Masks. To wear or not to wear

[ripples101]

There are two premises:

1. Wearing a mask DOES help to reduce the spread of covid-19

2. Wearing a mask DOES NOT help to reduce the spread of covid-19

Obviously, only one of the statements above can be true.

First question: Which of the above statements do you agree with?

Next...

If you DO wear a mask, I think it's reasonable to assume that (for you), one or both of the following statements are true:

3. You do believe that wearing a mask does helps limit the spread

4. You do not have a physical or psychological reason that prevents
   you from doing so.

But if you DON'T wear a mask, then the reasons why could be any one (or any combination) of the following:

5. You have a physical or psychological reason that prevents you from doing so (but you still believe that wearing a mask does help reduce the spread)

6. You do have a physical or psychological reason that prevents you from doing so (but you don't believe that wearing a mask helps reduce the spread)

7. There is no point in wearing a mask because you believe that wearing a mask does not help to reduce the spread of Covid-19

8. You don't believe that you are at risk if you catch Covid-19

9. You won't be told what to do

10. You don't believe Covid-19 even exists

(11, 12, 13, etc. etc.) Insert any reason of your own here....

So the question to anyone/everyone.

Which number are you?

(You can choose more than one number!!!)

NHS pay is pretty poor - but if seriously looking for work www.jobs.nhs.uk/

[quote celan]@DameFanny Of course they're clean if they're washed regularly/thrown away. However, most people are neither washing them regularly not throwing single-use ones away after one use.

Who can afford to chuck away a reusable mask after one wearing, anyway?

I see people all the time pick their masks up from the pavement and put them on; they have them dangling round their wrists as they're walking along; they're on their chins or hanging off one ear. That's what I see, not the imaginary universe in which everyone complies with the 'don't touch your mask/throw it away/wash it daily' rules.

Most masks are pretty vile.[/quote]
So there should be a public information campaign on it - maybe suggest that to your MP instead of running masks as a whole down? It's like saying 'well no 5 year old I've ever seen washes their hands with soap without being reminded so why bother'

But enjoy your mouthful of wet polyester and foggy glasses while you make the conscious decision to set a bad example instead of a good one

And the mask evidence isn't 50/50. Don't be ridiculous @celan - you're doing the Trump thing of repeat a lie often enough people start thinking it must be true, but I see you.

No wet polyester here, thanks.

I did say that I use a scarf, though that seems to have been lost in translation.

Thank you, @alreadytaken
Will have a look...

Yes a scarf, I can read, was picturing you wrapped in something knitted and nasty

"Scarves/bandanas/ski buffs The lowest-effort option is also probably the least effective. In fact, they may even be counterproductive as they can easily become contaminated, move around a lot and are unlikely to fit snugly to the face. Ski buffs in particular are difficult to remove without touching the front, so should be avoided."

Taken from the Which website ^^

It does not increase the risk, so I dont mind wearing it if there is any chance that it hels decreasing the risk for me or someone else.

You missed out an option, OP. "I wear a mask because that's the rule".

As long as there are scientists and medically trained people who disagree with each other on the effectiveness of masks, I don't think it's reasonable to think that the general public is able to work it out based on their own hunches. In the absence of personal expertise, follow the damn rules (unless you are exempt).

@DameFanny

Yes a scarf, I can read, was picturing you wrapped in something knitted and nasty

Really? How odd. It's a Brora cashmere one. I have several elderly ones in different colours, dating back to my pre-DC days.

However, I must give off 'knitted and nasty' vibes.

I couldn't possibly comment

@lazylinguist yes, except for your last few words. Not (except if you are exempt) Wear your mouth and especially your nose, your nose, covered up in public. Never mind the rule. Make that one simple habit your rule, for your sake and every one else's.

If you are unwilling or unable to do that, stay locked behind your own door for the rest of your life, unless suddenly Covid19 vanishes from the earth.
Don't, don't don't, force other people to stay locked up by your own selfishness in going out with a disease-spreading nose and mouth, risking other people's lives .
(It's absolutely fine, though, after you have personally trained every molecule of virus in the world now and in future, so they can obey you and not go in or out of your nose and mouth, because you call yourself 'exempt'. Until then, you are not exempt from catching or passing on virus. )

That's all very well, 20mum, but dh and I are both teachers and have school age dc , and therefore all 4 of us are expected to be in multiple rooms of 30 kids every day, with nobody wearing a mask. Bearing that in mind, I find it hard to get worked up about the odd few exempt people wandering around mask-free tbh.

@lazylinguist anyone would take your view, in your shoes. (And hats off to the pair of you, by the way)
Teaching and lecturing has been traditionally done by assembling students in a building (except where it hasn't, as in Australia's outback, and other places)
The way things were done when Queen Victoria was alive need not be unchanged or unexamined.

Some of us watched the documentary about new style teaching (free on line to the public for some Eton lessons, and in multiple other ways, since Jenny Lee introduced O.U), it was interesting that one rapidly expanding method is costed at £6,000, which is not much above the £5,450 of State secondary schooling .

The firm is private, maximum groups of 15 students, individual careful attention, online of course, and results as you would expect.

Some State schools have rapidly switched to online and phone contact and issuing and marking work online, but others have regrettably not. You will have met excellent systems and heads, and colleagues, but no doubt others, too, who were middling to appalling!

Child mental health has apparently been boosted, away from fear of bullying . The featured private system keeps away from exercise lessons, though online coaching isn't impossible. They reasoned that the sociable side of education is best left to whatever a child chooses, and finds enjoyable or interesting. Pre covid19, and even since, to some extent, hobby and sports groups attended by choice introduce the student to those who are forming a group self-selected as having something in common, and they can switch to, or add on, something else as and when they wish.

99and

@shamalidacdak

By now anyone not wearing a mask is raising a flag to the world and shouting "hey everyone look at me, I'm the village idiot!"

I'm 5, by the way. And not an idiot, thank you very much.