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

My thoughts too.

The OP wants it mandatory, it’s mentioned in the op.

Its not a minor thing for some people. The lockdowns wrecked my (already poor) mental health. It was also terrible for my toddlers development and adults wearing masks hinder development too. I’m now not thinking about covid in my everyday life, I’m not testing so I wouldn’t know if I had it. I’m certainly not wearing a mask, I threw them all out as I couldn’t bear them being on display. There’s bigger things to worry about at the moment anyway.

Look at Hong Kong, mandatory masking everywhere for almost 3 years and one of the world’s highest Covid death rates.

Huh? According to worldometers Hong Kong is 81st when you list the countries in order of death rate?

@constantgarden

I just looked it up. HongKong has a population of nearly 7.5 million people and it’s covid death total is under 10,200 as of 7 hours ago. So no, not one of the world’s highest covid death rates. And Hong Kong is generally high density housing.

@Overthebow

Its not a minor thing for some people. The lockdowns wrecked my (already poor) mental health. It was also terrible for my toddlers development and adults wearing masks hinder development too. I’m now not thinking about covid in my everyday life, I’m not testing so I wouldn’t know if I had it. I’m certainly not wearing a mask, I threw them all out as I couldn’t bear them being on display. There’s bigger things to worry about at the moment anyway.

The 'minor' part I was referring to is consideration for vulnerable people. Nothing more is asked of you.

And you are saying lockdowns wrecked your mental health - have you ever, just once, considered what life might be like for an extremely vulnerable person who can't simply resume life as you might have? Who can't just throw the masks away or just worry about the bigger things, because being ill is really the only thing? I'm very glad isn't part of your everyday life, but for them, Covid may not ever really go away.

It says in the very first post on the thread that OP would like compulsory restrictions.

'So wish really there were some more mandatory mitigations tbh.'

She also explains quite clearly why she wants them, it's central to her point.

And it's a terrible idea. Compulsory masking has been shown to be a failure, and because of a combination of this and Partygate there'll be less buy in. Having laws the state clearly can't enforce is a bad thing.

Because mask wearing in public actually isn't a minor or simple thing at all, and caused some detriment even during the earlier stages of the pandemic before Omicron when it might actually have been more helpful, it would be a particularly bad thing if it were reintroduced now. OP is just all the way in the wrong on that one.

I'm not going through all the rigmarole again of stats and figures and rates and everything in a summer 2020 fashion. But you don't have to look to Hong Kong. Just look at us here in Scotland where we started wearing masks at the same time as england some time in July 2020-ish and NEVER STOPPED until Easter this year. And scientists say there's nothing between the rates in the two countries.

Yes it must be shit being clinically vulnerable. Just as it was shit three years ago before anyone had ever heard of Covid. And those of us who are not vulnerable turned out lives upside down for 18 months to protect the vulnerable - we didn't send our kids to school, kept them from seeing their friends, no parties, no restaurants, bars, "non-essential" shopping, no foreign travel etc etc etc. We put our lives on hold at considerable detriment to most of us to allow time for the vulnerable to get their vaccines.

And now that's happened we're not doing it any more. We've done our bit.

Bless your heart for thinking you’re “protecting me” with your shite fabric mask.

I'm disabled, and as I said upthread, in the 500,000 most vulnerable category.

You don't speak for all disabled/vulnerable people.

Wherever masks were required, even when they were mandatory, there were exemptions in place. Nobody was ever unable to enter certain settings if they were unable to wear a mask, as you describe. The only reason anyone who was exempt were deterred from going about our business was the hostility we faced. Which is a form of ableism too, wouldn't you agree? Threatening, abusing and even physically attacking people due to a disability or health condition?

That isn't 'a form of shielding'. That's taking sensible precautions. Which, incidentally, those of us who have been immunosuppressed for years have done for years. Of course you shouldn't meet with people with active infections if you're immunocompromised, that's just common sense and always has been. Ditto keeping up with vaccinations.

Shielding was nothing like this advice. Shielding required isolation; this advice talks about meeting people. When shielding wa sin place, there was furlough and financial help. None of this is available now.

Well, quite.

I've had covid seven times and the majority of my infections happened when masks were mandatory.

Not a chance in hell I will go back to wearing a mask. Even if COVID isn’t over the damage it did financially, mentally and socially to us all protecting the vulnerable wasn’t worth it. If you are vulnerable then I am sorry, it’s up to you to avoid.

PP saying lockdown was to protect the vulnerable. It was to protect the NHS from being overwhelmed. Do you seriously think the govt would have been bothered if the death rate was even higher? Does that really fit in with the care home strategy, the evusheld policy, the large numbers of DNRs etc?

Living in the Madrid area and not UK, COVID is going around again and everyone seems to have it again including us. It sucks big time. The contagion vector was likely the playground as the toddler who gets coughed and sneezed on came down with it first/at the same time i did.

When we finally test negative and I can leave the house again, i will 100% be wearing a mask anywhere indoors (and outdoors when near other parents and children at playgrounds). I would rather not catch this again. It is awful.

OP, you say you have reasons to "justify" health anxiety...
Does that mean you want to stay having health anxiety? You think it's a good way for you to be? That's how that phrase sounds.

Nobody wants to keep their diabetes or broken leg or heart failure. You mange it & no one should say it's your fault .. unless you like being that way, maybe, and won't do things to try to minimise its harm in your life. Why do you want to keep a chronic mental illness?

Indeed, and I'd also point out that vulnerable to covid and vulnerable per se are not synonymous. There are people who weren't vulnerable to covid who were made vulnerable/more so due to lockdown.

But the two things are the same. The people who are not vulnerable were very unlikely to be putting pressure on the NHS because they would not have gone to hospital with covid. The people who were vulnerable were more likely to need NHS treatment which is precisely WHY they were labelled vulnerable. These are not two separate issues.

But anyway, these threads have been raging for 2.5 years, however much the anxious/vulnerable want it to be, we are not going back to masks and distancing and the rest of it, however much you wish it to be so. So going forward, you need to learn to live as best you can with it.

@RascafríaMom buy why would you wear a mask if you don’t want to catch it again? I thought we were told wearing masks protected OTHERS?

anyway - when are we allowed to start talking about all the people we’ve lost due to lockdown and inability to access the NHS? I’ve lost 2 uni friends to cancer in the last 3 months because they couldn’t see a doctor… and I’ve just been diagnosed with something which SHOULD’VE been diagnosed March 20 and I will now pay a long-term price for the delay.

@PerfectlyPreservedQuagaarWarrior

Indeed, and I'd also point out that vulnerable to covid and vulnerable per se are not synonymous. There are people who weren't vulnerable to covid who were made vulnerable/more so due to lockdown.

Could you explain further what you mean here?

I’m CEV and wear a FFP2 mask in some situations but once I’ve had my booster and it’s had time to take effect I will enjoy going maskless for a few months. I am well aware that even though I am still being extra careful the people I mix with are all mixing so it’s probably a bit futile. Just makes me feel as though I’m doing all I can.

RascafríaMom buy why would you wear a mask if you don’t want to catch it again? I thought we were told wearing masks protected OTHERS?

And things have moved on enough for everyone to know a well fitted, good quality face mask protects OTHERS and YOURSELF

i wear an fpp3 to protect myself.
im happy that the one time I got covid, I was wearing it before I started to develop symptoms (and tested positive) so I also protected others.

But it’s interesting that some people think masks are only there to protect others. Shows how crap the messaging around masks has been and is.

Incorrect. Most of us never believed for a split second they protected ourselves or others. You can wear a space suit for all I care - but don’t dress it up as being more knowledgeable than others.

(CEV myself)

Is ut not that one can have reasons to be ‘anxious’ (loose term) around an illness creating neuro inflammation?

I mean I’m not anxious by any way in the medical sense if the term. I still want to avoid covid. It’s nit anxiety but knowing the real risks involved and a safety assessment done for myself.
I wear a mask just like I out a seat belt on. I’m not anxious about car crashes. I don’t have ‘car anxiety’ but I still wear it because I know it saves lifes.
Just like I know a mask protects me from many issues.

That’s not being overly anxious.

??

You don’t believe masks protect you (well fitted, good quality, not material or surgical masks)
That goes against scientific evidence. But hey Ho. You do you.