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?

@Rainbowheart1 I have found the silk pleated masks easiest to breathe in and don’t fog up my glasses like the other kinds.

"77th preparing us for plan B to come in
After they have had their jollies at COP26 of course."

Well, whoever they are, they've been pretty bloody lax in getting people to wear masks when it's mattered (like the last few months). So I really wouldn't get too paranoid about them.

The reason people are disapproving of the OP not wearing a mask in hospital has nothing to do with conspiracy rubbish. It's because it's actually dangerous to others. Especially in a hospital.

Don't wear it you don't have to it's not law

@JetRocket

Exactly!!! Me too.... i literally had to wear my mask whilst in hospital having contractions! When people say they cant breathe it does my head in ..obviously apart from genuine reasons

The masks are breathable. People would be dying of suffocation otherwise.

Well at a lot of these events only the help are wearing masks
Why?

I had dyspnea (air hunger) last year which made mask wearing a bit difficult

I could manage 20 to 30 minutes or so in a cloth mask but found the paper ones easier

Luckily I didn’t have to go to work or anywhere that required a mask for a prolonged period of time

In a hospital setting you should we wearing something to protect others. If not a mask then a scarf or a shield. As has been said before - if you get Covid you will have no choice, just like the rest of us.

We haven't stopped wearing them in Ireland, it is second nature now.
If you can't wear one or an alternative then there isn't much you can do.

. How do we look at measures that support people more than they restrict them - sick pay, better housing, healthcare investments, MH support? Why are those 'invisible' measures mentioned far less than mask mandates

Come on. you dont actually believe all the people who say they cannot wear a mask, actually cant. You cannot possibly look around you at and believe that

I don't think that way about other people and I'm usually paying too much attention to my own tasks, my own DC, and my own business to give much thought to what other people are up to. Having two disabled children also helps me to not make snap judgements about others based solely on appearances.

A better comparison would be supermarket workers who didnt choose a profession where masks were involved. But then found themselves having to wear one while pushing heavy cages of stock around and stacking shelves.

DM is a supermarket worker and staff who were exempt didn't have to wear them. They had the option of wearing a lanyard and/or badge and were given a choice of being on the shop floor or on the checkout behind a screen. National chain of supermarkets so not a one-off at some small shop either.

The thing about masks as an anti-covid measure is that they're not a magic bullet, masks alone are just theatre. Look at comments here along the lines of 'wear a visor (even though they're proven to be utterly ineffective) just so it looks like you're making the effort'. Masks only work effectively when they're worn/used properly and a lot of people don't do that, they fiddle with them or they wear them for too long without washing/changing them, they wear ill fitting masks with seams in the wrong places or not enough layers or made from ineffective fabrics, and so on. For masks to be effective there need to be other measures in place alongside them, look up the Swiss cheese model to see what I mean. No one measure needs 100% compliance which supports those unable to carry out that measure and the "holes" created are covered over by the other measures (e.g., vaccination, social distancing, ventilation, hand hygiene, etc).

So masks have a place but not in isolation of all other measures.

Wear a lanyard. At hospital a couple of weeks ago, everyone in the waiting was wearing a mask with one exception. Don’t think anyone batted an eyelid, she clearly had a reason.

This is the model.

Masks are useless as a stand alone measure, they need the other measures for them to be effective enough to be worthwhile. The flip side of this also is that if someone can't do any of the layers (e.g., mask exempt) then carrying out the other layers still contributes to their protection (and that of others).

Helps if I attach it

What do you mean you can't breathe? They don't stop you breathing. I'm not a big fan of them, especially as my asthma isn't great at the moment but we need to just crack on don't we.

Well I don’t know if masks are useless as such.

But I do know the U.K. is one of the worst counties in the world re number of cases AND deaths. And this all coincide with sopping to use masks etc…. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

This virus is airborne. Like it or not, any measure that will reduce airborne transmission will make a difference. Nit a magic bullet but then NOTHING is a magic bullet, not even vaccines.

I’d rather have lots of small measures in place that will actually make a difference than the situation we currently are in.

Clocktopus

This is the model.

Masks are useless as a stand alone measure, they need the other measures for them to be effective enough to be worthwhile. The flip side of this also is that if someone can't do any of the layers (e.g., mask exempt) then carrying out the other layers still contributes to their protection (and that of others).“

FFP3/N95s are a very effective stand alone measure, for the wearer as well as others.

Nit a magic bullet but then NOTHING is a magic bullet, not even vaccines. I’d rather have lots of small measures in place that will actually make a difference than the situation we currently are in.

Well me too but the government in their "wisdom" () removed them all. My point was that the focus on masks is pointless as masks alone aren't enough.

@Pan2 The asthma society does agree that they raise humidity though. Humidity is an asthma trigger for many people but do try and tell other people how they should manage their disease and it’s triggers.

FFP3/N95s are a very effective stand alone measure, for the wearer as well as others.

And how many beers of the public are wearing those as opposed to a disposable mask on its fifth wear because "it's still clean" or bits of stitched cloth from ebay that were last washed sometime in August?

I don't suppose anyone notices.

Masks were retained in Scotland and Wales and their cases are same if not worse than ours??

Today 21:05 Clocktopus

FFP3/N95s are a very effective stand alone measure, for the wearer as well as others.

And how many beers of the public are wearing those as opposed to a disposable mask on its fifth wear because "it's still clean" or bits of stitched cloth from ebay that were last washed sometime in August?“

No idea. My family are.

This time last year dh was seriously ill in hospital with covid , we were battling it at home,and I have psoriasis which decided to cover 80% of body at same time.
Dh recovered but he and several family have been left with long covid, and we lost a few family members.
It was horrendous.
In both N and S Ireland we still wear masks. Yes at times they are unpleasant but it bests covid any day.
I have made ones to suit some of us while dh prefers the snood type. There are so many types available, by wearing one it could save you from this dreadful disease.