Well, well, well face masks mandatory on public transport now

[Cherryghost]

It's now mandatory to wear face mask on public transport with exceptions for disability, young children etc.
This should have been done ages ago.
They also admitting face masks offers some protection

I’m waiting to hear if it’s going to be mandatory for staff as well. I have panic attacks if I have my nose and mouth covered. I also spend 8hours per day on the front of a train. Some of us can’t just give public transport a miss for the next 6 months.
I would imagine it would be compulsory for staff.
Do you drive the train and are in a separate compartment? In that case maybe not because you are not in contact with others.
A visor might work for you instead - your mouth and nose would be much freer than with a mask on.

I also think insisting on wearing face masks in the summer is pathetic. If you're that fussed about not getting it then dont use public transport. Oh and if everyone been obeying rules about being confined inside the risk is minuscule anyhow. The daily death toll is tiny

@YoTheGinPussyOfStMawesOnThigh there’s the spirit! Silver linings and all that.

Of course some people will be unable or unwilling to wear a mask on public transport. That's ok as they can simply not use public transport.

Those same people will be forever barred from becoming surgeons and would have to live with it.

I got masks which have a foam / sponge like texture and one way valve on them, which feel ok on, the straps go around the ears, not tie at the back and your glasses don’t steam up with those them which is a bonus.

I'm not a surgeon and can avoid being a surgeon. I will find it difficult to avoid going to work if I'm required to, given I need to provide for myself and my child, and the only way I can get there is in the bus. Are people really that naive that they think that nobody is forced to use public transport due to work ?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3908571-isn-t-the-solution-everyone-in-n95-masks

This is what I posted. The responses are interesting.

@MeadowHay

I'm not a surgeon and can avoid being a surgeon. I will find it difficult to avoid going to work if I'm required to, given I need to provide for myself and my child, and the only way I can get there is in the bus. Are people really that naive that they think that nobody is forced to use public transport due to work ?

I would say self-absorbed, ignorant and lacking in empathy rather than naive.

And come off it, simply not using public transport isnt an option ffs. People have to go to work. I'm swinging between finding the absolute hysteria of some posters hilarious , and being furious that the headless chickens seem to be influencing public policy.

Meadowhay if you were driven by the urge to do the best by others, as a surgeon is, you'd wear a mask. If you need to take public transport (as I do to work) you'll wear a mask. We are not all as skilled as surgeons but we can all be as selfless and public spirited. I'm sure you have it in you if you try. Don't blame anyone else if you won't.

Let's have bingo cards ready for the piles of discarded masks on the ground outside stations, and at bus stops. Also the tweets of public figures failing to wear masks. Will Saint Dominic wear one, the patron saint of judgement and common sense?

Once the situation has stabilized the requirement will be removed.
Will it? I'll believe that when it happens. Meanwhile, I will wear one extremely grudgingly until my rightful sector of work (recreational sport) has resumed. It's yet another mandate announced with no end date in sight, like the highly damaging lockdown itself. All this is an extremely slippery slope towards 1984. They said they'd review lockdown every 21 days, then changed it to 28 while our backs were turned; it will be once a year before we know it. The government have also made it impossible to have a general election, let's not forget that; also that Saint Boris said "we can turn this around in 12 weeks". Not long to go until that deadline now.

Meanwhile (kind of light-hearted), for the anti-mask crowd, here are a few rebellious things to wear on public transport:

• Crash helmets, or masks used by welders.
• Hooded onesies turned back to front, so the hood covers the face.
• Hoodies which zip up over the whole head, perhaps with a skeleton design (I know someone who has one, usually only worn at Hallowe'en).
• Slogan masks, saying things such as "this is NOT my new normal", or "Boris/Dominic doesn't wear a mask", or "oops, I touched my face to put this mask on".

@noostrich Thanks for sharing that, highlighting all the contradictions so clearly. We need a similar list with all the muddled Boris-isms.

Fuck me. We have a No Deal Brexit confronting us in less than a year. Yet we're all whiny 'I can't wear a face covering, because...!' - whataboutery, smeared all over sites like this.

We are pathetic.

Put something over the breathing holes in your face when you're in public, like much of the planet now does as a matter of course, to stop you potentially infecting me.

If you feel, and feelz is important... that you need and, hey, deserve an exemption, go see your GP and get that sick note printed.

I'd suggest 99% of people who'd qualify for an exemption already know that and will take the appropriate steps, maybe being able to piggy-back off their shielding letter.

It Really Isn't That Hard.

Wow, the ablesim is astounding. If it I was more selfless and public spirited, I'm sure my autism and anxiety disorder would just magically disappear! Thanks, I will have to ask my GP to prescribe that for me next time I have a consultation.

Please someone tell me why it's not ok to say "All lives matter?"
I completely 100 percent agree that there is systematic racial abuse against black people. And black lives are and should be equal to ANY LIFE. I feel like if I even dare say 'I agee...' but...all lives also matter. Life matters? Then I get accused of being ignorant, white privilege, and even RACIST???
I defend anyone who I see come under attack because of race. I actually almost got beat up off a group of thugs because they were shouting f@#£ n##££ in front of my children. We had to run away but I stopped and told them how dare they!! Then they stated throwing bricks at us and I had kids with me. So I do not tolerate racism AT ALL!! I just don't understand why I can't agree with the BLM movement and ALSO all life on earth matters??

wanderings to be fair, our backs weren't 'turned'; we, in this post-truth age just don't care.

BoJo called us completely accurately. The clamour regarding gettting Cummings sacked has abated, because so many of us don't care about accountability, truth, integrity, cos- 'they're all the same, innit?'

Thus- make everyone wear face masks. From this thread alone, it is evident that 'exceptionalism' is rife. Maybe I don't care about your exception, given that our government doesn't care about exception in its own back-yard? And we all go 'Oh, okay, then'.

Blahblakidontcare this is a thread about wearing a mask. Sometimes you have to show your solidarity with people who experience much worse treatment than others in society. If you accept racism exists then accept that being murdered by the police is unacceptable. No need to dilute that fundamental expectation. Full stop. Meantime, know where you're posting.

@Blahblahidontcare

Please someone tell me why it's not ok to say "All lives matter?" I completely 100 percent agree that there is systematic racial abuse against black people. And black lives are and should be equal to ANY LIFE. I feel like if I even dare say 'I agee...' but...all lives also matter. Life matters? Then I get accused of being ignorant, white privilege, and even RACIST??? I defend anyone who I see come under attack because of race. I actually almost got beat up off a group of thugs because they were shouting f@#£ n##££ in front of my children. We had to run away but I stopped and told them how dare they!! Then they stated throwing bricks at us and I had kids with me. So I do not tolerate racism AT ALL!! I just don't understand why I can't agree with the BLM movement and ALSO all life on earth matters??

I guess it’s the equivalent of going to a hospital with a broken leg and asking for it to be fixed, and being told ‘yes but all your other bones are also important’. ‘OK but fix this one urgently please’, ‘no but have you thought about the other bones in your body and how important they are???’

Virtually the whole world routinely wear masks/face coverings on public transport... What’s the big deal? It’s the UK’s tardiness in adopting any measures such as this which has made our death rates worse than anywhere else.

The irony is it’s those people that have been so resistant to taking any measures that impact on normality - bewailing every action taken - that will be the reason we’re one of last countries to get back to normal!

Those people that “just want their lives back to normal and go to the pub” and are refusing to social distance, are the reason for Covid infections in the UK not falling as fast as elsewhere, and also therefore the very reason pubs won’t be opening any time soon! Sheer bone-headed stupidity - they don’t see their shooting themselves in the foot!

I just find it hard to believe that if our lives depended on it we'd not put on an oxygen mask, have anaesthetic or have a incubating tube inserted. Thats where we are.

@bouledenege ridiculous analogy

Lives do not depend on homespun face coverings

@MeadowHay

I’m sorry that you feel people have been ableist, and can understand your anxiety. A light scarf would be enough though - you don’t need a full-on face mask... they aren’t nice to wear for long periods.

However, the Government can let policy on something like face coverings be dictated to by the few that have issues with them....

Meadowhay get your exemption letter printed! That's your best bet.

You may be looking for trouble where none exists.

I have (once! 😂) waved my NHS badge at the Waitrose queue bouncer to gain preferential entry. No one rioted.

Once the situation has stabilized the requirement will be removed.
Will it? I'll believe that when it happens.

Yes it will. I was not able to believe at first that the requirements would be removed any time soon here in the EU country I live in. We have had to wear the damn masks everywhere. From the 15th June the requirement is to be removed apart from public transport. I see no reason to believe that the requirement will not be removed from public transport at some point.
Our government told us at the end of March when they made masks compulsory that we would be wearing them in all enclosed public spaces until a vaccine is found. No vaccine yet but masks no longer compulsory from 15th June.
They also told us we would not be able to travel abroad anywhere to neighbouring countries until a vaccine is found. We will be able to travel to several countries from the 15th June.

I really don't know why so many people seem to think that once a government introduces a measure to try to reduce the spread of corona, the said measure will be in place for ever.

As for the face masks: they are compulsory on public transport. That means you have to wear them. If you have a medical reason why you are not able to wear one you are exempt. It will be interesting to see if the UK government says that people must carry a doctor's note to prove their exemption or whether self-declaration is sufficient.

Mascotte How dramatic are you! 'Lives don't depend on homespun masks'

Well, er, maybe some do. Maybe your silent Covid cough, wearing your homemade mask, stopping droplets 1cm from your mouth will stop the spread.

Where's your science contradicting that?