Will you continue to wear a mask in public after Jan 27th?

[Ari]

mike9009 said:

Until tomorrow.

We have set up a 'quarantine work cell' this week, so those still testing positive, can work on site again with separate facilities, if they feel well enough ( about four of those impacted were well enough to work but still testing positive). If one person does test positive in the future, we will introduce controls again until the following weekend which seems to work as a fire break.

We haven't had any cases on site this year until last week. So hopefully we won't need to take these measures, but at least we are better prepped to keep the business running.

Gawd, this week has been a little frantic.......

Sorry for disturbing the thread so much. Amazing the reaction here compared to the reaction at work......

You've not disturbed the thread at all, it's a discussion about mask wearing, it's always good to hear both sides of the discussion, even if I never did quite follow your logic.

Good luck with office covid levels and out of interest, what was the reaction at work?

[Ari]

21TonyK said:

The realities of being an employer and trying to maintain an operational business seems a little lost on some posters.

That's given me a really good laugh this morning, thank you Tony!

I'm off out to enjoy this fabulous weather, you stay safe, and try not to get too sweaty in your mask!

[Ari]

Flip Martian said:

You're saying as a fact that they don't work. But that ultimately is your opinion that you choose to believe because you don't like being told what to do. They don't work when people don't wear them properly, for sure. The rest - as I said above, I'm no scientist. But my belief is they probably do help a bit and frankly having had a relatively mild case of it once so far, if sticking a bit of cloth over my face helps my chances of escaping a 2nd dose, I'll happily do it.

The restrictions weren't a govt plot to keep everyone off the streets and "under control" - there's absolutely no benefit to anyone in power for that to happen. Drones need to be productive, not holed up at home. Hence Boris' instinct was to let the country carry on and let the bodies pile up, just so long as business kept going. Until told otherwise. Things would have to get extremely bad for another lockdown to happen - look at the damage from the last one. So I doubt its on any govt's agenda going forward unless they absolutely have no choice.

1. It's not it's 'a fact that they don't work'. It is a FACT that there is zero evidence that they do work. And after 2 years of this nonsense, mandates, no mandates, mandates in some ares but not others (Scotland/England just one example), if there is not one single example of any clear benefit, then the reality is pretty obvious. Anything else is just religious belief.

2. And there it is, you 'believe'...

3.The benefit was in not getting blamed for killing everyone's granny. Slope responsibility off to SAGE and be seen to be Doing Something. As you said yourself, Boris was initially against it, then pressure from social media and the press got too much so away we went. Can you imagine the headlines if they hadn't?

[Ari]

mike9009 said:

Can't resist, but did you wear a helmet?

Can you genuinely not see the difference?

[Ari]

Brave Fart said:

I've just been listening to 5 Live's Your Call for the last hour. It was like a trip back two years in time. Nicky Campbell did allow one caller on who stated that masks don't work, but she was quickly shut down; Campbell kept making snide comments suggesting she was a conspiracy loon, which she clearly wasn't.

Then we were treated to words of wisdom from Deepti Gurdasani. Campbell introduced her in hushed, reverent tones........an actual, expert epidemiologist, wow! IMO she came across as a fruit loop. "Would you go to Glastonbury?" asked Campbell. "Oh no, no way. I might go in to a shop if I really had to, but only if I was wearing a FFP3 mask."

I tell you, the nutjob mask advocates have not gone away, and they absolutely refuse to accept that masks don't work. They are already calling for mask wearing in NHS settings, and I fully expect they'll demand mandates to be reinstated. Gurdasani thinks we should all be wearing fully fitted FFP grade masks, and should be "cleaning the air, just as we do with water." She's bonkers but she's not the only one.

I've seen similar stuff from these people on Twitter. I think they were given a brief blast of celebrity for championing these things, and they just can't let that go and slide back into obscurity. Their cry for masking is like hearing the cry 'I'm still relevant, I am, I AM!'

I can understand that (although I'd far rather they actually, y' know, followed the science). What I find harder to understand is why no one in the media (apart from Julia Hartley-Brewer admittedly) is prepared to stand up and ask 'where is the evidence, any evidence, that these things are effective?'

I know those of us asking that question get lazily labelled conspiracy theorists or whatever, but it's a simple basic question. They've had two years to come up with something, anything, that shows these things are actually effective in the real world. And god knows, they've had plenty of chance to do so with all the mandates being introduced and dropped and, in some cases retained and dropped side by side.

I find the love for these things (and there's been plenty in this thread) absolutely baffling.

Why do people want them so much?

[Ari]

Biker 1 said:

Sadly I think the mandates will slowly creep back in - the lunatics are definitely still running the asylum...........

I could definitely see this, sadly. Not just because the lunatics are still running the asylum, but because so many people seem so eager to unquestioningly comply and please.

[Ari]

pincher said:

Ari said:

Biker 1 said:

Sadly I think the mandates will slowly creep back in - the lunatics are definitely still running the asylum...........

I could definitely see this, sadly. Not just because the lunatics are still running the asylum, but because so many people seem so eager to unquestioningly comply and please.

I think you actually called it a few months ago? It's looking more and more likely that you will be proved correct, sadly.

Yup, as I said at the time, I'd have been extremely happy to have been proven wrong, but there just seems to be a bafflingly large appetite for the things.

The government has made many people afraid of the very air that they breathe, and no one seems to be bothered about that! No biggie, apparently...

[Ari]

HTP99 said:

Usual Tuesday food shop for me earlier, there is a distinct increase in mask wearing out there.

Weird, isn't it?

[Ari]

GSE said:

Can I add to that: d. Thick. Unable to extrapolate where this could be leading, further than the end of their nose. May be that's because it's being covered up by a mask.

Can we have less of this 'Alas, I feel like masks will be returning' please? It will only encourage them ...

Agreed on the first point. So many people just don't seem to understand why allowing the government to dictate any part of their day to day behaviour without very good reason is a very bad precedent to set. 'But it's just a mask, it's no biggie'

On the second, oh if only we had that much influence. I fear that this one will ultimately be decided by the masses, either complying or refusing to. And on that, I refer you to your first point again...

[Ari]

Independent Sage. What a surprise.

https://twitter.com/helenrsalisbury/status/1546746...

[Ari]

That's an oxygen mask, different thing!

[Ari]

GSE said:

In a nutshell.

What's next? Where does it end?

Worryingly, it seems like a lot of people don't even want to try to understand why it's a very bad precedent.

More than that, I think some people like being told what to do by the government. It saves thinking for themselves or taking personal responsibility.

[Ari]

remedy said:

Some data reporting that the peak in admissions to hospital is falling for July.

That's a glimmer of hope that the circus won't be started again.

We really REALLY need to see cases dropping away fast without 'precautions' being implemented, then maybe people will realise that it's not their bits of Esty cloth that are going to save them from certain *checks notes* sniffles.

Fingers crossed.

[Ari]

HTP99 said:

Daughters graduation today at Middlesex University in Hendon, there were quite a few of the student "Graduation Marshalls" masked up, including 1 also sporting a pair of surgical gloves, it was 28 degrees FFS, she must have been so uncomfortable.

Took the tube to Covent Garden afterwards for dinner, I'd say 20% of our carriage were masked and once off the tube and in Leicester Square there were many touristy looking people masked, including kids which I think is just so sad, including this poor chap a few ahead of us whilst in the queue for Dishoom, he can't have been more than 3 years old:

edit: I've deleted the photo, didn't think it was inappropriate, just couldn't be bothered with the sensitive souls getting all stressy about me posting a photo of an unknown child with a mask on, it was a photo of a circa 3 year old boy in his mother's arms, asleep on her shoulder, sporting a mask.

Parents forcing masks on children is the very worst of this. What a way to grow up, being made to feel afraid of the very air you breathe.

Still, no biggie I'm sure...

[Ari]

devnull said:

It is depressing to see a family all wearing masks, it see it reasonably often. "Mum, why do we have to wear masks when noone else is?"

Yep, i dont know their situation, they could all be classed as vulnerable.

The point is that even if they are vulnerable, masks aren't going to help them, they might as well carry a sprig of lucky heather in their pocket.

However the government has spent the last two years scaring people and then telling them that a sprig of lucky heather will keep them safe, so they believe it.

Which is fair enough I guess, but a bloody shame, especially in weather like this.

[Ari]

Countdown said:

i think the main purpose of this thread is so that the anti-maskers can feel good about themselves. because, y'know, they're "independent free-thinking rebels who dare challenge the status quo". It's been nearly 6 months since we no longer had to wear masks and yet their "noble crusade" goes on.

If you're using words like 'rebels' and expressions like 'dare challenge the status quo' to describe people discussing being forced to strap cloth across their face with zero evidence of efficacy, you probably ought to ask your mum if you can watch TV past 7pm.

[Ari]

XCP said:

As I say, doesn't register on my list of things to worry about.

I've said this before I know, but it really has been the unquestioning obedience of so many that has been the biggest eyeopener for me.

It's also the reason we'll get these pointless things forced upon us again this winter.

[Ari]

Countdown said:

Donbot said:

Pretending to have a medical issue is the same as going along with the nonsense.

Fine. in that case you should simply refuse to do it. Like the people who protested against the "Poll tax" if enough people care, and refuse to comply, the Govt. will change it's Policy ( that it hasn't yet implemented and probably won't implement....)

Which is great, except the 'no big deal' brigade such as yourself will happily strap pointless bits of cloth across the faces of yourself, your family and your employees without a second's thought to whether complying with government mandates that have no logical basis while encouraging everyone else to do so is a good idea.

Is it really beyond you to see the utterly futility of it, or understand why mandates just for the sake of mandates (especially dehumanising ones that force everyone to hide their faces in public) are a bad idea?

[Ari]

Brave Fart said:

I can't speak for other posters, of course. But for clarity, I don't mind what other people choose to wear across their face. I reserve the right to think they're fools, but I'd never make that thought apparent in person; to do so would be rude.

No, the 'frothing', as you put it, is about the possibility that mask mandates might be brought back. I am strongly opposed to that, because I don't think the state should tell me to do something pointless.

Perhaps you're one of the "It's no big deal" fraternity. If so, I disagree.

Exactly this! You'd think it would be a simple enough concept to grasp.

[Ari]

21TonyK said:

No... you don't get it. It's this thin edge of the wedge (or should I say tip of the space lizards tale?)

This I find odd too. The mask lover's attempts to label anyone who questions mask mandates as some kind of 'space lizard' conspiracy theorist.

It's almost as though they have to rational argument so must try to paint those asking awkward questions as nutters instead.

There's no evidence that masks work, plenty that they don't. Simple really, no theory or conspiring needed.