No legal compulsion to wear face masks once restrictions are lifted

[MurdockTheMouse]

Sky News reporting this morning that George Eustice has said with the removal of restrictions on July 19th will also come the removal of legal requirements to wear face coverings. I’m torn on how I feel about this.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-no-legal-compulsion-to-wear-face-masks-when-restrictions-are-lifted-minister-says-12340495

@Topseyt we should have gone down the bookies. 🤣

@Sparklingbrook I wish I had, don't you?

Fucking brilliant, bring it on.

@Sparklingbrook

Why do people call them muzzles? It’s just a face mask.

To muzzle is to cover the mouth and nose area of the face.

So it would probably more logical to ask why call them face masks, they're just muzzles.

I think I’ll still be wearing mine, it’s great at hiding my double chin. 😂

@Sparklingbrook

Why do people call them muzzles? It’s just a face mask.

They enjoy the drama of supposed oppression. Lots of cultures wear face masks and practice good hygiene during the winter months/flu seasons. It's just here you see the hyperbole about "muzzles" and "face nappies", ironically from the same crowd who will turn round and call others snowflakes.

I probably won't wear one as much if the mandate is lifted, but DC is immunocompromised and has always had to wear a mask in people-dense settings, so they will continue to do so.

I'll still be wearing one indoors. I'm disappointed in this potential ruling as I think they do make a big difference - anything that reduces the spray of virus particles into the air will help. They are still being worn properly around here - at the supermarket yesterday only maybe 10% were either not wearing one or had it under their nose.

I will be glad to stop wearing it for nursery drop-off though, as it's outside and I do find it difficult to build a rapport with the workers while wearing one.

@ConcernedAuntie

After all this time people still think that a mask protects them. A mask offers some protection from spreading droplets we breath out. My mask helps protect you, your mask helps protect me.

Cough on a mirror with no mask on then cough on mirror with a mask. Not perfect but some mitigation. Every little helps, a the saying goes.

Quite, and in some East Asian cultures is the social norm to wear a mask in public if unwell. It helps prevents spread and is seen as a conscientious gesture, protecting others from infection.

Sadly I doubt this will happen. I absolutely hate them but my DC has just been told this morning that masks are back at all times in school from today. Seems to be going backwards not forwards.

@Sparklingbrook

Why do people call them muzzles? It’s just a face mask.

Because they are very hard of thinking and believe they're being oppressed by being asked to wear something across their nose and mouth during a pandemic of a respiratory virus.

All the Covid deniers, anti-lockdowners and anti-vaxxers watch and share the same rubbish on Facebook and YouTube, and they all come out with the same phrases.

Oh yes ‘face nappies’ @babbaloushka they look about as much like a nappy as they do a muzzle. Unless I’m wearing the wrong sort…

I'm getting to the point where I just want to burn all the fucking things.

The other day I walked into Waitrose, did a full shop and paid and only then realised I hadn't got a mask on! I said to the supervisor woman at the end of the tills, "Oh my god im so sorry, I hadn't realised I wasn't wearing a mask" and she just said, "Its not a problem, don't worry about it". Not one single person had said anything or looked at me funny in the whole time, about 40 minutes!

I'll keep a pack of disposable ones for when i have a cough or cold. It just makes sense to not be coughing and sneezing over everyone when sick. But once they're not a requirement they can fuck right off day to day.

I've started to get some health issues which means I can't wear them very long when it's hot, but I feel so flustered and embarrassed taking it off after a while. Makes me feel really nervous when I'm already vulnerable.

Of course masks work to reduce infections - on a population level anyway face masks what the data say

If the majority stop wearing them though, they will cease to work very well at all even for the few who choose to wear them. They are a measure that assumes a large number of people wear them. I am still happy for them to go if it is judged safe though as I really don't like wearing them at all.

However I think it would be good if people continue to wear one in public places for short periods if they feel like they might be coming down with something. Often when you talk to someone who is ill, they will talk about having felt a bit off or tired but not ill exactly a few days beforehand. I sometimes often feel like that but it doesn't really develop into anything that would keep me at home so I keep on as normal and wait and see if I get ill. If the feeling passes after a day or two (which it often does), I've still gone about my business as I would have and not really been inconvenienced by wearing a mask for a day or two.

Sometimes that slightly off/tired feeling does develop into symptoms of a cold or bug of some sort it and at that point we should stay home of course . However, having worn the mask in the day or two before that would have reduced the possibility that I passed something on in in the pre-symptomatic phase which is when a lot of illnesses (not just Covid) start being infectious

Thank fuck

@BigusBumus

I'm getting to the point where I just want to burn all the fucking things.

The other day I walked into Waitrose, did a full shop and paid and only then realised I hadn't got a mask on! I said to the supervisor woman at the end of the tills, "Oh my god im so sorry, I hadn't realised I wasn't wearing a mask" and she just said, "Its not a problem, don't worry about it". Not one single person had said anything or looked at me funny in the whole time, about 40 minutes!

I did similar a few days ago when visiting my eldest daughter in London. Forgot completely to pull my mask back up when getting on a bus and nobody gave a shit. Forgot a couple of times in cafés too. Genuinely. Nobody was bothered.

When I was last staying with my mother I took her in her wheelchair into Morrisons and neither of us realised until we had just paid and were about to leave that she had forgotten to put her mask on. Mind you, as a wheelchair user who has COPD anyone who knew her would probably have known that she can claim exemption on days when she is struggling.

Yay! I hate them.

I may still wear mine in crowded places though, like the tube for example, while cases are high.

I mean if someone coughed or sneezed in my face /close to me I would feel better about it if I had a mask on.

But conversely, if you need a big 'productive' sneeze yourself, instead of being able to grab a tissue, catch it, throw it away and go to wash your hands, you can end up with the lot all cradled in your mask. Even if you remove your mask beforehand (which I presume is technically not allowed - theoretically negates the main reason for the masks in the first place), sneezes can sneak up on you very quickly and you may not have time to do so.

Just think: everybody else in the shop might have a mask full of nasty, snotty sneeze, sloshing back and forth as they speak to you, not legally allowed to remove the mask to deal with it until they've finished and left the shop (also bear in mind that most masks are not sealed at the sides) and you'd have no idea whatsoever.

I personally don’t like to sneeze with a mask on!!! Then there’s snot in your mask all day?

I want to sneeze into a tissue and put it in the bin. If I had a cold I wouldn’t wear a mask, I would just take the usual precautions - hand washing, not getting too close to people, tissues… it’s just common courtesy.

I think that one legacy of this will be some people continuing to wear masks at all times when they leave their homes indefinitely. Some will be virtue signallers, but a lot will be genuinely anxious people - whose anxiety will be massively increased because nobody else is still wearing them, even though the government requirement to do so is now long gone.

Incidentally - and this is a genuine question - when certain cultures routinely wear masks anyway, is it because (or in case they might be) they are unwell and they want to avoid passing it on to others? I always assumed that people did it in places like Beijing or Mumbai because the air quality is so terrible and they're doing it to protect themselves from the smog rather than others from them ?

About time too

I assumed air quality too @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll which muddies the waters a bit when people say masks don’t protect the wearer. 🤔

Yay!

Burn them all. 🔥🎉

I personally don’t like to sneeze with a mask on!!! Then there’s snot in your mask all day?

I want to sneeze into a tissue and put it in the bin. If I had a cold I wouldn’t wear a mask, I would just take the usual precautions - hand washing, not getting too close to people, tissues… it’s just common courtesy.

How, though? You still need to buy food and essentials, even when you're feeling under the weather. You turn up at the door of Asda, the mask-monitor/security person asks you to wear a mask, offering you one if you don't have one, and you say "No, I'd rather not wear a mask, thank you, as I have a bad cold"?

A lot of people are running scared of any illness right now and they have no idea whether you have Covid or not, irrespective of the cold (although they do realise that frequent sneezing will hugely help to spread whatever you might have).

Even if the doorperson does somehow allow you in without a mask or exemption, you'll get nasty stares and probably also abuse from all the customers. Genuinely, how would that work?

While numbers are rising, I'll continue to wear one. Obviously no-one likes the things but, you know, pandemic.

Those who brag (there are some) about not wearing them (not talking about the forgetters/the exempt) and delighting in seeing other people bucking the rules, you must accept that those of us who are wearing them are keeping YOU a bit safer, while you're not bothered about US, right?

Oh no wait I forgot - you think people wearing masks have no effect whatever on the spread of infection don't you.