If face masks are made mandatory...

[CathyandHeathcliff]

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

billy, about 4 or 6 weeks ago, on MN, I suggested 'wearing a FFP3 mask' was the answer to reigning in Covid.

I was ripped a second areshole. 😂😂

I'm 'special' because I know how to wear one. And to take it off.

It is, apparently, really hard to master, as it involves difficult concepts like 'don't touch the front of it; don't fiddle with it, don't yank it away from your face to itch your nose'... I know, I know. Deeply complex. I get why no one, other than those among us deemed as special, like NHS workers, couldn't grasp that. 🧐

The exponential growth when Covid is out of control is nothing like flu. I agree there needs to be public health info on tv about how to wear one - can’t believe it when you see folk on TV who have it over their mouth but not their nose.
But there is lots of evidence that it reduces transmission. The healthcare workers who will look after you or your family if you become unwell with Covid have no choice and have to wear PPE all day. We just have to wear it for a short time in a supermarket or an inside space . I get there are some people who have excellent reasons for being exempt but I wish everyone else would stop whingeing and being completely selfish about things

@TaxTheRatFarms I thought it was cultural that IF you were poorly/sneezy/snotty you wore a mask. My concern is here it is becoming wear a mask all the time. That is the difference in the culture.

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

It makes me feel that way because I struggle with masks due to PTSD and thus don't feel I can go anywhere which requires a mask. I have young children and currently feel like the most worthless shit parent on the planet because my 5 year old wants to do loads of stuff this summer which requires a mask. We've already had to cancel our end of September holiday because of the mask requirement on public transport. If they become a permanent thing, my life is over. I already can't access healthcare or shopping, what's next? Maybe we should just bring in euthanasia for pathetic people like me.

billy, one 'cultural norm' at a time eh?😉

They just give me the heebie jeebies. I’m sorry. I know this is my issue and it’s probably selfish but I won’t go shopping if they are made mandatory. I don’t go much now. I don’t even think I could see my friends if we all had to wear one.
I don’t know what it is-I don’t mind the feel of wearing one-I wear one at work.
Maybe some weird self conscious vanity thing on my part and just don’t like seeing other people in them because it’s strange? Maybe I’ll get used to it

@Dinosauratemydaffodils you are exempt. The legislation specifically includes mental health difficulties as a reason for exemption.

Miljea Non of this should become a norm - just a way through

Dinosaur every rule, ever, targets the majority, not the minority.

That's how democracy works.

I won't patronise you by saying 'I'm sorry that because of masks, you can't leave home ever again'. But I might suggest that it looks like mask wearing is, or will be - the new cultural norm. You may have to find ways of accommodating it.

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 interactions

Yet again, in East Asia where masks are commonplace, children aren’t scarred by this in any way. I lived there and my kids grew up there, my husband grew up there, so what you’re saying sounds completely different to the reality of life there.

I appreciate it’s different to what you’re used to, and change is always hard but honestly over there the majority of people wear masks in flu season and hay fever season, nobody collapses on the street because they can’t breathe in a mask, people aren’t hospitalised with mouldy lungs because of masks, and children don’t grow up emotionally stunted.

Without an effective vaccine, it (mask wearing) may well become 'the norm'.

Wish I could never 'go shopping' again; but we need to eat...

Just wear a fucking mask. There’s no need to make a massive bloody political and ideological screeching opera out of it - put a fucking mask (or scarf, bandanna whatever) on for the relatively few minutes you are in an enclosed space with other people to reduce the chance that they will become desperately ill. Stop bleating about yourself and your precious foibles and the outrages being committed against you because you have been asked to cover part of your face for a short period of time and think about other people. Just bloody do it.

Christ alive, you people piss me off.

[quote billybogeye]@TaxTheRatFarms I thought it was cultural that IF you were poorly/sneezy/snotty you wore a mask. My concern is here it is becoming wear a mask all the time. That is the difference in the culture.[/quote]
Once you’ve got through flu season, hay fever season then caught a random cold and had to squash into a packed commuter train where it feels like everyone’s snotting, there’s not an awful lot of the year left

you are exempt. The legislation specifically includes mental health difficulties as a reason for exemption.

Too many people don't think there should be exemptions and these threads have given me no confidence in the kindness of strangers. Besides it's not just my own terror when I've tried to wear one, I don't feel safe around people who are either, especially men because I can't read them from just their eyes. It's just easier to stay in.

There are some serious contenders for RADA on this thread!

I wear a mask in shops because it's polite and kind and really not that much trouble to do it. I also do it because if research from the WHO in the last few days is to be believed, we really don't know enough about non symptomatic spreaders of Covid and who knows, maybe that's me?

Don't want to wear one? Fine, but do everyone else the courtesy of staying a long way away please.

@Dinosauratemydaffodils

you are exempt. The legislation specifically includes mental health difficulties as a reason for exemption.

Too many people don't think there should be exemptions and these threads have given me no confidence in the kindness of strangers. Besides it's not just my own terror when I've tried to wear one, I don't feel safe around people who are either, especially men because I can't read them from just their eyes. It's just easier to stay in.

Well those people can bloody well do one. The law is really clear.

Oh Dinosaur that sounds a literal nightmare. I’m so sorry. I really really hope that people like me who can happily wear a mask, do wear a mask, that people who can wear a mask but just don’t want to can get over themselves and wear a mask so people like you who can’t wear masks are protected.

The more people who wear masks, the better the chance is of reducing the spread of the virus. I hope anyone who thinks masks are just mind control or muzzles reads a post like dinosaur’s and wears a mask to protect people like her who can’t.

@Armi

Just wear a fucking mask. There’s no need to make a massive bloody political and ideological screeching opera out of it - put a fucking mask (or scarf, bandanna whatever) on for the relatively few minutes you are in an enclosed space with other people to reduce the chance that they will become desperately ill. Stop bleating about yourself and your precious foibles and the outrages being committed against you because you have been asked to cover part of your face for a short period of time and think about other people. Just bloody do it.

Christ alive, you people piss me off.

This is a nasty way to talk to someone with ptsd.

Well said @Armi

I’m not talking to people with PTSD, I’m talking to all the fools who think it some sort of personal affront to cover their faces.

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

You seem to have ‘eradication’ and ‘control’ confused.

I hope they are made mandatory until this is over. I would be much more comfortable going out to shops etc if everyone was wearing them.

They'll be mandatory until there is a vaccine so I think they will be here to stay for a while. Where we are we have been wearing them since February and continue now even whilst temperatures soar to 32-34 degrees!

Dear god - do some of you know what masks look like ? They're small bits of cotton and they keep transmission rates of Covid 19 down. Ask the WHO.

Remember that virus Covid 19 that caused all the DEATHS. Maybe not to anyone you know. But there have been lots and lots of DEATHS. Look it up.

Wear the little cotton masks and get over yourself or stay at home like you're threatening.

And you know what in Asia and Japan where they wear masks a lot all the kids talk just fine.

Unbelievable.

@Armi 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻