Is mask wearing limiting your economic participation?

[byvirtue]

I knew mask wearing was mandatory in shops but I hadn’t heard about the new restrictions that have come out today www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53702291

I had planned to head to a spa for a couple of days this month for my birthday and we were going to book a staycation in a hotel in September. We would have easily spent £2k on these trips.

Now it seems that masks are mandatory for spa treatments and in hotel public areas we won’t be going. I personally find face coverings unpleasant and they significantly reduce my enjoyment so I'd rather not bother.

We are fit and healthy with money to spend and were happy to get out and spend money prior to face coverings becoming mandatory. These new rules mean the opportunities for us to spend money have been notably reduced.

I’m curious are these extended face covering rules going to lead to you spending more or less now?

No conversely use of masks and face coverings will allow many of us to finally feel more confident that Covid risk mitigation is taken more seriously (as it evidently has been globally with nations with much better health outcomes) and so will facilitate more opportunities to interact and participate in previous closed off business sectors and activities.

However all common sense Covid mitigation measures need to be optimised to minimise Covid risk at all times.

Nope. Wearing mandatory face coverings has not limited my economic participation. I'm going into shops (even some inessential ones) and I'm much happier in shops now that virtually everyone else in them is wearing one. I've not seen much of this fabled 'people abandoning social distancing once they're wearing a mask' that gets talked about (by anti-maskers).

What IS limiting my economic participation is social distancing. There are things I just don't think I want to do because they entail getting too close to people in enclosed spaces. Pubs, indoor eating, cinema ... I'm not doing any of those things because 2 metres or not, I don't believe it's a sensible idea to go somewhere enclosed and then stay in one place for a significant period of time. Shops are different, we're moving around and you pass other people quickly.

Other countries have SHOWN that face coverings work well to slow transmission. It's a PITA but unless we suck it up, we're fucked. There is NO medical Magic Bullet out there, the scientists are not going to come up with a Miracle Cure or a magic vaccine that lasts years. There is no high tech solution to getting through this and rid of this. There is only significantly changing our social behaviour.

So if you don't want to wear a mask, then don't, but please also stay away from other people.

So if you don't want to wear a mask, then don't, but please also stay away from other people

READ THE FUCKING THREAD Lots of us are wearing them but only going out to do essential shopping.

I understand the exponential function perfectly well and I can also read a thread properly so I understand that it is about choosing not to go to public places when masks are required, which does nothing to increase effective R, rather than going to public places refusing to wear masks.

Deep,

Well that is your prerogative.

But, as you can probably see, if you have read the thread, there are plenty of posters more comfortable going out when all are mask wearing and many (selfish) posters saying they are just going to not wear masks.

@larrygrylls

I have missed all the posters saying they won't wear masks. I have seen lots of people saying they will limit the time they spend in places that require masks (but wear masks as required) but very few saying they won't wear a mask at all.

[quote NewKittyMeow]@onlinelinda I’m not sure why it’s selfish to hate wearing one, or to limit the occasions where I have to wear one? As long as I DO wear one where it’s mandatory, what skin is it off your nose how I feel about it?[/quote]
It's because Covid is a vengeful God who will wreak havoc throughout the land if people say they don't like masks, even if they do actually wear one. We need to appease the wrathful God or else.

larrygrylls
You need to read my post properly before you respond. Nowhere have I said that i am not going out because of mask wearing. As it happens, I have a baby and a toddler which limits my spending in public far more.

@larrygrylls

Deep,

Well that is your prerogative.

But, as you can probably see, if you have read the thread, there are plenty of posters more comfortable going out when all are mask wearing and many (selfish) posters saying they are just going to not wear masks.

Would you care to pinpoint some of the 'many' posters saying they won't wear masks? ,17 page thread - I would expect 'many' to be at least 25 posters and I seem to have managed to miss all of them. Suppose you find 15 for a start. If you can

Sunshinegirl82 It’s clear that larrygrylls thinks it’s because people just don’t understand rather than because they understand perfectly but choose not to do things in a way they don’t find enjoyable. Perhaps he will explain again, just to make sure it’s really got through to everyone.

I suspect, unfortunately for our economy, that if you did a survey, you would find that the group of people saying they now feel secure enough, thanks to mask wearing, to go back to the shops, being more risk averse, doesn’t correlate with the group of people who, in normal times, would be splashing their cash around shopping spontaneously for goods and services they don’t really need.

I’m curious are these extended face covering rules going to lead to you spending more or less now?

I've been out more, wearing a mask and still maintaining SDijng.

I've been to France on holiday where we wore them far more than in England. I've been on public transport in England and France, in both I've been to attractions and visited restaurants.

Because we've worn masks a lot with being away we are now really used to them. Infact it felt strange being back in England and then not being needed so often. I've been wearing mine in England more than is required anyway, as it often makes more sense to have one on, especially in crowded indoor areas.

It's certainly not stopped me and my family doing stuff.

Yes, 100%. I am exempt from wearing a mask but i think this will screw an already struggling economy. So many people are now saying they're just going out for their essential shopping and then straight home again. I agree with a pp - if people are terrified to leave the house without wearing a mask, it's very unlikely they'll be heading to spend at leisure activities. The people that baffle are those walking the dog in the Park or walking along the road all masked up. Why? Surely it's better to get some fresh air while you can when there's next to no chance of catching it outdoors anyway?

@larrygrylls at no point does anyone on here say they are refusing to wear a mask! Maybe you are reading a different thread to me

If everyone had replied saying I'm going to go shopping and to the cinema and to the hairdressers WITHOUT a mask regardless of regulations then you might have a point, as they didn't you don't .

@larrygrylls at no point does anyone on here say they are refusing to wear a mask! Maybe you are reading a different thread to me

Nah. Lots of people just can't read. They use any thread with "mask" in the title to go off on their wee rants about "mask it or casket", how if you hate a mask you'll really hate a ventilator, how doctors wear them 12 hours a day, etc etc etc.

Not in the slightest. I have a couple in the car so just pop one one whenever it’s needed. It’s slightly unpleasant I suppose but far far less unpleasant than having to stay in.

Uhoh,

I am not trawling through the thread looking for examples (on my phone anyway, so hard to quote) but, from memory, one poster saying ‘It will be dark in the cinema so people will take them off anyway’ and another ‘when 20% rebel, I will just stop wearing them’.

And, in real life, when on tube in central London the other day, several without masks and many with masks either hanging around their necks or just covering mouth.

For those who have to have contact with people for work, the anti mask brigade are a real threat.

[quote SockYarn]**@larrygrylls at no point does anyone on here say they are refusing to wear a mask! Maybe you are reading a different thread to me

Nah. Lots of people just can't read. They use any thread with "mask" in the title to go off on their wee rants about "mask it or casket", how if you hate a mask you'll really hate a ventilator, how doctors wear them 12 hours a day, etc etc etc.[/quote]
Pretty much. It's like a shit comprehension klaxon goes off somewhere, directing those who refuse to read to come and moralise.

I’m no more or less likely to participate... I’ll
do what I want to do.... I don’t believe shopping is a particularly risky activity - at least the shops I’ve been in where it’s been easy to socially distance and any encounters of less than 2m are brief, but understand it’s not like that everywhere and masks at least mean people can’t get away from the idea that Covid is still out there - which I think many would if we hadn’t done so.

What was possibly limiting my participation was the period before 24th July, when I felt awkward either wearing or not wearing a mask given that about 25% of people wore them in my area before the rules came in. I much prefer the clarity that the rule gives.

Amazing how many loved to moralise about ‘climate emergency’ and BLM, when they needed to do nothing but virtue signal but, as soon as an actual behavioural change is required of them to help others, it is just ‘nah, not for me’ or ‘well I might do it but certainly not happily’.

@larrygrylls

Uhoh,

I am not trawling through the thread looking for examples (on my phone anyway, so hard to quote) but, from memory, one poster saying ‘It will be dark in the cinema so people will take them off anyway’ and another ‘when 20% rebel, I will just stop wearing them’.

And, in real life, when on tube in central London the other day, several without masks and many with masks either hanging around their necks or just covering mouth.

For those who have to have contact with people for work, the anti mask brigade are a real threat.

What exactly do people who aren't wearing masks when they're compulsory have to do with the issue of people who are wearing them where compulsory, but choose to minimise their participation in those situations?

It's not hard is it.

Those that avoid places that require masks are not the same people that go to those places and deliberately (e.g. no valid excemption) not wear as mask

@larrygrylls

Amazing how many loved to moralise about ‘climate emergency’ and BLM, when they needed to do nothing but virtue signal but, as soon as an actual behavioural change is required of them to help others, it is just ‘nah, not for me’ or ‘well I might do it but certainly not happily’.

What gets me are the climate change clamourers who are now fine throwing out masks, gloves, and pollute the environment with more toxic chemicals because they need to feel 'safe'.

Yes it's limiting me. Lots of day trips to museums and their associated cafes and shops are things I just won't be doing right now. Takes too much pleasure out of it.

We cancelled our week in France because of it. No.chance that a holiday would be relaxing if I'm constantly having to think about masks.

@Figmentofmyimagination

I suspect, unfortunately for our economy, that if you did a survey, you would find that the group of people saying they now feel secure enough, thanks to mask wearing, to go back to the shops, being more risk averse, doesn’t correlate with the group of people who, in normal times, would be splashing their cash around shopping spontaneously for goods and services they don’t really need.

Yes I would tend to agree with this!