So masks are to become optional, do you think this is a good idea?

Unless you wear a PPI grade mask it will not protect you from the virus . An ordinary mask helps to protect those around you from your coughs and sneezes if you have a virus . So it would seem sensible to recommend using a mask if you have signs of infection . This happens in Asia I went to a pharmacy in Vietnam for medication for a sore throat and was issued with a mask to protect others .

clair1966

You should all wear masks all of the time, to keep people who do not want to be vaccinated safe, people should not be so bloody selfish walking around in public without a mask.

If not wearing a mask is selfish, how much more so are people who “don’t want to be vaccinated”?

MissChateline

At the moment wearing a mask in a shop is for most of us a legal requirement. A shop owner is quite entitled to refuse to serve someone either not wearing a mask through choice. However after 19th July I’m not convinced that a shop can refuse to serve someone not wearing a mask as it is no longer a legal requirement.
Maybe they can……but they would be losing valuable custom and revenue.

Shops have always been able to refuse to serve anyone, providing there is no discrimination. So, they can continue to refuse to allow unmasked people in. They will, however, as you pointed out, probably lose some customers. They might, of course, gain others

I'm just wondering if you ban medically exempt people from using your shop when they don't wear a mask? In the shops by my house it appears more and more people have become medically exempt over the last 12 months. In fact I'm often the only person without a lanyard and with a mask.

You should all wear masks all of the time, to keep people who do not want to be vaccinated safe, people should not be so bloody selfish walking around in public without a mask.

If I have to wear a mask then I shall go elsewhere.

Having wearing masks as a supposedly legal requirement really hasn't worked anyway if you see the number of people that don't wear masks anyway. I'm sorry, but I can't believe that they all have a medical reason not to!
What about all the people that you see that are wearing masks over their mouth but leave their nose uncovered ? Pointless or what?
It is true that we have to learn to live with Covid, as we have with influenza, but not 100% sure that this is the right time quite yet.

Is making them optional going to make any difference to the *** idiots who think it is OK to wear them below their nose?!

I'm with Aggie, I will continue to wear a mask where I feel appropriate. Hopefully less virus/flu/colds

This thread is listed as the headline thread in today's Gransnet daily email.

I want people to continue wearing masks. My mother has gone into a care home for a fortnight. She has been allowed visits but today, two carers tested positive so the home is now in lockdown. This means we cannot see her but more importantly, she can't see us which will make her feel abandoned. We were hoping this was going to be a tester to see how she coped but that'll put pay to her wanting to go back.

Yes got to try and get back to normal life again soon ?

Optional masks - no, not a good idea.

Let us open up society completely so anyone can go anywhere in whatever numbers they choose.

But.......let us have mask wearing in very specific situations: public transport, shops etc.

We would then have freedom with responsibility.

We need to continue travel restrictions in relation to incoming people from nations with high covid rates.

My prediction.
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/25/israel-resumes-indoor-mask-requirement-after-rise-in-covid-cases

aggie

I’ve just ordered more washable masks , I’ll keep wearing them , might stop me getting Flu as well as Covid

A good decision aggie specially as the flu season is not too far away,do people really think that when we wake up on the 19th Covid will disappear I think masks are a must for the foreseeable future.

I think it's possible to talk about the changes that might benefit society whilst acknowledging that many people are bereaved and many have suffered financially. I would suspect that many changes are here to stay, online shopping, increase in home working, hopefully improvements in traffic on the road etc. So it wont be the same as before or normal or whatever you want to call it, society changes all the time.

I want to get back to normal Galaxy.

I want to visit my elderly parents without wondering if I'm going to give them a disease.

I want to go for a coffee with a friend without planning it in advance, booking a table, and giving my private details to the server.

I want to go and sit in a cinema or theatre without wondering if I'm sitting in a cloud of virus.

I want to go back to the dance classes I used to do without worrying if everybody around me is infected.

"Normal" can't come soon enough. But it may never come at all, and that's not a good thing.

Galaxy, there are many aspects of lock downs I enjoyed. However many people lost jobs and really struggled and suffered because of it. I don't mind it but we need to get past that, because I suspect that is not true or the majority and I feel bad for those people who have found it a real battle.

It is likely that people will revert to bare faces. I wish masks would continue to be the fashion but the popular trend seems to be to towards the nude face and body.

Unfortunately masks are a public health benefit but do not so much benefit the individual who seeks self defence others' infections.
If you compare masks with condoms, condoms protect the wearer and his partner : masks do not so much protect the wearer as they protect the other.

Covid and all its many variants is going to continue a dangerous disease after it becomes endemic. Politicians and fashionistas should be promoting masks.

A lot of the things that I thought were normal before the pandemic I dont do anymore. And my life is better for them. I take much more exercise, spend more time outside and dont waste my time shopping. Everyone has a slightly different perception of normal. I find the phrase back to normal as meaningless as I found the phrase stay safe.

I have thought about the clothes analogy, actually. Will wearing a mask become like covering your private bits?

Off to pack.....

Alegrias1

growstuff

Actually, if they stop the transmission of flu, they sound like a good idea. Maybe they'll catch on.

I'll have to emigrate then

Bye!

I wonder if our ancestors thought the same about wearing clothes. What is normal?

growstuff

Actually, if they stop the transmission of flu, they sound like a good idea. Maybe they'll catch on.

I'll have to emigrate then

Actually, if they stop the transmission of flu, they sound like a good idea. Maybe they'll catch on.