Attitude to masks needs to change...

[treeflowercat]

We adapted before back in the late Spring 2020, when it was decided that masks were beneficial after all, having initially been advised against it. The message at the time and since has been that masks protect others more than they protect you.

But now, the emphasis is on mask quality.... and it matters far less whether others around you have face covering but the quality of your own. For instance, it appears that you're far more protected if you have a FFP2 mask and others are maskless, than if you and everyone else has a cloth (or even surgical) face covering as per the link below:

www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/a38697308/best-face-masks-omicron-covid-variant/

(NB the absolute times need shortening for omicron but relatively the differences remain)

The notion that a room where everyone had face coverings on is "safe" doesn't really appear to hold, as evidenced by the rises in countries where mask mandates are strict (look at Spain!).

Equally, the idea that a room where only you have a mask on (if high quality) is "unsafe", at least compared to the fully masked alternative outlined above, doesn't hold either.

It seems that the advice now needs to change, as it did before, and that your protection is primarily based on the quality of your own mask.

A recognition of this would hopefully diffuse some of the conflicts and anxieties surrounding mask use...

I'm not writing this as someone who is anti-mask, and I started wearing one before the become mandatory, but unless we make this shift, they'll be a lot of vulnerable people who feel disproportionately unsafe, in the belief that their protection still lies more with the cloth face covering worn by people they interact with, than the quality of the mask they wear themselves.

I think wearing masks while cases are still this high (millions) in winter (now) is a good idea, indoors where it is crowded.

I don't wear masks outdoors.

I don't expect that everyone will wear masks indefinitely.

I'm happy to wear an FFP2 and to have a lower threshold for wearing a mask than other people around me because I have a higher risk.

I'm usually very nice to people who don't wear masks indoors. They might well have a good reason for it. I keep my distance a bit however.

It will depend on where I am indoors as to whether I wear a mask. If I'm somewhere like Homebase or B&Q or a garden centre I won't wear one, but I might to the corner shop. I'm hoping my hairdressers wont want customers to wear them as I struggled wearing one for 3 hours last time.

@MrsSkylerWhite

WeatherwaxOn

Regardless of what the gibbering amoral buffoon PM says, I shall continue to wear a mask until the science shows infections are minimal.“

Same in our family.
If the shops yesterday were anything to go by, 9 out of 10 seem to agree.

They’re still mandatory at the moment, people don’t want to risk a fine. I suspect it will drop fairly dramatically after Thursday.

@TheLazyBeagle

They’re still mandatory at the moment, people don’t want to risk a fine. I suspect it will drop fairly dramatically after Thursday.

Lots of people are mainly wearing them because others are - they don't want to appear to be the one "making a stand against masks".... It took a while in many places for mask-usage to drop last July.

I'm too tired to find the links now (I've got them somewhere) but can do tomorrow if anybody doesn't want to take my word/can't find the info themselves.

You're right OP that FFP2 masks provide much better protection.

But - in fact it is both for the wearer and others around them.

As the protection they give the wearer, although good, isn't 100%, it's still best for everybody to wear them (minority who genuinely can't excepted).

Particularly important for the sake of the millions of vulnerable (although Long Covid means that actually everybody is potentially vulnerable).

Quite a lot of people find they are
I am a twat and did the thing I hate which is "I don't find them hard" and assumed everyone else would be the same.

Sorry about that

They’re still mandatory at the moment, people don’t want to risk a fine. I suspect it will drop fairly dramatically after Thursday.

In my local big Tesco Saturday evening I'd say it was about a third of people wearing them. They'd even lost the big sign with a picture of a person in a mask that they had before. DP and I wore them but won't after Thursday and I think most of the others we saw will be the same.

@herecomesthsun

I think wearing masks while cases are still this high (millions) in winter (now) is a good idea, indoors where it is crowded.

I don't wear masks outdoors.

I don't expect that everyone will wear masks indefinitely.

I'm happy to wear an FFP2 and to have a lower threshold for wearing a mask than other people around me because I have a higher risk.

I'm usually very nice to people who don't wear masks indoors. They might well have a good reason for it. I keep my distance a bit however.

I wear a mask indoors but would still prefer you to keep your distance a bit, thanks

@HarrietteNightingale

They’re still mandatory at the moment, people don’t want to risk a fine. I suspect it will drop fairly dramatically after Thursday.

In my local big Tesco Saturday evening I'd say it was about a third of people wearing them. They'd even lost the big sign with a picture of a person in a mask that they had before. DP and I wore them but won't after Thursday and I think most of the others we saw will be the same.

I think this is likely to be right. There is already a wane in numbers even with the legal requirement still existing, I've noticed this too, and once the law formally changes there'll probably be a drop off. It's a combination of lots of people disliking them, restrictions fatigue and the case never having been made well enough to the public even when we were facing pre-Omicron strains where we knew masks might actually assist.