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.

I still mask when I shop, because my dd and I are both vulnerable.

Gross things. Absolutely not. Useless and a token simply to appease the ‘work from home and get minions to deliver all I need’ idiots with too little to worry about.

Exactly this.

No point trying to persuade some people that it's a reasonable and decent thing to do to wear a mask in crowded spaces.

I have generally continued to wear a mask in crowded/indoor spaces. I haven't caught COVID, flu or bugs until now. I went out before Christmas and forgot my mask. Went into a few shops maskless - and of course, just before Christmas I came down with a really unpleasant virus. I'm asthmatic and currently struggling to breathe. I have two SEN DC, one with high needs, and I'm bloody furious at myself. I'd been in busy shops before with people coughing etc, and I'd been fine. No mask and I've caught someone's germs.

It's not just COVID, it's all the other bugs and flu etc - DP is off work very unwell having hospital treatment (with no sick pay), I'm self-employed so no cash if I don't work - plus I'm having to do extra hours to stay financially afloat. DC need a considerable amount of care due to SEN. If I'd worn a sodding mask like usual, I wouldn't have caught the virus and be struggling now.

I imagine most of the people who won't wear masks because they're "pointless" would still expect a surgeon to wear a mask when operating on them? Or doctors/nurses/dentists?

Of course masks aren't "pointless" - but they're inconvenient. So what people are saying is that convenience is more important. But it feels better to tell themselves that masks are pointless rather than be honest and just admit they can't be arsed. What COVID has shown is that people in some countries are better than others about caring for their local communities.

It would be helpful for masks to become guidance, but not compulsory, and for most people to decide to wear them out of consideration without being forced to. That way if someone really really doesn't want to, it won't matter. Btw, I'm autistic and have asthma, I could very easily claim an exemption. I don't because I think masks genuinely help reduce the burden on our NHS.

And for all those being sneery about people who choose to wear masks, crack on. No one can make me feel bad about caring for the well-being of others.

Everyone I know seems to have covid at the moment. I would wear a mask if it became guidance. I really don't want covid again. It was awful last time.

Yes underfunding.

But also due to the huge number of people with covid that are in hospital. And those with the flu and RSV.
Masks help curb the spread of all 3 of them.

Fewer people ill with any of those 3 illnesses means more beds for people with non contagious disease. And they are desperately needed for them.

Masks just now are an easy and healthy way to compensate fur the underfunding until (hopefully, we can dream) investments are made and we finally and enough beds AND DOCTORS AND NURSES.
Last part in capital letters because it’s the lack of nurses and doctors that is why the so called Nitingale hospitals were never used.

Sorry
Masks are an easy and CHEAP way not healthy…..

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

Of course, Britain is the only country in the world with selfish people, everywhere else is full of selfless people falling over themselves to put others first all day long.

🥱 So so bored of stuff like this.

When I'm ill and have to go out i do wear a mask.

4

Obviously it's a mess, if I'm allowed to say that. But it's more of a mess now than it was in the summer, right?

I wont wear one.

4

I've never worn a mask and I didn't get vaccinated either. Had covid once, unlike all the mask and jab fanatics who seem to keep getting it.

Everyone in China has been wearing masks religiously – how's that working out for them?

And can people stop repeating this silly idea that surgeons wear masks to prevent viruses?

The costs of masks are enormous, in so many ways. Masks were a political decision, with the aim of reassuring frightened people and creating the impression of 'doing something'. As with much of the last few years, science was sacrificed for politics, and people STILL do not understand the extent of the damage that's been done.

Because it makes me hot and uncomfortable and stressed more so than I already am. We managed before and we will manage again

I imagine most of the people who won't wear masks because they're "pointless" would still expect a surgeon to wear a mask when operating on them? Or doctors/nurses/dentists?

Yeah, that one was popular, as well. Just sitting here waiting for the seat belt analogy. Any minute now.

I wear a mask in shops, on public transport, and in medical settings. The reason being that these are the absolute bare minimum of places where vulnerable people need to be able to go/ use. I don't really go many other places anyway.
But then, I'm disabled and I have a lot of disabled friends who have become more disabled due to covid, so maybe I just care more. I wear FFP2 masks, well fitted, which work, and the shape means they don't press against your nose or mouth.

Under no circumstances will I wear a mask. I will lie about exemptions if push comes to shove.

^^this.

Some people in this country see refusing masks as some kind of militant victory stance. It's odd.

Popular because it's true. The hypocrisy is strong with most non-mask wearers.

3-4

I’ve had covid twice. Badly. Masks made fuck all difference - dd brought it home from secondary school (whilst mask wearing).

I hate masks - I find them choking - I smell them and breathe in fibres. I’d just not go to places that require masks. Absolutely despise them.

But it's more of a mess now than it was in the summer, right?

Partly because all the usual viruses were not circulating in the population in the last two winters because people were wearing masks and required to keep away from one another. So now we have a really bad flu season.

Masks are really just masking the fundamental issue of why we have such an overweight, unhealthy population and not enough doctors and nurses.

Well that's a 2+2 = 5.
It's not that people are selfless elsewhere, it's just that it is not such a big deal to wear a mask. In the same way that it is not a big deal to carry an ID card. It just isn't a big deal in France. The concept of what it means to be personally free is not the same. You wouldn't have this sort of discussion here. It's just cultural differences, people take health very seriously here, in a different way to the way that people do in the UK.

I wear them In a medical setting. I do travel an hour each way on public transport when it is running so maybe I should on that as well.

I see from a somewhat lengthy post just above that the moral element has reared it's head again - mask wearing is what reasonable decent people who care about their communities do. The implication being that non-mask wearers are not reasonable decent caring people and that that's a judgement for the poster to make.

I'm between a 3 and 4. I will only wear to a hospital or other places where truly vulnerable people may be. Chemo patients etc. Otherwise, no, I will not be wearing one in public even if made a legal requirement.

FFS the surgeons thing again. They wear masks because they're hovering over a body that's been cut open! They need to not accidentally introduce saliva into the body cavity and also not have blood or other inner body fluids sprayed on their faces. I am never going to be chest deep into anyone's body, so I'm going to continue as I am.

And calling me selfish won't work either.