Ditching my mask from today except for in hospital settings

[Frittataz]

Clearly this is fine legally speaking but AIBU to expect not to be asked to wear a mask from today onwards? I’ll wear one when attending hospital/doctors appointments but that’s it that’s were i draw the line. I shouldn’t be expected to explain myself right? I’ve wore a mask from the beginning and stuck to every rule. I won’t be rushing out to go to nightclubs as I didn’t do that before covid and i don’t suddenly feel the need to surround myself (closely) with lots of other people but I am looking forward to taking my daughter shopping and going to the cinema without having to wear a mask.

Yes I agree @Bryonyshcmyony but I luckily live somewhere where there's oodles of choice so I vote with my feet.

Really though i think some businesses probably shouldn't have Facebook when they can't use it properly. Even pre-COVID I noticed an increase in bossy/whingey statuses from businesses and it makes me go

Yes really. A hairdressers isn’t a coffee shop. Their staff are in close proximity for a relatively long period of time. I would feel terrible if I gave them covid having not been arsed to wear a mask for the time I’m in there.

I am still wearing mine in a lot of places, but if anywhere asked me to and I wasn’t planning on wearing one I would put one on coz I’m not selfish and I’m not excempt.

@Mummyford

Thank you, I am.

Of course they're comparable. Utterly comparable. Flu kills on average 30,000 a year. In 2018 it was 60,000. As an ex nurse I can't begin to tell you the strain it put on the NHS. Every single winter. Vulnerable people receiver annual boosters but sometimes variants (like the one in 2018) render it less effective than the last booster.

How is that NOT comparable to COVID?

Flu spreads easily. It kills very vulnerable people. It has a seriously adverse affect on the healthcare system. Without boosters it would be worse. Just like COVID. But I doubt you have much thought to staying indoors before during flu season?

OK well I'm pretty sure using your hands to pull down your mask so you can drink your coffee is not going to protect your hairdresser from catching Covid from you.

And if mask wearing also helps reduce spread of things like flu then even better

@thinkingaboutLangCleg

Let's hope someone "gently reminds" the virus to stop virusing.

Love it!

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

Yes I agree *@Bryonyshcmyony* but I luckily live somewhere where there's oodles of choice so I vote with my feet.

Really though i think some businesses probably shouldn't have Facebook when they can't use it properly. Even pre-COVID I noticed an increase in bossy/whingey statuses from businesses and it makes me go

Yes it's all so virtue signalling. I unfollowed one the other day, they sell wine but every other post is a bossy social distancing update or a support our NHS post quite frankly its utterly dull, you are there to sell overpriced Rose etc, if you want to carry on with masks etc then great but do we have to hear about it every 5 minutes

*This isn't freedom. Covid is still here. Cases are rising rapidly. 50,000 new cases a day over the last week. The only freedom is your freedom to infect more people.

The Tories lifted restrictions so they coudl go on holiday without breaking rules. Those of you applauding that, and refusing to wear masks: you will have blood on your hands, and the Tories will blame you for it. So will everyone else who stayed masked.*

And soon we will have even fewer freedoms as the infection rates soar in the UK and more countries put us on their quarantine list.

I hope people will start to educate themselves.
The analogy given yesterday by a SAGE advisor (Dr Colin Axon) was that using cloth masks to protect against COVID virus particles reaching our airways was akin to trying to using builders’ scaffolding to stop marbles fired at a building.

If wearing a silly hat made 30% of the population feel better would you do that?

Yes infections will rise but the more vaccinated the less hospitalisation.

@Getyourjab

I hope people will start to educate themselves. The analogy given yesterday by a SAGE advisor (Dr Colin Axon) was that using cloth masks to protect against COVID virus particles reaching our airways was akin to trying to using builders’ scaffolding to stop marbles fired at a building.

If wearing a silly hat made 30% of the population feel better would you do that?

🤣🤣

The average gaps in the weave of the fabric of a mask are 500,000 times larger than a virus

[quote FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop]@Mummyford

Thank you, I am.

Of course they're comparable. Utterly comparable. Flu kills on average 30,000 a year. In 2018 it was 60,000. As an ex nurse I can't begin to tell you the strain it put on the NHS. Every single winter. Vulnerable people receiver annual boosters but sometimes variants (like the one in 2018) render it less effective than the last booster.

How is that NOT comparable to COVID?

Flu spreads easily. It kills very vulnerable people. It has a seriously adverse affect on the healthcare system. Without boosters it would be worse. Just like COVID. But I doubt you have much thought to staying indoors before during flu season?[/quote]
Totally agree with you.

I worked the winter of 2018 on ITU and it was terrible - staff were dropping like flies to flu, we were constantly understaffed and overstretched.

Don't recall anyone being bothered then!

@Frittataz

But they’re not a legal requirement so how can they do that? If I really wanted to I could simply lie and say that I’m exempt but why should I have to do that.

They can do that cause it's their shop, like they can demand you wear a top and not just a bra showing your frittataz, and a restaurant can demand you wear a suit and tie. Wtf?

@Bryonyshcmyony oh the irony of a purveyor of alcohol to tweet about supporting the NHS when alcohol related illnesses cost £3.5 billion a year

@Getyourjab

The average gaps in the weave of the fabric of a mask are 500,000 times larger than a virus

Do you have a source for that?

[quote FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop]@Bryonyshcmyony oh the irony of a purveyor of alcohol to tweet about supporting the NHS when alcohol related illnesses cost £3.5 billion a year [/quote]
Yes exactly. My dB is an alcoholic getting almost zero support from the NHS so those posts make me sick tbh.

YY @Vintagevixen I left the NHS in late 2018 in the midst of the flu pandemic, not long after having caught flu (and norovirus twice that year too) and I didn't get any lip service thanks or concern, but I DID get to sit in a meeting with two stony faced members of HR asking why the hell id been off sick three times that year and consider this the first warning

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

Here’s one source:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/17/cloth-face-masks-comfort-blankets-do-little-curb-covid-spread/amp/

Good for you Hun!

You won't know who you infect/who you kill...

[quote FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop]@Mummyford

Thank you, I am.

Of course they're comparable. Utterly comparable. Flu kills on average 30,000 a year. In 2018 it was 60,000. As an ex nurse I can't begin to tell you the strain it put on the NHS. Every single winter. Vulnerable people receiver annual boosters but sometimes variants (like the one in 2018) render it less effective than the last booster.

How is that NOT comparable to COVID?

Flu spreads easily. It kills very vulnerable people. It has a seriously adverse affect on the healthcare system. Without boosters it would be worse. Just like COVID. But I doubt you have much thought to staying indoors before during flu season?[/quote]
Not true.
Flu deaths 22k in 2018
fullfact.org/online/october-2020-flu-covid-pandemic/

If this shit is going to carry on i will cancel my vaccine appointment. Im at risk of clots and have been psyching myself up to go. If im willing to take this risk for the "greater good" but im still going to be made to sweat my guts out (which i get quite enough of at home in my HA sauna) in a mask why on earth should i take a risk with the AZ to be treated like this,

@Bryonyshcmyony my sincere sympathies. I lost dad 9 years ago to chronic liver failure because of his 3 decade alcohol addiction. The NHS did bugger all, he relied on a charity instead that was stretched ridiculously thin and could only help so much. The volunteers who helped him attended his funeral and were devastated they couldn't do better but the meaningful support and resources simply don't exist or didn't back then. It's the hardest thing in the world to try and support an alcoholic

@Getyourjab

I hope people will start to educate themselves. The analogy given yesterday by a SAGE advisor (Dr Colin Axon) was that using cloth masks to protect against COVID virus particles reaching our airways was akin to trying to using builders’ scaffolding to stop marbles fired at a building.

If wearing a silly hat made 30% of the population feel better would you do that?

Maybe you should educate yourself. He's one "expert" (in energy networks and usage, so not sure why he's suddenly trusted about virus transmission) vs many others who actually research this stuff who say that well made cloth masks and surgical masks are pretty effective at stopping virus particles escaping.

It's also a stupid analogy. The main point of masks is to stop particles leaving from the inside, not stop them entering from the outside.