Why are we still wearing masks?

[Couldntrememberthewordbasket]

I’m not in the U.K.

Where I am, we still have to wear masks in the supermarket/petrol stations etc..we’ve never not had to,
The U.K. don’t, right?
Why are we still having to do this? I can’t see it ending, will be so very odd going shopping without masks

You are asking why people have to wear masks in your country, but as far as I can see, you have not told us where you are. How could we possibly know??? I guess you wear them because your government has decided to do it that way.

I'm based in England but go to Spain quite often. Masks are compulsory there so people do the stupid farce of wearing them; pulling them up and down; using the same masks 3 weeks in a row while it lives at the bottom of the handbag....

If you ask me, it's useless.

Masks are good if used properly but hardly anyone does outside a medical setting

It's kind of a silly question to ask during Omicron surge around the world. That makes me wonder what's the motive behind starting this thread.

@MarshaBradyo

It will change here when plan b stops iirc

Which probably isn’t that far off

Yeah, I had thought it might carry on beyond the next review and into February but given recent revelations I wonder now.

That makes me wonder what's the motive behind starting this thread.

There have definitely been a ton of threads, and a ton of posts, throughout the last two years, where I’ve wondered if it could be a bot, or one of the government SPI-B initiatives (a survey disguised as a “so disappointed in …”, or a nudge in disguise)…

@puppetear

That makes me wonder what's the motive behind starting this thread.

There have definitely been a ton of threads, and a ton of posts, throughout the last two years, where I’ve wondered if it could be a bot, or one of the government SPI-B initiatives (a survey disguised as a “so disappointed in …”, or a nudge in disguise)…

Go and have a read about the 77th Brigade who have been waging an information war against the UK populace since April 2020.

Because the government need to be seen to be doing something to ‘combat’ Covid. Of course, masks do fuck all (and are dehumanising) and they’ll be gone when Plan B ends not that I bother now.

@southeastdweller

Because the government need to be seen to be doing something to ‘combat’ Covid. Of course, masks do fuck all (and are dehumanising) and they’ll be gone when Plan B ends not that I bother now.

You do know that there is currently a virulent pandemic and it is airborne? Just checking, as it seems you might have missed a few important messages or something.

I don't find them dehumanising in the slightest. I still feel like a human wearing one, I don't think anyone wearing one looks less like a human.

It's just a phrase trotted out by the "filthy rag" brigade.

@justasking111

Interesting article. We lived in a small hamlet, village hall being the focal point xmas 2001 we had the usual xmas party, church thing. We had planned the NYE party. The whole event was cancelled the village was wiped out by flu only those who had not attended the pre xmas events were spared. So yes airborne is logical.

A study which took fifteen months using track trace data issued its findings the top spreader location wise is indeed supermarket. Followed by schools.

Without the link I can't be sure, but J suspect that your "top spreading location is supermarkets" factoid comes from a study which found that most people who caught Covid had been to a supermarket in the last week - that's not quite the same thing.

We only have to wear them in shops. That's bad enough.

Without the link I can't be sure, but J suspect that your "top spreading location is supermarkets" factoid comes from a study which found that most people who caught Covid had been to a supermarket in the last week - that's not quite the same thing.

I think that’s a good guess.

By the same logic you could say that going to the toilet or eating food is the main way of spreading covid because everyone who caught covid also went to the toilet and ate food (hopefully not at the same time 🤢) in the week leading up to catching it.

Going to the supermarket is almost certainly too commonplace and ordinary an activity to say that it’s the main site of transmission. You’d need to do a lot of work to make sure it wasn’t just a spurious correlation.

Unless we are just going to go with the utterly facile explanation that the places people go more often are also the sites with the most transmission. That doesn’t really help us in any meaningful way.

Also the statement about the timescales or what the data was don’t necessarily mean that the findings are not somewhere between banal and spurious.

You do know that there is currently a virulent pandemic and it is airborne? Just checking, as it seems you might have missed a few important messages or something.

The mask mandate worked out worked out brilliantly at preventing transmissions in Wales and Scotland, didn’t it?

@SoupDragon

I don't find them dehumanising in the slightest. I still feel like a human wearing one, I don't think anyone wearing one looks less like a human.

It's just a phrase trotted out by the "filthy rag" brigade.

You truly don’t understand how and why wearing masks is dehumanising? Honestly, I feel really sorry for you @SoupDragon

Here's a very long and interesting thread that covers lots of the data on mask wearing.

mobile.twitter.com/trishgreenhalgh/status/1414294003479089154?lang=en-GB

The quick version is that there's lots of circumstantial evidence that masks make a huge difference to spread / danger of airborne viruses.

You truly don’t understand how and why wearing masks is dehumanising? Honestly, I feel really sorry for you @SoupDragon**

Not as sorry as I feel for you with your narrow view of what it means to be human.

From what other PP are saying....

If the vast majority of masks are ineffective - why weren't we provided with effective ones?

I feel like a bit of a fool having been conned into wearing wet cloth around my face, thinking it's safer, more considerate towards others - when it obviously isn't.

It's a bit like the emperor's new clothes. We're all sheep, blindly following the blind.

Beginning to think I shouldn't have bothered - but will still pay lip service to avoid the scorn of the mask police.

@SoupDragon

You truly don’t understand how and why wearing masks is dehumanising? Honestly, I feel really sorry for you @SoupDragon**

Not as sorry as I feel for you with your narrow view of what it means to be human.

So you think it’s OK, for example, that children are growing up thinking this is normal, when they’re still learning about social cues?

@southeastdweller

You do know that there is currently a virulent pandemic and it is airborne? Just checking, as it seems you might have missed a few important messages or something.

The mask mandate worked out worked out brilliantly at preventing transmissions in Wales and Scotland, didn’t it?

It may be less impactful with omicron, who knows, but why would you risk it given the data?

When I see someone with a mask I see a person who cares enough to "do their bit". A human. When I "see" someone refusing to wear one for anything other than a genuine exemption I think "twat".

(By "see" I mean those spouting how they refuse to wear one. Obviously I have no idea about people out and about)

If you can still breathe while wearing a mask, the mask is not airtight (unless you have a proper filtered one). If it's not airtight, your breath is still leaving you and entering your environment. Others in your environment will breath in your exhaled particles whether they are wearing a mask or not. The material in an 'average' mask is as much a barrier to microbes as a tennis net is to smarties.

@SoupDragon

When I see someone with a mask I see a person who cares enough to "do their bit". A human. When I "see" someone refusing to wear one for anything other than a genuine exemption I think "twat".

(By "see" I mean those spouting how they refuse to wear one. Obviously I have no idea about people out and about)

I wish I had the headspace and to make judgemental comments about strangers.

Actually, no, I don't.

Where I am the majority have worn masks through most of the pandemic in shops. Even when it wasn’t mandatory there were more masks than not. It is currently mandatory under plan B.

@MyOtherCarIsAPorsche

From what other PP are saying....

If the vast majority of masks are ineffective - why weren't we provided with effective ones?

I feel like a bit of a fool having been conned into wearing wet cloth around my face, thinking it's safer, more considerate towards others - when it obviously isn't.

It's a bit like the emperor's new clothes. We're all sheep, blindly following the blind.

Beginning to think I shouldn't have bothered - but will still pay lip service to avoid the scorn of the mask police.

Yes, the lack of critical thinking of some over the past couple of years has been astounding. And, of course, as we've seen recently people were taken for fools by Boris and his chums. Whole thing is both tragic and farcical.

@WhenPushComesToShove

If you can still breathe while wearing a mask, the mask is not airtight (unless you have a proper filtered one). If it's not airtight, your breath is still leaving you and entering your environment. Others in your environment will breath in your exhaled particles whether they are wearing a mask or not. The material in an 'average' mask is as much a barrier to microbes as a tennis net is to smarties.

So by the same logic do you not cover your mouth / nose when coughing or sneezing?