Masks are coming back and I feel like an idiot!

[Rainbowheart1]

As the title, I can’t wear one as I can’t breath, they are really coming back into force where I live and I do tend to overthink things and I feel like a prat!

I had to go hospital recently and everyone, I mean everyone had a mask apart from me and I just look stupid! To look at me and not know me, I look young, fit and healthy, which makes it worst!

Am I doing overthinking this? Do you think people think I’m some sort of Covid rebel?

@MyDcAreMarvel Well nothing is stopping you from going to live in those countries with less human rights. Yet you and others like you seem quite reluctant to do that for some reason.

@LorenzoVonMatterhorn

My dad is exempt. He has had lung failure, he has copd, amongst many other things, and wouldn't go without a mask anywhere. He gets really stressed when other people around him in queues / shop etc dont wear one, as a chest infection, let alone covid, is very dangerous for him. The outcome is he barely leaves the house.

But masts are not a requirement anymore.

The longer you wear a mask for, the less it bothers you. Felt weird at the start, even for a trip round the supermarket, but I now wear one for a six hour shift and it really doesn't bother me.
Nobody wears one for fun; of course it's nicer not to wear one but it's also nicer not to get Covid / give it to your colleagues.
Try to build it up in 15 mins increments?
Or get a lanyard. It's not a big ask.

18 months since masks were first recommended. I'd have thought you'd have worked it out by now.

I firmly believe the real Condition for not mask wearing is entitlement. Like this…

I couldn’t give a flying fuck what anyone else, least of all The Self Appointed Mask Police, thinks.

@mercybooth. Well good on the rest of the mask wearers who may struggle wearing them to protect people like your DH.

I have had Covid very recently and also vaccinated so I really do wear my mask out and about to protect the vunerable, it's no benefit to me anymore.

I find the paper ones easier. I wore one when i went to get the vaccine which we were told was the way out of this, The eco warriors dont like it but tough. They arent having it all ways.

I had Covid in the first lockdown that's left me with terrible breathing and other health problems. I also have a child that relies on lip reading and signing. I wear a mask when required.

I don't really understand why this is an issue. Just don't wear one? They're being worn less and less where I am, more people without a mask than with and I'm seeing no signs of them "coming back".

But masts are not a requirement anymore.

Im not sure why you think that matters? But this isnt new. Some people never wore one, wore them on their chins, when they were.

@AlanisMorningShed If they are struggling to wear them then they shouldnt. Just martyrdom

I'm in Scotland where masks are mandatory. I have asthma. It's no big deal to scoot round the supermarket wearing a mask and taking it off when I get back to the car.

@Squeezita so you only do things because they are imposed on you rather than because you know they are the sensible thing to do then?

Eg if someone decided that seat belts are not compulsory anymore, you wouldn’t wear one?
If smoking indoors was ok again, you would do that because you can?

I’ve always found that strange tbh.

@Clocktopus

why was someone i am close to told to remove his reusable mask at his hospital appointment and given a disposable one.

For hygiene. Reusable masks are only effective time if they're clean, well fitted, have enough layers to them, etc. Our local hospitals have a policy that you need to use one of their masks while on the premises for hygiene reasons (exempt people aside) and they have boxes of them at the door next to the hand sinks.

All the people saying that their relative has xxx condition and manages to wear a mask are missing the point. It is down to the individual and how they are affected, conditions can vary therefore it doesn't matter what other people with that condition are doing.

Bingo - hygiene! That’s the exact reason why all those grubby ones that most of us keep screwed up in our pockets are so pointless and ineffective anyway. When did you last see anyone in a medical setting wearing a home made material mask with cats/dogs/flowers etc on it?The public fiddle constantly with them or wear them under their noses or even take them off to talk. Unless you’re wearing a proper hospital standard face covering, there’s very little point,

I'm in NI, they are still compulsory here but only around 50% compliance rate. Even in maternity I see plenty of people with no masks here, especially the men who are accompanying their partners. You're probably being paranoid about the mask thing because plenty here seem to not give a shit no matter what setting it is and they don't particularly stand out (except the men in maternity) because so many don't wear them.

[quote TravelLost]@Squeezita so you only do things because they are imposed on you rather than because you know they are the sensible thing to do then?

Eg if someone decided that seat belts are not compulsory anymore, you wouldn’t wear one?
If smoking indoors was ok again, you would do that because you can?

I’ve always found that strange tbh.[/quote]
This. It's not a rights issue as much as a not-being-a-dick issue.

If you lived in the country I do I would think you were an anti mask type because in the year and a half(?) that we have been wearing masks here I haven't seen anyone not wear one where they are supposed to, the only people I have heard of not doing it here are covid deniers that preattle on about it on facebook. In the UK I gather it is different though.

What about a hat with a brim and a scarf tucked in your collar?

[quote MyDcAreMarvel]@Gingerkittykat
People who are genuinely exempt deserve to go about their lives like anyone else. You are asking a large group of people, a lot of them disabled, to simply stay at home which is unfair.
Agreed but there is a distinction between those that genuinely struggle to breath a tiny tiny number and those that think they can’t breathe because they hate mask.
The second group keep a large group of people ie the immunocompromised at home.
Mask exemption should have been very strictly enforced not self assessed. Other countries have very few expert people.[/quote]
This ^

If you're exempt you're exempt...

BUT all the people who say they don't like wearing them much so therefore they're exempt... (eg low level anxiety...).

Please do try, - avoidance of mask wearing increases your panicky feelings towards them... That's how anxiety is maintained ... By avoidance.

People-who-don't-fancy-wearing-masks-so - don't... Mean that ECV people are more at risk and less able to be in public.

We ALL have a responsibility to each other.

If you can wear underwear then you can wear a mask !

That’s the exact reason why all those grubby ones that most of us keep screwed up in our pockets are so pointless and ineffective anyway.

If you wear clean knickers every day, you can walk masks. I wear a clean one every time.

But masts are not a requirement anymore.

Wellington boots on a muddy walk aren't a legal requirement either, but they are a sensible choice.

Same goes for contraception if you don't want a baby.

We make choices every day of the week that protect ourselves and others and very few of them are required by law. Wearing a mask is a tiny inconvenience. Anyone would think they were asking people to wear a mask made of razor wire and horse hair the way some people go on.

@Mango101

If you can wear underwear then you can wear a mask !

Great minds @Mango101

[quote FuckyNel]@Chunkymenrock

Breathe (rhymes with seethe.)
Breath (rhymes with death.)
Yes, I know I'll be torn to shreds, but it's helpful to differentiate.

👏[/quote]
Arse (rhymes with arse)

If you can't wear a mask wear a face visor.....simples!

I bet my entire house that you somehow would manage to breathe with an oxygen mask on if you had severe covid.

I am yet to meet a single "mask exempt" person who wasn't just being precious.