Are you wearing a mask re Covid

M0nica, Nurses do not study Immunology in depth.

M0nica

garnet25 many NHS staff refuse to be vaccinated. Just saying.

Whereas care staff had no choice it was either take the vaccination or lose your job…. I think it’s disgraceful the way they backtracked on this..

garnet25 many NHS staff refuse to be vaccinated. Just saying.

Shropshirelass
It’s very likely that your immune system is up the shoot.

As someone who worked in immunology, I have never stopped wearing an FFP2 mask. Draw your own conclusions.

Shropshirelass COVID is infectious not contagious. If you got the disease, you inhaled it somewhere, nothing you touch will infect you.

Yes wearing in shops, pharmacies and inside places. Just recovered from Covid and either caught it while taking GC swimming or who knows so I'm not for taking them off in busy places.

No, I'm not. I had Covid very badly last summer and was on a ventilator for 2 weeks. I've had all my vaccines so I should be fine.

BlueSky

Growstuff the FFp3 are obviously the most protective. Then of course the FFp2 but, as during the pandemic, people felt any flimsy bit of cloth was going to save them. They became a lucky charm. I guess anything is better than nothing but I wouldn’t bet on it.

I get that, but I don't get that masks can be physically harmful. Some of them probably don't do much good, but I doubt whether anybody would contract anything from it, unless it were filthy and covered with bacteria. Viruses aren't technically alive and need a host to invade and lose any effect within a very short time. Unless a mask is sneezed on directly by an infected person, it's doubtful that it could itself be infected. In that case, the wearer would have caught something from being sneezed on anyway, if he/she hadn't been wearing a mask. Covid is airborne and anything which filters out droplets will have some effect. It's the cumulative effect in enclosed spaces which causes problems.

I'll not be wearing one unless asked to.

Growstuff the FFp3 are obviously the most protective. Then of course the FFp2 but, as during the pandemic, people felt any flimsy bit of cloth was going to save them. They became a lucky charm. I guess anything is better than nothing but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Yes we do and use hand gel, clean the trolley every time but we both still caught Covid, no idea where from. We both have chronic health conditions and were quite poorly but we are on the mend now. So many people don’t bother with precautions, I think complacency has set in.

I thought, and hope, that wearing a mask protects both myself and other people. And I wash them regularly, soaking them in Zoflora for a while before rinsing.
I had stopped wearing one, but will start again now, in supermarkets etc.

I still wear a medical mask at work (nhs- mandatory until Monday) and on trains. I no longer always wear a mask in shops. I took a friend to a private hospital appointment this week and masks were not required ( or supplied) which was a bit unexpected.

I haven't worn one at all for ages but wear one if asked (like in the clinic the other week)

I do often feel that masks used so close to nose and mouth (often on and off several times), constitute a health risk to the wearer.

I don't understand how they can be a health risk. I use a new mask every time I go out, although I do take it off when I'm outside. I use FFP2 masks, which create a barrier for most external germs. It's probably covered in germs on the inside - but they're my germs. I've been living with them and breathing them in and out. The side of the mask exposed to the air doesn't touch my face. I guess it would be different if people dropped their masks on the floor, picked them up and put them on their face, but they possibly do that with hats and scarves all the time.

PamelaJ1

But monica I would like to have another vaccination but am not eligible for one. My last one was Dec 1st so I shouldn’t think I have any protection left.
What is up to date?

Me too, but I keep being refused. My last one was in October.

? growstuff.
I sympathise with your difficulties over mask wearing Franbern but nobody knows how their immune system will react if they contract Covid. Of course we are in a better place since vaccination and treatments have improved. However the fact is that Omicron 4 & 5 are good at escaping current vaccines, and catching Omicron does not seem to give immunity to further infections.

Don’t forget there are over 2 million with long covid in U.K. I don’t believe there are that many with “long flu”. Coronavirus is not just a disease of the respiratory system, but affects blood vessels and other organs.
Admissions to hospital are increasing likewise to ICU.
FFP2 masks are fine for none clinical settings btw.

But monica I would like to have another vaccination but am not eligible for one. My last one was Dec 1st so I shouldn’t think I have any protection left.
What is up to date?

M0nica

*We are going to have to get used to living with COVID, essentially it is not that different to flu, I speak about the way it spreads and constantly mutates.

We have lived with flu, for thousands of years and it has always been a disease that can kill. modern vaccinations means that it is far less dangerous and most deaths occur among the unvaccinated. This is what is happening with COVID. There is no way it can be eliminated.

So, as long as you are assiduous in keeping your vaccinations up to date, you are at a very low risk, and while current vaccinations cannot entiely stop you getting COVID, most people will not and those who do get it are unlikely to end up in hospital, on ventilation or dead.

This is perfectly normal. My children had all their childhood jabs, yet DS still got measles and both had whooping cough. On the other hand, these illnesses, lasted a few days. As a child before vaccinations, both my sisters were very seriously ill with whooping cough, a friend has suffered from damaged lungs all her life following whooping cough.

Compare and contrast.

Good Post. I am in my 80's, with Asthma, do not wear a mask - detest it if someone else does and then tries to talk to me, cannot understand a word they are saying. Have always been out and about. Have all my vaccinations and expect i will get this sometime, (everyone else seems to), and am likely to have two or three days feeling very poorly and then time to recover.

Most of my extended family have had it (funnily enough with the exception of my EV daughter - who has continued to work and socialise throughout. My SiL = also EV and very careful, has caught it twice - despite his five vaccinations, had anti=virals and has recovered.

Have an 87 year old friend who refused ALL vaccinations, I think she is taking a chance, but that is her choice, she is probably at far more risk from the rest of us than we are of her.

It is the luck of the drawer (as is so many health issues), I do often feel that masks used so close to nose and mouth (often on and off several times), constitute a health risk to the wearer.

Bea65

nanna8 are you in U.S.? Just wondering as some of our U.S.family have recently visited London/UK last couple of weeks and have returned home with Covid, couple of them are pretty sick!

No - Australia . Plenty of Covid here now, too. Mainly since they stopped all the checks and mask mandates. Of course, being Australia, it was over the top and now people are reacting and going totally in another direction.

Daddima

Reading some of these replies, are there still people who don’t realise that masks are to stop you spreading the virus, not catching it?

Yes of course but I still think wearing a proper FP one affords me some protection, so as I’m CEV. I wear one in places where I feel vulnerable.

I have compared and contrasted MOnica and I don't want to end up like your friend with damaged lungs for life.

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You get it through your mouth, nose and eyeballs

Wearing a mask won’t protect your eyeballs though.

?