Waterstones and mask-wearing

[VanGoSunflowers]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57832560

How many businesses do you think will follow suit?
And why is the cynic in me thinking that many businesses will look at their key demographic and either take a stance on mask wearing (or not in some cases) based on how likely their clientele are to want mask-wearing to continue?

Are they really wanting to keep everyone safe or do they just want your money…

With 42,000+ cases today including healthy young people becoming dangerously ill, I will definitely be avoiding premises where there are a lot of people not wearing masks.

Not ignorant at all, loads of infected kids in schools, people aren't going to suddenly keep them indoors just because it's the holidays

Ultimately they can refuse to admit people without masks unless they have evidence of inability to wear one for medical reasons. As a commercial organisation they're perfectly entitled to control who comes onto their premises.

Right, but they aren’t. They’re saying they encourage it but won’t do anything. Which is essentially the government guidance. I imagine the vast majority of shops will say something along the lines of “we will follow the guidance and therefore encourage customers to wear masks but will not enforce it”.

All shops will encourage mask wearing as that is what the government has told them to do

@TempsPerdu

I was on a long awaited girls’ weekend away last weekend - 6 old school friends who hadn’t seen each other since before Covid hit. When the masks topic came up consensus was that we all hated the things and had always only ever worn them performatively, to avoid abuse. Everyone said they’d stop wearing them as soon as a sizeable minority of others also did - so safety in numbers really.

Turned out everyone had also deleted the NHS app or had started taking photos or giving fake numbers when asked to provide details. No one was properly isolating their kids any more either - all visiting local parks/gardens for exercise. I never would have guessed any of this if my friends hadn’t shared over a few glasses of wine - to all outward appearances they are super law abiding, upstanding citizens who wouldn’t say boo to a goose. But so many people are at the end of their tether with it all now, and are quietly pushing back.

And people wonder why it's rampant

Ultimately they can refuse to admit people without masks unless they have evidence of inability to wear one for medical reasons

What 'evidence'?

Ultimately they can refuse to admit people without masks unless they have evidence of inability to wear one for medical reasons. As a commercial organisation they're perfectly entitled to control who comes onto their premises

No they can't. No business can do this even now... a time when masks are still a legal requirement.
The guidelines are clear as day on the Gov website. No evidence is needed. I can't believe a year on, anyone would think otherwise.

@RuggerHug You know what? At this point I really, really don’t care. I am human, and henceforth I am going to behave and interact with others in a normal, human way. I’m double jabbed; I’ve followed the rules and made sacrifices for the past 18 months; but I don’t want to live under a tyranny of safety, which is what our society is rapidly becoming. I’m sure I’m far from alone in that.

[quote TempsPerdu]@RuggerHug You know what? At this point I really, really don’t care. I am human, and henceforth I am going to behave and interact with others in a normal, human way. I’m double jabbed; I’ve followed the rules and made sacrifices for the past 18 months; but I don’t want to live under a tyranny of safety, which is what our society is rapidly becoming. I’m sure I’m far from alone in that.[/quote]
This, 1000%

[quote TempsPerdu]@RuggerHug You know what? At this point I really, really don’t care. I am human, and henceforth I am going to behave and interact with others in a normal, human way. I’m double jabbed; I’ve followed the rules and made sacrifices for the past 18 months; but I don’t want to live under a tyranny of safety, which is what our society is rapidly becoming. I’m sure I’m far from alone in that.[/quote]
Nope you are far from alone. Done with it. By far passed caring about others at the detrimental to us, me and mine come first now . If that makes me "selfish" Meh 🤷‍♀️ I'll still sleep soundly tonight.

*I will make an effort to avoid places that don’t encourage mask wearing as it’s really not that hard for customers.
From my experience if customers really want a product/service from certain businesses they will wear a mask. I don’t know anyone who will avoid certain places because they are insisting on masks.
*

Funnily enough I was in Waterstones today for the first time since last March. I haven't been into the city because of masks. So yes, people do stay away.

I didn't say selfish or have a go. But in a group of you all of you saying sod it means you're not the only ones so no wonder it's gone the way it has(along with pp and the inconvenience is tyranny bit, I'm not saying it's just you and your mates or anything like that!)

@RuggerHug OK and I do get where you’re coming from, but that’s kind of the point. None of us are Covid deniers or conspiracy theorists or rabid Tory-voting libertarians. None of us have ever knowingly broken the law before. We’re just fairly ordinary working mums (GP, solicitor, teacher, accountant) who have independently come to the conclusion that we can’t live like this indefinitely and that we’re no longer on board with the restrictions, especially where they impact on our children.

Others may condemn us as selfish and we’re fine with that, but we’d argue that we’re just being pragmatic in accepting that a highly infectious virus will spread pretty much regardless of whatever mitigations we put in place, and that our choosing not to wear a mask in Waterstone’s is really neither here nor there.

Sorry, but I think it IS selfish to ditch your mask.

33000 children are suffering long Covid and that figure is set to increase in children as they are unvaccinated and the virus is pretty rampant right now.

I also see links been type - 1 diabetes and Covid in children being reported.

Along with PIMS which my niece suffered.

Wearing a mask over my face is no hardship.

Wearing a mask over my face is no hardship

Bully for you.

For some people, it is.

From every version of Covid we’ve ever seen on the planet, we’ve got a rule of thumb that any case of Covid, whether it’s asymptomatic, mild, severe, or hospitalised, incurs a 10 to 20% risk of developing long Covid, and we haven’t seen any exceptions to that,” he said.

@TheVampiresWife and how about the 33000 children suffering with long Covid? Is long Covid a hardship for them?

Or are you going to dismiss them just so you can ditch your mask.

[quote UndercoverToad]@TheVampiresWife and how about the 33000 children suffering with long Covid? Is long Covid a hardship for them?[/quote]
What's that got to do with you not finding wearing a mask a hardship?

@UndercoverToad

Or are you going to dismiss them just so you can ditch your mask.

I have trigeminal neuralgia and am exempt.

I've always said that if you can wear a mask, you should. But I fully understand how difficult it is for some people, that although not exempt, they struggle with masks.

@TheVampiresWife because there are those who are genuinely exempt and I really feel for them.

And there are those who are weaponising their difficulties for a purely selfish agenda - which is not only appalling in itself, but will continue to raise the infection rate - and children will suffer.

@TheVampiresWife ok - I apologise - I didn’t realise you are in the former.

We still need to take Covid seriously and wear masks to control the infection rate. And judging by many comments on here - people are just ditching them because they don’t fancy wearing them.

Sainsbury's and Tesco have joined the bookseller, Waterstones, which has said customers should wear masks to protect staff and other shoppers.

Great news.

@UndercoverToad

Sainsbury's and Tesco have joined the bookseller, Waterstones, which has said customers should wear masks to protect staff and other shoppers.

Great news.

Signs and tannoy messages to ‘encourage’ won’t mean much. Staff aren’t going to dare approach the non-mask wearers or turn them away when they don’t have to. They hardly ever do it now!