This is a Masquerade! [angry]

yes, we are all born to die...but not before we`ve lived!

There have been zero infections or deaths in the small village I live in. I refuse to live in fear of my death or anyone else's. We are all born to die.

We are trying to reduce the speed the infection spreads. If too many people become ill at the same time ('peak') then the NHS cannot cope.

There are these problems with masks. Muslim women who wear ethnic / religious face coverings keep them on okay. I would have thought a clever dress designer could have designed a comfortable mask that stays put.

Maybe 'whalebone' inserts?

Monica Gandhi at al have research papers out now about mask wearing. She's an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco. She said:

“The more virus you get into your body, the more sick you are likely to get,”

They have shown that masks reduce the viral load for both the wearer and people around them so consequently if you take in the virus without wearinga mask you take in more.
If you can take in less virus by wearing a mask, you are less ill with it. If you can take in some virus, like an inoculation, you then start building up immunity.

Likewise, if you are symptom free and wear a mask you are putting less virus out and about.

This recent paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and elsewhere. There are a few other papers out there including an early study on various barriers using rats.

I think we are well advised to wear a mask or similar.

Scientists have now said that wearing a mask not only protects others, but does definitely protect the wearer too.

Aligreias .... not smug my thoughts entirely.
If it puts others at ease when dealing with me, all the better.
I do endorse puzzles pov as well.

I wear a mask because we're asked to. I don't enjoy it and I'd rather not do it, and I'm not even sure if it works, but I'd rather err on the side of caution now. In years to come, if the dissenters turn out to be right and we find it didn't make that much difference, I'll be happy with the thought that I was trying to do the right thing to protect other people, with the best knowledge that we had at the time. (Sorry, I'm being a bit smug....)

And now that Kit Malthouse has urged neighbours to report any one having more than the obligatory rule of 6, your neighbour will be in her element MeryStreep. COVID has turned so many of us into judgemental reporters.

I agree with BlueBelle, Puzzled, and Trisha. I fully admit that at the beginning of all this I was terrified. The pictures on the screen, the warnings from my daughter who’s a doctor, simply terrified me. I was also terrified for her and her husband, and in turn for their three little children should anything happen to them. I never left my house for four weeks and afterwards I only went for short walks in my local area. I didn’t go into a shop for over three months.
Now I’m out and about. I wear my mask and sanitise my hands regularly. I still wipe off purchases or leave them to quarantine. But I think we as a society have to get back to something more like normal. For the children. It’s the children who matter most of all, and we cannot destroy their life chances and their mental health in order to prevent some deaths of older people.

Thank you BlueBelle & Puzzled for your very reasoned posts.
At the beginning of lockdown my dearest friend and close neighbour turned into an absolute monster, even interrogating drivers who came into our close that she didn't know.
Obviously things calmed down and she came back to her normal self. But since this '6' thing has started she has morphed back into that monster.
On Sunday we were supposed to have a lovely garden get together. She absolutely ruined it with all this talk of i saw him do this, I saw her without a mask in the supermarket
Very sad as I'm now keeping my distance from her.

Many of us have been wearing a mask for so long, whether it works or not, it feels strange without one.
We’ve heard all the excuses and reasons for not wearing a mask on here or in the media.
We’ve been shown how to wear them, offered help on how to deal with problems like steaming up lenses, slipping down masks.
We’ve been reminded that it will help to protect others from anything we might be carrying more than protecting us from the germs from others.
I wonder if that last part is the problem. If it only protected us from others, it might be more acceptable, but secretly, do mask refusers object to being expected to protect other people?

I totally agree with Bluebelle and Puzzled.

The man behind me had forgotten his but when the shopkeeper saw him she called him in saying don't worry. I have seen her do this a few times specially with her friends.

Shopped in a large Sainsbury’s yesterday.

Every single person wore a mask, including all staff. No fuss or bother.

One person - a very frail elderly little lady didn’t. No bother at all.

What a lot of fuss and nonsense people go on with. I haven’t patience with them.

Thank goodness for a sensible post puzzled
My own thoughts exactly so much scariness which is catching and so dividing first it was thrash the protesters, then thrash the beachgoers now its thrash the youngsters
Everyone do what’s right for you ! and if you’re scared or ill stay in, but don’t expect everyone to be scared and everyone to stay in
Wear your mask if you want to or in situations where you have to, but don’t be pointing the finger at everybody who isn’t doing it by the books The chances of catching this virus seems to have dropped considerable can’t we forget it and stop making it the centre of our lives
We have to LIVE

Twice now I have seen the same elderly gentleman in Morrison's wearing his mask below his nose, in fact at the till today he slipped it below his mouth to speak to the chap on the till!

Masks are intended to prevent the infected from infecting the uninfected.
But the percentage of the population that is infected is low.
It has been admitted that the test are throwing up false positives, which inflate the apparent numbers infected .
One percent of the population is 670,000.

We need to keep a sense of proportion.
Have we had that many REAL infections?

Then death rate so far represents less than one tenth of one percent of the total population.

So maybe the watchword should be common sense care rather than panic.

If the rules say face coverings should be worn inside public spaces then face coverings must be worn, unless there is some reasons otherwise. Simples. Whether or not we like it is irrelevant.

I wear a tubular scarf rather than a mask as I wear hearing aids and glasses and there isn't room behind my ears for anything else. Elastic around the back of the head isn't any better. The mask elastic pings the hearing aids off. Tubular scarves folded three times are fine and are less likely to steam up specs. My politics are irrelevant.

I saw an idiot woman in the supermarket today wearing a visor but no mask. The visor was set so far back. On her head that only her eyes were actually covered by it. I didn't have the nerve to point this out to her though! ?

Lucca please stop repeating the ridiculous notion that wearing or not wearing a mask is in any way political. I lean to the right and advocate wearing a mask, my sister leans to the left and is against it. My friends of all political persuasions vary on this but thankfully the majority of people lean towards the protection of others and are responsible mask wearing citizens. Ann Widdecombe has left the Tory party for pastures new, always was an attention seeker and good riddance in my opinion.

A right wing thing not to wear a mask? You wouldn't have thought that if you'd been in the area of East Manchester that I was in yesterday! Utter drivel!

Why is it seemingly a right wing thing to be
anti mask wearing ?

quizqueen

I hate wearing masks and think they do no good at all and only wear one in a shop because I have too. As my glasses steam up all the time, I also pull it below my nose as often as possible. There have been zero infections or deaths in the small village I live in. I refuse to live in fear of my death or anyone else's. We are all born to die.

Do you have some reason for thinking they do no good or is just because Anne widdecombe has that opinion ?
In any case it’s selfish and childish.

My GC aged 3 and 5 wear them without making a fuss so you’d think adults could.

Thanks for all the responses to my thread.
You should wear a mask, and wear it properly, for the following reason....
Not because you are required to, but because you are a responsible citizen and are doing your bit, however small, to stop the spread of Covid 19.
It may be uncomfortable and steam up your glasses, but how would you feel if you or a member of your family contracted Covid because some other person was not wearing a mask. The more we keep the virus under control, the sooner we can get back to normal life. Get real!

BryanthePigeon, why then are opticians (including my DIL) giving this advice if it is wrong? ?

Some advice here on fogging.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=pM1AOOdRmRM&t=1s