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

Well said!!!

I didn't mean to suggest all 500,000 will be hospitalised. Not least because so many are still living according to the current recommended precautionary advice (which isn't full shielding, but is very isolating)

But they make up between a quarter and a third of those admitted to hospital, and the majority of those admitted to ICU. So it's a major stress on NHS.

If you do not produce antibodies at all, then there is no impact on severity of the disease. But you might get lucky, though unfortunately many do not.

Yes, this!

Nah, I won’t be bothering again. Bugger all happened to people who didn’t wear them last time so I’ll be joining them next time. I only ever wore them because they were supposedly mandatory, not due to any belief in their efficacy.

I never wore one, but I always wore my lanyard to signal my exemption. Believe me, plenty happened to exempt people - none of it meted out by the powers that be (given that exempt people were acting perfectly within the law at the time). The 'justice' meted out by fellow bus passengers/shoppers/general busybodies was more than enough.

No not wearing one again, will buy one of those lanyards if they try. Completely pointless unless medical grade.

Distance, avoiding crowded spaces and washing hands are the best option though I won't be worrying (apart from normal 2019 levels of hand washing

Well, if you do all that, a mask would be pointless for you.

No, not this. And even if Op was neurotic, which we don’t know, and aren’t qualified to diagnose, people have different opinions. It’s not okay to accuse someone of being mentally. It’s certainly not okay to accuse them of being mentally ill because they have a different opinion from you.

@Redfrangipani well said.

There are many people who are vulnerable to covid and their fellow citizens aren’t willing to wear a damn mask to mitigate covid spread

In my attempts not to be socially shamed, abused and judged over the last 2 years I have spent hundreds trying to find a style of mask that I could cope with. I have come close to passing out and vomiting, and in the end I barely left my house for nearly 6 months at the height of the sunflower lanyard hatred for fear of how fucked up society had got with people making comments like this.

All of that (and I'm autistic - I'm wired to be desperate to want to follow rules) and I can manage about an hour max if I spend fucking ages trying to adjust it perfectly first... just about enough for me to whip into a care home and do a quick patient visit in order that I didn't spaff £27k down the drain on a degree to do a career I love that I'd signed up for pre-pandemic. I HAD to do a 3 hour stint in one of the damned things the other day (despite my boss - who is mid chemo but could see me struggling like mad telling me to drink lots of water incredibly slowly to reduce the time on my face) and the resulting sensory overwhelm, meltdown and total overload had me barely able to speak 3 words together for a good couple of days afterwards. I could invoke disability discrimination, or pick and choose my caseload - but I'm not that kind of person and I'm trying desperately to do the right thing - despite it being at immense personal cost. The only adjustment I've claimed is that if we go back to the nonsense of being expected to sit in them in offices full time (while the local authority staff we share a room with don't have to) - I'll be working from home and sprinting into bases to use the printer and then legging it out of there.

If that is the world we're going to be living in long-term... I can't do that. I'm desperately trying to tunnel vision through this autumn/winter to save my career but other than that - I'm going to have to explore other options in the private sector instead of an NHS job I love and am fucking good at.

So yes. me not being "willing to wear a damn mask" is much more nuanced than that - but that doesn't fit the eternal selfish/selfless narrative. I'm sick of being painted like that - I didn't vote UKIP, I don't support Trump, I'm not in the least bit gammon coloured (more milkbottle white), I didn't vote for Brexit, and if vaccines improve your 5g reception I wish they'd bloody work on my shitty house wifi... just to work through a few of the other usual stereotypes.

Sorry OP but the issue here is your health anxiety, not covid.

INDEPENDENT SAGE ON MYTH FACE MASKS DONT OFFER PROTECTIONIndependent sage

OP do you still think mask laws/whatever other mandatory mitigations you were talking about are a good idea? Not people wearing an FFP3 because they judge it best, I mean legislation like we had previously.

Some NHS trusts are requiring masks (very glad to see that reported, expect it'll increase as people are beginning to notice that we have more cases this autumn than we did in the previous two years, and admissions are rising sharply, causing real difficulties in some areas.

Some European countries, such as Germany and Switzerland are reintroducing compulsory public measures - they are worried their health systems won't cope otherwise. These are countries with better-functioning health services and which provide Evusheld to their most vulnerable.

I’m thick skinned enough to ignore them thankfully! That and AirPods are a blessing

Sorry OP, as soon as you start linking INDEPENDENT SAGE IN BIG SHOUTY CAPITALS you've lost me.

I agree with every word of this.

There are many people who are vulnerable to covid and their fellow citizens aren’t willing to wear a damn mask to mitigate covid spread

you’re right, I’m not. I’ve had my jabs and I’ll stay home if I am sick. I’m not otherwise responsible for, nor do I care about, the health of random vulnerable people. And you can say it’s selfish all you like. I still won’t care. 2.5 years of the general public being in thrall fbi this utter crap is long enough.

No one with any sense gives a rat’s ass what they think.

I don't think a circuit breaker would help.

But we do need to look at how to keep the NHS functioning, and masks in all clinical settings is an important mitigation. Better ventilation is the other step, but might require considerable retrofitting. I'd add public transport too

Covid will mutate its way past current immunity, but it can't mutate past physical barriers such as masks and filters.

Genuine question - what if you or one of your immediate family suddenly became one of the vulnerable? Maybe a cancer diagnosis, and a treatment regime that meant zero immunity? That's a third to a half of us lifetime risk, so not that unlikely.

Would you happily go into isolation for a year or more of treatment, plus at least six months afterwards?

Are you happy to have no restrictions in hospitals, so waiting for your MRI to see if your tumour has shrunk becomes one of the riskiest activities for you?

Compulsory facemask is done. Good luck trying to enforce compliance when it's been gone for 6 months and folk were abandoning wearing them in droves well before the rules were changed anyway.

I didn't mind doing it to begin with as we were told it was a temporary measure to get us through the 'crisis' stage of a covid wave while we vaccinated vulnerable people. Well vaccines have been going nearly two years, more covid waves have come and gone, and by the time we binned facemasks I was utterly sick of them and grudged every single minute wearing them.

Government would be wasting their time trying to reintroduce compulsory masks, and even if they are stupid enough to do it I will absolutely refuse to wear one under any circumstances. If they hadn't lied about the original introduction I'd be slightly more amenable to the idea, but frankly, they can get fucked.

Or live on this planet.

Any plan starting from the premise that the population are actually going to go along with restrictions at this point is doomed to fail. All that would happen if a circuit breaker were attempted is people cramming into each other's homes more whilst lots of pointless economic damage is inflicted.

No, I stopped wearing one the last time they were brought back. They're uncomfortable and unnatural. Anyone who believes in them can go ahead. I spent far too much of my time and energy following restrictions I was never in favour of, for fear of the self-appointed covid police. I'm done.