The first covid report

MaizieD

^And the fact that the government in Asian countries had the control to enforce mask wearing.^

As I understand it the Asian governments don't need the 'control' because masking is a common practice which people use when they have a respiratory disease.

It seems a measure of our British exceptionalism that the concept of voluntarily using a mitigation in order to protect fellow citizens has to be explained in the context of it being backed by oppressive government.

Precisely. I thought the pandemic would change that attitude and we would follow cultures in which people do things not just to protect themselves but to protect others but I was wrong.

I think the anti authoritarian approach is safer to be honest.

vintage1950
Clearly there had been no planning behind it.

You’re right.

Whilst we don’t know how any government would have been prepared or have handled it, a huge benefit is that no future government will dare not to have planning and organisation in place.

That has been outlined by Heather Hallett and people will be keen to see how it translates into action, especially since Covid has not gone away, and there has already been mentioned of the likelihood of more pandemics in the future.

A point is that the vulnerable have families, friends, work, and it needed all those around them to either isolate or to ask the public to wear masks generally in the situation when it's not lockdown but still needing safety measures

For example, my granddaughter is very vulnerable: but she is one of 4 children, both parents work, and this picture is repeated everywhere you have a vulnerable person. You can't ask a child of 7 to self isolate from the family (she is so disabled she needs constant care), or her parents to stop working, or her sibs to stay away from school.

Or an elderly person needing care or - just very alone. It seemed to me to be a small cost to ask us all to wear masks for a period of time.

I agree Wyllow. My adult daughter who has a severe disability is in the care system but I did bring her home during lockdown and cared for her here as my instinct told me it was the right thing to do. Her siblings, some adults, some children at the time isolated at home with us. My husband was able to work from home. We were incredibly careful but we had a choice to do that. We all had to make decisions based on our own set of circumstances and I think by the third lockdown (?) I let her stay in her care home as more was known, she is young and healthy despite her complex disability, and school was open, college, I had to return to work etc.

The people moaning about wearing masks or not being able to shop in pairs etc got on my nerves when people were having to mourn their relatives and many, many people were making much bigger sacrifices.

sorry my grammar is quite poor in that post, hopefully it makes sense !!