Covid becoming just another bug

I find it so hard when people are dismissive of mask wearing. Yes they can be annoying and no expensive spray, fairy liquid or special face fitting ever stops my glasses misting up. But like a few respondants I too continue to wear a mask even our local High Street , particularly as here in Devon with so very many visitors this year our figures for Covid have shot up. For some reason even with signs in supermarkets tourists on the whole do not wear masks and bring in large families to shop with them and reach across people to get what they want. My guess is they're tourists wearing sandals and shorts in the cold and wet we had a week or so ago. I think the lack of flu last winter was more people being vaccinated and so much time in lockdown . I am truly dreading this winter.

We still have the highest number of cases in Europe, over 35000 per day. In New Zealand they have lockdown when they only have 250 cases a day. We desperately need another lockdown. Boris should call one, even if people don't like it.

Biscuitmuncher, I hope you are aware that despite precautions we still have the most cases in all of Europe. Over 35000 per day. Why are we not in lockdown? In New Zealand they go into lockdown when they only have 250 cases. Boris should call another lockdown and perhaps the numbers will go down.

Mask wearing still compulsory here in Scotland but our daily figures continue to rise as they are elsewhere.

Not Sapaghetti, I don't think dust masks do the job that covid masks are supposed to do Because dust masks have valves that let out exhaled air, whereas we need covid masks that filter inhalations AND exhalations. Dust masks are good for filtering inhaled air but they don't filter exhaled air.

pandapatch Hands up, I got it wrong, stupid me, but after 18 months of getting it right, mask wearing, hand washing, sanitising and not seeing any of my family all that time I took a risk, mind you not sure how I could have eaten wearing a mask! and that was my point, wearing a mask does help.

Caleo FFP3 masks aren't all expensive. Anywhere selling dust masks will have them.
Try screwfix for example or just google FFP3 masks. There will be lots of options. We have used them all along.
Here's an article from the Metro.
www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2021/01/27/what-are-ffp3-face-masks-are-they-reusable-and-where-to-get-one-13976291/amp/

I do wear a mask in crowded places but I don't understand this

"used my mask while entering, not while playing again used while leaving. Then we went off to M&S for clothes, stopped for lunch in M&S cafe again I used mask, only removed while eating"

How does this even make sense? Does covid know what you are doing whilst in the building and only attack at certain moments ??- but it seems a very common way of doing things

M0nica

Biscuitmuncher always keen to ask questions, but remarkably unwilling to answer any.

Has she ever answered even one of the many questions put to her? She has certainly never answered any I have ever asked.

Clearly running scared.

You are correct. Just lobs in a ( anti mask anti vax). comment and disappears

Biscuitmuncher always keen to ask questions, but remarkably unwilling to answer any.

Has she ever answered even one of the many questions put to her? She has certainly never answered any I have ever asked.

Clearly running scared.

Biscuitmuncher

All you mask lovers, what good did they actually do?

They do as much good as medical staff wearing masks when they operate on you. If you look at the fall in rates of flu etc during the pandemic, perhaps we should carry on wearing them.

Here in France you cannot enter any shop or public place without a mask and its compulsory outside in some towns;
we just live with it as normal now.

*last pack

I buy them online. Last time I got them, they came from Amazon, from Germany I think. They WERE quite expensive. I think about 45 for 40, plus I had to pay 15 in tax.

I do think though, that I'm not spending money on the other things I once would have. And the past of 40 has lasted me quite a long time, because I don't actually go to risky places much now.

Gagajo, please can you advise on where to buy FFP3 masks?Also what do they cost?

Gagajo I agree with you on FFP3 masks but most do not wear these
Surgical masks may help but certainly not infallible in protecting against covid

Biscuitmuncher

All you mask lovers, what good did they actually do?

Actually, kept me covid free in the middle of a covid outbreak in the boarding school I was working in. I wear FFP3 masks. Sat directly next to 3 students for an hour each, who tested positive the next day (3 individual one-to-one lessons). Took a 4th student for his PCR test in a car wearing my FFP3 mask. He also tested positive. Worked in the school's boarding house throughout the outbreak.

The other staff member who thought masks were unsafe (limited his oxygen, didn't actually offer any protection) got covid and was quite ill. Whereas I, older and much less healthy, stayed covid free.

maddyone don’t worry I caught it locally, wouldn’t mind if I had gone to Benidorm, it would have been worthwhile. Enjoy!

Even the scientists can’t agree about masks. Last month one likened them to a net across a tennis court with ping pong balls being fired at it. Yes, some will hit the nylon and bounce off but the vast majority ....
?

In all honesty you could pick it up anywhere maddyone go enjoy your holiday
My biggest concern when we went to Jersey was testing positive whilst away we were supposed to have a test on day 8 but Jerseys Gov never got around to arranging it Being stuck in Jersey no problem but in a hotel room not so good lol
Been away in UK 3 times another break booked still here to tell the tale life is to short to worry

Thank you rosie1959 strangely I’m feeling more nervous about this holiday than I did last year when we went to Kefalonia. I don’t know why, except that the numbers keeping on rising has spooked me a bit. I’ve had Covid, I’m double jabbed, I wear a mask wherever necessary and sanitise regularly, and all should be well. I think I’ll be better once I’m there.

Oh and of course, wearing a GOOD quality mask. If I can get them, despite the expense, FFP3s. Because most people in my area have stopped masking up, I need to do more to protect myself.

I think for those of us who are at risk, we have to just decide to make permanent amendments to our lives. Some risk is impossible to avoid but some is avoidable. So no meals out, pubs, indoor activities that aren't essential and also working from home. But DGS finally gets to go to nursery and can start doing his gymnastic club. Although for almost all other playdates and activities, they'll all be outside.

Boz Unfortunately perspex face shields are as good as useless. The aerosol infected air, just finds its way round the enormous gap at the side and bottom between shield and face. It might give you some protection, if someone got close and personal and sneezed six inches from the mask, but the aerosol of infection would still make its way around the edges.

The whole point of the masks is that they cling to your face and the air is filtered by the fabric.

MayBee70

PippaZ

MaizieD

Biscuitmuncher

All you mask lovers, what good did they actually do?

Without them case numbers would be considerably higher with the consequent increase in deaths and incidence of long covid.

Now I'll reverse your silly question and ask you what harm do they do?

This very considered answer.

And you are so polite Maizie.

And sneezing is the latest covid symptom. Given that a sneeze often happens too fast to enable a handkerchief to be found and put over the face it makes sense to wear a mask. Also I really don’t want to catch flu.

Bourouiba, a fluid dynamics scientist at MIT, has spent the last few years using high-speed cameras and light to reveal how expulsions from the human body can spread pathogens, such as the novel coronavirus. Slowed to 2,000 frames per second, video and images from her lab show that a fine mist of mucus and saliva can burst from a person’s mouth at nearly a hundred miles an hour and travel as far as 27 feet. When the sternutation is over, a turbulent cloud of droplet-containing gas can remain suspended for several minutes, depending on the size of the droplet.

www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2020/04/see-how-a-sneeze-can-launch-germs-much-farther-than-6-feet