Masks on public transport

[shallIswim]

Aibu to expect people to wear masks on public transport when TFL say it's mandatory?
I reckon a quarter of people aren't. And no one challenges them.
I'm so cross
Entitled special people pah!

@nc4565

Yabu to say it's only men.

I'm a woman and I don't wear one.

Do you have an exemption? If not, what’s your reasoning on this?

[quote cardibach]@MurielSpriggs and yet we expect everyone to take some responsibility for us when driving, don’t we? We expect everyone to behave in a prudent manner? And swear loudly (at least) at those who refuse to? The idea of community responsibility hasn’t been invented for covid. If everyone wears a mask in high risk, low ventilation areas, we are all less likely to become ill - and not just with covid. It’s not exactly a big ask, is it?[/quote]
To be honest I suspect that many people drive carefully (if they do) more out of concern for their own safety.

You need an analogy where the risk is mainly to others rather than the person making the decision about how they should act.

If you do want to take driving as an example of community responsibility, then the better comparison would be the decision about whether to drive at all. Around 8m people die each year due to pollution and other effects caused by burning fossil fuels. You're very unlikely to be one of them when you get behind the wheel. Your journey does contribute though. But most people decide to make it anyway because the risk to them is very low.

Do you have an exemption? If not, what’s your reasoning on this?

One big problem is that we don't even know what that means.

I think ‘just don’t drive’ is a bit of a false suggestion. At present society is set up so most of us have little choice. Changing that requires a wholesale re-jogging of the economy and society wearing a mask doesn’t.

I wear one I'm public transport and in shops when I remember. I wear one in my office as requested.

I don't mind wearing one when asked but I couldn't care less about what anyone else is doing.

I don't use one in the supermarket.

Why? Well, my eighteen month old wants to see mummy's face. Those masks probably remind him of the early days when the only people he'd see were health professionals sticking pins in him.

He's also way behind on his language and I don't want this generation to be the 'seeing faces is important to language acquisition' Guinea pigs.

I'm currently on a tfl train. I was wearing a mask but not one other person in my carriage is. Because I wear it to protect others, on this occasion I have pulled mine down. If they don't care about me, I don't care about them.

@BelleOfTheProvince

I don't use one in the supermarket.

Why? Well, my eighteen month old wants to see mummy's face. Those masks probably remind him of the early days when the only people he'd see were health professionals sticking pins in him.

He's also way behind on his language and I don't want this generation to be the 'seeing faces is important to language acquisition' Guinea pigs.

How long do you spend in the supermarket? An hour a week? If you are talking to him at home I doubt the one hour will make any difference.

No one wears them where I am, a 1/4?! I would say it’s a 1/4 wearing them in my part of London probably less and certainly not just men 🙄

I don’t wear a mask on public transport, the cinema or anywhere else. I’m not entitled, O just don’t believe they’re necessary and nothing you can say will convince me otherwise

I’m not wearing one and I’m a woman, the announcement use to say “police and tfl will be enforcing it” now it doesn’t say that anymore and just says “it’s there to protect us all” so they know it can’t be enforced any more and no one will be policing it and the driver doesn’t give a damn. No way am I wearing one.

[quote seaandsandcastles]@cardibach Because people are so terrified of catching what is a minor illness for the overwhelming majority that they’re muzzling themselves like a dog.[/quote]
If you think that a thin layer of surgical paper is akin to a dog muzzle, you may have been buying the wrong type of mask. Maybe try a chemist next time and not your local SM bondage place.

Lots of health professionals assured us at the beginning of the pandemic that baby not seeing people wouldn't make a difference.
Except now things have opened up a bit more the message has changed. Babies are behind because they didn't see enough people. So no, I'm not willing to sacrifice my time with my baby anymore.
He also screams the place down of I have a mask on and pulls it off so the whole exercise is pointless.
My oh is a teacher. I've accepted that he's been put at risk every day since this started, being around keyworker children who are very likely to have it without masks. I've accepted that level of risk because it's not fair to make children wear masks. Neither is it acceptable for people who didn't have babies in the pandemic to advocate what I should do.

If others want to wear a mask, that's fine. I'm not wearing a mask because they mostly have a placebo effect anyway and discourage social distancing.

No thank you.

@BelleOfTheProvince

I don't use one in the supermarket.

Why? Well, my eighteen month old wants to see mummy's face. Those masks probably remind him of the early days when the only people he'd see were health professionals sticking pins in him.

He's also way behind on his language and I don't want this generation to be the 'seeing faces is important to language acquisition' Guinea pigs.

Don't be so utterly ridiculous. How much can you remember now of when you were 18 months old?

@SoupDragon

minging dirty flappy masks that we were all bullied into wearing

Why on earth were you wearing a minging, dirty, flappy mask? Do you usually have problems keeping things clean?

What with people wearing dog muzzles and "wet, flappy, minging" masks, you'd think the virus ate away braincells as well as made you cough.

I'm currently on a train to London from the north. Very few people wearing masks (including the conductor). No signs saying to wear one. No announcements. Will be odd getting off the train and being expected to put a mask on

YANBU. I get the tube every day and people are definitely worse at wearing a mask than they were a year ago. It doesn’t upset me as much as it used to now that I’m vaccinated but it is really selfish if there isn’t a good reason for it. (As a side note I particularly like my mask in the colder months, it keeps my nose warm!)

Don't be so utterly ridiculous. How much can you remember now of when you were 18 months old?

Language acquisition shows babies learn by watching their mother's face. Fact.

My baby doesn't like masks. Whether that's an association thing because of masks accompanying horrible medical appointments or just a natural fear or being able to see expressions I don't know. I'm not putting up with my baby screaming round the supermarket to make other people better when there's very little evidence it makes enough difference with non medical quality masks.

By the way I don't think anyone has ever changed their behaviour due to people calling them ridiculous.

So no thank you.

I have nothing more to add so am muting the thread.

It’s madness. Such a simple precaution and it seems that it is all too much for some who will be the first to complain when things worsen and our facilities are curtailed. Forget Civid let’s try to avoid flu. Colds and coughs which plague us during the winter months.

Because people are so terrified of catching what is a minor illness for the overwhelming majority that they’re muzzling themselves like a dog.

Polio is a minor illness for most:

Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. In about 0.5 percent of cases, it moves from the gut to affect the central nervous system, and there is muscle weakness resulting in a flaccid paralysis. This can occur over a few hours to a few days. The weakness most often involves the legs, but may less commonly involve the muscles of the head, neck, and diaphragm. Many people fully recover. In those with muscle weakness, about 2 to 5 percent of children and 15 to 30 percent of adults die. Up to 70 percent of those infected have no symptoms.

Very similar in many ways to covid. I don't know any people who think we shouldn't vaccinate against it and try to not catch it. If there was a massive case load of polio patients and the hospitals were close to full, I feel like people would wear masks if it had a chance of preventing some spread.

If you wish to keep your comfort mask, crack on, its your choice. But yabvu to expect people to wear them when they don't have too

Question for everyone who's not wearing masks - are you planning on leaving the UK at any point, and if so what will you do when you arrive in a country where everyone wears masks indoors?

I had no choice the other day, as it was pissing down and my mask was so soaked that I felt like I was being waterboarded.

It does appear to be less common now.

I won’t be leaving the country and zero plans to