Some restrictions back, fed up

[Ireallydontcare55]

Just heard the news about masks returning as of next week and changes to travelling rules.

It’s not so much that wearing a mask is inconvenient, it’s the fact that we were told restrictions were over and that we could get on with our lives.

I know I will get shot down for this post, but if it isn’t the ‘omnicron’ variant then it’ll be something else.

I’m sure many people will be in favour of tighter restrictions ‘until numbers drop’. And then what? In a few months’ time when the latest variant is out, will we have to do the same again?
“it’s just for a few weeks/months”

This isn’t going away. What’s the point of having 3 vaccines?

I’m fed up with it all, are people really prepared to do this for the foreseeable future ?

All this whining about well its not normal life to have mask wearing. Newsflash - normal life (pre covid) is no more.

You can still have people in your home's, everything is open, you can still go to restaurants etc without a mask.

These are tiny measures which may prevent future larger measures.

I find this whining about wearing a mask in a shop or on public transport pathetic.

I do appreciate the isolate until PCR test from travelling is very distruptive and will impact badly on the travel industry. However I think it's necessary. I would understand complaining about that..but people spouting on about the impact of masks (in minimal places!) need to get perspective and grow up I'm afraid

If you can’t cope with wearing a mask again, just say you are exempt. Problem solved!

@Kjcf

If you can’t cope with wearing a mask again, just say you are exempt. Problem solved!

Precisely! So it is no hardship!! However I do think we should look to have masks wear we can see behind it somehow, so people who need to can lip read.

I also think some people on this thread need to look beyond little England. Look at the continent - vaccine passports and some restrictions. Mask wearing in lots of Europe never really stopped.

You are being asked to wear them in shops or on transport or medical places. That's it. Perspective needed!

Personally I think what need to be talked about more is 2nd dose vaccinations for 12-15 year olds. This age group are being turned into second class citizens for travel abroad. Spain has now joined the huge list of countries that won’t let them in with unvaccinated. One dose doesn’t count!

@Porcupineintherough So it’s no hardship for an elderly demented person to wear a mask? Or a rape victim whose attacker tried to suffocate her? Or those who rely on lip reading? Or someone with learning difficulties who doesn’t fully understand the concept of mask-wearing? Or babies and young children who are struggling to learn speech sounds and facial expressions and can’t fully understand their masked care givers?

FFS, masks are not a no cost intervention. And yes, it’s currently ‘just in shops and public transport’, but it’s unlikely to stay that way because, when inevitably in three weeks’ time the measures are found not to have worked, they’ll double down on them anyway to be seen to be doing something.

@Touchmybum

"So many posts on this thread utterly depress me and demonstrate how hard it will be for us to get out of this shitshow! If this generation had been alive in WW2, we would all be speaking German."

+++++

Firstly thank you for the inevitable WW2 comparison, I'm just surprised it took so long.

Secondly I think you'll find that primarily young men in the age of 18-40 were prepared to sacrifice their futures for the freedom of the younger generations. However in Covid we have seen the younger generation sacrifice their futures (lost education/ £450 billion of debt and counting) and their freedoms primarily for the benefit of older people aged 75 plus (average age of death from Covid being 83 - source ONS)

Thirdly regarding the "speaking German" comment, I am curious as to why you think that after the Wehrmacht had somehow managed a challenging amphibious invasion (against a superior Royal Navy), then spent years in counter insurgency against the inevitable resistance that somehow just somehow that they would have time to run German language evening classes teaching "der, die das".

@TheVampiresWife was there ANY mention of exemption or disabilities in my post? I specifically said ANTI MASK.

You know exactly what I meant, knowing full well there is a huge difference and instead you chose to turn it around and shield the anti maskers behind the genuinely exempt, and I’m talking about GENUINE exemptions.

Anti maskers who refuse to wear them should not cower behind hose with actual exemptions because THEY are the ones doing a disservice to the exempt and disabled, not me calling them out.

You are being asked to wear them in shops or on transport or medical places

For now. It will no doubt be extended at the next review, when these measures are found to have achieved sweet FA.

[quote TempsPerdu]@Porcupineintherough So it’s no hardship for an elderly demented person to wear a mask? Or a rape victim whose attacker tried to suffocate her? Or those who rely on lip reading? Or someone with learning difficulties who doesn’t fully understand the concept of mask-wearing? Or babies and young children who are struggling to learn speech sounds and facial expressions and can’t fully understand their masked care givers?

FFS, masks are not a no cost intervention. And yes, it’s currently ‘just in shops and public transport’, but it’s unlikely to stay that way because, when inevitably in three weeks’ time the measures are found not to have worked, they’ll double down on them anyway to be seen to be doing something.[/quote]
This is why we have exceptions to wearing masks. You don't need a certificate not to wear one!

Early years settings never had to wear them. Lip reading is a massive issue, I agree with that being a problem. We should do something to the manufacture of them to make them inclusive. clear somehow, I'm not too sure how it would work

The rest is solved by not wearing one. You are exaggerating the issue

@Willyoujustbequiet

I've never stopped wearing and mask and cant understand the fuss some people are making about minor restrictions.

I'll happily do whatever as I'm scared that if the NHS gets overwhelmed then it won't be there when my family needs it.

People bleating on about masks and travel restrictions should think about those whose cancer treatment is delayed because you want your normal back. It's so blinkered and selfish.

THIS.

I have absolute respect for people with hearing problems, nerve issues, ASD, anxiety or PTSD who have great difficulty with mask-wearing.

I have no respect for entire families or BFL pairs flaunting their team exempt lanyards while out shopping for snacks every bloody day (I work in the food industry, I see you). You are the ones who make it hard for the genuinely exempt.

@TempsPerdu

You are being asked to wear them in shops or on transport or medical places

For now. It will no doubt be extended at the next review, when these measures are found to have achieved sweet FA.

Better to be wearing masks that shut in our homes

Masks are a token gesture. Virtually useless as proven in other jurisdictions.

But they tick the government box of being seen to do something

If the Government were genuinely concerned about this new variant we would be going full on China for the next three weeks until we know more wouldn’t we?

They can’t really afford more lockdowns however & they also know a slowly increasing % of the UK population are Covid weary the longer it goes on.

The anti-maskers are still spitting their dummies out this morning I see. The Tyranny of it all! Muzzled face rags, won’t be part of this blah blahTwitter is awash with it too

We have two in our extended family @Thewiseoneincognito. The struggle is real!

Unfortunately it looks like we are well beyond the threshold where the damage from covid deaths is exceeded by the damage from the restrictions. The economic damage which impacts people's lives, mental health, physical health and future prospects. The social damage from lockdowns. The impact on children's education and social growth. The impact on the wider health service for an extreme covid focus.

I know people are dying, I know more will die, but that it part of life and the vast majority of deaths have been in people well beyond UK life expectancy, or people with conditions which means the were not supposed to live much longer anyway.

For children and young people who have been most impacted, the risk from Covid itself is so low as tobe almost nonexistent. For the majority of adults the risk is negligible and I really could not care less about those who refuse to be vaccinated (it still offers some protection against Omicron even if not perfect).

This is all such a mess, but Omicron will not be the last variant and even if there is no vaccine escape this time there will be in the future. We need to decide to how society can live with this going forward, but the reality is restrictions on those who keep up to date with vaccinations should be minimal at most.

What would you rather OP? That our Govt. did nothing and just allowed the new variant to run rampant? You are being asked to wear a mask, to protect yourself and others. What’s the fuss?

And people still haven’t got their heads around the fact that life has changed as a result of the pandemic. Things won’t go back to how they were. They just won’t. Not for the foreseeable future anyway.

Adapt and move on.

[quote Thewiseoneincognito]@TheVampiresWife was there ANY mention of exemption or disabilities in my post? I specifically said ANTI MASK.

You know exactly what I meant, knowing full well there is a huge difference and instead you chose to turn it around and shield the anti maskers behind the genuinely exempt, and I’m talking about GENUINE exemptions.

Anti maskers who refuse to wear them should not cower behind hose with actual exemptions because THEY are the ones doing a disservice to the exempt and disabled, not me calling them out.[/quote]
As I said, attitudes and language like yours regarding mask wearing make life very difficult for those who cannot wear masks. People who employ this sort of inflammatory language tend to immediately think no mask = selfish/anti masker and react accordingly. At the very least, it validates those who think and act this way. When you see someone out and about without a mask, is your first thought 'they must be exempt' or is it 'why aren't they wearing a mask, how selfish'?

How dare you accuse me of 'shielding anti maskers'. What a disgusting comment.

You don't know who's anti mask and who isn't. You don't know what struggles others are going through. Stop it with the 'sides' and the anger. You're never going to change an anti masker's mind so just concern yourself with what you do, and not creating or validating distress for those already living with disabilities or health conditions.

If masks worked we would have clear evidence of this by now. Show me one country or randomised trial that demonstrates they make any difference. They make people stand closer as they muffle conversation. They may even make the disease more aerosol. They're a complete sham

@GiveMeNovocain

If masks worked we would have clear evidence of this by now. Show me one country or randomised trial that demonstrates they make any difference. They make people stand closer as they muffle conversation. They may even make the disease more aerosol. They're a complete sham

Proof

www.pnas.org/content/118/4/e2014564118

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02415-8

Just wear the mask and stop whining like a baby.

Never stopped wearing masks around here. It’s in my pocket every morning and I stick it on my face in shops etc. It goes in the wash and I get a new one out the next day as do all my children and none of us seem unduly worried about Covid or particularly starved of time.

Honestly it’s like washing your hands after taking a shit. Takes no time and stops you passing on germs. The take home is that being a bit more hygienic is a good thing.

Masks clearly don’t work though. Wales/scotland had masks and had the worst Covid rates in U.K. Its all show just for the Government to say they are managing the situation

[quote Tokoloshe123]@Cosmoz the problem is, people like you probably won’t get ill, but people like you will probably infect somebody else that will get ill. It’s people like you that I despise and cannot tolerate. I will call people like you out in public for not wearing a mask. You are a selfish little cnut.[/quote]
I'm exempt due to trauma and you think I'm the cunt? I won't explain myself as I have my child with me who I'll never burden with my shit but every time you ask it brings me straight back to its root. Glad it makes you feel virtuous though

@Phobiaphobic

Unfortunately we are in the middle of it all until the pandemic has run its course. Pandemics do end but it takes several years.

But given there weren't vaccines available then, didn't all previous pandemics simply burn through the community until pretty much everyone had caught it and gained immunity? (Though obviously a small percentage died.) My concern is that constantly vaccinating and restricting may actually extenuate the pandemic for many years because the vaccine-induced immunity is so short-lived and new variants have constant opportunities to reinfect.

Or caught it and died.

There were over 200,000 deaths from the "Spanish flu" pandemic in the UK and the population was around 20m.

The equivalent proportion of deaths for the current population would be 670,000 people.

Ireallydontcare55 I get you. Totally get where you're coming from. I feel like people are misinterpreting your intentions for posting, going on about variants and figures etc. It's not the point at all. Its the sad/stressed feeling about life not being normal and keeps sliding back and forth between a bit more normal and crashing back to more restrictions. It's discombobulating. I feel the same, like the sand is constantly shifting under my feel. Its definitely OK to be not totally mentally 'in' on these restrictions, even if you're following the rules and theoretically agree with them. I don't know why everyone is being so harsh!