I was waiting outside asda while my daughter collected a parcel yesterday, i was bored so i started counting.
83 people entered the store in the 5-10 minutes i was there, of that 83, 55 weren't wearing a mask.
obviously this was a completely non scientific study and a very small sample but there is no way on gods green earth that over 50% of people are genuinely exempt!
I know one exempt person of all the people I know in the world, my son, who has significant difficulties from Autism, he cannot wear a mask as it exacerbates the severe anxiety he feels and leads to a meltdown. My husband has anxiety and also has autistic traits, he was unable to at the beginning but he has 'trained' himself using a build up of exposure time.
My son wears a sunflower lanyard and has done since before the pandemic and I for one will be glad when disabled people can reclaim the lanyard for the original purpose for which it was intended, to signify the presence of a hidden disability and alert that the person wearing it may need additional time, assistance or just patience. it has been overtaken to signify mask exemption which it was never intended for and I am surprised that more genuinely exempt people aren't more annoyed at the people who won't rather than can't wear a mask making it harder for them!