To think Sunflower Lanyards have been hijacked

[Sharkology]

By those who just don't want to wear a mask in some cases rather than those who actually cannot wear a mask?

Fourth Avanti train trip this week, had three train journeys with them a couple of weeks back - either they have a bloody awesome EDI hiring policy, in which case it should be published as national pride, or some of their staff are taking the piss.

I've seen two members of staff out of around 50 actually wearing a face covering.

It absolutely devalues the sunflower lanyards for those who really need to use them. It's such a shame for all with hidden disabilities.

It's ok - come the 19th you will have to find a new hobby!

Oh and @SinkGirl the Max Card is accepted in many places like theme parks too - again you have to provide proof.

@Zilla1

Since running our PCN vaccination programme IN ENGLAND, I've had more than 10 adults with self-diagnosed Autism ask to be put on the LD register.

And?

It's possible to have autism and co-morbities including learning impairements. Mine has the co-morbidities of ADHD and OCD. How knew? Neurodivergent people can have co-morbidities that impair their learning or not, or co-morbidities that are psychiatrist conditions! Just like NT people! Wow, you mean not all neurodiv people have learning impairments?! NEVER! Surely, because a few adults who are neurodiv ask to be put on an 'LD register', all of them are!!!

One big problem is that some idiot somewhere decided that rather than creating a mask exempt lanyard/campaign it would be easier to just lump it in with the hidden disability campaign.

There are plenty of reasons people can't wear a mask which aren't disabilities. Trauma, anxiety, asthma. I for one have severe psoriasis in my hair and scalp and when i have a flare up wear anything that sits on/rubs these areas (like a mask but also a hat/glasses etc) causes my skin to flake off in chunks and its very painful (and also gross). I am in no way disabled. It has never affected my job up until the pandemic so i've never even told my employer about my medical condition. I also don't need extra help, consideration or patience in shops or airports. I just need to be able to get round the supermarket or do my job without my skin being rubbed off in chunks.

So do I wear a lanyard or not? If i do im 'faking a disability', if i don't i get repeatedly challenged by the covid police and told i should wear one to show i'm mask exempt even thought I'm not disabled. I can't do right for doing wrong. And this problem stems from busybodies who think it's their right to challenge anyone without a mask who isn't obviously disabled or wearing a lanyard.

I can also wear a mask sometimes when i'm not having a flare up as my skin isn't so breakable then. And at other times i can wear one for e.g. a 20 min whiz around the supermarket but not a 10-12 hour shift at work (on my feet, getting sweaty, which causes more rubbing and friction against my skin making it worse).

And to this comment

It always amused me how many people are unable to wear a mask here in the UK but in Asia mask wearing is much more universal. We must be very sick people here.

Have you considered that in many asian countries people with disabilities/medical conditions are seen as less than human and deserving of no quality of life and therefore simply aren't allowed to leave their houses without a mask, that's why you don't see them. There aren't less exempt people, they're just shamefully shut away. And in a thread claiming concern about people with disabilities, the mantra in many asian countries of wear a mask or don't go out is the last thing you want to be praising.

When did I assume anything about geography or hidden disability, I just provided some information about the annual reviews IN ENGLAND I thought @Ponoka7referred to. Did I say these applied to everyone with a hidden disability? I thought @ponoka7's post stated their DD had ASD and LDs. You said you'd not heard of this service. I could be wrong but otherwise, I think the assumptions are in your head. Now crack on.,

Having seen your posts, I think I'd be more worried if you agree with me. I won't be replying further.

I can't wear a mask, and last year bought two lanyards: one from the Hidden Disabilities shop with sunflowers on it, and one from another outlet. I don't actually wear either lanyard, but instead carry one of the cards in my pocket along with a letter. Both cards specifically refer to my inability to wear a mask, with the sunflower one saying "face covering exempt". I do have hidden disabilities, but have never used such an item before. If people have used/abused the original, standard sunflower one by picking one of those up instead, then perhaps the Hidden Disabilities shop is partly to blame for producing one for face covering exemptions that looks so similar, and publicising it? I do understand the frustrations of people who use the original sunflower lanyard for other reasons, though, as I'm sure the public does now associate them with masks and nothing else.

@osbertthesyrianhamster: the annual check-up from the GP does exist. I have to do that for our adult ASD. The Gillick competency had to be done in person, but after that, the checks have been done over the phone. The surgeries know who is diagnosed ASD and who isn't.

They wrote out to remind me to make an appointment, and then reception arranged the telephone appointment. They do indeed have a doctor working their way through that list of telephone appointments regularly.

I know rather too many people who just obtained lanyards for themselves/relatives because they refused to wear masks. Not because they couldn't, but because they refused to wear one. They were blatant about it. These are the same people who believe that Bill Gates is trying to track everyone via the vaccine, and that Dr Vernon Coleman (anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist) is a voice of reason.

I have never heard of/seen this lanyard of which you speak and everyone I see wears a mask (Yorkshire). In fact the only place I haven't seen people wearing masks was when I was on holiday in the Scottish borders where hardly anyone was.

Perhaps we can start a campaign over this - it's so essential families / individuals aren't left behind due to a further lack of support due to the dilution of the sunflower lanyard

I really don't think that non-disabled people wearing lanyards is the main issue facing the dire lack of disability support or understanding of disabilities in the UK.

And I also agree with the PP who pointed out that a campaign calling out fakers is simply going to demonise disabled people further - we already get enough stick from strangers, so please just leave us be instead of pushing this hugely misguided attempt at helping 'genuinely' disabled people.

What your campaign needs to say is what the sunflower campaign already does - that you don't know what someone else is going through so back off and show some compassion, instead of assuming they're faking it!

It’s definitely overused but it will return to its practical use when mask regs go. I wear a sunflower lanyard some days in supermarkets due to very severe anxiety. I wear it so that I have my partners contact details readily available to anyone who encounters me in need of help. I still wear a mask because I have no reason not to, but I have actually once had someone say ‘you don’t need to wear your mask if you have the lanyard’…well intentioned, clearly, but I thanked them and said I wore the lanyard for other reasons… it it shows how many people think they are just the ‘no mask’ lanyard!

Saw two young women having a cigarette in a queue to Sainsburys yesterday, advent bother me, but a few people moaned at them about the smell.

They then proceeded to get sunflower lanyards out and walk in! So ok to smoke, but have difficulty breathing.

I'll be glad if they announce the binning of the stupid things.

@fromdownwest

It's ok - come the 19th you will have to find a new hobby!

Not really. DH and I already agreed that we will continue to wear masks, because the viral load in confined spaces with lots of people refusing to wear them/"not bovvered" could be lethal.

There are two CV people in our house, and we help out others who are CEV, so there's no way we're risking those others people, or ourselves, just because other people can't be arsed to wear a mask.

@Whammyyammy

Saw two young women having a cigarette in a queue to Sainsburys yesterday, advent bother me, but a few people moaned at them about the smell.

They then proceeded to get sunflower lanyards out and walk in! So ok to smoke, but have difficulty breathing.

I'll be glad if they announce the binning of the stupid things.

They aren't difficulty breathing cards though, hidden disabilities can be a wide range of things.

I wish people were as interested in supporting actual disabled people as they are in trying to police who is disabled and who isn't.

*Saw two young women having a cigarette in a queue to Sainsburys yesterday, advent bother me, but a few people moaned at them about the smell.

They then proceeded to get sunflower lanyards out and walk in! So ok to smoke, but have difficulty breathing.*

What utter crap

Maybe they have psoriosis like me
Maybe they have asd and sensory issues
PTSD about having their face covered (and smoking is a know stress release/coping method)
Trigeminal neuralgia and wearing anything on their face head causes immense pain due to nerve damage

There are hundreds of reasons someone can't wear a mask which isn't related to breathing difficulties, and some of these are due to disabilities and some aren't. Maybe drop you're ableist and judgmental bullshit and mind your own business.

The irony is the majority of people who have a genuine hidden disability (diabetes, COPD etc)

Sorry if this is a derail, but how does diabetes constitute a hidden disability? I'm aware that diabetes can (if very poorly controlled) have people pass out with hypoglycaemia, or even have a fit - both rather visible; that neuropathy and retinal degeneration can create mobility and sight problems - again, more obvious than not. So a potentially disabling condition - but how is it a hidden disability requiring signalling to others so that the person affected can be given due consideration?

My mother has diabetes, so any information on additional help that she might need in daily life would be welcome. She doesn't wear a lanyard - should she? (She would not, of course, forgo a mask, because she is very aware of the additional risks that age and diabetes pose her in the event of infection with Covid.)

@osbertthesyrianhamster: the annual check-up from the GP does exist. I have to do that for our adult ASD.

Yes, in England. Not everyone lives in England in the UK.

@Zilla1

Having seen your posts, I think I'd be more worried if you agree with me. I won't be replying further.

And?

They then proceeded to get sunflower lanyards out and walk in! So ok to smoke, but have difficulty breathing.

Another interpretation is that they don't feel the need to wear lanyards outside when they're just interacting with each other and obviously won't be challenged for not wearing a mask outside, then they put lanyards back on in the environment where they want to let people know to back off because they have a reason for not wearing one.

There are people who can't wear masks but who also smoke - why do you assume that it's their breathing that's the reason they can't wear masks?

Also, it's common for disabled people to hang around together - as a neurodivergent person, most of the people I 'click' with tend to think similarly to me and tend to be neurodivergent.

Perhaps these two women have bonded over the fact everyone else is being cunts to them.

@Doodlebug71 - Find me one peer reviewed scientific paper that has proven that the wearing of a mask reduced the risk of transmission and or receipt.

They are merley a token gesture to make people feel safer, that is it.

I was wondering about this earlier this morning. I'm going to visit family soon in a country which doesn't have any exemptions to mask wearing (or ways to identify people with hidden disabilities): if you're in a public place and not a young child, you wear a mask. I wonder what Brits on holiday to similar places (which includes several popular European holiday destinations) do, both the ones who genuinely have a disability and the 'it'll ruin my tan' brigade. There's got to be some midway point between where we are in the UK with so much abuse of the system and my home country where there's no leeway at all.

@Tightwad2020

The irony is the majority of people who have a genuine hidden disability (diabetes, COPD etc)

Sorry if this is a derail, but how does diabetes constitute a hidden disability? I'm aware that diabetes can (if very poorly controlled) have people pass out with hypoglycaemia, or even have a fit - both rather visible; that neuropathy and retinal degeneration can create mobility and sight problems - again, more obvious than not. So a potentially disabling condition - but how is it a hidden disability requiring signalling to others so that the person affected can be given due consideration?

My mother has diabetes, so any information on additional help that she might need in daily life would be welcome. She doesn't wear a lanyard - should she? (She would not, of course, forgo a mask, because she is very aware of the additional risks that age and diabetes pose her in the event of infection with Covid.)

I'm no expert on diabetes but I can think of a few reasons. Maybe they might need a quiet place to sit down and test their blood sugar. They might feel dizzy easily and need a seat. They might need to eat something in a place that doesn't usually allow eating, or they might be very thirsty and need to drink water in a place which doesn't usually allow it. They might need to display medical information in case they pass out or fit, so they might use the lanyard for that. They might need to alert people to their diabetes in situations that they are taken ill.

That's just off the top of my head...

@Whammyyammy

Saw two young women having a cigarette in a queue to Sainsburys yesterday, advent bother me, but a few people moaned at them about the smell.

They then proceeded to get sunflower lanyards out and walk in! So ok to smoke, but have difficulty breathing.

I'll be glad if they announce the binning of the stupid things.

I was gang raped whammy. Is that an acceptable reason to smoke yet not cover my face?

Also, having just read a few more comments, it can be difficult to know how to navigate a path between 'be more supportive of disabled people, even if you can't see their disability' and 'mind your own business'.

My instinct is NOT to crowd people in public places, for example, unless it's impossible not to (rush hour commuter trains, back in the day, really busy bars, even more so), so I hope I wouldn't be barging up against people with psoriasis or other painful conditions.

Equally, if someone asked me for help (like the blind woman in the supermarket the other day) or was very obviously taken ill, I would try to help.

But a sunflower lanyard, on its own, doesn't tell me much about what is appropriate or useful beyond those two very generalised responses.

@Whammyyammy

Saw two young women having a cigarette in a queue to Sainsburys yesterday, advent bother me, but a few people moaned at them about the smell.

They then proceeded to get sunflower lanyards out and walk in! So ok to smoke, but have difficulty breathing.

I'll be glad if they announce the binning of the stupid things.

And?

There are several reasons why people can’t wear masks.

My daughter is exempt. Breathing isn’t the problem.

And this:
Have you considered that in many asian countries people with disabilities/medical conditions are seen as less than human and deserving of no quality of life and therefore simply aren't allowed to leave their houses without a mask, that's why you don't see them. There aren't less exempt people, they're just shamefully shut away. And in a thread claiming concern about people with disabilities, the mantra in many asian countries of wear a mask or don't go out is the last thing you want to be praising

Yes! I keep seeing posted how in other countries, they don’t have exemptions. Like it’s a good thing people with disabilities are shut away