Masks are here to stay aren’t they?

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JVT seemed to make that very clear tonight.

I’m gutted if this is true. I only have hearing in 1 ear and rely on lip reading more than I realised. I find masks awful and avoid going anywhere where I have to wear one .

I thought getting colds etc is good to build your immunity? I will stop wearing my mask as soon as it ceases to be compulsory. I can't imagine people taking their masks off each time they want to sneeze and then putting it back on. Catch it, bin it, kill it is good enough for me.

I think they'll be here until Easter, at least, because it will take that long to vaccinate the 3rd of the population that is over 65/vulnerable and NHS staff/carers. There might be a sea change after that, once the weather warms up and there is a perception that we are on the home run.

I don't really like shaking hands with strangers, or hugging casual acquantainces at social gatherings (eg Christmas and NY parties, where you're thrown together with people you might only see once a year), so I'll be happy if a degree of social reserve continues. I think it would be good if people wore masks during winter on public transport and in shops etc, to keep colds and flu at bay, but time will tell as to whether people will stick with this.

I've just made a few masks for the family with some pretty fabric featuring holly and red berries... seasonal but not overly Christmassy. My niece is a teacher and says she can never have too many masks, as she needs to change them throughout the day.

Masks will disappear quickly once we get vaccinated. They will become a hallmark of the anxious and ocd individuals. We will walk past people and think 'health anxiety' when they are wearing one.

We will be less keen to shake hands, kiss on cheeks and hug though. I was never that comfortable with hugging or kissing people who I don't have a close bond with so that suits me. There will be a definite effect on these activities going forward.

I won’t be wearing it. I wear it now but I won’t be wearing it a second longer than I need to.

Well.... I'll be keeping mine. Seems like a good idea to wear if I'm sick so I don't spread it around. If I'm feeling fine, yay. But if not...might as well keep that shit to myself.

I'm buggered if I will be wearing a mask for a moment longer than required. Horrible things. I'll wash them and keep them in a drawer in case they come in handy again but I certainly don't want to keep wearing them.

Perhaps they should only be mandatory for vaccine refusers, though that would be a controversial, impractical and unenforceable thing.

@Spidey66

What's JVT.?

Weirdly, I didn’t have the option to quote your post where you’d googled it.

TBF, he’s been on the televised briefings a number of times where he’s been referred to as JVT, so I don’t think the pp have been trying to be obtuse.

Keeping up with acronyms over the last couple of decades has definitely increased!

I only wear a mask in shops and they give me a sore throat (I wash mine thoroughly every time I’ve used one). Masks also trigger my PTSD after a while (I panic at the thought of wearing one on a long train ride) so I will be happy and relieved when they’re not mandatory. I think the antibacterial spray and blue paper for cleaning trolleys and baskets should stay. For those saying they like social distancing because they don’t want people kissing them on their cheeks and shaking their hands... just say no to then first and wash your hands after hand shaking. Open your mouth.

I love the personal space, and I hoe people who have a cold wear a mask and use hand sanitiser in the future out of respect for others and lessening the risk of passing it on.

It would be great if this meant fewer coughs and colds next winter.

I don’t understand the “keeps my nose warm” thing. You’ve always had the option of wrapping your scarf around your face or wearing a neck gaiter that can be pulled up when it’s cold. Don’t you know how to dress for winter?

I will happily burn mine as soon as the government catches up and realises that they’re fairly useless amongst the majority of the general public. I also don’t think it’s wise to overly avoid catching common winter viruses. Yes they’re an inconvenience and nobody likes to be ill but at the same time they build immunity and protect against dying from something simple in later years. There are already more children with allergies and growing up in an overly disinfected world without adding even more human barriers to virus spread. As it is the nature of viruses to adapt and overcome obstacles, I’d be cautious as to how some might mutate to ensure maximum spread amongst mask wearers if they became common practice.

I think that they will probably end up not being compulsory but many will wear them, a bit like some of Asia before the pandemic

As an aside JVT, apparently that is what he is known as, is on BBC this morning at 8:30 to answer questions

@Sitt

I don’t understand the “keeps my nose warm” thing. You’ve always had the option of wrapping your scarf around your face or wearing a neck gaiter that can be pulled up when it’s cold. Don’t you know how to dress for winter?

??

You are also recommending a face covering. So the basic solution is the same. It's just that some people find masks preferable to larger fabric versions that are less firmly anchored.

Really don't see what's hard to understand about the differences, or that people have their own preferences

You misunderstand. The solution isn’t a new one. I don’t care whether people wear a mask or scarf or whatever, it’s just always presented as this great side effect to mask wearing that was always something that could be achieved before.

I will stop wearing my mask as soon as it ceases to be compulsory.
Same here. I have never bought a mask, just use the disposables given out free at school and only when it is specifically obliged (in school corridors at changeover time and if I really have to go into a shop that requires them -luckily the petrol station doesn’t).
In my secondary where mask wearing is only confined to corridors we have had only one teacher case and two children an no groups or bubbles sent home, so mask wearing is getting rarer even among those who were obsessive at the outset.

It’s a relief that the prevailing view on here is to get rid of them -from some of the threads you get the impression that most people are irrationally desperate to keep them and make even children wear them everywhere forever.

I'm so bored and fed up with coronavirus I don't watch/listen to every single briefing on it, and certainly not enough to take on board everyone's names, let alone their initials. So shoot me.

@kittensarecute

I don't mind masks but I hope social distancing is ditched at the earliest opportunity!

Can I ask why?

Personally, I think this should stay. I have felt more and more uncomfortable about strangers being up my grill or touching me when not permitted prior to covid. I want the distancing to continue.

As for masks, I will wear them much more comfortably now in situations such as public transport and crowded places.

I wonder if the posters giving it: "Mask wearing shows you CARE about your fellow humans," have even thought to how isolating and difficult it is for people with hearing impairments, as mentioned in the OP?

I am profoundly deaf and have previously managed fine when out and about via my hearing aids and lip reading. Now it is fucking awful. I actively avoid having any interaction in public; I can't even interact with my own husband and children when in public because I don't know what they're saying with masks on. They're constantly pulling their masks down to speak to me, and have to interpret for me because I can't follow what anyone is saying. If I explain to someone I don't know what they've said because I need to lip read, they think if they shout through their mask I'll manage. It doesn't work like that.

I've been acutely embarrassed by a pharmacy assistant who wouldn't accept I couldn't communicate even after I lifted my hair up to show her my hearing aids - she refused to lower her mask for seconds to ask me a question even though I was standing well back, was wearing a mask myself and there was a screen between us. After lots of eye rolling from her she made a performance of finding a note pad and pen to write the question down. This was in front of a queue of people and I felt like shit, to be quite honest.

If mask wearing is here to stay then I'll be really pissed off.

Personally, I think this should stay. I have felt more and more uncomfortable about strangers being up my grill or touching me when not permitted prior to covid. I want the distancing to continue.

But do you want to not be able to sit next to a friend on their sofa, for cafes, restaurants, cinemas and theatres to run at half capacity and so eventually have to double their prices, for live music gigs to never again really be possible, to queue to get into shops forever more?!

But do you want to not be able to sit next to a friend on their sofa, for cafes, restaurants, cinemas and theatres to run at half capacity and so eventually have to double their prices, for live music gigs to never again really be possible, to queue to get into shops forever more?!

I possibly should have been clearer on this, the irony is I have had more space and less personal issues at a gig than in a supermarket

I also should have clarified not within our familiar circles ie friends and family.

However, I stand by more social distancing in shops and other places such as restaurants remaining. Not 2m but something more than there was. Why? I was fed up with people being sat so they were practically in my lap at a restaurant. Delays on food or food orders being forgotten/wrong (allergies) due to how many people are crammed in (this has happened more and more within the last 18 months). Coughing and hacking in my face because again they were sat so close. Fed up of someone barging me out the way to pick up their dairylea slices, not saying excuse me. Or touching me because they crashed into me (that really is not ok).

Whilst this is human behaviour in so many, right now more people are called out on it.

I say this as someone who would go out to eat a couple of times a week, would visit shops each weekend spending money, go to the cinema and theatre.

@3littlewords

I hate masks ( although appreciate the need for them at the moment) they restrict our social interactions with the wider public. I find at the moment everyone is walking around mask on, head down, no eye contact, we are scared of engaging with others. That's totally opposite to our human instinct to interact and community, a smile is infectious and uplifting for all of yet they are being hidden away. We've become scared of human interaction outside our immediate circle that isnt normal actions for social human beings, positive social interactions increase our emotional and mental well-being

Such a rose-tinted view on how people behaved before Covid.

Don't know where you live but the places people wear masks now - public transport, shops - were not exactly hotbeds of social interaction before. No one was randomly chatting to strangers in Tesco and I'm fairly sure I've never seen a single smile on a rush hour Tube in my life.

"Head down, get on with it" is most people's default mode when they're doing purely functional stuff like supermarket shopping or commuting. Masks or not!

And it's still perfectly possible to interact positively if the situation calls for it. Big smile so it comes across in the eyes, you can tell when someone does that. Thumbs up. Or just speak a bit louder!

How can you hate masks, that's just weird. They protect against all sorts, well at least some kind of protection

A whole host of reasons actually. I have perennial rhinitis, which makes mask-wearing unpleasant at the best of times - it’s not severe enough to make me exempt, and I do wear one where I have to, but always remove it at the first opportunity.

I also have a toddler and am often out alone with her in places like shops where masks are mandated - find it uncomfortable and stressful trying to juggle pushing a buggy, carrying shopping and communicating effectively with her while wearing a mask.

I hate the disposable ones for the damage they are clearly already doing to the environment.

As many others have said, I don’t want to live in a sterile environment - our immune system needs to be exposed to germs to function properly, and the recent increase in asthma and allergies due to overly clean home environments has been well documented. Since returning to nursery DD has had a steady stream of snotty colds, most of which she has passed on to us, and (sleepless nights aside) I’m actually pleased about this as it shows she’s interacting normally and developing natural immunity to various viruses.

But the main reason is the barrier they create to social cohesion and communication. DD and I attend a weekly toddler music group. Until recently it was a mask-free zone, but they have obviously had the riot act read to them at some point, and masks are now compulsory. Where previously everyone chatted freely before and after the class, now everyone sits there in silence, barely interacting at all. I’ve noticed less communication between parents and children since the masks came in. A couple of mums have very noticeably gone from chatting and playing with their toddlers to spending the whole session staring at their phones.

Ditto the church I attend - plenty of friendly social interaction before masks came in; now people barely acknowledge each other and enter and leave in silence.

Everyone I know irl, including my elderly parents, wears masks grudgingly and will be happily discarding then as soon as they possibly can.

I certainly hope not. I'll be binning mine off as soon as I can. I already wear it the minimum possible, i.e. take it off as soon as I leave the shop, avoid places where I have to wear one where possible.

It limits communication, because we communicate with our whole faces, it makes it harder for people like my daughter who are hearing impaired to understand and it just isolates us more than we already are. We aren't meant to live in isolation.

To be honest, I'd assume anyone continuing to wear it when it wasn't required was either immunocompromised or had health anxiety. I really don't understand why someone would wear one otherwise just for the sake of a few less colds a year.

@gannett

Sorry but I’m totally with @3littlewords on this. I’m a Londoner and I’ll grant you the Tube, but there used to plenty of cheerful small talk in my local shops and supermarkets before mask-wearing came in. Little interactions like chatting with sales staff are vitally important for some elderly and isolated people, for whom that might be their only daily social contact, but much of this has now gone. I miss browsing in shops and hate the way masks reduce everything to a purely functional level. I’m trying to teach my toddler to engage positively and confidently with others, to smile and say hello and thank you to people in shops and cafes, and masks make this something of an uphill struggle.

A lot of this stuff is very subtle and intangible, but I’ve definitely noticed a negative shift in atmosphere since masks were mandated. Lots of depressed, head down shuffling going on around here too.