Asked to leave for not wearing a mask

[DuchessOfDisaster]

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!

@Threebillygoatsgruff

Tbf, you did offer to leave, but I'd be miffed too OP, no one stays at home because they have a cold, unless they are feeling unwell. Employees still have to go to work, children go to school, life goes on. Of course, I, like most others wouldn't like to catch a cold, but it's one of those things you can't really hide from. Imagine if everyone who had a cold stayed at home, oh the shortages we will have then! Covid has made people paranoid and germ-phobic. I bet if you were a paying customer, they'd have asked you to stay, because they want your money.

They only had her word for it that it was a cold. She hadn't had a test (other than a twice a week lft, and she conveniently hasn't said whether it was that day or three or four days earlier)

If she'd had a negative PCR that day, they might have felt differently.

I have had a cold for a few days and been testing on lateral flows twice a day. All negative. I’ve kept out of peoples way though.

Just as well as I actually have covid as my positive PCR and latest lateral flow shows

@TheVampiresWife

Are we still having the 'most exemptions are BS' discussion? Even though they've not been mandatory for months?

@pianolessons1 you do realise not all exemptions will be in a patient's notes, don't you? A rape/DV survivor quite possibly won't have made their GP aware of their situation.

@hashbrownsandwich same goes to you.

Happily the HCPs I've encountered have all been lovely and not judgemental in the slightest. Perhaps you could follow suit.

Absolutely and I always ask people in private so they can give the reason if that is the case. We are still having this discussion because we're the only country where vast numbers of people are special snowflakes who don't want to keep others safe.

Good i would have been glad if they’d asked you to leave. There is a bloody awful cold going around I should know as it put me in hospital. How selfish can you be going out with a cold to a public place and not wearing a mask. Stay the fuck at home. In my workplace if you have any sort of cold you take a pcr and are forced to wear a mask.

Currently I "just have a cold". Except I took a PCR this week as my child has covid and guess what? So do I!
According to ZOE, the most common symptoms to those who are double jabbed are the same as a cold.

@MalagaNights

I'd rather we had a culture of if you have a cold stay home rather than mask wearing.

This. Plus it just gives ppl false sense of security as masks don’t work

Absolutely and I always ask people in private so they can give the reason if that is the case. We are still having this discussion because we're the only country where vast numbers of people are special snowflakes who don't want to keep others safe.

Not one HCP (GP, neurologist, rheumatologist, rheumy nurses, GP practice nurse, radiologists) has asked why I'm exempt.

Calling people who cannot wear masks 'special snowflakes' and attempting to shame them into doing so by putting them on the spot is very concerning, considering you're an HCP. Insisting that someone divulge details of past trauma, or conditions unrelated to the one you're treating them for, is completely unacceptable and I don't know of any other HCPs who are doing this. Empathy is hugely important in your line of work. Perhaps that's something you need to work on.

@DuchessOfDisaster

I have severe asthma. I can cope with a mask for nipping in and out of a shop but longer than 15 minutes and I begin to wheeze.

Not everyone with a mask exemption is making it up.

I have severe asthma too, but that is where our similarity appears to end as I am quite capable of wearing a mask in a sedentary environment even after contracting pneumonia recently so please don't use that as an excuse as you make the rest of us look bad. Thanks.

Having just been really ill for 2 weeks with a cold and my immunosuppressed child ending up with pneumonia after catching it I’d be pissed off you turning up full of the cold with no mask.

Absolutely and I always ask people in private so they can give the reason if that is the case. We are still having this discussion because we're the only country where vast numbers of people are special snowflakes who don't want to keep others safe

I guess you’ve never heard of a country called Sweden.

@Floofsquidge thank you!

"Not one HCP (GP, neurologist, rheumatologist, rheumy nurses, GP practice nurse, radiologists) has asked why I'm exempt"

unless they already knew that you had a valid reason (of which there are only really 3 - very severe MH issues specifically involving the face e.g. PTSD to oral rape, trigeminal neuralgia and severe LD/autism) that is an absolute derliction of their duty to public health and they should be ashamed of themselves @TheVampiresWife

@Whoopsmahoot

Having just been really ill for 2 weeks with a cold and my immunosuppressed child ending up with pneumonia after catching it I’d be pissed off you turning up full of the cold with no mask.

You have an immunocompromised child. You should not expect a cloth or surgical mask to stop transmission of respiratory diseases. That is dangerous.

I really hate to read this sort of thing

Could you ask them to connect you via Zoom ? If you have a cold it's best not to socialise in person and, if you have to go out, wear a mask (or don't go out).

Masks should be mandatory, it's absolute madness that in England they are not.

We have more than double the number of new cases in the UK than half of Europe combined. The mask refusers will be the first to moan when there's another lockdown.

Thing is, even if it is just a cold, you can still give it to someone else who can end up with a cough and temperature and therefore having to take time off work while they wait for PCR results, or unable to visit a frail family member.

(Wish my colleague had remembered this before they came maskless to a meeting last week and 4 more of us were off on Monday while we waited for test results)

You have an immunocompromised child. You should not expect a cloth or surgical mask to stop transmission of respiratory diseases. That is dangerous.

I really hate to read this sort of thing

Isn't the lack of mask just the icing on the cake though?

She's conveniently telling you now it was yesterday morning.

Mask exempt myself so can relate. Personally I wouldn't have gone with a cold whether i was wearing a masks or not. Attitudes to this type of thing are a lot different now

@HoldingTheDoor

I've got one just now in fact. I didn't really realise how mild colds generally are for most people until this recent "super cold" which I have, but as miserable as it is, it's just a standard cold for me but it seems to be a severe one for most people.

Same here.

I often have a fever with a cold and about 50% of the time end up with a cough that lasts for weeks. These days I have a ventolin puffer to help with the post viral cough (GP thinks it’s cough variant asthma) but it doesn’t stop the cough entirely.

@DuchessOfDisaster

I have severe asthma. I can cope with a mask for nipping in and out of a shop but longer than 15 minutes and I begin to wheeze.

Not everyone with a mask exemption is making it up.

I was asked to wear a mask and as I didn't have one offered to leave.

This still makes no sense then.

Do the book club only meet for 15 minutes?

@HoldingTheDoor

Yes - I’ve always suffered badly with colds and people just don’t get it. I’ve clearly caught it from my generous son who has been very poorly but I feel like it’s a standard cold.

You shouldn't have gone with a cold.

You sound selfish.

[quote pianolessons1]@Floofsquidge thank you!

"Not one HCP (GP, neurologist, rheumatologist, rheumy nurses, GP practice nurse, radiologists) has asked why I'm exempt"

unless they already knew that you had a valid reason (of which there are only really 3 - very severe MH issues specifically involving the face e.g. PTSD to oral rape, trigeminal neuralgia and severe LD/autism) that is an absolute derliction of their duty to public health and they should be ashamed of themselves @TheVampiresWife[/quote]
Now you're just making things up. Can you direct me to the government exemption guidelines which mention, for example, 'oral rape'? The guidelines for exemption, when they existed (remember: masks are not mandatory, there are no longer any exemptions), did not give an exhaustive list of conditions which conferred exemption. Your list of three is spurious nonsense. As an HCP you should be absolutely aware of this and I'm astounded you're not familiar with the laws concerning exemption (when exemption existed, that is).

Guidelines also prohibited anyone - HCP or otherwise - asking why someone is exempt.

It's incredibly worrying that someone as judgemental as you has access to peoples' medical notes.

Even pre covid times it would have been bad form to turn up anywhere with a cold.

So to turn up, in covid times, unwell, when there is a lot of nasty bugs going around, YWBU.