If face masks are made mandatory...

[CathyandHeathcliff]

How long do people suspect they will be needed / kept mandatory?

@labyrinthloafer I thought in some places in Spain and other areas you have to wear one outdoors too.

It’s a joke, I won’t be wearing one, period. They can ban me if they like but there is no way I’m listening to the idiots making these poor decisions.

[quote Lissy23]@labyrinthloafer I thought in some places in Spain and other areas you have to wear one outdoors too.[/quote]
Scotland is only indoors and I think England will be too (of indeed they do it).

But I still think even in Spain the majority of time won't be in a mask-wearing situation.

@LabiaMinoraPissusFlapus

If they do become mandatory I definitely won't go shopping. Awful control, how dare they.

Honestly love, get a grip. Control? Yeah, trying to control a sodding virus.

Practically wearing a mask and wearing glasses is difficult. My glasses steam up and makes seeing out of them difficult. Shopping's a nightmare unless I wear my glasses down my nose then I can't see properly!

Well if it does become mandatory theres no debate, we will have to just crack on. I was out in the first day of non essential shops being open so I'm not risk adverse. However I could manage three shops. Everything was a ball ache but that's fine, I get it meeds to be so.

I went late morning to the Next sale too. But day to day I cant be arsed. I now feel I need a sid reason to go out. A thing I need to buy. Add in compulsory face masks and again i get it, but as said by a pp. A bit more of me dies inside.

Plus if I'm always in a mask my need to dress nice and buy makeup os less so less need for non essentials. Where would the point be? I was sociable before. Not anymore.

Basically yes I would follow the rule but I don't think I could be arsed to pretend it was all a new lovely normal. It's a faff and PITA which I can largely avoid by avoiding retail.

@Chessie678

I can’t imagine doing anything just for fun while wearing one. So I’d wear one to go to the doctors, supermarket etc. if I have to but won’t go to clothes shops, attractions etc. if you have to wear one. I don’t like my baby not being able to see me smile at him and can’t hear people properly when they have one on or make myself understood.

What worries me is how long the requirement will remain in place for. If it’s justified now with so few cases it could be justified on the same basis to prevent infection spreading at any time regardless of whether coronavirus is still around. I can see it being something brought in with no end date, no way to test if it’s making a difference and no clear rule about when the requirement can be lifted.

I know there is some evidence that they help to prevent transmission so can understand the rationale because it seems like an easy thing for the government to do but am surprised at how much I hate wearing one and hate the idea of a society where everyone wears one. I don’t think it’s something I’ll get used to or want to get used to. I think I’d be much more on board if people stopped talking about it being the new normal.

Absolutely. Flu is a perennial threat causing unpleasant illness to the majority and killing tens of thousands of mainly vulnerable people and filling up the hospitals every winter, but we do little more than tut when the A&E is overflowing every January. The actual viruses are different, but their impacts are very comparable.

The "new normal" is a steaming heap of bullshit. Things never revert back to exactly how they were, but they will go back 90% to how they were because human nature does not fundamentally change that easily.

DS had speech therapy when he was younger. Face to face contact with non verbal communication is vital to learning communication skills. Children will still see parents faces in the home, but it is problematic if they don't see faces in the community and a broad range of real normal human interractions. Children are members of our society and it takes time and experience to learn how they fit within it.

Honestly love, get a grip. Control? Yeah, trying to control a sodding virus.

Let's list how many we've sucessfully controlled.
I'll start with small pox.
Your turn...

Children are members of our society and it takes time and experience to learn how they fit within it.

I'm not sure they are in the new normal ....

I got fabric masks at the end of April and DP and I have both been wearing them since - I think the day they arrived was the day Nicola Sturgeon recommended wearing them in Scotland.

I hate wearing them, but I do - now it’s mandatory I am glad I had time to grow accustomed to them. I was in M&S foodhall today and every single person had one on, plus people queuing to get into the TK Maxx next door. I don’t plan on browsing clothes shops etc any time soon, but I can manage okay in the supermarket, post office etc for short periods.

I have quite bad hayfever which can make me cough so I hope if I do cough other people feel reassured by the mask. Annoyingly the second the mask goes on, my nose starts to run. No idea how I will manage my hair appointment in a couple of weeks.

My gut feeling is that masks will be a thing through winter.

Masks always have a gap for be at the top. I feel its unsafe as to me it'll just trap any germs in there. Lus I dont want to be tempted to touch my face when out shopping. I've been on board with the Scottish Gov fully up to this point. Now I think they are taking the piss though. Hopefully they will lift it within a month or two.

@slashlover, thank you I'm trying very hard to cover up for everyone's protection as well as my own. I have to at least try.......well I feel like I do anyway!

The petulant, immature responses in this thread blow me away, they really do.

Almost all other developed countries have already instituted this, with good compliance and limited whinging. The science is increasingly clear.

I can’t fathom it — unless it’s that most people here are in denial (reminiscent of the bizarre “it won’t affect us” BS back in March) and don’t want to be reminded the virus continues to menace us all.

*plus

I am really interested in how many people will actually be wearing masks effectively at all to make this more than a virtue signal, I have a couple of disposable masks I have nicked from the works stationary cupboard just incase this happened. IF I have to wear a mask they will be used over and over and never washed as I am not paying out for handmade pretty patterned FASHION washable masks. Then we have those with the pretty washable masks - how often do you really think they are getting washed? May have started each time but bit by bit the same mask will get put on as the risk goes down and left in the car just for the supermarket wash.

I wear a mask out and about, in 'indoor' settings; a FFP2 one, as I find FFP3 ones quite hard work. I wear a 3 if I know or strongly suspect the person I'm getting within 1m of is Covid positive.

A FFP2 goes a fair way in stopping you giving it to me; and me giving it to you. In Asda, I'm good with that.

I am amazed and fascinated to discover this new sub-group among us who absolutely will not wear a mask, come what may, despite everything (like yesterday's evidence that, yes, it does live in suspended particles ...).

I personally don't care for the need to interact with anyone in Asda. I smile with my eyes at people I want to, usually checkout personnel, while actually talking to them. But otherwise, I mask up and go.

@Miljea

I wear a mask out and about, in 'indoor' settings; a FFP2 one, as I find FFP3 ones quite hard work. I wear a 3 if I know or strongly suspect the person I'm getting within 1m of is Covid positive.

A FFP2 goes a fair way in stopping you giving it to me; and me giving it to you. In Asda, I'm good with that.

I am amazed and fascinated to discover this new sub-group among us who absolutely will not wear a mask, come what may, despite everything (like yesterday's evidence that, yes, it does live in suspended particles ...).

I personally don't care for the need to interact with anyone in Asda. I smile with my eyes at people I want to, usually checkout personnel, while actually talking to them. But otherwise, I mask up and go.

I am equally amazed and fascinated and shocked and shaking to think that you may not realise an awful lot of people have no idea what an FFP mask is. I do, alot dont.

Will the number of flu cases in winter decrease if masks are still mandatory then?

@Miljea how many strongly suspected covids are you encountering on a daily basis then? You must be mingling closely with thousands of people to achieve that feat.

Oh, an aside. An important one. I know exactly how to wear a mask. How to self-fit a FFP3. Not to touch it. How to remove it and dispose of it (relevant in an aerosol producing environment with an an actual Covid patient on a ventilator). Or even, once 'back in my car'.

There should be Public Health info on telly every evening about why, where and how- to wear a mask, or face covering.

Why isn't there? Because our government missed that bus and didn't dare risk an Amazon run on FFP3 masks when the NHS desperately needed them (and care home workers...).

Wearing a face covering isn't that hard, really.

TheMurk somewhat obviously, as a coalface NHS worker. 😉

@Miljea

Oh, an aside. An important one. I know exactly how to wear a mask. How to self-fit a FFP3. Not to touch it. How to remove it and dispose of it (relevant in an aerosol producing environment with an an actual Covid patient on a ventilator). Or even, once 'back in my car'.

There should be Public Health info on telly every evening about why, where and how- to wear a mask, or face covering.

Why isn't there? Because our government missed that bus and didn't dare risk an Amazon run on FFP3 masks when the NHS desperately needed them (and care home workers...).

Wearing a face covering isn't that hard, really.

Not sure what you are saying? Should we all be in FFP3 masks in our daily life? or you are "special" cos you know how to remove one?

If I go inside a public space wheee I can’t socially distance I wear one, not for my protection but for others but obviously it only works if the majority do it which is why it pisses me off on public transport where people have them but then take them off WTF... I find the disposable masks uncomfortable so I started using my keffiyeh. It’s cotton and I can tie it in a way that gives me a bit more free room inside so I don’t feel like I’m suffocating.

I wore one for the first time today. I hated it. I couldn’t breathe properly, my face was sweating andI was getting panicked. It can’t be healthy either, breathing in exhaled air. It is compulsory here (Scotland) now. I can’t even go to the supermarket unless it’s a very quick visit. I certainly won’t be going to any other shops either until I don’t have to wear a mask.

@TheMurk

I read something about promoting “cultural mask wearing” and how the Far East populations are so comfortable with this it’s now a standard way of life. And that Brits just had to embrace it.

And another little piece of me withered and died.

Oh good lord. Yes it’s a standard way of life because they’ve worked out that masks protect you and others from cold and flu, stop you sneezing over other people in hay fever season while also filtering the pollen so you don’t suffer so much.

None of this is mind control, it’s unselfishness.

Why on earth would that make a piece of you wither and die?