How long will we need to wear face masks for?

[Dualipa]

Just wondering when people think wearing face masks will ease?

This is the new normal don't you know! There will be masks, plastic screens and bloody dots of the floor FOREVER. Even once covid is no longer fashionable, they'll be lots of other scary pathogens waiting to jump out and make you feel a little bit poorly.

I am certain you are not very ugly @thunderthighsohwoe!

[quote Derbygerbil]@PhilCornwall1

For all your talk of enforcement, I’ve seen 100% compliance when out today... For all the bluster of the anti-maskers, people seem pretty compliant. As with all things, once things have become the norm, it will become a non-issue.[/quote]
It's apparently variable around here. I wouldn't know, I haven't been around the shops and not planning to. I'm exempt from wearing a covering, but can't be doing with any hassle from people, as I'd probably lose my rag, so I'll just stay away.

As far as the enforcement is concerned, whilst I have my own thoughts on masks, I actually do find it pretty poor that some forces have actually said they won't take action, yes there are people who legitimately can't wear them, but they have sent a pretty clear message anyone will get away with it.

@SengaStrawberry Thanks but I honestly am! Have an underbite and not allowed on the waiting list for surgery until I’m done having children. I look like a bulldog.

I do wish more people were like you though!

Do some of you realise it is not just us lot in the UK being asked to wear masks?

About 90% of the world's population are being asked to wear face coverings. There's a nasty pandemic, it affects everyone on the planet.

Some people like Dino can't wear them due to PTSD, others have lung capacity under 30% and find wearing them uncomfortable. However, the vast majority of us could behave like responsible world citizens and do our bit to protect people in our communities and those less fortunate than ourselves.

I hate wearing them.Seeing everyone about with one reminds me of the zombie apocalypse. It just reminds you how abnormal everything has become and it's rather depressing. Saw a woman today get a telling of for pulling her mask down to ask a question to the security guard who was marching around barking orders.The shopping centre was dead and if this is the carry on I'm not surprised.

“ For all the bluster of the anti-maskers, people seem pretty compliant. ”

People have been saying this all along and I don’t know why the “wear the fucking mask” lot were so worried. There was never going to be enormous numbers not wearing masks, because as lockdown demonstrated (when we were apparently more compliant than expected), people will comply with mandates and I expect those who can’t wear them are too inhibited about being “called out” at the moment

(Before I get jumped on, I’m not anti-mask at all, but I do think people should be allowed to express their discomfort about wearing them.)

However, the vast majority of us could behave like responsible world citizens and do our bit to protect people in our communities and those less fortunate than ourselves.

Exactly... And I wonder how many in other countries are saying “that’s it, I’m going to stay at home til they stop making me wear this nasty mask, and there’s nothing you can do about it. See if I care if shops go out of business... That’ll learn ya.” like a stroppy six year old.

Sadly mask wearing does not appear to be a visual reminder about distancing - all the people who have encroached on my personal space (in a way that would have been rude before coronavirus) have been wearing masks. I’ve also seen lots of comments about mask-wearing being an alternative to distancing so I think hoping that it serves as a reminder is optimistic

People in other countries complain just as much, you’re just not reading their media (or social media)

They’ll lift the rules because people won’t shop, get take out etc. Public transport will stick.

There hasn’t been a covid hospital admission in Scotland since 12 July.

I too would love to know when this circus will end?

Retail sales near pre-lockdown levels in June BBC etc

I wonder if this will stick

Exactly... And I wonder how many in other countries are saying “that’s it, I’m going to stay at home til they stop making me wear this nasty mask, and there’s nothing you can do about it. See if I care if shops go out of business... That’ll learn ya.” like a stroppy six year old.

Or maybe people will stay at home and online shop because it's easier, no masks required, no one way system, no rules, you can touch things and for clothes actually try them on. It's not about being a stroppy six year old but about not spending money on something that used to be enjoyable but no longer is.

Japan had a bad influenza year in 2018.

2016 was a bad year for bird flu in S. Korea. S. Korea had the world's biggest MERS outbreaks in 2015, of course.

"Influenza remains a serious public health threat in Taiwan. During 2017–18, Taiwan experienced two seasonal influenza epidemics caused by A/H3N2 and B, respectively."

A bad influenza outbreak closed Hong Kong schools for 2 weeks in 2008. This followed their brush with SARS in 2003(?)

if wearing masks to prevent passing your germs on was so ingrained & habitual & so effective in these places, then why did these outbreaks happen?

God knows. I've got quite a few in anticipation this being a long haul

I went out today in one, I admit it I hate it, I was in and out really quickly. The shops and lovely farm shop/garden centre were VERY quiet.....

I think next spring.

I don't think the masks are necessarily completely for the now. But rather to make them the norm so when wk get hits and we add flu to covid it's something we are use to.

It doesn't bother me. And I think it'll feel more natural when in jeans and jumper rather than like today when I had shorts, g shirt and flip flops on!

When we add flu to covid?

Please tell me when you last wore a mask during flu season?

I hope not long. I hate them - they're hot and uncomfortable and I don't think they're necessary at this stage in the pandemic. I'm complying because it's mandatory and I don't want to feel like a social pariah in public.

I don't think the masks are necessarily completely for the now. But rather to make them the norm so when wk get hits and we add flu to covid it's something we are use to.

Yes, the actual risk in most shops is very low at the moment, but the Government want to normalise masks before infections start to rise, and to minimise any rise, due to a combination of the population becoming more lax and nights drawing in. If they tried to bring it in in September, after infections were on the up (as they likely would have), and the opposition had been calling for masks for months, they’d have been roundly and rightly criticised.

I think mandatory masks have definitely changed the tone of many people’s outlook on Covid. A couple of weeks ago, many people were tending more and more to act as though “it’s all over”, some hairdressers were even dispensing with any PPE, and to all intents and purposes, Covid was being treated as history. Masks have raised the consciousness again, which is exactly what was necessary if we’re not to go the way of Texas or Florida. People - me included - didn’t want to be reminded and inconvenienced, but they needed to be. A mask is a reminder every time anyone goes out.

Please tell me when you last wore a mask during flu season?

The NHS often barely copes with flu over winter... Add that on top of Covid (which is 10 times as fatal), and you have a recipe for disaster if things are allowed to just run amok.

No hospital admissions since 12 July, current infection rate is around 1 in 13000 in Scotland. In total a current pool of 400 infectious people in a population of 5.45 million.

It IS over.

@Derbygerbil are people going to get flu and COVID at the same time now? Or concurrently? Or are the people who don’t get covid getting flu and vice versa? Please.

Wouldn’t have thought until next virus season is over.
Some people are finding them beneficial so I imagine they’ll be a much more common sight in the UK ad infinitum, as they are elsewhere.