I'm struggling to see why nobody should be challenged. I'm not exempt from wearing a mask and I wear one. If I went shopping tomorrow without one on (which I obviously wouldn't do as I'm not exempt) I fail to see why I should just be able to do that without anyone questioning it.

It’s not a legal requirement to wear a mask. Nor should it be.

The government issued guidance. To guide people.

As with all guidance, some will adhere and some will not adhere.

Those who do not adhere will include both those who won’t adhere and those who can’t adhere.

The distinction between those two groups is irrelevant for the simple reason it’s guidance and not a legal requirement. By all means challenge a motorcyclist driving on the pavement. Or someone assaulting a shop assistant. Or a thief burgling a house. You can challenge those things, or call the police if you prefer, because they are illegal.

Not wearing a mask is not illegal. Therefore nothing to challenge. People can choose not to wear them simply because they don’t want to and there is nothing we can or should do about that. Very simple really!

@kitkatastrope Have a Google of "white flower girls" and see how you feel about shaming people

I did. I just got pages and pages of little girls in bridesmaid dresses

@vanillandhoney

There's really no need for such venom. Maybe if you could explain things in a more calm and measured way, people would be more likely to listen

A lot of people saying it's nobody else's business. I don't understand that.
If I'm in a shop, someone isn't wearing a mask and isn't socially distancing then I think it is my business, because it's my health they're risking.

My son who has issues wears them. So what? He's one person.

@HaveSomeTea Oh yes, I've heard people say things like that. I just avoid them and try and maintain the 2m distance.

Where I work (supermarket) social distancing has gone out the window. I've had enough. I was skittish enough about people I don't know getting too close to me pre-Covid, now that's been turned up to 11, and people still don't get it, even when I back away I still have people moving closer to me.

@NoMoreFlowers

This is a difficult one. There are people who don't wear masks and have no good reason. What you're effectively saying is that nobody should be challenged.

Its not difficult. People should not be confronting other people about a lack of mask. Do you really think if someone is brazen enough to not wear a mask , with no good reason, that they will give two shits when you pull them up on it? They don't. All you do is shame the genuine people into not going out.

[quote Twigaletta]**@kitkatastrope* Have a Google of "white flower girls" and see how you feel about shaming people*

I did. I just got pages and pages of little girls in bridesmaid dresses [/quote]
Haha sorry that was my mistake its white feather girls

I don’t think there’s anything particularly arduous about someone doing their job by asking why you aren’t wearing a mask, like the very nice man at the front of our local shopping centre, who very friendly and politely just says, do you have a mask, and if you can’t wear one they just show lanyard or tell him why and everyone gets on with their day.

There has to be some way of separating the genuine from the dickheads who just don’t want to.

But as a general member of the public just going about my business I absolutely wouldn’t judge anyone I don’t know for not wearing a mask.

Being exempt from wearing a mask doesn't prevent you from being able to spread the virus.

To everyone around you you are a potential risk.

So far if I find myself close to someone without a mask I will glare and mutter as I stalk away.

I think the best compromise if you really can't wear a mask is to be absolutely scrupulous about maintaining a good 2 metre distance.

The argument that persons who cannot wear a mask should stay home is ridiculous.

People who cannot wear a mask also have jobs, and other responsibilities. They cannot stay in forever. @yolio

I am seeing less and less people wearing them..and I positively smile at those NOT wearing them. I hate the divisions they are creating...they have been introduced to encourage shopping. Nothing more and nothing less.

If you’re still there OP , I know you have a painful condition but would it be possible to wear a face covering such as a silk scarf? It wouldn’t offer the same protection but it might be a compromise.

I understand the government guidelines but I'm struggling to see why nobody should be challenged.

Because its none of your business Delly Lomas.

@whiteroseredrose Just keep your distance wear your face covering and wash your hands when you get home. There is no need to be rude to people. It's not your place to police it.

@KingFredsTache

I honestly think that some people are loving this whole mask business as it gives them a whole new thing they can be judgemental, virtue signally and dramatic (my breath could kill someone) about.

Over half a million people have died from this virus. I don't think that worrying I might spread it to somebody is overly dramatic.

@NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite

There are too many people not wearing masks and so the ones who are genuinely unable to are getting the blame. I don't think you can blame people for questioning it. The blame lies firmly at the door of people taking the mickey and not wearing masks for any other reason than they can't be bothered to.

How on earth do you decide how many is too many? You have absolutely no idea how many people are unable to wear masks because there are so many reasons why not!

And I absolutely do blame anybody who goes around questioning someone else about mask wearing. I'm done with the self-appointed neighbour policing twats who are going around making an already bad situation worse.

The trouble is there are a lot of pisstakers. I went to a shopping centre a couple of weeks ago and I'd probably say at least 20% of the people there didn't have masks on. I'd bet my life on the number of people that are exempt who were shopping that day was a lot lower than 20%. I'd never say anything though or be passive aggressive about it.
Saying that I'd rather people didn't wear masks than wear them as chin warmers with their nose out. That just screams piss take to me. If you're not going to wear them properly then don't wear one at all.

I have no idea what Delly Lomas means

@yolio

What really gets me is the fact that those who are unable to wear masks are quite willing to get out there and expose themselves to the virus and possibly spread it too, just because.

Can anyone explain?

Because they want to get on with their life and have weighed up the risks.

If you did your research, you'd understand the risks are very low.

HTH

The blame lies firmly at the door of people taking the mickey and not wearing masks for any other reason than they can't be bothered to
This!

I took the train recently, several groups of 2-3-4 with no masks - how much of a coincidence would it be that they all had a good reason? Especially as some of them then put one on as they were getting off!
Same for the people who took it off to eat and then didn’t put it back on.

@Looking4wards

A lot of people saying it's nobody else's business. I don't understand that. If I'm in a shop, someone isn't wearing a mask and isn't socially distancing then I think it is my business, because it's my health they're risking.

Ah I see your confusion!

You’re choosing to enter a confined space with other people. If you don’t want to be in a space with unmasked people, as soon as you spot one you should simply leave. Problem solved.

@MMN123

Actually I think it is a legal requirement: www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own

Not a legal requirement for the public to enforce, though!

Delly Lomas was a character in 1990

The series is set in a dystopian future in which Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Public Control Department (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the population's civil liberties.

Dubbed "Nineteen Eighty-Four plus six" by its creator, Wilfred Greatorex, 1990 stars Edward Woodward as journalist Jim Kyle, Robert Lang as the powerful PCD Controller Herbert Skardon, Barbara Kellerman as PCD Deputy Controller Delly Lomas, John Savident, Yvonne Mitchell (in her last role), Lisa Harrow, Tony Doyle, Michael Napier Brown, and Clive Swift.

Two series, of eight episodes each, were produced and broadcast on BBC2 in 1977 and 1978. The series was never repeated but was released on DVD in 2017. Two novelisations based on the scripts were released in paperback by the publisher Sphere; Wilfred Greatorex's 1990, and Wilfred Greatorex's 1990 Book Two.

Jim Kyle (Edward Woodward) is a journalist on the last independent newspaper, called The Star, who turns renegade and fights the PCD covertly. The officials of the PCD – headed by Controller Herbert Skardon (Robert Lang) – in turn, try to find proof of Kyle's subversive activities. Skardon's two Deputy Controllers are Delly Lomas (Barbara Kellerman who has an ambiguous personal relationship with Kyle, and Henry Tasker (Clifton Jones);

@Looking4wards if someone is too close by all means ask them politely to step back. That doesn’t require asking them their medical history they aren’t obliged to give you.
@Abouttimemum if that man politely asked me if I had a mask for my son I’d say politely ‘no he’s exempt’. I’m not about to divulge personal and private information to a stranger and I’m not legally obliged to either.