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AIBU?

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Original poster

Asked to leave for not wearing a mask

502 replies

DuchessOfDisaster · 16/10/2021 11:11

I've just gone to my book group meeting. I'm mask exempt, and have a cold. Not COVID, we test twice a week at work. I was asked to wear a mask and as I didn't have one offered to leave. The other members said they thought that was best.

It's silly but I feel miffed! Even though I think it's the right thing!

OP posts:
JudgementalCactus · 18/10/2021 14:58

@Mollymoostoo

Having a cold is not COVID. People need to get a grip. We still have to to to work and school with a cold. Could you imagine how many classes would be closed of teachers stayed home or kids were kept off. Pre- COVID nobody would have minded and no everyone is making a fuss over the common cold. I personally would have stayed home because colds make me feel rorren, buy I'm guessing if you felt up to going, your cold want more than a sniffle anyway
For the millionth time - unless you get a PCR you don't know the cold is just a cold!!!
phoenixrosehere · 18/10/2021 15:14

Pre- COVID nobody would have minded and no everyone is making a fuss over the common cold.

Nobody? Sorry, but that’s a lie. Many people have always minded when others walk up with obvious illness, including a cold and couldn’t be bothered to cover their mouths or coughing into their hands and then touching everything while acting as if it’s perfectly fine because “oh it’s just a cold.” Now people are more mindful and that is not a bad thing.

OverTheRubicon · 18/10/2021 15:17

@Mollymoostoo

Having a cold is not COVID. People need to get a grip. We still have to to to work and school with a cold. Could you imagine how many classes would be closed of teachers stayed home or kids were kept off. Pre- COVID nobody would have minded and no everyone is making a fuss over the common cold. I personally would have stayed home because colds make me feel rorren, buy I'm guessing if you felt up to going, your cold want more than a sniffle anyway
Can you imagine how many fewer classes would have been closed if people had stayed at home with colds (and covid they thought was a cold) when it came to entirely voluntary leisure activities?
Notmoresugar · 18/10/2021 15:42

I can assure you they would have felt extremely miffed by your utter ignorance.

Draggondragon · 18/10/2021 15:52

We don't have except people here. Unless double vaccinated we can't eat in, only take out. We are more free and without fuss. Sad that the UK is so opposed to freedom x

JackieChiles · 18/10/2021 16:01

@Rosesareyellow

I’m surprised by the responses on here. I’m sure pre-Covid no one would have thought it reasonable to tell someone to stay away from everyone because of a cold, except if you were visiting a new born maybe. Times have changed.
Yes of course. There’s been a massive pandemic. Everything has changed.
caspersmagicaljourney · 18/10/2021 16:14

@JudgementalCactus - absolutely correct.
The first couple of days I thought I had a cold I tested positive for Covid. This was followed by a positive PCR test, so you're right.

starrynight87 · 18/10/2021 16:23

YABU, I don't want your cold!

Draggondragon · 18/10/2021 17:27

Seriously. Does your sense if entitlement trump Covid? Get over it, stay home with a cold and stop attention seeking

Draggondragon · 18/10/2021 17:29

Why are you exempt? If that makes you more vulnerable, why would you showcase your cold?

AnnieSnap · 18/10/2021 21:15

@LemonPeonies

So people should expect to never leave the house when they have a cold? 🤣. I still go to work as a nurse when I have a cold, we all do. Before and during "covid" 😒.
What kind of ‘Nurse’ are you? It makes me wonder because you put Covid in inverted commas 😮
LemonPeonies · 19/10/2021 23:00

@AnnieSnap what is your point? Everyone gets colds, no one dies of them. If Everyone stayed at home when they had one don't you think we would have even less DR'S and staff in hospitals amongst other areas when we're short staffed enough as it is?

JesusIsAnyNameFree · 19/10/2021 23:08

@LemonPeonies

The point is "covid" is often used by people who don't believe in covid.

AnnieSnap · 19/10/2021 23:19

@JesusIsAnyNameFree Yep! 👍

OverTheRubicon · 19/10/2021 23:38

[quote LemonPeonies]@AnnieSnap what is your point? Everyone gets colds, no one dies of them. If Everyone stayed at home when they had one don't you think we would have even less DR'S and staff in hospitals amongst other areas when we're short staffed enough as it is?[/quote]
But if people stayed home from totally non-essential activities like book clubs when they had a cold (especially if they can't wear a mask and especially if they haven't tested), then there would be more staff available to come into work, because they wouldn't be awaiting PCR results, or ill, or home with children who are waiting for a test, or isolating after getting results that show that the 'cold' wasn't actually.a cold. There would also be fewer ill people in the hospital. So better all around, really.

TheVampiresWife · 20/10/2021 07:18

@MyrrAgain

You're not exempt. You're not immune people are just selfish, minimising ** for thinking "exemption" means immunity or you can't spread it. If you think you're so special to not inconvenience yourself with a mask when holding a stinking cold then no advice on here is going to change a self absorbed opinion.
Nah, some people are exempt.

HTH!

TheVampiresWife · 20/10/2021 07:21

@Winfield

I’m uncomfortable around anyone not wearing a mask inside. I never understand why mask exempt people can’t ware a face shield? It’s simple thing to do, and just makes others less stressed and scared.
Because some people who can't wear masks can't wear shields, either.

Also there's the fact that shields worn alone are absolutely useless. Scotland's mask mandate mentions this and says that due to their inefficacy, shields must only be worn with a mask.

TheVampiresWife · 20/10/2021 07:25

@Chuck2015

I try not to be too judgemental on here but actually this post has made me angry. Covid is NOT over, we have nearly 43,000 thousand new infections in this country, people are still dying. To compare, Portugal has 828 and Italy 2772 and the highest is nearly 9 times less than us. This is because other countries have learnt lesson and ARE WEARING MASKS. When will people get it? It's like we are sleepwalking through this and behaving bluntly pretty selfishly. Of course you should wear one if displaying any symptoms at all, I've had covid despite two injections and its horrible but I still feel lucky to be alive. And as others have said, in the current climate who wants to put themselves at risk of getting anything, it's flu season also and some people get colds much worse than others.
I've just come back to England from Scotland. The mask mandate is still in force there and rates are as bad as ours.

I'm exempt but I'm definitely not anti mask. I totally see why they may be useful, if you can wear one. However it's not right to say that countries where mask wearing is mandatory have lower cases than England.

TheVampiresWife · 20/10/2021 07:27

For the millionth time - unless you get a PCR you don't know the cold is just a cold!!!

Plenty of people on this thread are insisting that if you have a cold, even if you've had a PCR and it's confirmed Not Covid, you should stay at home.

Unfortunately for many that's not an option.

EvilRingahBitch · 20/10/2021 08:00

Staying at home when you might well have Covid but it's not confirmed is not possible for everyone. But that doesn't affect the fact that people for whom it is possible (eg office workers with a good WFH alternative, people who just fancied a night out at the pub, people attending a regular book group) should stay home.

And that also applies to people with bona fide nasty colds who don't want to inconvenience others by giving them a nasty cold and/or making them suffer the hassle currently faced by people with temperatures and coughs.

If you can't stay home you can't, but that doesn't affect the fact that those who can, should.

heythereamigo · 20/10/2021 08:55

We’ve got a cold in our house. In the last week I had to take 2 days off my job in a hospital while waiting for PCR. Then my husband had to take 2 days off his job as a GP waiting for his PCR. Now my daughter has started coughing and we’re just debating which of us should take tomorrow off of her PCR isn’t back yet. The youngest has yet to get it.

So no, I don’t want to see people socially if they have a cold, and I’d think you incredibly selfish if you showed up with one.

Original poster
DuchessOfDisaster · 21/10/2021 09:39

@Anitarest

It’s not bull shit-it’s “I’m special, look at me. People didn’t know I was special but now they do because I wear a lanyard saying I’m special.” Mind you I really don’t think staff on the delicatessen and sandwich counters should be allowed to get away with wearing lanyards. They might cough or breathe on my food.
I don't think I am special at all. I do however know that if I have a mask on for longer than ten minutes I start to feel as if I'm suffocating and smothering.
OP posts:
WellLarDeDar · 21/10/2021 09:43

Yabu. Don't go out and share your illness with everyone else evening it's not COVID!! and you offered to leave??

Draggondragon · 22/10/2021 08:51

It's peculiar. When you live in a country without exemption and flowery lanyards, everyone just wears a bloody mask and nobody needs to feel like a special little flower when everyone sees them not in a mask. Gues that's why we have total freedom and less than 50 cases a day.

TheVampiresWife · 22/10/2021 09:45

@Draggondragon

It's peculiar. When you live in a country without exemption and flowery lanyards, everyone just wears a bloody mask and nobody needs to feel like a special little flower when everyone sees them not in a mask. Gues that's why we have total freedom and less than 50 cases a day.
Which country are you referring to? The vast majority of countries have exemptions.

Just to clarify, I don't wear a 'flowery lanyard' so I can 'feel like a special little flower'. I wear one because I have a condition which is triggered by touch to the face, and during an attack I often lose consciousness and wet myself.

HTH!