Which would you prefer re masks?

[PuzzledObserver]

The BBC live news page just now was saying there are “hints” that masks and SD may be dropped over the summer.... but there is a risk they will be reintroduced over the winter.

What would you prefer? I mean, presumably ditch them immediately and for ever, but if that’s not possible, would you rather:

a) have a break over the summer in the knowledge they’ll be back towards the end of the year;

b) keep them until we’re certain they will never be back.

I would choose a, by the way.

B - the selfish arseholes of the U.K. won’t go back to using them if we stop for the summer.

I’d like to see them become the norm in places like public transport. Other countries manage it without the perpetual whining. I also think coughing in public is disgusting and needs to become completely socially unacceptable.

B even though I have to wear all working day. If numbers are likely to go up at some point, why not continue doing whatever we can to help. Other people are having to wear them in far hotter countries, so we can't complain.

Getting rid of them takes the visual reminder away that we are still battling the virus I feel. Too many already don’t think SD applies to them.

I’m been astonished about the amount of moaning about mask wearing so if it’s ditched too soon how many less would comply again a second time?

I find it weird that people still want to wear them after any threat from covid has all but gone. Just odd

@starfish4

B even though I have to wear all working day. If numbers are likely to go up at some point, why not continue doing whatever we can to help. Other people are having to wear them in far hotter countries, so we can't complain.

People have to do a lot of things in "Far hotter countries" doesn't mean we have to. ....

A. I was thinking the other day how uncomfortable they'll be in the heat, nobody will keep them over their noses anyway.

This is me. Totally. I am v late for mine because of gp not doing them at first and then can’t do it in a mask. Very very painful. I take vallium beforehand but even this only helps slightly. It’s still almost unbearable with muffled screams and sobbing.
How do you get through them? Would love to know what people in our position do

I have mine done under general anaesthetic. I have suffered from vaginismus all my life and general anaesthetic is the only way they can open the speculum, my muscles are just too tight.

In lieu of the most reasonable option being C- ditch masks altogether I would have to choose option A.

A

@Icecreamandcandyfloss - but in the summer, will we still be "battling" the virus? If we are talking about end june/start of July time, then most adults will have had at least the 1st jab, all the most vulnerable (who can/want to) will have had 2.

I woke in retail and wear one zooming around my shop all day . It's doable to wear one going in and out of a shop to peruse !! Keep wearing them !!

[quote MercyBooth]@YorkiePanda Ive not had a smear test since 2014 as i find them VERY VERY painful so i certainly couldnt do it in a mask.[/quote]
I think you might be wearing your mask over the wrong lips?!

Sympathies re your smears though, the last one I had hurt (& was difficult as usual 🙄🙄). Nurse was just plain nasty with it too though! Bitch. Apparently if I can have intercourse I can have a smear without making a fuss. I was tempted to say if he came at me wuth a cold dry metal object like she did he'd get it rammed up his area and she'd be best off staying quiet!!)

I swore I'd never see her for anything else ever again. Then randomly hit the stupid bitch fir my first vaccine & that hurt!! (Second one yesterday with someone else, I barely felt)

@AlmostSummer21 I would be anxious which would make me sweaty and uncomfortable which would make it more painful which would make me anxious and my face even more sweaty and uncomfortable which would make me tense and unable to relax and cause more pain. With the way some have been acting and the way the public have been treated over the last year i am much more scared of living than i am of dying so i couldnt give less of a shit.

@ConstantlyChanging

B - the selfish arseholes of the U.K. won’t go back to using them if we stop for the summer.

I’d like to see them become the norm in places like public transport. Other countries manage it without the perpetual whining. I also think coughing in public is disgusting and needs to become completely socially unacceptable.

How can you stop yourself from coughing if you have a tickle in your throat or choke on something? Bit harsh.

Any break would do me

I’m a nurse and I’m sick to the back bloody teeth of them

And Christ, coughing in public should become unacceptable? God help anyone with a chronic lung condition or on oxygen who might cough

@ConstantlyChanging

B - the selfish arseholes of the U.K. won’t go back to using them if we stop for the summer.

I’d like to see them become the norm in places like public transport. Other countries manage it without the perpetual whining. I also think coughing in public is disgusting and needs to become completely socially unacceptable.

I think people who sneeze in public should be summarily executed.

A,

Finding that I feel warmer due to masks. Just about ok in cooler months but going to be horrid in summer

Also in a vainer point I don't want dodgy tan lines around my mouth

The woman who served me in the shop today was really struggling with her mask today. I felt so bad for her. She looked so uncomfortable and really quite unwell.
When I commented that she looked like she was struggling and was she ok?, she said it was way too hot. Poor woman. It was only 12 outside today. Another couple of weeks and it will be a nightmare.

Was fucking unbearable during last Augusts heatwave

@MercyBooth

Was fucking unbearable during last Augusts heatwave

Do they have different masks in very hot countries like Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore? Africa too. They wear masks a lot and have done for years. I know Japan was selling a cooling mask last year. Perhaps we could sell them too.

I do feel for the NHS staff particularly ICU, who have to spend such long hours in masks in badly ventilated hospitals. Especially as they've been working under so much pressure with very limited time for breaks.

@Cinderellashoes

And Christ, coughing in public should become unacceptable? God help anyone with a chronic lung condition or on oxygen who might cough

Yup. The main reason I don’t wear a mask at work (apart from the sheer pointlessness of it as we are all flow tested before every on site work day and twice vaccinated) is because I go up three flights of stairs to the room I work in, several times a day. I have to go to the front entrance to collect my patient and escort them up as there’s no waiting area due to Covid. I have chronic asthma and wearing a mask makes me so breathless going up those stairs that I will inevitably wheeze and cough - and therefore freak out my patients and other staff, because nobody can cough any more without it being Covid obviously. Sometimes I get wheezy anyway even without the mask, but I’m much less likely to cough when I get to the top and into my room and take it off. Asthma is also triggered by the sheer amount of cleaning chemicals and antibacterial sprays is that are used at work these days so that’s fun. And then they put Air Wicks in the rooms to cover up the smell of bleach, which I have to unplug every time I use the room!

Ditch the bloody things! I can't wear one medically exempt! They have caused more division than anything else! You want to wear one fine, you don't fine as well! Better educating people to cough and sneeze into a tissue then bin it and wash your hands! Far more effective than a big of paper or fabric over your face!

@ConstantlyChanging

B - the selfish arseholes of the U.K. won’t go back to using them if we stop for the summer.

I’d like to see them become the norm in places like public transport. Other countries manage it without the perpetual whining. I also think coughing in public is disgusting and needs to become completely socially unacceptable.

I don't think anybody actually plans to cough, it's not done as a novelty 😆

B