Will you continue using a face mask after 19 July?

[Yossarian]

It’s odd, hand gel was the only thing I didn’t bother with at the time and still avoid it now tbh. But then it was an airborne virus wasn’t it.

Yep, AFAIK it became apparent fairly early on that the virus wasn't being spread through surfaces so hand-washing didn't directly protect against it - but there are still plenty of nasties you can pick up from touching dirty surfaces, including norovirus, so the hand-washing campaign may have kept some added pressure of health services and I still sometimes use the gel when I see it, especially in crowded places.

 

[gentlegreen]

As I commented early in 2020 I am an inveterate nose-picker so thought it a good idea...
I was also scrubbing my hands raw back then and even installed a hand-washing station just inside the front door .. the bowl is now filled with official letters I need to deal with at some point ...

Tesco long ago stopped refilling the gel dispenser.
Aldi continue to supply it - presumably because I'm one of the few people who use it.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I've always washed my hands after being outside - a habit I picked up many years ago, so this didn't change in the pandemic or since. I always hated touching things like poles on buses - no idea how many greasy filthy mitts have been in contact with it before.

 

[Steel Icarus]

I still have a small bottle of sanitizer on my work lanyard, not least because there are 190 young men on my corridor plus 15-odd male staff members and the toilets are fucking bogging.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I really have to bite my tongue at work when I see someone in the toilets not washing their hands. Dirty bastards.

 

[moochedit]

I used to wash my hands after toilet and before eating etc etc before all this started and still do so that never made much difference to me.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

All the sanitizer use early in the pandemic made my skin dry out to the extent that my knuckles split. Which apart from being unpleasant doesn't strike me as being very good for preventing infection. So I gave that one up pretty quickly tbh.

 

[gentlegreen]

I have a bidet seat so stopped "test-dabbing" when the great bog roll shortage happened - it also meant I saved on the diluted aloe vera gel I used ...
... so I don't wash my hands nearly as much as I did ...

So maybe gelling my hands in Aldi is as much for others' sake as for mine.
I generally have a decent cleanup - including a nose-rinse before leaving the house.

I have always washed my hands and used my foot or grabbed the handle through my tee shirt when using public facilities ...

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I have a bidet seat so stopped "test-dabbing" when the great bog roll shortage happened - it also meant I saved on the diluted aloe vera gel I used ...
... so I don't wash my hands nearly as much as I did ...

So maybe gelling my hands in Aldi is as much for others' sake as for mine.

Which is exactly why I wash my hands after being out.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I've always washed my hands after being outside - a habit I picked up many years ago, so this didn't change in the pandemic or since. I always hated touching things like poles on buses - no idea how many greasy filthy mitts have been in contact with it before.

Transport has pretty vigorous cleaning regimes using products superior to what you’ll find in the supermarket. The tube used a product that had anti-bacterial/viral properties that lasted for weeks rather than hours.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Transport has pretty vigorous cleaning regimes using products superior to what you’ll find in the supermarket. The tube used a product that had anti-bacterial/viral properties that lasted for weeks rather than hours.

I find generally shunning other humans and never going out is a pretty effective method of avoiding infection.

 

[8ball]

I find generally shunning other humans and never going out is a pretty effective method of avoiding infection.

This has worked for me so far too.

Must admit, my whole hand sanitising thing has become very slipshod. I should up my game, especially with the more recent evidence being how it is (ie. washing hands good).

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I find generally shunning other humans and never going out is a pretty effective method of avoiding infection.

I’m mostly like this also. Unfortunately I have to traverse the capital for work purposes. Have you retired you jammy get?

 

[Riklet]

I wore one at the airport and on the plane to France recently. I will do on the way back too.

But not worn one since arriving even once. So....

 

[Voley]

I'm still using the hand sanitiser whenever it's offered. Seems sensible, irrespective of any Covid concerns.

 

[weltweit]

I was recently faced with a table with two bottles of sanitizer on it and no one stopping to use it. For some reason I can't remember where it was, anyhow no one was using it so neither did I.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I'm still using the hand sanitiser whenever it's offered. Seems sensible, irrespective of any Covid concerns.

I did that before Covid, after reading some stuff about touching things being the primary vector for catching diseases on the Tube. I had a bottle of hand sanitiser in my bag all the time.

It's also just useful if your hands are mucky after something and you have no way to wash them e.g. eating a greasy sandwich.

ETA: I find a lot of the hand sanitiser dispensers at tube stations are empty these days though.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

On the subject of actual masks, I tend to go through the cycle of

1. "oh does it really matter any more if nobody else wears them"
2. get sick and remain so for an annoying length of time
3. "fuck it I don't care whether anybody else is wearing them, I bloody will"
4. get better, return to 1

I feel like I've spent about half the time since the end of last year sick though. Even now I've had a nasty cough and dizziness and aches for the last few days, conveniently enough over the bank holiday. This did not happen a few years ago, and I wasn't exactly racing out there exposing my immune system to stuff then either. Anecdotal I admit but when I whinge about it to people they're almost always "yeah everybody's just sick all the time now".

 

[Aladdin]

I've always had a thing about washing my hands.
But now I wash them and then gel them. I've only been into four places. One shop. One petrol station (twice) Consultants rooms and my GPs. I wore an n95 mask.
I'm due to see cardiologist tomorrow and may well be needing to go to hospital so I'll be masked up to my gills with n95 masks and gels.

 

[krtek a houby]

Still masking when out and about, but not so much when outdoors.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Still masking when out and about, but not so much when outdoors.

Wasn’t that a thing anyway, in Japanese culture, prior to the pandemic?

 

[Elpenor]

Use masks when I’m on national express coaches, trains, tube etc (which is maybe once a quarter at most). And would if and when I take a plane. I think this is because I use public transport so rarely that I’m extra conscious of the crowds of people and (usually) the inability to ventilate to my preference. Perhaps if I lived in a city I’d be less bothered by it as more accustomed.

Don’t use masks anywhere else - though when I had a chest infection last week when I did use one when I had to go out and about.

Avoided antibacterial gel if I could as I hate the texture. Always happy to use soap and water.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I've stopped wearing masks in the shops - so far so good. I'm fully vaccinated so I'm probably OK.

 

[krtek a houby]

Wasn’t that a thing anyway, in Japanese culture, prior to the pandemic?

During the flu season or when people have colds, they tend to mask up out of concern/politeness to their fellow travelers etc. So nobody made a big song and dance about it during the pandemic. Well, apart from some fellow gaikokujin...