Wear masks in shops
- Thread starter Celyn
- Start date
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Do supermarkets have no legal liability in this matter? Just having fines for individuals not wearing masks is a bunch of crap, at especially with poor enforcement. I bet Tesco would change their shitty lackadaisical attitude pretty damn sharpish if they were legally and financially on the hook for this shit. Corporations don't give a shit about getting your grandma killed, but they do care about the bottom line.
Doodler
You're quite nice when you smile
Big stores certainly do care about and act on ssues where there are certain penalties for not following the rules, e.g. not displaying the correct prices or selling knives etc to children. But there is no equivalent to Trading Standards for enforcing mask-wearing rules. The police aren't interested.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
Also round here as well, in my admittedly small town people are still queueing patiently outside and all wearing masks. Ventured into Derby to Costco yesterday and I saw only a single woman not wearing a mask and given she was with 2 other adults who were wearing masks, I'd be willing to accept that she might be one of the relatively rare exceptions who can't.
Bus Honeygun
This week the score draws are plentiful
Same in the Co-op near me. Always at least one person not wearing a mask and the staff have apparently been told not to challenge them (understandable given some of the clientele). Someone brought it up on the local community Facebook page and got shouted down with 'how do you know they don't have hidden disabilities, stop being so judgemental' etc. Someone else tried to suggest that it's statistically highly unlikely that so many people would have a genuine reason to not wear a mask but he got lost in the witch hunt.
Was in France last week. Visited the busy local Carrefour at least once a day, plus other shops in a small market town, and didn't see a single adult not wearing a mask.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
This is it, so few people have an actual need to not wear one. We were in Germany last week and the only people we saw without ones were the junkies shoplifting from the supermarket next to Berlin Zoo station. Everyone else without exception was wearing one. Then we went to Switzerland where no one was wearing one and we felt very uncomfortable.
Smaller local / community stores round here do seem to have less compliance than supermarkets - it's been close to 100% in the supermarkets an city centre 'shopping' shops I've been in - then I went to the asian supermarket for some bits yesterday and it was more like 50%. Mostly young men not bothering.
Plenty of racists round here blaming the local lockdown on muslims (although the biggest growth area has been in the predominately white poor areas in the west of the city) - not interested in giving the racists any cover, but I am interested in why there's such a noticeable difference - any ideas?
Plenty of racists round here blaming the local lockdown on muslims (although the biggest growth area has been in the predominately white poor areas in the west of the city) - not interested in giving the racists any cover, but I am interested in why there's such a noticeable difference - any ideas?
Steel Icarus
ersatz maven
My daughter's childminder was recently complaining about masks on FB - "I'll wear one I the shops but I don't see why we have to when nobody's been made to do it up til now".
So she'll only do it if she's made to but is still complaining she has to...
Mrs SI has been wearing masks to shop in since March
So she'll only do it if she's made to but is still complaining she has to...
Mrs SI has been wearing masks to shop in since March
I have been on a mental sewing marathon making comfortable masks. I am entirely sympathetic to the complainers who moan about wearing masks for hours on end. Have made shedloads for family, friends, neighbours, and all the workers in my local Tesco and pharmacy. While I doubt my masks are medical grade, I used a template from the WI and sew them in 2 layers of 100% cotton (cotton poplin on the outside with fine cotton voile as a lining), with paracord fasteners which are adjustable to go round the head. Much easier than the fabric ties I had been making. I found that my ears were in agony after an hour or so of wearing masks with ear loops and I was huffing and puffing like a steam train. I can knock up 5-6 of them in an hour as an insomniac aid (3am sewing sessions in my cool sewing room).
Buddy Bradley
Pantheistic solipsist
That's pretty far from an accurate statement. The 'official' line (insofar as there is one) has been changing regularly with every new study that looks at the efficacy of face coverings. It's been very consistently pro-mask for several weeks now, if not months.
You know this has been going on for 6 months now yeah?
Oh god, I spoke too soon. Today, many fewer masks worn by customers, and the ones that do wear them today have taken to coming into the shop, approaching the customer service desk, pulling their mask down and exhaling deeply and theatrically! (I know it's the heat, and they come in from the street into our lovely airconned environment, and don't mean any harm, but - just no! 
)
Also, man with hideous repeated coughing fit just now. He was wearing some sort of cardboard mask, but again, just no! Does not give you licence to cough and splutter everywhere. Unhappy times
)Also, man with hideous repeated coughing fit just now. He was wearing some sort of cardboard mask, but again, just no! Does not give you licence to cough and splutter everywhere. Unhappy times
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
I’ve been out once, to the bank, in the last three and a half weeks. The two people behind the counter asked every single person to remove their mask because they couldn’t hear them properly. Wasn’t too worried on their behalf because they have big glass screens, but it’s not great for the customers.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
This happens at my work too. Not sure how to get around it really.
Getting a bit frustrated with the attitude of some of my colleagues too. The security guards won’t wear masks for some reason, so it makes enforcement of mask wearing from customers much harder and some staff have been letting people in without them. They let a bloke in today without one and without him booking ahead to use a PC, which is against the rules. And he only wanted to use a computer to buy some drugs ffs
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I don't think it's that - it gets used by more political types as an excuse for not wearing masks or distancing or anything generally (it's a fairly standard plandemic line for instance) but most people aren't. There doesn't seem to be a huge issue with wearing them on public transport, for instance.
I think it is just that a lot of people can't be cocked, it's been brought in super late, and it is never enforced - and they know it's never enforced.
waterloowelshy
Well-Known Member
But yet, cases are now massively increasing in France and Spain where face mask wearing is highest. A very odd situation, where you could argue that masks are not doing what they they need to do - possibly quite the opposite in fact looking at increased positive cases in areas where face masks are widely used.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
That's a fairly controversial view - it's hard to see how wearing a mask could directly make anyone MORE likely to be infectious. I suppose it could encourage generally more reckless behaviour or something, but you'd think that would be rather obvious.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
It’s incredibly easy to see why this could be the case, and also formed part of the reason for the original guidance about masks.
What a bizarre and disappointing post.
waterloowelshy
Well-Known Member
Well, we have constantly been told that hand hygeine is paramount. But now its masks. The amount of people you now see pulling masks on and off with dirty hands is crazy. People pulling down masks to smoke and / or eat and then pull them back up. How long can masks be worn before they become dirty? Do people change them enough? Can people afford to change them enough? My view is that generla public do not wear masks corrrectly - out and about is not a clinical setting. Its apparent that rising cases are being experienced in countries where masks have been mandated for quite some time.
magneze
🎧
Masks potentially give people a false sense of security w.r.t. social distancing. I know I feel better about the fairly difficult social distancing that doesn't quite happen in my local shop if both of us are wearing masks. Rightly or wrongly.
I feel that extrapolating this to whole countries infection rates is stretching things. However, this is new for everyone we'll learn a load more from the second wave as we did from the first. Hopefully with less death.
I feel that extrapolating this to whole countries infection rates is stretching things. However, this is new for everyone we'll learn a load more from the second wave as we did from the first. Hopefully with less death.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Masks were introduced precisely so that social distancing could be fucked off in commercial settings. That's mostly what they're for.
waterloowelshy
Well-Known Member
Exactly this. On this, why are we now obsessed with cases and how can lock downs be introduced because of new cases if people are no longer becoming ill from positive results? The whole rationaale for lock down was to protect the NHS. Thats has been protected. Positive cases are going to happen from now until a vaccine (if ever found) so why is there an obsession to lock down just because of positive cases if said positive cases are not becoming ill / hospitalised? Surely positive cases without hospitilisation is a good thing as immunity is built in the community without serious illness. It just seems that the narrative has changed and now lockdown is for 'cases' as opposed to protecting the NHS.
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Not sure I agree that positive cases without hospitalisation are a good thing, but you neatly point out the gaping hole in the narrative.
A big problem imo is that when people spot that there is a lot of bullshitting going on, they jump in the direction of bizarre conspiracy theories like the 5G nonsense.
magneze
🎧
There's a delay between infection and hospitalization. It's unpredictable so if you just let it go then infections will rapidly spread and we know that hospitalizations will increase as a result because that's exactly what happened earlier in the year. It's still protecting the NHS.
waterloowelshy
Well-Known Member
But infections at present are not leading to hospitilisations. There are still new infections, but none are leading to hospitilisations. Hospital stats confirm that Covid cases are at record lows and ITU records are low. Hence, the scientific view now being that the virus is less impactful and that it has run its course of affecting those most vulnerable (care homes etc). In the general public its not leading to increased hospitilisations. The new cases in France and Spain have also not led to new hospitilisations as they have been among younger age groups who have largely had mild symptoms. So, its no longer about protecting the NHS IMO.
There really isn't a scientific consensus on this. Also given the weather we are having at the moment what is happening now doesn't really tell us very much about what will be happening in mid January. This is an extremely high stakes game and caution has to be the best approach, to my mind anyway.
magneze
🎧
What is it about then?
Yossarian
⏭️
The pattern in the US and other countries has been reopening, followed by a rise in cases among young people, followed by a rise in cases among older people, followed by a rise in hospitalisations, followed by a rise in deaths, I don't see any reason why Britain wouldn't be following the same trajectory.
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