Will you continue using a face mask after 19 July?

[bimble]

christ. i just looked at daily mail comments again. I know i know not representative of anything etc but, all are furious about track & trace isolation continuing into august and shouting that they've deleted the App and freed themselves that way.

 

[gentlegreen]

He's got form for this sort of stuff I have to say and I'm going to be a lot more wary next time. It really felt as if he was deciding for me that I wasn't isolating any more.

As I was twice-vaccinated, I felt able to visit my family last month, but I will be thinking carefully over the near future - my sister works in M&S .. my BIL has to do regular LF tests for his employer ...

 

[two sheds]

As I was twice-vaccinated, I felt able to visit my family last month, but I will be thinking carefully over the near future - my sister works in M&S .. my BIL has to do regular LF tests for his employer ...

Good point - I should have said we've both been vaccinated. Until we find out how that affects delta variant transmission though I'm still isolating.

 

[killer b]

The second is saying there is no evidence, at the start of the pandemic, that mask wearing has an effect on Covid. This was true in the limited sense that the pandemic had just started, we hadn't had time to gather the evidence. Absence of evidence and all that. There was ample ample evidence even at that time from many RCTs and case-controlled studies that mask-wearing limits transmission of flu, TB, SARS and other respiratory infections. There was no reason to assume that Covid would be different, we just didn't know for sure at the time. It was an unhelpful thing for him to say, even though accurate, as demonstrated by your (and presumably other people's) misunderstanding of it to support a position damaging to society.

One of the reasons for the politicians and medics saying early on that there was little benefit to the public of wearing masks was that there was a massive mask shortage, which meant even medics working with covid patients struggled to get hold of the correct PPE - the additional strain of the general public rushing to buy up whatever stocks of masks were available would have collapsed the supply lines completely.

The change in advice happened not just because of the emergence of evidence showing there was a benefit, but because production had caught up and the masks had actually become available. So there was a political aspect to the change in advice - just in the opposite direction to the one Mr Retro imagines.

 

[gentlegreen]

christ. i just looked at daily mail comments again. I know i know not representative of anything etc but, all are furious about track & trace isolation continuing into august and shouting that they've deleted the App and freed themselves that way.

I confess I don't have the app on my phone for a variety of reasons - some technical - though I'm thinking I might install it for my own interest - though if I'm surrounded by unmasked people and not wearing medical-grade protection I might actually need to know...

 

[Aladdin]

I think that's also true on a wider level. It feels like that outside here and similar groups in real life most people are happy for the restrictions to be lifted on the 19th and just want things 'back to normal'. That's the overriding impression I'm getting from loads of people.

Loads of people will turn around and ask why their government didn't stay the course when the "Sigma"* variant hits.


* a so far non existent covid variant that is vaccine resistant and more deadly variant with an r value of 20.

 

[lazythursday]

Looks like some of these work out to around £5/mask.

Seriously?

You think that's expensive? They're reusable, not throwaway - I've spent more than that on masks in the past. You get what you pay for, in terms of filtration abilities and therefore level of protection.

Though this 'smart' one Active+ Halo Smart Mask Black costing £150 is taking it all a bit too far.

 

[Aladdin]

And the whole mask thing from the government suggests that spreading is exactly what they want - in addition to hoping that a "light" dose won't "optically" harm the vaccinated ...

Yep. They started with a policy of driving herd immunity last year until Bozo got covid. Now they're back to that.
Maybe Bozo will get the delta variant...as a breakthrough.

 

[prunus]

One of the reasons for the politicians and medics saying early on that there was little benefit to the public of wearing masks was that there was a massive mask shortage, which meant even medics working with covid patients struggled to get hold of the correct PPE - the additional strain of the general public rushing to buy up whatever stocks of masks were available would have collapsed the supply lines completely.

The change in advice happened not just because of the emergence of evidence showing there was a benefit, but because production had caught up and the masks had actually become available. So there was a political aspect to the change in advice - just in the opposite direction to the one Mr Retro imagines.

Good point. So it was sophistry really - saying something technically true (due to the fact that no studies had been done) while knowing people would misinterpret absence of evidence as evidence of absence for political ends.

Why did we have to end up with these fuckers in charge at this time of all times?

 

[gentlegreen]

Loads of people will turn around and ask why their government didn't stay the course when the "Sigma"* variant hits.


* a so far non existent covid variant that is vaccine resistant and more deadly variant with an r value of 20.

Rest assured it'll get blamed on a reservoir in a part of the world where they can't get vaccines...

 

[Yossarian]

I'm glad we're unlikely to return to the situation very early in the pandemic, when almost the only people wearing masks were Asian and it made them targets for abuse.

 

[kalidarkone]

I might drop it for literally popping into corner shop for something, but otherwise will keep them. In fact have bought some proper medical grade ones for a few upcoming times I'll need to go on tube or otherwise be in one spot in enclosed spaces while numbers are zooming up. Fabric mask will suffice for supermarket. I'm double vaxxed (well, will be covered by it by 19th) but seems wise until numbers are down again.

So potentially you could pass something on to someone in the corner shop? Being double vaxxed protects you but not necessarily other people. Imo if you would wear them on the tube then you should wear them in the corner shop.

 

[killer b]

Good point. So it was sophistry really - saying something technically true (due to the fact that no studies had been done) while knowing people would misinterpret absence of evidence as evidence of absence for political ends.

Why did we have to end up with these fuckers in charge at this time of all times?

In the absence of sufficient PPE, it's difficult to know what else they might have done tbh. We all saw what happened to just the stocks of toilet roll and pasta - suppressing demand for masks until enough were available was pretty essential to keep the health service viable.

 

[Cloo]

OK, I said 'might' and everyone has made a good case for me being consistent in this.

 

[Supine]

So the WHO, BMA, MHRA, FDA and CDC all say masks are proven to be beneficial but some bloke called Mr Retro on U75 says there is no evidence. I just dont know who to believe anymore!!!

 

[Aladdin]

Our head of public health (Ireland) keeps saying if you're fully vaccinated you can meet up with other fully vaccinated people but that masks and social distancing still need to be done because < 1/4 of the population is fully vaccinated.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

One of the reasons for the politicians and medics saying early on that there was little benefit to the public of wearing masks was that there was a massive mask shortage, which meant even medics working with covid patients struggled to get hold of the correct PPE - the additional strain of the general public rushing to buy up whatever stocks of masks were available would have collapsed the supply lines completely.

The change in advice happened not just because of the emergence of evidence showing there was a benefit, but because production had caught up and the masks had actually become available. So there was a political aspect to the change in advice - just in the opposite direction to the one Mr Retro imagines.

In the absence of sufficient PPE, it's difficult to know what else they might have done tbh. We all saw what happened to just the stocks of toilet roll and pasta - suppressing demand for masks until enough were available was pretty essential to keep the health service viable.

Any kind of face covering is better than none

 

[killer b]

Any kind of face covering is better than none

this is true, but everyone knew as we were fashioning masks out of old t-shirts that they weren't as good at doing the job as the real thing. official advice to wear a face covering would increase demand for medical facemasks, and there weren't any.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

Cos I'm in the supermarket for about half an hour, I'm in the corner shop averagely for 30 seconds buying some milk. Also, shop bloke never wears a mask, is by the open door all day and never seems to have missed a day in last 15 months. It strikes me as low risk and that owner is not desperately concerned about it, and often it's the only time in the day I wear a mask so seems a waste.

If you saw someone like me in there wearing a mask you would though? The scenario you described is the same as my work place. My boss is a fuckwit when it comes to mask wearing, like the owner of your corner shop, the rest of us working there are more keen on customers wearing masks though and we ourselves wear them all day.

 

[Aladdin]

I think the message needs to get out there that "getting back to normal " as in life precovid...wont happen for a long time.

And that the only way to stop a virus is break the transmission.


So ... be the one to wear the mask when everyone else is being a flaming matchdick.

 

[prunus]

In the absence of sufficient PPE, it's difficult to know what else they might have done tbh. We all saw what happened to just the stocks of toilet roll and pasta - suppressing demand for masks until enough were available was pretty essential to keep the health service viable.

Told the truth…? Nah, sorry, silly idea. That would have involved asking people to make personal sacrifices for the common good, which is kryptonite to these cunts.

 

[killer b]

Told the truth…? Nah, sorry, silly idea. That would have involved asking people to make personal sacrifices for the common good, which is kryptonite to these cunts.

They were fighting in the supermarket aisles for the last pack of bogrolls. You can understand why there may have been some reticence from creating similar scenes over facemasks. Maybe it might have worked though, IDK.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

this is true, but everyone knew as we were fashioning masks out of old t-shirts that they weren't as good at doing the job as the real thing. official advice to wear a face covering would increase demand for medical facemasks, and there weren't any.

Yeah, but as I've posted elsewhere, non-frontline NHS workers were ordered not to wear masks of any kind. Ordered.

 

[maomao]

They were fighting in the supermarket aisles for the last pack of bogrolls.

You mean the supermarket supply chain was unable to respond quickly to an overall fairly minor change in demand.

 

[killer b]

Yeah, but as I've posted elsewhere, non-frontline NHS workers were ordered not to wear masks of any kind. Ordered.

I don't remember that - maybe early on in the pandemic when everything was totally insane, but I recall at that point medical grade masks were changing hands for ludicrous sums.

 

[killer b]

You mean the supermarket supply chain was unable to respond quickly to an overall fairly minor change in demand.

Absolutely. And people fighting in the supermarket was the result of them struggling to respond to that minor change in demand, for something as insignificant as bog roll.

 

[maomao]

Absolutely. And people fighting in the supermarket was the result of them struggling to respond to that minor change in demand, for something as insignificant as bog roll.

I don't remember any fights. I'm not saying there weren't a couple of videos on Twitter, I'm saying there wasn't any actual violence or even much shouting.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

I don't remember that - maybe early on in the pandemic when everything was totally insane, but I recall at that point medical grade masks were changing hands for ludicrous sums at that point.

It happened at my son's hospital and remained true until there was a supply of official masks available. 'Infection control' made up the rules as they went along, in line with government diktat.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Absolutely. And people fighting in the supermarket was the result of them struggling to respond to that minor change in demand, for something as insignificant as bog roll.

Insignificant? Remember that next time you race to the toilet with explosive diarrhoea, only to discover that all you have is an empty cardboard tube to clean up with.

 

[Aladdin]

I don't remember that - maybe early on in the pandemic when everything was totally insane, but I recall at that point medical grade masks were changing hands for ludicrous sums.

It definitely happened over here....at the beginning when they were saving the ppe they had for staff working with seriously ill covid patients.