Wonderful News - No more face masks

I am super delighted that my students including my granddaughters will not wear masks in the classrooms after tomorrow. I and many others are supporting young people after the horrendous increase in their poor mental health.

We should be ashamed children have had to wear masks for 6 hours plus a day, how can you learn like that? Adults can choose to wear them for whatever reason, children cannot.

I for one am very glad they are being dropped. I am happy for others to continue but it’s my choice not to if I wish as well.

Covid will become more and more like the flu, we don’t put our lives on hold every year for that thank goodness.

Why can’t you bear to put a mask on may I ask? Odd you only just bring that up.

LilacChaser

Rosie, I would try the candle experiment if I could bear to put a mask on. I can't, though.

So the real reason you think masks don't work is that you can't bear to put one on? That's your problem! Fortunately, most people don't have the same problem, which is good news for you because you'll benefit from other people's good sense.

There's no way at all that we will stop wearing masks any time soon

Rosie, I would try the candle experiment if I could bear to put a mask on. I can't, though.

I could also ask why so many health workers have been off work with covid if their face masks do work?

Try blowing out a candle with a mask on. If you can then the mask isn’t doing much, but all of mine some cotton, most silk won’t let me. That has to be reducing the output from me and lessening the chance of me infecting someone else if I’m asymptomatic.

Don't be silly

What a thing to say.

They wear them because they haven’t caught up with LilacChaser’s revolutionary theories yet. And I hope they never will.

Pepper59

I never understand folk who say masks do nothing. Why are surgeons in operating theatres wearing them for hours on end then?

Sorry crossed post!

LilacChaser as others have asked why do medical staff wear masks?
Your argument about the bird watcher doesn't hold water as it's true some people don't wear good enough masks which will let their breath through.

LilacChaser

varian no, they don't

Why do surgeons wear them then? And have for many, many years.

Ruddy good point Pepper59.

I wear a face shield which you pop on your face like a pair of glasses - are they useless?

I never understand folk who say masks do nothing. Why are surgeons in operating theatres wearing them for hours on end then?

Could we have your scientific credentials LilacChaser, please.

No drama from me. I have many friends and family who are immuno-suppressed, have COPD or other lung conditions, who are in the middle of aggressive treatment, and other medical conditions- who, when mask wearing stops and other restrictions- will be condemned to remain in their own home.

So, yes, selfish and cruel- I stick to this.

varian no, they don't

Facemasks drastically reduce transmission

Sense from the government?? That would be unlikely

Kali2

Selfish and cruel? Don't be so dramatic. Facemasks don't work and it's actually selfish and cruel to try to fool people into believing that they do.

LilacChaser

That's made my day! I'm delighted and relieved.

At last, some sense from the government. Roll on 26th Jan.

Good news for whom? It will condemn many to have to remain at home, not go into public places or shops, or work, or public transport. Because they are vulnerable, in one way or another.

What an absolutely selfish and cruel comment.

Boris is on the tv at 5pm today.

MayBe70

There are many reasons why I don't believe they offer protection, but the main reason is from something I witnessed earlier this month (I have written about this on another thread).

I'm a bird watcher and, on one very cold day, I visited a bird hide. Watching the birds, I became distracted by a plume of smoke coming from a woman in front of me. I thought she was smoking at first. It wasn't smoke, however, but air/water droplets from her mouth showing up as clouds of condensation. This plume of 'smoke' was coming from everybody's mouths in that hide, but what struck me most was the fact that she was wearing a face mask. And, believe me, her breath was billowing out. Not from gaps in the side of her mask, nor from the top or bottom, but straight through the centre of it. Even I was surprised. The mask was preventing nothing getting through, certainly not tiny covid particles, had she been affected by it. I wish I'd had something on me to film it.

You've heard all the more crude analogies such as you can still smell a fart if you're wearing a facemask; or the nicer ones, such as you can still smell perfume through a mask, or cigarette smoke. Well, if all these molecules can seep through masks, then so can smaller viruses. As has been said before, facemasks are about as useful as tennis nets against a sand storm.

And don't forget all these so called scientific experiments - not one of them for ethical reasons have been carried out on people - they've all been carried out in lab conditions and are in no way realistic representations of what happens when people wear masks. Even scientists have admitted they can't do 'proper' tests on people.

As an aside, I'm not anti-vacc, a Trump supporter, a murderer, selfish or stupid, all of which accusations have been levelled at me. I'm just stubbornly sticking to what I believe. And I believe facemasks have just been used as a political tool - it makes governments look like they're doing something. Facemasks are the one visible 'thing' they have to turn to.

Do you go ranting at people for not getting tested, or for not being vaccinated? No, of course you don't - because you don't know whether or not they have been tested or vaccinated - their status is not visible. Facemasks have taken on this huge importance in people's minds because they give the appearance of being safe, but they are no more safe than a paper tissue.

I'd love a scientist to be able to explain to me what I witnessed on that morning in the bird hide. Any scientists out there willing to try?

winterwhite I wear glasses and like Grannynannywanny have successfully managed to overcome the problem of misting, so it's not that hard to do. Getting an adjustable, good-fitting, good quality mask with a nose clip makes all the difference.

I wear glasses and always wear a mask in shops. Silk masks stop the misting up and I never have a problem.

When I was in a shop this morning a woman was sneezing. She was wearing a mask so the sneeze won't have travelled as far.
Masks do work to prevent infection. That's why medical staff wear them.