Push for masks to be reintroduced

[GerardusMercator]

Over the last few days I've noticed a big push in media to get masks back on the agenda. A brief foray into twitter and flick through a few Covid threads here, and I've seen all the old pandemic era versions of 'it's no hardship to mask'/ your selfish if you don't want to mask etc start to creep back in.

How many of you are-

1. Still masking now
2. Will mask if it becomes guidance
3. Will mask if it becomes law
4. Will not mask again under any circumstances

I really struggled with masks and don't believe they make a great deal of difference (covid theatre) so would be somewhere between a 3 and 4.

Don't know what your problem is @MrsDanversGlidesAgain My attitude is that it's no problem to wear a mask. So I'm okay with it.

Apparently it's a massive problem for you. We know your sort won't wear a mask, there's no point reasoning with you. It's because of your sort I wear a mask.

OT but the best noun-to-verb I have EVER heard? a ticket inspector telling someone without a ticket that if they couldn't produce it 'then I'm going to have to penalty fare you.'

I’ve started wearing mine in some shops, but only really because everyone else seems to be coughing and spluttering everywhere without masks on

I had to go out while ill with covid to pick up an essential prescription. I wore a mask and will do whenever I feel ill.

I will probably go back to wearing them on public transport and crowded places while this winter bug situation is ongoing as I have been ill 3 times since the autumn and quite honestly have had enough of being ill! I had been wearing them still on busy trains.

Nice to see women are getting all the blame for proposing reintroduction of masks.

Bet Jason appreciates all the cash that 'Karen's' (sic) spend on his 'scientific' juicing though...

twitter.com/juicemaster/status/1610200705733640192?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Don't know whether to laugh or cry at that one!

'My sort' eh? and what would that be? the sort you don't want around here because this is a respectable thread? 😅

My problem is masks, mandatory wearing of, and the hard of thinking who chirp 'it's no hardship' (meaning for them) and parrot all the 2020 catch phrases as if they're coming out with something original.

Never mind. Keep your fingers crossed and pray for mask wearing. Pretty soon you'll probably get to abuse 'my sort' in the street again.

I'd rather not. Especially if masks in schools start being suggested again. If I'm unwell I'll keep out of people's way anyway and not go in to the office, and I always practise good hand hygiene and still use sanitiser.

I still wear a mask (FFP3). Never had Covid, despite being coughed on many times. Given the building evidence that each covid infection does long term immune system damage I feel like it’s been the right call. It’s such a tiny imposition (for me). I think everyone needs to weigh the benefits v costs for themselves and their direct family. I don’t support legal mandates. But I also hate the shaming of people who choose to wear a mask to protect themselves and/or vulnerable family members.

between 3-4 - pointless waste of time

@NewspaperTaxis ”your sort”? 1950s called, they want their catchphrase back 😂

You are all funny about wearing masks in the UK in making it into some sort of public freedom exercise to have them or not. But your health service is tanking, so maybe you need to take radical measures. Who knows. In any case, I don't understand why you make it such a issue. Why are you going down the whole make it mandatory thing? That said, I was in the UK at the end of last year, and literally nobody was wearing a mask. I did not see one single person outside of the airport in a mask. Does nobody have so much as a cold that they would rather not pass on? Meanwhile, in France, I would say that in the supermarket about a third of people are wearing masks this week. We are told to wear them if we are in busy areas or if we are unwell. It's just a recommendation, but people are taking it on board. I don't get all the wailing and breast beating about mask wearing the UK.

That said, in France 50 masks cost 2 euros in the supermarket and there are recycling places for them. If I had to pay £5 for 10 as I saw in a Tesco, I'd think twice too.

I think the emphasis this time is on those with infections to wear them if out and about?
I don't think they should ever be madatory again except in medical settings.
It's a divisive subject and has been a contributing factor to divided society IMO.

I do still wear one in medical settings and on planes. Otherwise I don't bother because most transmission of illnesses is in social settings -such as in the home.

Also things like flu are much more fomite transmitted so you are better off washing hands.

I think I might dig out my FFP2s again. Not going out at present as floored by flu...could certainly do without any further infections! So I guess I am a 2?

Last time I got called 'your sort' was on a thread (not here) where someone assumed that because of my first name that I am Jewish. That was a pretty clear message.

I supported wearing masks when Covid was a new virus and there were no vaccinations, but we can't go on forever like it's 2020/21. If I'm asked to wear one in a medical setting then that's fine too. Being required to cover one's face in law elsewhere is a fairly serious impingement on personal liberty which should not be imposed lightly. It;s not so much that wearing a mask is dififcult, it's the principle of it.

But I also hate the shaming of people who choose to wear a mask to protect themselves and/or vulnerable family members.

Really though, who is shaming anyone who chooses to wear a mask and minds their own business as to whether anyone else will wear them? I don't care if some people still choose to wear them, no judgement from me whatsoever. As long as no one is trying to force it upon me I really couldn't care less, probably wouldn't even notice if someone was wearing a mask tbh.

But your health service is tanking, so maybe you need to take radical measures

Because of chronic and ideological underfunding for the last 12 years, not due to people not wearing masks.

Most people here are inherently selfish about a lot of stuff, this is no exception. Others see it as 'fighting the system'.

If mask wearing is re-imposed then that's a green light for some if not all restrictions to be imposed not just this winter but every year the NHS has it's 'worst winter ever' - which let's face it, is every year.

Wear a mask if you want, I really don't care. About the only advantage to them I found was being able to mouth rude things at people without them knowing.

3

I have noticed how people have started to talk to each other in shops again, which virtually stopped during the masking era. Surprisingly isolating - pun intended- for those whom these casual interactions are quite important human contacts. I also disliked seeing babies and small children lose interest in looking at strangers, because they had no visual clues as to their emotions.

I rarely wore a mask anyway ( never had Covid either) . I don’t intend to ever do it again although I am to old to be imprisoned for my principles ( except possibly GC ones).

As a foreigner in the U.K. I have ruminated on this irrationality a lot. I think some of it is down to a weird tradition where the upper classes displayed their class through poor hygiene practices. As discussed here:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-upper-classes-are-the-great-unwashed-ns23d099d9j

I also don’t get why everyone gets so whipped into a froth over masking here where most other places I visit it’s just not an issue. The vulnerable and cautious are left to mask in peace because there’s still a deadly virus about. It doesn’t have to be a binary either/or. Mandates are unnecessary.

Never supposed masking.

The effect covid has in the immune system is scary.
The number of people in hospital is scary and is putting the NHS under huge strain p. That stops people with other illnesses from getting care.
a
The impact from repeated infection is scary.

Plus having had covid doesn’t stop you from getting covid 6 weeks later anyway so I’d rather not have it in the first place 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️