I wanted to ask the young man behind me in the queue, to move back.

[Twoforthree]

Just this really. He wasn’t right on my heels but pretty close. Given that this age group are the main carriers at the moment, and he wasn’t wearing a mask, I desperately wanted to ask him to social distance a bit more. I didn’t, but I felt very uncomfortable.

Should I have said something? Would you have done?

Overall I was pleasantly surprised how many people were still wearing masks.I did look at those who weren’t, and silently judge them and think how selfish they were. I know some of them would have been exempt for a good reason but a lot of them wouldn’t be.

Crouchendtiger it is fine for the system to throw huge sums of money at treating entirely preventable illness caused by the fact that people just can't stop over eating, drinking too much or smoking.

Do you get your medical evidence to back up your opinions from the Daily Mail?

1% of your risk of getting Breast Cancer is known to come down to lifestyle factors, 4% is down to known familial genes. 95% is unknown, probably a mix of genetic susceptibility and environment (particularly pharmaceutical hormones)

Go on the Cancer threads to find all the women who did everything right but were just unlucky. So fuck if with the victim blaming.

And yes OP you should have asked him politely to step back or stood to the side to protect your space. It would be nice to think that at the end of this people become a little less ignorant of the ways in which they spread their germs and viruses and make a bit more effort to protect others. It has been a part of Japanese culture since 1918. Is “returning to normal” so important to people that they think that we should return to coughing and spluttering over other people?

Coronavirus is spread more by shouting, so no, personally I wouldn't have taken the risk of saying anything in case I got sprayed with coronavirus spores by an infected gobshite.

Better that he was breathing quietly at your back.

What a pity some people can't respect other people's personal space.

@Chillychangchoo the vaccine is 60-80% effective, as anti vaxxers like yourself know only too well. You just don't care. That's the truth of it.

God this pandemic has shown quite a few people in a poor light. 12%, to be precise, although I would exclude the few who genuinely can not have it.

@Emilyontmoor

Nowhere in the OP does it mention this young man was coughing and spluttering all over her.

That’s always been disgusting even before covid. Not wearing a mask in a shop with no symptoms is worlds apart from blatantly coughing and spluttering over somebody.

Having asked someone to move back once and got verbal abuse, it just is not worth it.

There will always be the selfish assholes out there who feel the vulnerable should stay in doors so they can exercise their right to not wear a mask.

i would have stepped backwards onto his feet and apologised profusely. I am a hefty wench and his toes would have remembered the event for a long time

If someone is too close behind you, just keep stepping backwards. If they complain you have trodden on them, then say that they must have been too close then as you didn't expect anyone to be within a metre.

I'm not wearing a mask anymore but I have always shopped at quiet times and keep away from everyone as much as I can. I don't care who judges me silently or otherwise, I'm not going to continue to live this half life!!.... and would judge you for judging me just the same.

@Tinpotspectator

Are you ok hun? I’ve been double jabbed for months so I don’t think I’m in the anti vax category 🤣 I’ve already stated I do not care if people wear masks or not, so what point are you trying to make here?

@Sparrowsong

Maybe it is time to bring back really big Victorian hoop skirts!

Best post ever. Yes, the ones that are very wide sideways - so that you have to walk sideways through a door.

I love this idea.

Chillychangchoo This young man could still be breathing out aerosol particles of the virus with no symptoms. One thing about finding out that I had the virus asymptomatically in March 2020 was the guilt of knowing I could have passed it to others though by then I had slipped back into the mask wearing, hand sanitising and not touching surfaces that had become habitual in Asia after 2003. I was not for instance sending my children into school with a hacking cough after a half term skiiing trip to Italy because, you know, it could not be Covid (how I got it)

The point is we should all be a bit more conscious of the small things we can do at no cost to ourselves to protect others. It has played a role in the way that countries that experienced the SARS epidemic have kept cases down.

I had a very big bloke literally queue about 6 inches from me, maskless, when it was way before freedom day, much earlier this year. Now bearing in mind I am 6ft and 15 stone, this guy was absolutely massive, towering way over me, wearing work/trade clothes so giving off a vibe of mega strength. No way would I say something.

@aiwblam

Irrespective of size it’s pretty foolish to call people out in this day and age, you just never know how people could retaliate.

I’ve already seen something happen in a supermarket that backfired quite spectacularly.

@Emilyontmoor

And those particles will cause nothing more than a cold in someone who has been double vaccinated, in which case I can’t really get too worked up about the risk of essentially giving someone a cold. Or likewise someone giving me a cold. I would agree with the sentiment pre vaccine but I think a lot of people have totally lost perspective now.

The long term solution here is to vaccinate the whole world and people are getting far too hung up on the mask debate.

Just my opinion of course and I don’t make a habit of getting too close to people in supermarkets but I wouldn’t be calling this young man out if he did happen to step too closely to me.

If I felt that paranoid I would just order online.

Mask dodgers 😂 can see that catching on and adding to the mumsnet covid bingo.

“Could you give me a bit more space please?”

I’ve done that pre covid tbh!

Perfectly ok to ask. Perfectly not ok for you to judge those not wearing masks.

I queue with my trolley behind me because I can manage the space between me and the person in front but I have no control over what happens behind.

I actually started doing it pre-covid to get my shopping up on the conveyor belt without someone starting to pile theirs on before I’ve finished. But it works for queue spacing too.

@Chillychangchoo

This is what you said:

"I am a self confessed mask dodger who doesn’t give a fuck about others 🙋‍♀️.

If someone has decided not to protect themselves by taking up a very effective vaccine, that’s really not my problem or concern.

No one is forcing another human being to enter a shop, people do so at their own risk.".

And of course you would be a "hun".

And those particles will cause nothing more than a cold in someone who has been double vaccinated How come the hospitals are treating people for Covid who have been double vaccinated? Manifesting itself as a bit more than a common cold. I am not paranoid, I have a compromised immune system due to chemo twenty years ago and as for many other people the jury is still out on how much protection the vaccination has given me. The vaccines in any case do not fully protect you or others from transmission so the Scientists are saying that we should all continue these simple methods of infection control. That isn’t paranoia, it’s following the science, like making sure we cook chicken long enough or a zillion other things we do in life to protect ourselves and others. So I will continue to live my life at a distance of 2m, particularly from those people under 21 most likely to have it. Why is standing 2m apart from others such a big ask for you? It bizarre

@TerritorialPissings

You compare apples with ornages. Very silly. Now, who do I think knows what they are talking about? Sir Jeremy James Farrar OBE FRCP FRS FMedSci or you?

Tough question. Not.

@Tinpotspectator

Aww look at you on your imaginary pedestal. 🤣

Nowhere in that statement do I proclaim to be an “anti vaxxer”.

@Emilyontmoor

Majority of those are still very elderly. You have to die of something, again it’s not my concern if people can’t accept their own mortality, particularly when they are past the average life expectancy.

@Emilyontmoor

Also when have I said I don’t stand two metres away from people? I was speaking in reference to the situation the OP described with the young man. Me personally,
I wouldn’t call him out.

I dont wear a mask in a supermarket but I’d rather not get up close and personal to people irrespective of covid 🤣.

The assumptions that people make on this board, wow.

We don’t need to wear a mask or social distance anymore.

So if you’re worried, you need to move.

I saw a woman in Sainsbury's with a T-shirt's on saying 2metre distance, stay away