Thoughts on using facemasks again....as numbers rise

[Kcc73]

So....numbers of covid (along side other cold/flu viruses) and rising quickly.
I have had cold/sore throat/feeling fatigue - but not covid - after 7 days still can't shake it off. I am not that 'ill' and just getting on with what I have to do BUT my health generally not great and a) the thought of getting covid /or/and flu , plus all these more minor colds , and b) probably worse - the thought of my hubby or teens getting covid/flu (and they probably less careful/mindful re washing hands etc) and the impact of that alone! is beginning to get me in a spin (I suffer with chronic condition that doesn't make me cev but I have high fatigue and pains at best of times).

Yes, I do suffer with anxiety (but have reasons to justify) but as it becoming more evident that we heading into another wave, what is reasonable to do , looking at the measures we used in past - when it was kind of mandatory - that can do now?? I want , and have started wearing face mask in supermarkets . I want to ask my teens to wear facemask on public transport but because no one else, well few, are doing this, feel I can't impose this and don't want to pass on anxieties to them.

BUT I know as 'mum', that if (when) family get sick, it will fall to me to a lot more , which don't get me wrong, I do want and feel should do, - but my stance is let's try and do whatever we can to reduce likelihood or getting sick - or preparing for the worst. I am NOT going to be stopping life; but as we head into winter again I am getting worried. Hubby away for weekend with friends and now it's back to thinking 'oh expect he will bring back covid '.

So wish really there were some more mandatory mitigations tbh. I know a lot will shout me down about this. I don't think we should lockdown before anyone thinks then. Just we are a culture of 'followers' and when fold started wearing masks, it made others accept wearing ok, and when it no longer mandatory, if still wearing one you felt odd! Wondered if others starting to wear masks again or doing anything else? (apart from get vaccinated which for most won't be for a while; my appointment is late Oct as I have another health condition).

Long woffly message. Sorry!

Kc

But you wear a seatbelt right? Is that you living in fear of a car accident?
You are using clean water and wouldn’t dream eating raw chicken/leftover rice/whatever food issue, are you not living in fear of a simple D&V bug then?

I mean I’m like you. I dint want to live in fear. I’d rather know that my environment is as safe as possible. Starting with the MANY measures that could be taken to clean the air (hello HEPA filters and the like).

But I’m surprised of the risk assessment you are making, like many others. And the fact you associate wearing a means with living in fear when you dint associate wearing a seatbelt with living in fear. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

@VampiresWife

I'm not asking anyone to 'cater to my disability' by asking that those who are exempt are not attacked. And the S word has been used umpteen times on this thread.

OK - in future, I'm asking that anyone making the choice to wear masks/isolate/vaccinate/socially distance on the basis of illness/disability not be derided or attacked as they have been mercilessly in the past. Even?

'Selfish' has been applied to non-mask wearers in general. I don't agree with it, and I certainly don't agree with it when disability is involved.

You know what, @AsterixInEngland , you have no control over the risk assessments other people are making. Because it is NONE of your business. I wear a seatbelt because it is legally required. Masks are not, so your analogy is ridiculous. Raw chicken isn't very tasty either.

So why not just go about your own business, with your masks and filters and whatever else you want, and just leave others to go about theirs? You can do the whole pitying, head shaking "but you don't UNDERSTAND" nonsense and it's in one ear and out of the other. Don't care.

@VampiresWife

To clarify, I'm not suggesting you've attacked others in the past, just that it's been the trend on this forum.

None of us should be attacking other people for their choices and behaviours when it comes to masks, isolation etc, particularly as it's now incredibly clear that these things are not going to be made compulsory again. I've seen people on both sides of the discussion essentially try and centre their inability to understand other people's risk assessments and it's never anything less than twat behaviour.

@Southeastdweller I'm with you 100%. I will not wear one again. Not for any setting. If they ever come back I shall just be exempt.

The whole response to the pandemic was a travesty that we will have to live with for years.

In university at the moment, everyone, literally, everyone is ill. They all go about their business, attending lectures, going out and about. Lecturers cannot be heard due to the constant coughing. They all have "freshers", but what is it? Flu, colds, covid, nobody knows. We have gone way past the point of worrying about it.

But @PerfectlyPreservedQuagaarWarrior they don't even need to understand other people's risk assessments.

Just accept that people have the right to make those risk assessments, and it's not up to them to stick their beaks in.

Yes, that's my point. That is why people who think their inability to understand other people's risk assessments is of any importance are in the wrong.

My family and I are in Tokyo at the moment.
Before covid, many people here would wear a mask if they were a bit under the weather, it’s just seen as good manners, it is a very different mentality.
It doesn’t bother me and I’m happy to wear one, especially if I’m a crowded environment.
People have got to make their own choices.
I have had two vaccines and a booster but still caught COVID twice, mild in the sense I didn’t need medical treatment, but it’s the most ill I’ve ever felt. I am personally conflicted about getting the booster again as it really did affect my periods, and the likelihood I will get COVID again is relatively high so it’s about deciding whether I would rather deal with constant bleeding and awful cramps or have a week (unpaid) off work 🤷🏻‍♀️

OK - in future, I'm asking that anyone making the choice to wear masks/isolate/vaccinate/socially distance on the basis of illness/disability not be derided or attacked as they have been mercilessly in the past. Even?

@Dishh I've said this myself many times, on this thread alone, and elsewhere. Nobody should be attacked for their choices.

My belief is that mandatory masks and other mitigations should never be reinstated, barring a new and virulent variant, because of the damage it would do to livelihoods particularly during a cost of living crisis. Also that Evushield be introduced in the UK and those who need to shield are given the support to do so, financially and practically as needs be.

But we really really need to move on from the finger pointing, the attacks, the cries of 'selfish' and so on. Covid is part of life now (albeit a shit part!), so carrying this animosity on for years is plainly ridiculous and unhelpful.

No, I don't think wearing masks should be brought back. For someone who has a generally good immune system, I suffered with more coughs, colds and other bugs when everyone were wearing masks than what I do without masks.

Covid is part of life now and we all have to learn to live with it being around us. It's just like flu at flu season - some of us will catch it, some of us 'may' catch it, some of it may not catch it........

However, if you feel like you should be wearing a mask, feel free.....

Stop neing neurotic and live your life

I've had all my jabs and have been so ill with it this time around. Started with a scratchy throat, headache, body aches, and fatigue. I dread to think how bad it could have been if not for the jabs.

@VampiresWife do your mitigations that should never be brought back include clean air? As in adequate filtration system, open windows etc… you know the same system that is already used to keep building warm or cold.

Or is that also too damaging?

Why on earth would an open window be 'damaging'?

Mandatory filtration systems would be expensive to install, I'd imagine, so smaller businesses wouldn't be able to do so without government help. If they were mandatory, I expect many businesses would have to close if they couldn't afford them.

No. This is your anxiety talking. Please, please do everything you can to not pass this anxiety on to your kids and give them the life long burden of it.

I have continued to wear a FFP2 mask in the supermarket, transport etc

ONS report: 2,3 militons people have LC that’s including 1.6 millions whose daily activities are been affected.
450 people die every week from covid.
Thats a huge cost to the economy and businesses just because if absences, long term sickness, having to replace people etc…. Would that not put those businesses at risk too?

We have strict rules for ventilation for legionary disease, a disease doesn’t have anywhere the impact covid has. Small businesses have to adhere to that and found a way to make it work.

Thats nit talking about the obscene amount if money that have been spent on PPE. I’m sure we can find a few more millions to help smaller businesses to adjust but tbh HEPA filters are not that expensive anyway.

An added expense at the moment, on top of all the existing price increases, might be more than many businesses can bear. People losing their jobs in the middle of the worst cost of living crisis for decades is far from ideal. Poverty kills, and it does so at far higher rates than covid.

This

Unpopular but personally I would like to see some restrictions return for the winter period and as a worse case scenario - a circuit breaker so help ease pressure off the NHS

We have Omicron-specific vaccines and antiviral treatments to protect those most at risk from hospitalisation, things we didn't have last year. Thankfully it's incredibly unlikely (barring a virulent new strain) that the NHS will be under the sort of pressure that necessitated previous lockdowns.

Restrictions would not be necessary for that reason, also.

The vaccines offer no protection to the 500,000 or so most vulnerable people

The government has decided not to provide Evusheld (UK is only country that has made a decision which has rejected it, despite MHRA approval)

Charities have found that the provision of anti-virals is not working in practice as it should.

Meanwhile, hospital admissions are up by a third, to about 1000 a day. And that is enough to cause real stresses

I'm one of the 500,000. I've had covid seven times, because although six times vaccinated, I don't achieve a good immune response. However it has been explained to me that although the likelihood of catching covid isn't greatly reduced, the severity of symptoms is likely to be less, and in my experience this is true; my last infection was so mild it was decided that I didn't require antivirals.

The 500,000 figure is often quoted but it does not mean that there are half a million people who will all definitely need hospital care if they catch covid. Some will, of course. But it's misleading to suggest that all of us will.

If this winter is like last winter, hospital stays will be shorter and patients will recover more quickly than in winter 2020/21. Which means less pressure than previously.

Evusheld, yes, I agree with you.