From the random box of covid restrictions we now get....

[WaxOnFeckOff]

Facemasks in shops.

I mean really, what is the point now? If they were useful then the time when they were useful was months ago.

Surely the chance of catching covid in a shop is minute, the chance of then being ill is more minute and the chance of dying is vastly remote.

It just feels like it another thing to say just to keep control? I have no problem doing things that make sense and protect others, but really? Public transport where you may be in the vicinity of someone for longer seems fair enough but shops doesn't make sense.

IME so far, having a mask dangling from your neck without even being worn seems to give people carte blanche to stand less than a foot away from others.

@FizzFan

I hate being told what to do without there being a very clear reason given.

This! And I see no one else being bothered and think “is it me?”

No it's not, hence why I started the thread.

I had absolutely no issue with the initial lockdown and complied with it to the letter, however I'm fed up with arbitrary controls continuing to be put in place, a lot with no end date and no reason for them based on what what info we are being fed and what we can see with our own eyes.

It's the dumbing down of everything, as if we are all toddlers or too stupid to understand, and we need NS to decide what is best for us. I gave my DC more control over their lives than she thinks the population of Scotland should have - adult conversation my arse!

Nope. But it's a tool in a limited box of tools. It is cheap and easy to get hold of. People around the world can manage to wear one. Mumsnetters will manage too I'm sure.

The states were not in lock down to the same extent or for as long as we were and their rates were not as low as ours and we still aren't open as much as they are/were. It's nothing like a direct comparison and to be honest, unless there is learning to be had, I couldn't give a shiny shite what other countries do. In this country we have extremely low levels of community transmission so it makes no sense. If it did then we should have already been wearing masks or when it was decided it should have applied from then. Why is it the 10th of July?

I do agree with you there wax. Shutting the barn door after the horse had bolted etc etc. Except we know that the numbers will rise again, so now we're better prepared for the next rise.

Look, if I'm wrong and the numbers stay low and Corona virus disappears from the UK altogether I'll hold my hands up and say you guys were right, we didn't need the masks. But do you really think that is what's going to happen? Hopefully hopefully I am wrong! Maybe it will magic away. But probably it won't.

So when 1 in 50 people had the virus - masks didn’t help.

Now 1 in 3600 people and falling have it - they’re mandatory

Totally arse about tit.

And eventually of course we will, hopefully, be as open as the southern states, and even though our numbers are low now the virus hasn't gone.

So masks are only helpful if you are one of the 1 i. 3600 people with it, and don’t have symptoms. So for something that stop one person passing it on, 3599 people need to wear a mask. It really doesn’t seem proportionate to me.

My wee brain can’t work it out. So if 1 in 3600 people have it, assuming some of those are in care homes or hospitals, and others isolating at home, what are the actual chances of someone having it to pass it on in the community? Must be very low.

Gales, I'm being realistic I think, in that very few people have actually been abiding by the guidance for quite some time - a lot of those are in cities with greater population density but cases and in particular cases in the community are negligible. If there is a 2nd wave, no doubt it will have come from or be in a care setting rather than from a bag of carrots in Sainsburys or being too close to someone in Tesco. If it makes sense to do so, I'l wear a mask, otherwise I'll stock up this week and then fuck it and shop on-line or do without.

Exactly fizz fan - I think it's actually lower than 1 in 3600 tbh and as you say most of those are in hospital or care homes or isolating. People with no symptoms are not thought to be particularly infectious, children are not thought to be infectious, we apparently have track and trace to deal with contacts with known cases and there surely can't be anyone left in the country that doesn't now know what to look for in terms of symptoms.

Yes it must be. Until those people, the ones who have it and are not in a care home, start moving about again. Back to offices, schools, pubs, and restaurants. It is still an easily transmitted virus when indoors. We still don't have an efficient track and trace system. So if we dont take any measures eventually the virus will start to spread again and then infections creep upwards until it's not 1 in 3600 but a much less favorable number.

Social distancing and lockdown were primitive but effective suppression methods but they were brutal. Masks are less effective, but also less brutal for most of us. I know which I'd prefer.

I think they should be worn in schools as well and I' happy to wear a mask if it helps to keep infection rates down.

Most folk I know have been following the guidelines. I don't think it's that unusual. Maybe that's why our deaths and new cases are so low now. I don't think it's all one bit accident. And if wearing a mask keeps it low, I'll wear one.

Not for younger children though - I mean older kids and teachers, staff etc.

What if its not a wave but a gradual increase? That's what I expect to see. Especially in colder weather when we're forced indoors more. Again I hope I'm wrong but honestly wearing a mask to the supermarket seems like really not a big deal in the scheme of things

Absolutely nobody (except ssd and about 7 other people) have been following the rules.

The M8 is absolutely rammed.

The five mile limit being lifted by her maj the other day made me laugh and laugh.

They know fine well no one is following the rules any more.

That’s why it ceased to be about “caring for the citizens” weeks ago and it’s now definitely all a pre- election strategy.

Plus the 1 in 3600 or whatever doesn't take into account that 50% of cases are in care homes or hospitals. So if you dint go into those places, and dint live with anyone who does, it's probably more like 1 in 7200.

Christ it must be great knowing what everyone else is doing murk, your talents are wasted.

Well I guess if you don’t leave your house @ssd you can’t see what’s going on.

Unless all the cars on the roads are driverless and on the road to nowhere?

I've seen your posts here and on the other thread about the charity shop for refugees. I'm done talking to you.

To be fair, I've pretty much been following them but not really for any reason other than I don't go out much anyway and they'd closed all the carparks so couldn't go far even within the 5 miles. I've just finished my summer fortnight though and did go further (ostensibly to visit someone but really just for a day out.) I lasted without needing the loo, the men folk had a pee in the forest. Then another day we had a bbq at relatives and stayed overnight so we could all drink. We stayed outside til bedtime, had our own room, took our own bedding and we used one bathroom and they used their en-suite.

I think the risk is minute and i'm not bothered about folk being near me but I respect if folk want to stay away further.

But this masks thing is only political.

Ha okay.

Absolutely nobody (except ssd and about 7 other people) have been following the rules.

I have which is why the masks are so hard to take. My grandmother died, didn't go to the funeral, haven't seen my widowed mother to support her. I keep forgetting she's dead and then it hits me all over again. Most of my friends are terrified so won't meet up. Haven't been out all week because I don't have anywhere to go. My mental health is screwed again, trying find a mask I could tolerate has me on edge all the time, so jumpy, can't sleep, don't want to eat. Can't phone the doctors because the last I tried that, I nearly got sectioned. The stupid thing is, I'm 80 percent sure I've had the bloody thing. Mid march I was really ill, sore throat straight into a horrendous cough, within a week my breathing sounded like my dad's not long before he died of lung cancer. Dh was really worried he'd have to call an ambulance, could barely get out of bed for a few days. Took about six weeks to ditch all symptoms and not be out of breath running up the stairs.

@TheMurk

Ha okay.

I'm pretty antisocial so it's been good not having to make an excuse to not do things

I was guilty of getting too caught up in it initially - probably because I probably had it and DH is NHS etc - I was becoming a curtain twitcher and getting unnecessarily annoyed at people going out more than once a day etc. Thankfully i came to my senses and decided I'd look at the evidence and make my own risk assessments and work within that. However, that mostly meant that I was still following the guidance, no point breaking it just for the sake of it!

Looking out my window though we are definitely in the minority, groups of teens being going about for weeks, kids all playing together, folk with visitors before it was allowed etc etc.

@WaxOnFeckOff sorry that was aimed at the flouncer in the previous post, not you.