Challenges for Not Wearing/Removing a Face Covering

[Rockhopper81]

Just read this article:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/deafblind-sister-mask-train-lipread-a4508131.html Article]

I was really disheartened by it, and it must've been so hard for the sisters involved (as well as embarrassing and/or upsetting).

Do people think this is likely to become common place, challenging people for not wearing or removing a face covering?

I am just avoiding going out at the moment, as I have sensory difficulties around wearing a face covering. I hate confrontation. I'm told that the supermarket yesterday that my parents went to had a repeating tannoy message to the effect of, 'there will be people exempt from wearing a face covering, please respect this', but is this challenging of people likely to be common?

I'm trying really hard to wear one - practising at home, trying different materials to see if any don't overwhelm me - but I haven't succeeded yet. I don't go out much anyway, but if face covering is going to be the norm for a good while yet, I won't be going anywhere indoors at all if I'm likely to be challenged.

Can’t load your link, but I worry about going to the shops as unable to wear a mask. I’m not good at confrontation.
I have a Hidden disability Card but don’t feel
Comfortable going out to a shop now. I am going to work and back for the foreseeable and not entering a shop if possible.
Did a massive shop on Thursday evening to stock the cupboards up for a while.

Aargh - link fail!

Essentially, a woman and her sister were on a train, sister removed her mask for her sister to lipread (she has Usher Syndrome, so hearing and sight impaired - she is legally blind), and another passenger told her she was taking the piss and "deaf-blind my arse", as she couldn't understand it was spectrum disorder, but she was legally deaf-blind. The two sisters tried explaining to the other passenger, but she was having none of it.

It's just worrying to think people believe they have the right to question and police everybody else.

People have no right to challenge others as it’s none of their business.

Government advice is that the public are NOT to challenge other people about wearing masks.
Major retailers have made it clear that their staff will not be challenging customers about masks.
The Police have made it even clearer that they don't have the resources to challenge people about masks.
The whole thing is very peculiar.

My friend proudly told me he sits at the front of the bus if he can and asks everyone going past to put their mask on properly/put one on full stop 'because the bus drivers don't give a toss about enforcing the rules'.
I was lost for words.

^ same friend got well annoyed at the beginning of lockdown when a bus driver asked if taking their dog to the park was an essential journey, accompanied by a rant about how it was an essential journey essential for his mental health.

DH has severe asthma. He downloaded the exemptions thing to show people and also has a personalised letter from his GP explaining whats up. Along with his meds that he always has on him.

Yesterday, a bloke came over asking about his lack of mask. Another bloke was stood nearby. First guy asked about mask, DH told him, he accepted and left..he hadn't known here were exemptions at all and the reason he asked was apparently because his daughter had been struggling breathing yet didn't know she could not do it with a medical reason, I assume the poor girl can now breathe properly and is no longer putting herself at risk. Other guy heard this, he had been shuffling closer and closer anyway for some odd reason. Once first challenger had gone, 2nd guy stormed up to DH and actually shouted 'MASK!!!!!!!' in his face Some seem to be enjoying making people feel shitty.

Would love to know why it appears so many mask wearers think that they do not need to distance? Certainly seems like they think the mask makes them invulnerable to it.

This is sad and I can see why you’re worried about being challenged. In the version of this article I read the comments underneath were overwhelmingly supportive of the woman and her sister so I really think it is a small minority of the public who would take issue with exempt people not wearing a mask. It is unhelpful that police chiefs have talked about people being shamed into wearing them or barred from shops for not doing so without mentioning exemptions. I think it might take a few more stories like this for people to understand that there are exemptions but hopefully the need for some members of the public to try to police this will die down once the novelty wears off. In your position if challenged I would just say that I’m exempt but not engage any further.

It's awful. This type of behaviour should be treated as harassment. Shaming others and berating them in public honestly where do people get off. I work with hearing impaired people and some of them are telling me they are anxious about going out into shops and on public transport it makes me incredibly sad.

Who the fuck ARE these self appointed corona police?

Come on, someone on here must be....why do you feel compelled to be such an arse?

This pisses me off. The general public have no right to "police" people not wearing masks. People need to mind their own bloody business.

One of the worst things about this pandemic is that it’s given an unusual and irresistible sense of power to stupid people - like this woman on the train - but she’s just an extreme example. There must be a personality trait for people who lack the self-awareness, empathy and intelligence to understand that not everyone is the same.

I have asthma, but fortunately can tolerate a mask for short periods in a shop. Entered one yesterday and they were challenging people and offering masks, heard the person behind me after we'd entered joking they'd just said they had asthma to shut them up and it's so easy to just not bother. It's people like that who are going to make it hard for people like OPs DH and my friend DS who both have genuine reasons for not wearing them and are getting challenged by randoms.

I meant PPs not OPs, though sensory issues are definitely a genuine reason too.

Working link

www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/deafblind-sister-mask-train-lipread-a4508131.html

I think it's the people who thought it was their job to enforce lockdown its transferred to masks. Even filming people without one and putting it on Facebook

I agree. This pandemic seems to have turned people into vicious vigilantes, and social media just plays into the pattern. I've spent much of my working life out of country, some of which was in war zones like Kosovo, Rwanda and Bosnia. It always kind of fascinated me what it was that turned people against neighbours - what drives people to become what they become. Unbelievably, a pandemic in the UK has made me understand it. And how close to the surface it is within any population. We may not be in the throes of civil war, but it's the roots that lead to such things - having a "reason" to be scared of what "the other person" is or what they may do to you (whether that is a reasonable belief or not), the existence of some tiny (perceived) authority to dictate what is right and wrong, and the ability to get away with bullying behaviour whether by being seen as a "legitimate" enforcer or by anonymity. It's scary that we have legitimised this kind of behaviour - as massively evidenced in thousands of threads on this site.

Just throwing this out there.

@Jeremyironsnothing everyone knows what a mask is for so really no need for your post. This about people challenging people who can’t wear them for medical reasons etc.

@Jeremyironsnothing that's not relevant to the post. This is about whether members of the public have a right to challenge people who aren't wearing masks, which they do not.

If challanged just calmly ask your accuser to explain the scientific proof and give statistics as to the evidence of the benefits. The best they will come up with is a defensive, "the govt said.."

Blame the perfectly healthy people who aren't wearing masks - half the shopping centre I was in yesterday for example. Not that I've challenged anyone (nor would I), but its galling seeing so many people not following the rules when wearing a mask is absolutely shit.

Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development are interesting here. Not sure where train lady sits. Somewhere near the bottom.

owlcation.com/social-sciences/Lawrence-Kohlbergs-Six-Stages-of-Moral-Development

Thank you for the working link @SickOfThisVirus. 

I think it has bought out a vigilante 'streak' in some people - as you say, most likely the same people who thought it was okay to question people's movements in March/April.

And yes, thank you @Jeremyironsnothing - I'm well aware of the explanation for wearing them, but this isn't about that.

I do think there's an element of people who choose not to wear a face covering making others suspicious of everyone not wearing one (miss placed suspicion, but there nonetheless).

I also suspect the people challenging others will challenge the 'wrong' person at some point, and end up with more than an argument...

jeremyironsnothing

I've seen that pee post it's nothing to with a airborne illness and you ought to be ashamed posting it.