Sorry......more mask talk

Some of these posts seem quite excluding. People who cannot wear masks for whatever reason may need to go out as much as anyone else and are just as entitled to.

Isn't the boot on the wrong foot. Those with symptoms or coughing and spluttering with a cold should prob stay at home anyway. That's what will help others. No one else is in much danger when someone who lives alone and rarely goes out ventures to the pharmacy or postoffice (say) with a scarf round their mouth and nose.

Masks seem to be regarded as some sort of lucky charm and I think we need to keep a sense of proportion. Crowded places indoors are one thing, but the evidence for the overall efficacy of masks doesn't seem to me strong enough to justify all the claims made for them.

The thing is, people are infectious for upwards of 2 days before they're symptomatic. So that person, with COPD / asthma etc, isn't just vulnerable from a sneeze. They're vulnerable in general.

I have a friend who shielded last time. She's 43. Lives alone. She's shielding again, because her oncologist has said it's her best chance.

Yes, it's divisive, asking vulnerable people to stay in. But I'm vulnerable, wear a mask, and have to go out because I have to work. Frankly, it'd be a luxury to be able to isolate again.

People who rarely leave their home are the very people that DO need to a medical grade single use mask when they go to a shop. I agree that they probably don’t pose a risk to other people but they are at risk themselves. And putting a scarf round their face will do diddly squat.

winterwhite This isn't about exclusion. During lock down those with underlying medical conditons were asked to shield and stay home 24/7. No one made any comments then about their 'entitlement' to go out.

Why should it be any different over mask wearing? Either we need to wear masks to help control the spread of COVID, or we don't. There is no halfway house.

Tho we are forever being told that we wear masks to protect others, not ourselves.
If I implied entitlement I didn’t mean to, nor was I talking about those with underlying medical conditions. I was thinking of the many people who walk with two sticks or a white cane. Their need to go shopping can be as great as anyone else’s yet coping with a mask can be the last straw. So I think there can be a half-way house and it could be called everybody just doing their best.
People are more strait-laced about the mask issue now than they were in the spring, because less fuss was made about it then.
Lanyards were intended to help the people I have in mind but there have been endless grumbles about those as well.

In the spring the WHO were still saying the virus wasn’t airborne. They are now saying that it is. We are learning all the time about the virus. It protects both the wearer and everyone else. If someone can manage to get to a shop, do their shopping and pay for their shopping they can surely manage to put a mask on. Or am I missing something here?

Spot on MayBee70.

People may choose to do their own shopping but it's hardly risk free.

There are local groups of (now established and organised) volunteers who will help.

Yes: my daughter runs one. Even though she has recently told me that, at the start of the pandemic, she was terrified of catching it herself but wanted to help people that were more at risk. She feels much safer now people are wearing masks.

I truly don't understand the upset over wearing a mask to be careful for ourselves and our fellow human beings. I have COPD and asthma and have stayed home for the most part since March. When I have deposited my pension at the ATM or walked to my mailbox, I've worn a mask, sometimes two stapled together with a filter in between due to the smoke. The few times I've seen my sons it has been from a 6 foot distance with us all wearing masks because they are worried about infecting me. They both have to work but wear their masks religiously.

My younger son works in a brewpub and sometimes has to deal with angry customers who yell and swear about their rights to be maskless. It makes me so angry because I worry more about him than myself since he has a compromised immune system. My closest friend works as a nurse supervisor and her daughter, who is pregnant, is also a nurse in the ICU. They face similar rudeness from people. Even if someone thinks masks may be useless, what is so hard about wearing one just in case it helps?!?

gmarie: I don’t understand it either. But then there are a lot of things I don’t understand these days. I hope your family stay infection free x

I think I understand it. At least I understand several reasons why people have a problem with wearing a mask.

I have a problem with wearing a mask actually but I still do when it's required. There must be more people like me who would really rather not wear a face mask but do out of a sense of duty.

I think we should all do what we think is right or what we can stand (think claustrophobia and panic attacks, for example) but not judge others. There are people, I am sure, who really do believe that no government has a right to tell people to wear face masks even during a pandemic. That is arguable, of course, but people on Gransnet are always saying that we should respect other people's beliefs*. Well, here's your opportunity to test whether you really believe that.

*I don't agree. I think we should respect people, not beliefs.

I think we should respect people by wearing masks to protect them.....

A lot of the paper masks Ive seen people wearing dont fit well and have air gaps where germs could get in or out. If only masks had a British Standard of safety. I think industrial ones might but of course we can't get those.

Some of the paper masks for sale in the shops are not regulated and seem as thin as a tissue. Better than nothing, but not ideal. I've worn fabric masks since March in shops - first a double layer and then when the 3D ones with 3 layers of fabric went on sale at Redbubble, I favoured those. There are other measures you can take, such as buying masks with copper in, but they are really pricey.

Its funny when people mention how pricey a mask is. What price health? How does it compare with what is spent on make up or clothes or coffees?

Baggs, I love your phrase, 'a sense of duty'. That is exactly why we wear them. Not just for ourselves, but to protect others.

I wish more people felt that way. It shows real caring and compassion for others and for our communities.

Make your own they are small enough to hand sew and washed regularly. Then they are not expensive.

In ordinary life we do not need the kind of high spec masks needed in hospitals and the like. The main requirement is to protectus from a full frontal heavy load of virus from someone breathing out in front of us.

Some people seem to think that if even one entity of the virus touches them they are a gonner, but in fact you need to get quite a large dose to get the virus, even in older people, a few stray pieces of virus can be dealt with quite effectively by our immune system. So if masks do leak a bit round the edge - and of course if they were entirely leak proof, you would die of suffocation - it is unlikely you will pick up the disease. It is taking in a deep breathe of the air just exhaled by someone with the disease who is also not wearing a mask that you need to protect yourselves from.

@Lucca very good point! So absolutely true! I've got some lovely masks that I've bought with cherry blossom and all kinds of pretty prints.

Ive found some lovely fabric online too so am going to sew some.

Just been out shopping today and the number of people not wearing masks or social distancing is incredible.

Many of those that were wearing masks had them below their chins, under their noses or hanging from one ear. I can understand that some have medical conditions but does Covid know not to attack these people? There seems to be a vast amount of people who have medical reasons for not wearing masks judging by what I saw in the mall today. One woman who looked like she was in her late twenties said she wasn't wearing a mask because she was having a drink whilst looking at the shops in the mall. I hope when Covid attacks that it knows to avoid these people.

Also, there are those who wear masks who think that it gives them a protective shield all around them and that mask means no social distancing. Again, I hope the Covid knows these 'new' rules being invented by some people.

People who choose not to wear masks, people who don't wear the masks over mouth AND nose, people who don't social distance seem to think that Covid will know to avoid them. I hope Covid does avoid them because if it doesn't then these people will become extremely ill and may die.

Covid will not go away for a very long time if people don't follow the rules. We will be experiencing more severe lockdowns, economic collapse and deaths before Covid is treated seriously. ANYBODY can get Covid and the consequences can be dreadful.

People who don't follow the guidelines may not care about themselves but they are putting other innocent people at risk - little children, babies, someone's mum or dad, someone's nan or grandad- someone's sister/brother etc.

We all want to see Covid go away so that we can get a degree of normality back but Covid will be here to stay for a long time because people will insist on not following guidelines. If we all did as we have been asked to do then Covid would not be able to hang on .

Judging from what I saw today Covid will be here for many, many years to come. People will lose jobs, severe lockdowns will prevent entertainment places opening and many, more lives will be lost. All due to the fact that we have people in our populations that won't follow simple rules. It is so sad.

I follow the rules not just to protect myself but to protect others. Many of us could be carriers - assymptomatic- and not know that we are giving Covid to innocent people.

No -one likes wearing masks, social distancing etc but the alternative could be death! Covid doesn't play fair it will attack anyone - anyone at all.

Precisely seastar.