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Original poster

Why won’t so many Brits wear a mask

484 replies

IloveConkers · 10/12/2021 17:50

I live in mainland Spain where I haven’t seen a single person without a mask in a supermarket since March 2020. I hear it’s the same in Germany and Italy. What is it about so many British people that makes them not do it when it’s clearly safer. I returned to the UK for a visit and found it horrifying. I was even looked at with disdain for wearing one! I just don’t get it!

OP posts:
MrsTerryPratchett · 13/12/2021 21:02

@SpanielsAreMyLife

Yes, we're all so much safer with those grubby fabric facemasks stored at the bottom of grubby handbags/pockets/car doors.

Hmm

Mine are fresh every day and in a plastic bag in my bag.

I don't reuse knickers or snot rags either. Because I'm not manky.

MrsTerryPratchett · 13/12/2021 21:31

@londonmummy1966

I will probably get flamed for this but the majority of people I see on the Tube not wearing masks are Eastern European men.
Of course they are. Of course.

Without my Polish grandfather and his east European flyer compatriots you might be speaking German right now. But whatever.

Coffeepants · 13/12/2021 21:44

Well the question is why don’t Brit’s wear a mask. And I have answered it

gofg · 14/12/2021 04:16

May I suggest you yourself have a bit of 'consideration for others', and not judge those without masks, or celebrate countries which shut disabled people away.

Oh get over yourself! Other countries don't "shut disabled people away", but other countries also don't have so many whinging whiney people who simply can't wear a mask because ...........

Unmerited · 14/12/2021 04:18

@SpanielsAreMyLife

Yes, we're all so much safer with those grubby fabric facemasks stored at the bottom of grubby handbags/pockets/car doors.

Hmm

You should get a clean one.
Unmerited · 14/12/2021 04:19

@Driposaurus

Because they have only self interest in heart and don’t understand why working together, even at small personal compromise, is a good thing. See also: Brexit.
This. Bleating about personal freedom vs anything for others.
Blueberry40 · 14/12/2021 04:51

@DoctorSnortles

There are a lot of stroppy morons in the UK. I don’t have actual data to back this up, but it is an empirical fact.
Basically this Grin I agree with you OP, it defies logic and is utterly selfish.
TheVampiresWife · 14/12/2021 07:49

@gofg

May I suggest you yourself have a bit of 'consideration for others', and not judge those without masks, or celebrate countries which shut disabled people away.

Oh get over yourself! Other countries don't "shut disabled people away", but other countries also don't have so many whinging whiney people who simply can't wear a mask because ...........

If, as PPs claim, you have to wear a mask in public with no exceptions, then how can people who can't wear them access employment/education/healthcare and so on? How can they go about their business?

And cheers for calling disabled people whinging and whiney. Just lovely.

WanderingFruitWonderer · 14/12/2021 08:12

People are wearing them much more now, since it was mandated again two weeks ago or so. Before that, it's true, not many. Not sure when you visited?
I don't judge the people who don't wear one now, as I assume there is a valid reason. Also, I've given up judging other people's personal choices (within reason!) and recognise that life and people are complicated.
Also though, in general, I think there's an anarchist streak that runs through the British psyche - which can be both a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what's going on...

gofg · 14/12/2021 09:29

If, as PPs claim, you have to wear a mask in public with no exceptions, then how can people who can't wear them access employment/education/healthcare and so on? How can they go about their business?

I am not in the same country, but I have yet to see anyone not wearing a mask in public here. I'm sure there are people with exceptions but the point I, and several others, are trying to get through is that in other countries there are not the numbers screaming - "but I can't wear a mask" - that there appear to be in England. We've read some of the excuses on MN, they are laughable.

And cheers for calling disabled people whinging and whiney. Just lovely.

I never mentioned disabled people, I was referring to those who use the flimsiest of excuses for non mask wearing. I take it you haven't heard the expression "whinging Poms", it's very common here.

elliejjtiny · 14/12/2021 11:49

I think part of the problem is the exemption list in England is quite vague and easily misinterpreted. I think the guidelines say that you are exempt if wearing a mask causes you extreme distress. So you will get some people who don't like masks and will use any excuse not to wear one will believe they are exempt because they have asthma and can breathe slightly better with a mask on or they feel that not really liking a mask counts as extreme distress.

Then you get people (like me) who take it all a bit too literally and struggle on with a mask at hospital appointments, school drop off etc and avoid going out anywhere else because they don't think their distress is extreme enough to be exempt.

So then people from the second group get cross with people from the first group for not trying hard enough and then the people who can wear a mask without a problem start moaning that half the country aren't wearing masks.

I don't know what the solution is. It has to be possible to "self certify" your exemption or people will fall through the cracks, like they do for things like the blue badge and DLA/PIP.

paranoidnamechanger · 14/12/2021 12:03

Who knows what goes on in other people's minds but I don't wear them anymore because I can't be bothered to.

Cyrilgoggin · 14/12/2021 13:15

And there we have it. 438 posts in Paranoidnamechanger has answered the question in one sentence. Of course there are a small number of people who are exempt, but this is the main reason.

CatsArePeople · 14/12/2021 13:31

And there we have it. 438 posts in Paranoidnamechanger has answered the question in one sentence. Of course there are a small number of people who are exempt, but this is the main reason.

Well, we had almost 2 years of this. Just can't pretend to believe it anymore.

OldieWordly · 14/12/2021 13:58

@Cyrilgoggin

And there we have it. 438 posts in Paranoidnamechanger has answered the question in one sentence. Of course there are a small number of people who are exempt, but this is the main reason.
Sadly, very true.

This is what UK society is nowadays, or should that be a distinct lack of society and care and responsibity towards others than just yourself and immediate family.

We may disparage other societies for being too conformist, but in a pandemic situation such attributes are welcomed with selfishness put aside for the greater good.

CatsArePeople · 14/12/2021 14:05

put aside for the greater good.

The "greater good" in other countries already turned into quarantine camps and jabs at gunpoint.

Anonymous48 · 14/12/2021 14:09

@paranoidnamechanger

Who knows what goes on in other people's minds but I don't wear them anymore because I can't be bothered to.
"Can't be bothered to". Wow. Just wow. You should be ashamed of yourself.
OldieWordly · 14/12/2021 14:33

@CatsArePeople

put aside for the greater good.

The "greater good" in other countries already turned into quarantine camps and jabs at gunpoint.

Surely trying to minimise exposure to others by mask wearing would lessen the need for any such extreme situations?

Unfortunately, this what happens. That a small requirement is conflated to the erosion off all civil liberties for all time.

As others have said if you want to die on that hill, go ahead and exert your 'right' to do what you want and go maskfree, vaccination free etc.

However, as happened with someone I know who didn't have a vaccination for whatever reason, I did symphasise with the family when they lost their life to Covid. However, I also have to ask why they and others took the risk when they didn't need to and then lost.

However as in the rest of life, it's only when we are are death's door do we wake up and realise that we are not immortal and need to do all we can to help ourselves.

FebreroFred · 14/12/2021 15:01

I work in a specialist hospital where we look after some of the sickest Covid patients

Please believe me when I say even if you survive, the treatment when you are very ill with Covid is horrid. Traumatising for some

I had a colleague crying on my shoulder after a night shift over one of her patients in ICU - they were getting ready to move him out of ICU when he suddenly went downhill again and passed away. She has been a nurse for 23 years, and lived in a country which went through horrific civil war but this was the thing in her career that broke her

Nurses and doctors also need to go shopping, take their kids to school etc. If they catch Covid while out and about that’s one more person who can’t look after you if you end up sick, because they have it too. And then the public complain about staff shortages.

I’m BEGGING you - please please please please please please please please please please think of others and protect them and yourself as much as you can. Not wearing a mask or getting vaccinated if you are able to isn’t worth risking someone’s life.

Please take care everyone and have a safe, beautiful Christmas Flowers

DaisyNGO · 14/12/2021 15:32

I don't want to start another thread but as the mask wearing clearly continues...

What masks do people find comfy? I am just using the blue disposable ones but starting to find them a bit itchy.

Thanks.

CatsArePeople · 14/12/2021 16:30

What masks do people find comfy?

"Step ahead" brand from Iceland or Poundland are quite ok

DaisyNGO · 14/12/2021 17:58

@CatsArePeople

What masks do people find comfy?

"Step ahead" brand from Iceland or Poundland are quite ok

Thanks They look like a synthetic material, it's hard to tell what's comfortable and as I'm returning to work I'm going to need comfort. I'll try those, thanks.
samyeagar · 14/12/2021 18:48

@elliejjtiny

I think part of the problem is the exemption list in England is quite vague and easily misinterpreted. I think the guidelines say that you are exempt if wearing a mask causes you extreme distress. So you will get some people who don't like masks and will use any excuse not to wear one will believe they are exempt because they have asthma and can breathe slightly better with a mask on or they feel that not really liking a mask counts as extreme distress.

Then you get people (like me) who take it all a bit too literally and struggle on with a mask at hospital appointments, school drop off etc and avoid going out anywhere else because they don't think their distress is extreme enough to be exempt.

So then people from the second group get cross with people from the first group for not trying hard enough and then the people who can wear a mask without a problem start moaning that half the country aren't wearing masks.

I don't know what the solution is. It has to be possible to "self certify" your exemption or people will fall through the cracks, like they do for things like the blue badge and DLA/PIP.

Words such as "extreme" have no real meaning any more. Hell, there was that other thread where someone found it "horrific" that there were people without masks in England. So if that counts as "horrific" then certainly "extreme distress" can mean what ever the person wants it to mean.
gofg · 14/12/2021 18:58

What masks do people find comfy?

I find merino masks comfy, if you can get them.

Gilead · 15/12/2021 01:35

I don't know what the solution is. It has to be possible to "self certify" your exemption or people will fall through the cracks, like they do for things like the blue badge and DLA/PIP.

We don’t self certify ourselves.
Not everyone on the above mentioned benefit is entitled to a blue badge.
SOME people with disabilities need masks, others don’t.

Basically, if you can wear a mask you should. It’s not coercion, force or any of the slippery slope logical fallacies bouncing around here, it’s good manners. It’s kindness, sort yourselves out.

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