mass mask-free shopping trip

[oldegg123]

Even though I don't agree with it, I get the rationale of sneakily breaking lockdown to see family/friends and opening businesses when it's still illegal.

This on the other hand is just such moronic unnecessary behaviour?!

twitter.com/L4L_UK/status/1376273061238964226

As a pp has said, last April and May hardly any of us were wearing masks and infection rates were dropping. Yet in November and December most of us were, and rates were rising.
I wear a mask as I am required to but I personally think the whole thing is ridiculous and the sooner we end the requirement to wear one the better. I also personally think it's a way of the government appeasing the scared to get them to leave their houses. But that's just cynical old me.

@Mydogdoesntlisten

As a pp has said, last April and May hardly any of us were wearing masks and infection rates were dropping. Yet in November and December most of us were, and rates were rising. I wear a mask as I am required to but I personally think the whole thing is ridiculous and the sooner we end the requirement to wear one the better. I also personally think it's a way of the government appeasing the scared to get them to leave their houses. But that's just cynical old me.

Why do you assume that association is causality? The classic example in medical school is that men who wear gold Rolexes are more likely to have heart attacks, but we don't recommend avoiding wearing expensive watches.

There were a huge number of other factors that contributed to cases rising over autumn/winter, many of the same that cause seasonal 'flu outbreaks.

oldegg123

Not wearing a mask when you are infected with coronavirus > increased viral particles in the surrounding environment > increased risk of people being infected & increased risk of individuals exposed to high viral load --> new chains of infection started, potentially resulting in hospitalisation, long-term complications and increased mutation rate of virus.

THIS^ with bells on!

Wearing a mask isn’t a magic wand that stops the spread completely (hence SD and not meeting socially indoors yet too) but it does reduce the risks and it’s a small price to pay.

If ICU medical staff can wear full PPE for whole shifts in really hard circumstances then we can all manage to wear them during a brief shopping trip (bar those with actual medical reasons not to).

It’s pathetic, quite frankly, to say ‘I don’t like it, so I won’t’ - it reminds me of toddlerhood tantrums.

I’m absolutely horrified by this clip and it makes me so sad that some people care so little for others and it’s hard to understand their rationale when their actions may well serve to lengthen the time we do have to have these restrictions.

Making everyone wear a mask when for some people there is almost zero chance of them catching covid is what's pathetic.

@BonnieDundee

Making everyone wear a mask when for some people there is almost zero chance of them catching covid is what's pathetic.

@BonnieDundee

I think you've misunderstood why the general public are asked to wear masks, it isn't to reduce their personal risk of becoming infected with CV.

See PPs

Prof Whitty said: “In terms of wearing a mask, our advice is clear: that wearing a mask if you don’t have an infection reduces the risk almost not at all. So we do not advise that.”

“The only people we do sometimes use masks for are people who have got an infection and that is to help them to stop it spreading around," he added.

BonnieDundee Thanks for providing the Whitty quote that disproved your own argument. I suggest you read the second paragraph carefully as it seems it is this part you are having particular trouble understanding. It follows that everyone should wear masks as we don't who is infectious.

@BonnieDundee

Making everyone wear a mask when for some people there is almost zero chance of them catching covid is what's pathetic.

You seem to be having some real difficulties grasping why people wear masks.

I understand perfectly. Whitty said we didnt need to wear them last year. Now we do apparently and after him lying about the numbers to justify the second lockdown I'll not blindly be believing anything he says again

Thanks for providing the Whitty quote that disproved your own argument.

Absolute Rubbish

The media etc asked for masks and they got them. That’s why we now are told to wear them.

It looked great. Good on them. The masks are there to appease those who are frightened. They are really unnecessary. I imagine alot more people will be dropping the wretched things as the weather improves.

Yeah - right - if you say so love. I guess I'll be fine to stop wearing PPE at work too.

Err yup - thick as mince springs to mind.

Have a look at the numbers of folk with covid in the states in USA where mask wearing is not mandatory.

@leafygarden42

Err yup - thick as mince springs to mind.

Have a look at the numbers of folk with covid in the states in USA where mask wearing is not mandatory.

So why are places like Spain where you have to wear a mask on a beach seeing increase in cases?

@Jo99996

Oh - I didn't realise you were an epidemiologist studying infections of Covid around the world. Do you work for WHO?

Odd that WHO recommend the wearing of masks and they are made up of medical experts. Have they changed their point of view now?

Which happened first in Spain, the rise in cases, or the need to wear masks on the beach?

This is the exact reaction the press had to Texas when they lifted the mask mandate - outraged! Calling them murderers etc. Funnily enough theyve gone a bit quiet after the latest stats on Texas covid rates...

Bonnie The second paragraph of the quote "
“The only people we do sometimes use masks for are people who have got an infection and that is to help them to stop it spreading around," he added."

In the early days of the pandemic asymptomatic cases of COVID were not known about. The science has changed and we now know that asymptomatic transmission is a significant vector. The current advice is assume you have COVID because you don't know that you don't unless you have taken a very recent COVID test.

Measures that will reduce you giving COVID to someone else are staying away from other people as much as possible, wear a mask where meeting others cannot be avoided and minimise being inside. That clip shows people not wearing masks and meeting up indoors. Presumably they could have met up outside or in a private place thereby minimising the risk of passing on COVID to people who weren't treating a trip to Tesco as a social event.

[quote leafygarden42]@Jo99996

Oh - I didn't realise you were an epidemiologist studying infections of Covid around the world. Do you work for WHO?

Odd that WHO recommend the wearing of masks and they are made up of medical experts. Have they changed their point of view now?[/quote]
I do know someone who does just that - last February she advised us (our friendship group) to avoid meeting up, wear a mask and wash our hands until they hurt.

Only 2 people in that group have got COVID - both because of workplace infection. Both had complained that their colleagues were not wearing masks and ventilation was poor.

Why all the froffing at the mouth over this? As others have also said the mask does little to stop the spread its touch points that spread it easily. Almost every item by the local population is touched by un gloved hands in a supermarket, so shall we close them all down until covid goes away? News flash it's never going away until it mutates into something harmless. At some point mandatory mask wearing in shops will be eased.

@chocolateorangeinhaler

Why all the froffing at the mouth over this? As others have also said the mask does little to stop the spread its touch points that spread it easily. Almost every item by the local population is touched by un gloved hands in a supermarket, so shall we close them all down until covid goes away? News flash it's never going away until it mutates into something harmless. At some point mandatory mask wearing in shops will be eased.

That is why you see the hand sanitiser at the entrance to supermarkets. You put your mask on, sanitise your hands and then go in. While in the shop you do your very best not to rub your eyes or pick your nose. If you have an insatiable urge you re sanitise your hands.

At each level of number of infections we need to take some precautions. These are a mixed bag, and each one reduces the infection rate slightly.

I don't understand why people campaign that wearing a mask (minor inconvenience) to be lifted when that is likely to delay social mixing, pubs reopening, might cause schools to close etc. Wearinga mask in the supermarket is less stressful than not being allowed to hug my best friend. The more little things we do, the fewer big things have to be given up.

If masks are the be all and end all they would be worn at the Downing Street briefings.

@BonnieDundee

If masks are the be all and end all they would be worn at the Downing Street briefings.

Not a good comeback, Bonnie. No speaker at press conferences wears a mask; they are commonly sufficiently well distanced from others and as their image is being broadcast to millions of people, there is a requirement to be recognised and understood by everyone. The press, in any case, is exempt from mask wearing.

I'm still not sure you're understanding the key reason behind the wearing of masks: to protect other people, not the wearer.

@MinesAPintOfTea but weve been wearing masks for months and we have also had to give up everything...as for it being an inconvenience, I dont think that's the issue these people have with it.

I am a health professional. The majority of cases in the community were from situations where masks weren't required. Friends and family socialising.