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

MerylStreep

Alegrias1

Anybody else like to post about how they don't understand the antipathy to wearing masks?

Anybody else like to join in the posting that stigmatises anybody who points out that the government are getting into legislating for things that they have never tried to legislate for before?

Anybody like to try to understand that you can accept a government's extreme influence in our lives in time of crisis but still be able to say that you are concerned about their increasing control over our lives? And that this isn't whinging?

Anyone like to have a debate about individual liberty versus societal impact or should we just all quietly do what we're told now?

Did I miss the bit abut dismantling Test and Trace? In Scotland they've just been given more funds.

Here here. ???

Sorry but I have my opinion about masks. Fine for those who can’t wait to be rid of them, all I’m asking is what their reasons are and nobody answers.

Surely we all “do as we are told” to a certain extent already ? Send our children to school, drive within the speed limit etc and now follow pandemic induced guidelines.

No Facemasks should stay as mandatory for me. I shall still be using them and so will the majority I know

Alegrias1

Anybody else like to post about how they don't understand the antipathy to wearing masks?

Anybody else like to join in the posting that stigmatises anybody who points out that the government are getting into legislating for things that they have never tried to legislate for before?

Anybody like to try to understand that you can accept a government's extreme influence in our lives in time of crisis but still be able to say that you are concerned about their increasing control over our lives? And that this isn't whinging?

Anyone like to have a debate about individual liberty versus societal impact or should we just all quietly do what we're told now?

Did I miss the bit abut dismantling Test and Trace? In Scotland they've just been given more funds.

I fear you're wasting your breath.
Control creeps step by tiny step usually, but this pandemic allowed a huge step to be taken with, mostly, our consent. Show just reason why controls are in place and reasonable people will comply. When reasonable people start to question the validity of an action then maybe it's time to actually examine it? It's the conditioning factor that "they" know best and it's our's to just obey that is concerning.
I don't know if this is the correct time to abandon compulsory mask wearing or not, but I'm pretty certain Autumn would definitely not be with the increase of winter viruses appearing. I probably would have preferred a more staged approach to easing of restrictions in line with good scientific data not "plucked from the air".

BossyrossyI am sure if you put up a notice most of your usual customers will comply. The problem is going to be the emotional reaction people seem to have at present to those they feel aren't following what they are sure are the 'rules', we have all been shut up, some alone, for too long.
This older person will be returning to the small shops I have enjoyed using and using on line shopping more.
This business of people being victimised for catching the virus is positively mediaeval, perhaps we should hang rabbits feet round our necks.

Alegrias1

Anybody else like to post about how they don't understand the antipathy to wearing masks?

Anybody else like to join in the posting that stigmatises anybody who points out that the government are getting into legislating for things that they have never tried to legislate for before?

Anybody like to try to understand that you can accept a government's extreme influence in our lives in time of crisis but still be able to say that you are concerned about their increasing control over our lives? And that this isn't whinging?

Anyone like to have a debate about individual liberty versus societal impact or should we just all quietly do what we're told now?

Did I miss the bit abut dismantling Test and Trace? In Scotland they've just been given more funds.

Here here. ???

I, like many other unmaskers, I will always have a mask in my handbag, ready to be donned if requested or in crowded situations. Examples would be buses and tube trains, not that I am likely to be travelling on either in the near future.

I think this division into maskers and unmaskers is unhelpful in what, in effect will be a situation where both maskers and unmaskers will make judgements based on the situation they are in.

When I went for my daily perambulation around the village footpaths this morning, no one I met was wearing a mask, not even when they stopped to have a distanced chat with someone and even though, I suspect, when it comes to shops etc. at least one of them will be a resolute masker. This has been the case throughout lockdown Most of us are already occasional unmaskers.

I am extremely surprised Chris Whitty turned up for that press briefing as I was under the strong impression that he did not agree with the new policies. The circumstances he outlined were the ones where mask wearing should still be enforced as they are useless unless the vast majority do it.

The personal preference is a bit of a joke really. As another poster said mask wearing has become political. I myself while out at work (in a community based uk gov job where I’m required to door-knock) I had man pull off my mask after I departed a train and walked past a pub stating “you don’t need that anymore love”. I can see wearing a mask is going to making oneself a bit of a target.

aggie

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

Exactly that. For years fed up with people coughing all over me on buses and coming down with flu at Christmas.

I would put a notice up saying you would be really grateful if customers could wear a mask. Sometimes appealing to people’s better nature is the best way to go.

Prof Chris Whitty described three circumstances where he would wear a mask and I think these are excellent and I'll do the same.

I can’t help but feel that, when people talk about victimisation Johnson’s announcement yesterday has resulted in people who choose to continue to wear masks being the ones who will be victimised judging by the tone of some of the comments on here. I remember how relieved I was when we were advised to wear masks last year. I’m expecting to be sniggered at when I continue to wear my mask. Mask wearing will become political the way it did when Trump was President.

Anybody else like to post about how they don't understand the antipathy to wearing masks?

Anybody else like to join in the posting that stigmatises anybody who points out that the government are getting into legislating for things that they have never tried to legislate for before?

Anybody like to try to understand that you can accept a government's extreme influence in our lives in time of crisis but still be able to say that you are concerned about their increasing control over our lives? And that this isn't whinging?

Anyone like to have a debate about individual liberty versus societal impact or should we just all quietly do what we're told now?

Did I miss the bit abut dismantling Test and Trace? In Scotland they've just been given more funds.

“ I do not understand people’s resistance to wearing something that keeps others safe. It’s sensible and other cultures have been doing it for years. ”

Exactly. So many people saying it hasn’t been proved to help, well it hasn’t been proved NOT to help so why not just stop whingeing and do it.
I have yet to hear an answer from this posters who are exultant about the relaxing of the mask rule as to their reasons

I do not understand people’s resistance to wearing something that keeps others safe. It’s sensible and other cultures have been doing it for years.

Maybe our PM needs to take this advice on board too

^ The government are telling me what I should wear on my body. It's an imposition, no ifs or buts. ^

Well the government tell you to wear clothes otherwise you’d be arrested for public indecency and in a car you must wear a seatbelt.....

I do not understand people’s resistance to wearing something that keeps others safe. It’s sensible and other cultures have been doing it for years.

I think the dismantling of the NHS app, test and trace (even if it was pretty crap) and masks is ludicrous and will be another of boris’s monumental cock ups.

I will still wear mine inside shops etc, outside I am comfortable without but if somewhere was very busy then I will wear one. I am not comfortable discarding my mask completely just yet. I think the shop owners should have the final say, your shop, your rules and they should be respected after all they have a greater degree of footfall and therefore more at risk.

Many people, so it seems, are ignorant about how Covid-19 is transmitted. Nobody needs genomic testing to know who was the first case in a community where community cases were almost down to zero.

Ah the oracle has spoken! I do know how the disease is transmitted and I don't appreciate your condescension. I wonder where the original child caught the infection? Obviously must have been the only one who ventured outside the community to catch it. Absolutely zero asymptomatic cases in that community, they really should enlighten the scientific world how they recognise their absence.

I'm not naive, I'm allowed to be disgusted and appalled by nasty vigilante behaviour, not just accept it because it feeds my inner bully.

I am self isolating as my son is waiting for a PCR result, I suspect you'd all be horrified if I said I was off to B&Q - with or without a mask but I'll be able to do that on the 19th.

Lucca, I didn't say that I believed that they had no effect did I? Standard surgical masks do have a limited role in protecting others when worn correctly. My point is rather that, following news of a date for removing a variety of legal restrictions, people seem to be fixated on mask wearing ( across social media) and make no mention of say, testing and isolating after a positive test result, not attending large scale events etc etc.
If you think that my argument is silly then so be it.

Two "finallys"....sorry!

Rosie51
They read this stuff because it confirms everything they say and believe.
Rather sad, really.

Rosie51

growstuff what wonderful people who know who seeded the infection without any genomic testing data! They obviously are totally ignorant of asymptomatic cases who can infect others willy nilly, nasty vigilante types, and to do this to a child!

Thank you for some common sense Rosie51
There are the beginnings of victimisation, witch hunts, even of hysteria in accounts such as this especially when spread on social media. To read of
more or less blacklisting a family who don't wear masks" to such an extent that the online comments on social media were bad enough for "an admin to close the thread down and remove some posts, but the damage had been done “ is dystopian and not the sort of society I choose to live in.
Let’s show some common sense - wear a mask if you want, don’t feel threatened or browbeaten by those who will choose not to - but the opposite also applies.
Only last month, a man was sentenced to 10 years for beating up a fellow shopper who asked him to pull up his face mask, gouging his eye in the process. As his victim lay on the ground the perpetrator spat at him and shouted: “If I have it, you have it.
Panic? Hysteria? Let’s not feed into it.

Rosie51

^What about the child that’s in ICU because the other child’s family decided covid rules weren’t for them?^

Has it been proved that the one child infected the other by genomic sequencing? Is it at all possible that the ICU child caught the infection from somebody else? Judge, jury and executioner comes to mind!

I have kept every rule and guidance and will continue to wear a mask in populated areas, but these trials by gossip turn my stomach.

You're incredibly naive if you don't think community peer pressure works like that, which was actually the point of my original post.

I'm not a mask denier but I'm not convinced of their assumed effectiveness because of the way we use them, but I'll keep wearing them until the government allows me not to. Which, because I'm in a country not headed by a populist oaf, will be a few months yet.

But I do take great exception to people telling me its not a great imposition and making fun of the fact that they are disorienting. The government are telling me what I should wear on my body. It's an imposition, no ifs or buts.

Upthread, the comment about learning from Taiwan, where they still wear masks on the bus. Taiwan have 10% of their population vaccinated with the 1st dose. At that stage, we were still wearing masks on the bus.

Finally, the only BBC reporter who has made any sense at all throughout this whole affair is Nick Triggle. Read this and realise that maybe its a wee bit more complicated than you think it is.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57678942

Finally, Dr Chris Smith on the radio this morning about variants. About 7 billion people in the world haven't been vaccinated. About 20 million unvaccinated in the UK. Lets guess where the next VoC is going to originate. Hint: Its probably not Bolton.

Rosie51

growstuff what wonderful people who know who seeded the infection without any genomic testing data! They obviously are totally ignorant of asymptomatic cases who can infect others willy nilly, nasty vigilante types, and to do this to a child!

No, I don't know these people at all - well, only a couple of them. My original post was actually about peer pressure and how it works in communities.

Many people, so it seems, are ignorant about how Covid-19 is transmitted. Nobody needs genomic testing to know who was the first case in a community where community cases were almost down to zero.