What a surprise "wear face coverings"

[BruceAndNosh]

As above

[midwestsummer]

They can steam up my glasses but care putting them in helps with this as does a little fine wire on the nose bridge.
Honestly it has been happening for a couple of weeks where I live as part of the gradual release of lockdown.
It isn't that hard.
It is to protect other people.

[Teaandbiscuitsallday]

I've got a diy mask used for sanding. I saw a old man wearing a gas mask in the supermarket.

[Alessi89]

The problem is that it relies on others wearing them to protect you (ie they primarily protect those around the wearer).

As the responses here show, there are enough selfish a-holes around who think that guidance/rules don’t apply to them.

If it’s worth doing, just make it law and fine those who don’t comply, like most other countries.

[jobhunter7]

@Alessi89

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/304397?fbclid=IwAR2RIltpNFzG9Tj2UJDm6LhN_9YGw_X73hz_JsrDpk5Vquq9nNj6yP0bi5U

[IceCreamAndCandyfloss]

Not to mention the fact that they are unsafe unless you've been trained in how to fit and wear them properly

Why unsafe compared to a scarf or bandana?

[jobhunter7]

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/petition

[Frequency]

Because they're uncomfortable which leads to people touching/readjusting them.

[KickAssAngel]

The easiest way for the virus to transmit is via water droplets in a person's breath.

Once those droplets land on an object, the virus does live for a while (anything from minutes to (maybe) a day or two, outside of lab. conditions) so it's best not to touch lots of things, as we all constantly touch our faces/clothes/hair etc. But, that still means that other people's breath is the most dangerous thing carrying the virus.

So - the best thing is to make sure you're not breathing in someone else's expelled breath. This can be done by :
staying away from other people
keeping more than 2 metres apart if you need to be where others are
wearing a mask/covering that cuts down the number of water droplets passing through

It's always a good idea to keep your hands away from your face; our hands carry a lot of germs/dirt/bacteria. But when out in public, the moment you touch something then you could have the virus on your hands, so keep your hands off your face and wash them frequently.

However - this still doesn't affect the fact that the easiest way to transmit the virus is via the water droplets in someone's breath, so keep something over your nose & mouth to protect you and others.

[CocoCorona]

He didn’t mention it last night because, can you imagine?! Having to tell the WHOLE country to dress up like letterboxes when you shunned people for wearing a face covering in the first place?

He’s a dumbass.

I’m sewing some masks today.

[LumpySpacedPrincess]

So will I need to wear one when I'm back in a hot overcrowded classroom in 3 weeks time?

[Maighdeann]

I was thinking about an experiment we did with nursery kids with a spray bottle to show how germs spread when you sneezed or coughed.

[Herja]

I've been using this pattern (it's got a click link to the pattern and step by step instructions at the bottom of the article), with non woven interfacing (so hopefully about 95%effective @Thelnebriati, thank you! That's reassuring). My sewing machine finally gave up, so I've been hand sewing, but they are so easy, it's no problem at all. It's also an easy pattern to adjust for different head sizes, should you want to.

[NamesNamesSoManyNames]

He didn’t mention it last night because, can you imagine?! Having to tell the WHOLE country to dress up like letterboxes when you shunned people for wearing a face covering in the first place?

This made me snigger.
I will wear a fabric face mask when I am indoors, eg on a bus or the supermarket.
Brought from Etsy for £7ish. The filters are more expensive but not sure they are strictly needed? They came with the mask, not sure if they need to be used or not- anyone know?

[JosephineDeBeauharnais]

I ordered a pack of 100 masks from a supplier on Amazon as soon as this was first mentioned and they came in about a week.

[LittleFoxKit]

They are not telling the public to wear medical or scientific grade face masks which are hard to source and difficult to wear for long periods. The guidence (and the science in journals and papers being currently released) advocate home made face coverings made from fabric (ideally a tight woven cotton) or at worse, a scarf/buff is better then nothing.

[jobhunter7]

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking

Alessi89 thinks this should be legally mandated. So I was just sending the link to let her/him try to make that happen.

I think most of us would prefer if more people were safe and this whole business was over. I personally don't object to covering my face when I go to the supermarket or if I have to take a bus.

[dodobookends]

As far as I can see from the BBC news website, it is recommended in enclosed spaces where 2m distancing is not possible, but not mandatory.

At least I hope it's not mandatory - I won't be able to wear one, I don't think. I'm horribly claustrophobic at the best of times and can't even wear a polo neck jumper let alone something on my face. I've had an oxygen mask on once when I was ill in hospital a few years ago and they had to take it off me, as I was totally freaking out and stuggling to pull it off. I had to hold it a few inches away from my face, which I could just about tolerate.

[PineappleDanish]

They are not telling the public to wear medical or scientific grade face masks which are hard to source and difficult to wear for long periods

The problem is that the general public is generally pretty thick and can't differentiate between "face mask" and "face covering".

[Devlesko]

You just need a pair of socks.

[Ciwirocks]

Curious to know why people would refuse to wear them if they can protect others from being infected by asymptomatic carriers. I think shops will ditch the queues now and just say people have to wear face coverings. We all just need to get on with living with this thing now and if wearing face coverings help reduce transmission then I don’t see why most people wouldn’t.

[geekaMaxima]

The science is pretty clear.

A cough or a sneeze releases several orders of magnitude more droplets into the air than a breath, and ejects them at force across several metres. If you are infected, these droplets are laden with hundreds of millions of virus particles. It takes only ~1000 particles of SARS-CoV2 to get into your body to trigger an infection.

Wearing a face covering - even a flimsy home-made one - catches some to most droplets from coughs, sneezes and breaths, and reduces the number of virus particles an infected person sends into the environment. It reduces the risk of other people breathing in your virus particles and becoming infected.

Airborne transmission is the primary means of infection for SARS-CoV2, likely accounting for >90% of transmissions. In an enclosed space with poor air circulation or recycled air, like public transport (or an office, or a school), it's very helpful to wear masks because one cough or sneeze from an infected person can infect many others in the same space (virus particles don't respect social distancing rules).

And if you don't believe me as a random sciencey person on the internet, here's a good summary from an immunologist and specialist in infectious disease.

[JosephineDeBeauharnais]

Any face covering is going to be difficult and uncomfortable for wearers as the weather improves through the summer. If we get a decent spell of hot weather we'll see much less compliance.