Wearing masks in the home

[Dontknowwhybut]

I don't understand why we don't wear masks at home. Given that it is the most likely place to pass it on, and associated witha lot of community transmission, wouldn't it make sense to do this? Obviously there would be issues with enforcing, but why protect strangers and not our families. (if they are protective)

I notice you haven’t engaged with any of the people who’ve posted on your thread’s objections

Yeah, I've noticed that too, they're not listening to a word.

This thread is so funny.

@Dontknowwhybut

Crazycatlady read the guidance. www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-potentially-infectious-people You only need to have symptoms and Public Health Officers will have these powers over you. If masks stop the spread and save lives then wearing them at home makes sense. Even if it just reduces, the risk slightly it's worth it. I agree if there's been no cases of covid in an area for 28 days why wear masks in the supermarket?

So how come we're not seeing people who test positive forcibly removed from their homes?

I hope I don't live near you, you'll have me locked up as I have a continuous cough (thanks to hay fever)!

Fucking insanity is rife in mumsnet

Well played OP.
People will never see how eagerly they've both submitted to and supported ideas just as stupid as this but just outside the home and for other people, though.

I need to leave MN soon. It is full of some very weird threads these days that make me think lots of people have gone insane !

This thread is bizarre. If you want to watch corrie in your mask crack on

@BigglesLiesAgain

Well played OP. People will never see how eagerly they've both submitted to and supported ideas just as stupid as this but just outside the home and for other people, though.

While I disagree that all the ideas/rules we've been submitting to are stupid, I'm surprised more people can't see that the OP is designed to make them us think critically about them.

Original poster this is your right and prerogative. Technically you are not incorrect. Technically you are actually (if somewhat extreme) logical as basically the more preemptive risk mitigation you undertake the less likelihood of person to person asymptomatic transmission even within your own household bubble of two or more people. However, being in regular proximity (ie unless you as a household are occupying separate floors or segregated parts of the house and say each to only occupy an individual floor or exclusively a separate suite of rooms) then given the repeat frequency and amount of close contact time - you will possibly only benefit from negligible marginal less risk as opposed to the inconvenience for normal household physical contact and full functionality and use of body language including facial non verbal communication.

How about getting regular testing if you feel you or your household has been potentially exposed and contaminated with Covid? That will confirm the necessity of further inconvenient Covid risk mitigation measures within your household including properly fitted masks etc.

@GermanSausage

Fucking insanity is rife in mumsnet

Agreed its bloody crazy town

Well I know you are being extreme to make a point but actually I have some surgical masks out away in case DH or I get ill. The plan is for the person who is ill to wear one as well as the person caring for them when we have to be in the same room for whatever reason ( bringing medication andd food, physically checking on them etc)

Also if the well one has to drive the ill one to the hospital for any reason . Otherwise we will try to stay apart as much as possible. This actually follows the original WHO guidance to wear masks if someone if ill

Obviously if the I'll person is too ill to put on their own mask then the carer will wear one and maybe help them to but if we are at that point the I'll person probably needs the hospital

WTAF OP? This place sometimes.

I get it now. The government keep changing the guidelines so that everyone gets confused and they can blame the populace. But it keeps going wrong because people keep complying. The OP is a government stooge trying to figure out what is a step too far so it can be the next rule change. Quick everybody say it's a good idea and you'll all do it or else it will be Boris's next big announcement.

I am probably the only poster so far addressing the original poster's slightly unorthodox more extreme (especially for UK anti mask avoidance heed immunity preferred tribes) scenario without being dismissive as if necessarily sheer lunacy or goading.

Essentially without the initial "what goodnesses are you serious" kind of reaction and if you think that in a household of two or more and possibly one or all of you may be inadvertently infected but currently asymptomatic (ie you were previously in a very close prolonged indoor enclosed air recirculating air public transportation carriage or workplace setting with someone who has since fell ill and indeed tested positive etc etc) then actually what the original poster wrote makes some sense! Believe it or not?

Don't all be rude and dismissive try to be kind.

We need more "be kind" as already a lot of angry unnecessary aggressive posters online here. They know who they are - usually the.ones who are militant troll spamming and possibly spreading hate using the f bomb at every opportunity but not subject to MumsNet rules as beyond reproach.

Stay safe and remember hands face space trace.

But it wouldnt help with community transmission because if one person in the household has symptoms/positive test everyone quarantines to in effect ensure no one else gets it.

Once that happens yes it would be up to the individual household and do a risk assessment in terms of masks. But you would need to go a lot more (have separate bathrooms/kitchens etc) to prevent transmission

@ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia it might make sense to some people, but it would be totally impossible. Just say DH and I sat 2m away from each other wearing our masks. What happens when we go to bed?

The other issue is how on earth would you enforce it?

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

Enforcement would be an issue but point being it is for the good of everyone in an infected household where one say one member of a couple is so far infected.

I have seen news stories months ago before even any testing- of couples living socially distancing upstairs and downstairs etc as the possibly infected household member had to self isolate because say a close work colleague was infected etc. Sounds weird but it was not necessarily rare!

Laws and enforcement are only necessary if you need to be told to keep yourself safer. I think most people would not need Boris (and Dom) to advise others nor mandate what is wise and necessary in a global and dangerous pandemic as to best practice for self Covid risk mitigation. We can see the difference between our Covid fatalities data and our generally entitled attitude of being militant and anti rules even if they are made into criminal laws to stop the Covid community transmission and save lives. Look at nations with fewest Covid fatalities and look at their government policies and importantly the serious and inconvenience the local populations will endure to survive with a hardship for a shorter term and long term optimistic outlook without Covid nor therefore any necessary measures. The anti rules non social distancing non face coverings Covidiots will mean possibly more fatalities and prolonged pain of use of masks etc which no one likes.

@ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia If someone is infected then it's a different issue but that doesn't seem to be what the OP is talking about.

I have seen news stories months ago before even any testing- of couples living socially distancing upstairs and downstairs etc as the possibly infected household member had to self isolate because say a close work colleague was infected etc. Sounds weird but it was not necessarily rare!

This would be impossible for us. We are resigned to the fact that if one of us gets it the other will as we cannot isolate from each other.

Laws and enforcement are only necessary if you need to be told to keep yourself safer. I think most people would not need Boris (and Dom) to advise others nor mandate what is wise and necessary in a global and dangerous pandemic as to best practice for self Covid risk mitigation.

Boris and Dom cannot tell people to wear a mask in their own home as a matter of course. There is absolutely no way the majority of people would comply and that's not being militant it's recognising that we are heading down a very slippery slope if the government start telling us what we can and can't do in our own homes.

Early on, people isolated from family in their own homes when they had reason to believe that they had contracted the virus. They quarantined for a short period and then they and their family could assume they were clear and go back to normal.

Currently, all of us need to assume that we may have the virus all the time. That every time one of us leaves the house for any reason that we are bringing the virus back with us. Isolating from family in this current stage of the pandemic would require extreme levels of constant germ vigilance in the home. Every surface, every exhalation for a period of two weeks every time someone had contact with the outside world, the counter restarting every single time someone left the home or had contact with the outside world.

If I knew someone who was living like that, covid would be the least of my worries for them.

If I knew someone who was living like that, covid would be the least of my worries for them.

Exactly!

Can't remember who it was now, but there was a piece on Sky News some weeks back about a PHE funded body of research scientists who were discussing this very thing.

Having been directed to their website there was information on how you could keep yourself safer from Covid, and indeed all other viruses, if masks were worn at home and social distancing was carried out. They seemed to advocating this should happen even without Covid. And cited that with small children this was especially a precaution to consider.

So masks at home all the time. And social distancing.

I came away thinking that even I've severely misunderstood. Or these people need to get out of the research lab a bit more.

I saw the same thing @tobee. I remember thinking I'll take my chances rather than live like that.