Will you continue to wear a mask when they’re no longer compulsory?

[AngeloMysterioso]

I can’t really decide how I feel about it- as a pregnant woman with a tendency to get a bit sweaty in the face on warm days, I would like not to have to wear one whenever I’m inside a building that isn’t my own home. And I’m double jabbed so not at much risk. But then you’ve got people from SAGE and the BMA saying we should keep wearing them, and I’d imagine they know a bit better than Sajid Javid whose background is in finance.

What do you think?

YABU- I’ll continue to wear a mask
YANBU - I won’t be wearing a mask anymore.

I'll still be wearing one, at least in most instances. I'm going to have to wean myself of mouthing swear words at people when they do stupid or rude things, it's going to take me a while to adjust.

I'm going to continue to do so indoors. I'm uncomfortable, but other people can still get terribly ill. Deaths are being avoided but not long covid or long periods of illness. I'd rather just wear it.

And I’m double jabbed so not at much risk. But then you’ve got people from SAGE and the BMA saying we should keep wearing them, and I’d imagine they know a bit better than Sajid Javid whose background is in finance.

Well, I think you've answered your own question there. Whom would you trust? A panel of scientists or a banker? (I still remember the global financial crisis ...)

And remember, we wear a mask primarily to protect others.

Mask requirements were lifted on July 1 where I live in the US. I went to work with one in my bag out of habit and was surprised to see people coming out of the nearby Starbuck's wearing them. I stopped by the local supermarket on my way home and everyone was wearing them there!

It seems as if people aren't ready to discard them here - we've reached over 70% vaccinated in this state and have extremely low Covid numbers now - but there's a sense of caution, given the variants. Very few wear them outdoors, only in indoor settings. I'm not bothered personally, I'll definitely wear one if I have a hint of a sniffle even though I'm fully vaccinated.

Yes, I will. I currently wear FFP2s in outdoors public places and FFP3s in indoor public places. At the current crazy level of cases I will continue for the foreseeable.
And I don’t see what masks have to do with mental health, children’s education, the economy etc Except in the sense that all of these things will be badly impacted if we breed a vaccine busting variant and go back into hard lockdown for many months while vaccines are tweaked, produced in sufficient quantities and everyone is jabbed again.

No.

I'm always amused to see people fiddling with their damp masks and then touching door handles and shopping trolleys with their bare hands. I'm not sure that in everyday life they offer quite as much protection as people think they do.

I went to China and Japan in early 2019 and bought some masks #ironic as I had horrendous allergies to the friggin cherry bloosom we had travelled to see and had a chat with our Japanese guide about them

It was far more likely you were allergic to the cedar trees! I’ve never heard of anyone allergic to cherry blossoms but I think up to a third of Japanese are allergic to cedar pollen and that’s usually the reason some people wear masks in the spring. (It should be said that pollen is orders of magnitude larger than viruses and they can actually be caught by the masks so there’s a good reason to wear them if you have allergies).

Fun fact: they were mass planted (like geometrically planted on entire hillsides where the native trees were clearcut) for logging decades ago and then undercut (heh) by Southeast Asian sources. Now they are a real nuisance because of the pollen but people are stuck with them thanks to bad government policy!

@AngeloMysterioso

I won't wear them in shops or at work anymore, as I'm sick of not being able to see. Nothing I have tried has stopped my glasses fogging up so I end up taking them off, and just not being able to see properly, and the pressure of the elastic gives me migraines.

I have this problem as well. I get round it by wearing contacts sometimes but I have dry eyes so they’re not comfortable to wear for a long time. Otherwise I just have to make my peace with the world being blurry!

Not sure I’ll be chucking them out though, I expect they’ll still be mandatory for hospital and midwife appointments etc.

I usually wear contacts but have had really sore eyes lately from wearing them constantly and had to give them a break. I used to wear glasses one day per week but as I can’t see with glasses and a mask I’ve had to go to contacts every day. I’ve gone back to glasses as my eyes have become unbearable, but it means wearing the mask only over my mouth as I’ve tried several masks, really moulding it to my face, etc. and I still fog up so badly I can’t actually see. I know people will look at me and judge for it not covering my nose but I can’t say I care, I’ve worn it properly for the past year and currently I value the health of my eyes as a priority so fuck ‘em.

Double jabbed but older and overweight, so yes, I will in some situations, like supermarkets or crowded shops, and if I ever go by bus or train or plane again. And I'll have a mask handy for if anyone is sneezing or coughing nearby. ☺️

If I'm told to wear one, I'll wear one. I'll probably still need to wear one at work, and I expect it'll remain a requirement on public transport and at the supermarket. Other than that I'll be maskless.

Yes I will wear them. It's long covid I really wouldnt want.

I think I will in some circumstances like in a crowded place. At least until the infection rate starts to decline substantially. I'm double vaccinated but I'm not take unnecessary risks.

I think we should all still be wearing them at least until we get 70% vaccinated

Well we've already reached 63.8% at 33,614,952 adults, to go by the stats on the gov.uk website. This would make 70% 36,881,608 which is an extra 3,266,656 second vaccinations and, at approximately 200,000 second jabs per day (assuming yesterday's rate was representative), would take 16 days.

Which, as the most recent data is yesterday's (4th) would take us to 20th July.

No I'm done with masks.

Except in the sense that all of these things will be badly impacted if we breed a vaccine busting variant and go back into hard lockdown for many months while vaccines are tweaked, produced in sufficient quantities and everyone is jabbed again.

A mask won't stop that happening though. We 'bred' (awful terminology - really puts the blame on us rather than acknowledging natural selection which we are completely unable to prevent) variants throughout periods of mask wearing. Some countries which had far less mask wearing don't appear to have given rise to any significant variants.

Interesting that the vote is 50/50 split!

I'm going to keep wearing one inside (shops, public transport etc), even though they are a pain. I'd rather they kept the mask mandate and lowered the risk of further restrictions later on or another lockdown. I'm in a Delta variant area, so I'm pretty cautious. I'm hoping that another lockdown is unlikely now, but this year has taught me that is impossible to predict the future in a situation that is out of our control.

Not a fucking chance....as an exempt person with chronic lung disease who still continued to wear one to do my bit, i'm done

On public transport/in doctors surgeries/A&E waiting areas etc then yes I would. Possibly in a supermarket but I'm not sure.

I think there should be a cultural shift to people wearing them when they're ill, just out of common courtesy.

Maybe on the tube.

I think we should all still be wearing them at least until we get 70% vaccinated

I thought we needed 80% of the entire population (including children) to be vaccinated in order to achieve "herd immunity"?

I think there should be a cultural shift to people wearing them when they're ill, just out of common courtesy.

Yes! I hope so. I can become very ill from what for other people is "just a cold." Mask wearing by others who have a cold/cough when in public would mean quite an improvement of health for me.

Long-term, I do like the idea of it becoming the norm to wear a mask if you've got a cold or cough. I live near a big university and have noticed for years that some international students wear them. It might be related to air pollution - although we don't live in a polluted area - or perhaps it's when they're ill. Regardless, it seems to be a cultural norm in some countries. I do like the idea of not being directly coughed on in a queue when we're no longer distancing!

I will in shops, yes. Crowded places too.

Not sure about parks

No.

I’m double jabbed, so I’m done with masks.

As ever, I still find it amusing that it took Covid 19 to make people realise they were at risk of catching illnesses from other people. That being said, I shall most be definitely ditching my mask as I think picking up the odd bug is part of life.