When would you feel comfortable for things to go back to normal (masks, etc.)

[Suprima]

Made the mistake of wandering onto Facebook and saw someone who is not CEV (I know them well) swearily bemoaning people not wearing masks at an open air garden centre.

My own views are kind of pick and mix re: mask wearing (and happy to be challenged on this)- anything open-air, nope. Spacious but well ventilated area- nope. Busy tube platform or carriage- yes. I am double vaccinated and testing regularly as part of work though, which might make me more lax.

I am aware that some people are wearing them all of the time, at every public event no matter if it’s open air or not. If this is your stance- what environment would make you feel like you could ‘go back to normal’ regarding events and mask wearing?

Not a goady thread at all. I’m curious and wondering if I should be more vigilant.

Look at case numbers in Europe compared to (UK)

UK cases/100,000 people : 411

HIgher case rates per 100k persons recently in
Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia

Those bits of Europe are ones to look at, right?
Else Ireland, Bulgaria & Slovakia which are almost same as UK?

@GinIronic

I will continue to wear a mask when I leave the house until further notice. I will only remove it when I’m eating or drinking in a restaurant.

If you are serious - can I ask why?

[quote covidwoewoe]@ArseInTheCoOpWindow surely that's so rare that it would make the news to have caught it 3 times and ended up in hospital 3 times even when vaccines anted?[/quote]
Quite.
3 times my arse.

@Silverswirl - surely that's obvious. Many of us feel that this isn't over and that we should still be taking precautions.

[quote luckylavender]@Silverswirl - surely that's obvious. Many of us feel that this isn't over and that we should still be taking precautions. [/quote]
When will it be over enough?

As everyone appears to have decided covid is over, I've ordered FTP2 masks to wear on trains when I go to work.

I'll carry on wearing the fabric ones in shops as I am in and out in a few minutes.

For me, it makes sense to carry on wearing masks in crowded indoor areas. There isn't just covid, there are flu and colds too. I think we should carry on wearing masks between November and February.

However, I've seen quite a few people wearing them outside today and that is completely pointless!

In indoor settings, ventilation is just as important and seems to be lacking in most places. I had my flu jab at a pharmacy and it felt like the least covid safe place I'd been to with people waiting a long time and no ventilation

My dentist is the same. Locked doors and insist you use their flimsy disposable mask. The best protection against covid would be to open the doors and get some air into the place!

Back to normal?

Right now would be OK by me.

I will have to wear mine to an office job tonight but I was in packed pubs at the weekend so happy to protect the others. I am double vaccinated to. I wear on trains and in shops but obviously not in the pub.

Months ago - sadly I’m in Scotland where we don’t have the option.

Since I had the vaccine, but I'm in ROI so we still have masks/vaccine passports.

I wear masks inside shops etc. Not outside though. Most people where I live seem to be doing the same but we have rather high case numbers here at the moment which I think is adding to that. I noticed mask wearing dropped off for a bit but definitely seems to have picked back up again

@Snailhaterz2

Your question is a really good one, because those who are very very pro mask, do tend to say things like "when no-one is dying of Covid AT ALL" and if you point out this is very unlikely to ever happen now its an endemic virus, you're told you're uncaring and so on. I'm wearing face coverings when requested indoors, but am being a bit more relaxed in specific circumstances where it seems unnecessary. Eg was on a train the other day, and there was no-one sitting opposite me, only one person across the aisle, so I took the mask off and only put it on again when walking to the loo/walking to leave the train. I'm off to France in November, and I'll be interested to see what it feels like there, with firmer rules in place.

Unfortunately covid being airborne means that across the aisle isn't really a safe distance, and also that any covid you breathed out remains in the train carriage even after you leave.

This time last year.

@PleasantBirthday Yeah lets keep using the same mitigations to help the problems caused by said mitigations.

I'm happy to give anyone in a mask extra space, just like I did before they made them mandatory.

As far as Im concerned things are back to normal.

I would be comfortable to go back to normal when things go back to normal.

And have been for some time.

Probably not while hundreds of thousands of school children are off with covid.

Probably not while the NHS is only coping with the numbers of covid patients by leaving millions languishing on waiting lists.

If this is what "endemic" and "back to normal" mean then I don't want it.

Ready for normal since June 2020. Too much life has been sacrificed and heavily diluted for too long.

Not attempted to cover my face since January when the panic attacks escalated to the point of scratching my face to bleeding while doing the week's shop. Since the summer it's lovely to not have to fear going out into a faceless void where you can't lipread, judge people's emotions and worry that someone's going to have a go at you.

Since July when England dropped its mandatory measures it's been impossible to look at a map of the UK and judge by case distribution where the stricter parts of the UK are. Measures just drag out the misery for far longer.

Things will never go back to how things were pre-pandemic. Not completely. How much it affects our day to day life will reduce, but things like covid booster jabs will be as roti e as flu jabs and I think some degree of mask wearing will become normalised in the way it has been in parts of Asia for many years. And the impacts on politics, the economy, health service etc will be with us for a very long time.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

I always wear one.

My friends sister has had Covid 3 times, and been hospitalised 3 times. And she’s had the third jab too.

Look at case numbers in Europe compared to here🤷🏼‍♀️

🤔

Cases are still very high here - nearly 700 per 100,000. I am wearing masks whenever indoors in a public place.

Olivetree75, yeah l made it up. Onviuosuly ive got nothing better to do.

Would you like her name and place of work?

‘Obviously l’ve’