To Mask or not to two - Mask Megathread cont.

Unicorn Milk Latte · 25-06-2021 1:50am

Sonic the Shaghog wrote: »

I work in retail currently and have asthma. I was doing ok up until the last few months and I am finding now after the 8+ hours if wearing the mask I am having awful trouble breathing often having to go into the back to gasp for air and wheezing regularly. I've had covid tests etc and am negative.

Have you spoken to your manager? If he/she's aware you have asthma, maybe has seen you use an inhaler pre-Covid, he/she may be understanding, and allow you to work maskless without cert...

Poorside · 25-06-2021 6:53am

Sonic the Shaghog wrote: »

I work in retail currently and have asthma. I was doing ok up until the last few months and I am finding now after the 8+ hours if wearing the mask I am having awful trouble breathing often having to go into the back to gasp for air and wheezing regularly. I've had covid tests etc and am negative.

I'm just wondering tho if I were to ask my GP for the mask medical exemption can I be charged? Cause I know being referred for a test etc is free but I've no medical card and €50+ for a letter is something I couldn't afford for the moment

Thanks

What type of mask are you using? I've found the medical masks much easier to wear for a prolonged period than reusable ones.

Seanergy · 25-06-2021 3:02pm

Sonic the Shaghog wrote: »

I work in retail currently and have asthma. I was doing ok up until the last few months and I am finding now after the 8+ hours if wearing the mask I am having awful trouble breathing often having to go into the back to gasp for air and wheezing regularly.

I would certainly stop going into the back to gasp for air. Start by speaking to your boss, request a 5 minute mask break every hour. I don't mean in the back, where others are also gasping/breathing/talking/laughing on mask breaks, I mean outside in the fresh air.

I would also start to entertain the possibility that it may not be the mask that is causing your wheezing/trouble breathing.

Gasping for air suggests your mouth breathing. Mouths are not designed for breathing. Check with yourself if are mouth breathing all/some of the time or just when wearing your masking. Some people have been known to switch from regular breathing to mouth breathing when donning a mask.

If you get it, use that 5 minute mask break to rengage/reinforce your nose breathing, you will feel a lot better afterwards.

odyssey06 · 25-06-2021 3:54pm

Israel requires masks indoors again as Delta variant drives up cases... The health ministry re-imposed the mask requirement for all indoor settings except the home, and said it was also recommending masks be worn at large outdoor gatherings.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-requires-masks-indoors-again-delta-variant-drives-up-cases-2021-06-25/

Seanergy · 25-06-2021 10:22pm

Margaret Buttimer arrested again this morning. Ms Buttimer already has a suspended sentence arising from the first incident and unpaid court fine for the same and a conviction for two later offences with the penalty being deferred until July 12, pending the provision of a medical report.

Judge McNulty released her on bail into the care and control of her family, on the usual conditions to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, but also with two special conditions: that she will not enter any shop or retail outlet or any kind of place where members of the public visit, including post offices and libraries; and he specifically directed her to stay out of Riverview Shopping Centre and South Main St in Bandon and adjacent areas.

Ms Buttimer is to appear before Bandon District Court on July 5 next, to indicate a plea or to fix a date for trial.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40322924.html

DebDynamite · 25-06-2021 11:16pm

Seanergy wrote: »

Margaret Buttimer arrested again this morning. Ms Buttimer already has a suspended sentence arising from the first incident and unpaid court fine for the same and a conviction for two later offences with the penalty being deferred until July 12, pending the provision of a medical report.

Judge McNulty released her on bail into the care and control of her family, on the usual conditions to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, but also with two special conditions: that she will not enter any shop or retail outlet or any kind of place where members of the public visit, including post offices and libraries; and he specifically directed her to stay out of Riverview Shopping Centre and South Main St in Bandon and adjacent areas.

Ms Buttimer is to appear before Bandon District Court on July 5 next, to indicate a plea or to fix a date for trial.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40322924.html

Does anyone know if she had been vaccinated, or is she against that too?

fun loving criminal · 26-06-2021 2:13am

Seanergy wrote: »

Margaret Buttimer arrested again this morning. Ms Buttimer already has a suspended sentence arising from the first incident and unpaid court fine for the same and a conviction for two later offences with the penalty being deferred until July 12, pending the provision of a medical report.

Judge McNulty released her on bail into the care and control of her family, on the usual conditions to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, but also with two special conditions: that she will not enter any shop or retail outlet or any kind of place where members of the public visit, including post offices and libraries; and he specifically directed her to stay out of Riverview Shopping Centre and South Main St in Bandon and adjacent areas.

Ms Buttimer is to appear before Bandon District Court on July 5 next, to indicate a plea or to fix a date for trial.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40322924.html

The judge should have sent her to India.

Seanergy · 26-06-2021 10:43am

DebDynamite wrote: »

Does anyone know if she had been vaccinated, or is she against that too?

I don't, but if this is anything to go by, in her first trial, Judge Roberts queried whether Ms Buttimer had previously suggested she may have a medical reason for refusing to wear a mask but she denied this and said: "I feel it is my freedom is being taken."

Any anti-maskers in thread got the jab yet?

She may well find out the true definition of freedom being taken away fairly soon.

Seanergy · 26-06-2021 10:52am

Negative attitudes about facemasks during the COVID-19 pandemic: The dual importance of perceived ineffectiveness and psychological reactance.

EXTRACT:

Several reasons for not wearing masks were suggested by news reports of anti-mask protests: Beliefs that masks violate civil liberties, beliefs that masks are ineffective and possibly harmful because masks make breathing difficult, and beliefs that the threat of COVID-19 has been exaggerated [3, 20, 22, 23, 32–38]. Despite the range of anti-mask attitudes, a common theme running through these reports is that protestors believe that mandatory masks are a violation of civil rights. In other words, anecdotal news reports suggest that the rallies are motivated, at least in part, by a phenomenon known as psychological reactance (PR)

Psychological reactance

People like to feel in control [39]. Relatedly, PR is a motivational response to rules, regulations, or attempts at persuasion that are perceived as threatening one’s sense of control, autonomy, or freedom of choice [40, 41]. The perceived threat motivates the person to assert their freedom by rejecting attempts at persuasion, rules, regulation, and other means of control. Thus, when PR is evoked it is characterized by counter-arguments and anger [42]. This might involve denying the existence of a threat [40, 43]; for example, denying the need to wear masks by denying the seriousness of the pandemic. Thus, PR is expected to be correlated with a denial or disregard for the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tendency to experience PR is a personality trait [44], which is correlated with a range of phenomena including antisocial and narcissistic personality traits [45, 46] and with political conservatism [47, 48]. The latter finding is not surprising given that conservative ideology, as compared to liberal ideology, strongly favors limited government intervention [30], and so government policies that threaten to restrict freedoms are likely to elicit PR [47]. Mass communication messages that try to persuade people to adopt a given behavior, such as wearing masks, can elicit PR, thereby undermining the impact of the message [41, 49]. Given these considerations, it is important to investigate whether PR is implicated in mask non-adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

LINK

Dempo1 · 26-06-2021 11:39am

Seanergy wrote: »

Margaret Buttimer arrested again this morning. Ms Buttimer already has a suspended sentence arising from the first incident and unpaid court fine for the same and a conviction for two later offences with the penalty being deferred until July 12, pending the provision of a medical report.

Judge McNulty released her on bail into the care and control of her family, on the usual conditions to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, but also with two special conditions: that she will not enter any shop or retail outlet or any kind of place where members of the public visit, including post offices and libraries; and he specifically directed her to stay out of Riverview Shopping Centre and South Main St in Bandon and adjacent areas.

Ms Buttimer is to appear before Bandon District Court on July 5 next, to indicate a plea or to fix a date for trial.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40322924.html

Just extraordinary carry on, I got a sense from her last appearance her solicitor was "looking into" mitigating factors. She's stretching the Judges extraordinary patience. I'm just shocked she was actually released on bail given her recent conviction which I believe included a suspended sentence? Surely if most people with a suspended sentence active were hauled before a judge less than 2 weeks later on further charges, at a minimum remand would be ordered.

No doubting she was wearing her smile for this latest appearance, just outrageous and its clear she's seeking attention, egged on by muppets waiting outside the court house.

fun loving criminal · 26-06-2021 12:14pm

What do ye guys think of a workplace that provides surgical face masks but in their policy writes that sides of the mask should be sealed ensuring there are no gaps? The sides on these masks are impossible to seal.

Kind of makes me think they are trying to absolve themselves from responsibility by telling us to seal the gaps. But aren't providing N95 to help us.

I know there is a trick by tying the loop at the side in a knot. But that doesn't work with anyone with a big face because it just leaves the loops shorter and you can't fit them around the ears. And if they write that trick in the policy, they will have people piling up at the start of their shift unmasked and all tying knots in their mask, and they shouldn't be encouraging staff gartherings like that.

Seanergy · 26-06-2021 2:33pm

fun loving criminal wrote: »

What do ye guys think of a workplace that provides surgical face masks but in their policy writes that sides of the mask should be sealed ensuring there are no gaps? The sides on these masks are impossible to seal.

Kind of makes me think they are trying to absolve themselves from responsibility by telling us to seal the gaps. But aren't providing N95 to help us.

I know there is a trick by tying the loop at the side in a knot. But that doesn't work with anyone with a big face because it just leaves the loops shorter and you can't fit them around the ears. And if they write that trick in the policy, they will have people piling up at the start of their shift unmasked and all tying knots in their mask, and they shouldn't be encouraging staff gartherings like that.

I'd be peeved, you have to be shown how and told why. The later may be why they are not doing the former.

Obviously they are trying to stretch the function of an object to do more than it is not designed to do. The media inside good quality SM's are up to the challenge but the design and one size approach to surgical masking is what is holding back surgical masks from becoming more than droplet barriers.

I'm presuming all the SM's are the same size and you have no choice in size.

Are you allowed to wear a fixthemaskbrace or similar ontop of your SM? Are they supplying any ear savers, mask extenders to help with fit?

Any chance of seeing this mask policy, even a retracted version?

AlekSmart · 26-06-2021 2:45pm

fun loving criminal wrote: »

What do ye guys think of a workplace that provides surgical face masks but in their policy writes that sides of the mask should be sealed ensuring there are no gaps? The sides on these masks are impossible to seal.

Kind of makes me think they are trying to absolve themselves from responsibility by telling us to seal the gaps. But aren't providing N95 to help us.

I know there is a trick by tying the loop at the side in a knot. But that doesn't work with anyone with a big face because it just leaves the loops shorter and you can't fit them around the ears. And if they write that trick in the policy, they will have people piling up at the start of their shift unmasked and all tying knots in their mask, and they shouldn't be encouraging staff gartherings like that.

Are you in a vulnerable cohort ?

Have you a sense of being isolated in your views at work ?

Have you considered going sick with work related stress ?

You make an elequent case in your post,which a GP should have little difficulty in recognising as stress.

Is there another less populated work location where you may feel more in control of your environment ?

There may be some avenues open to you.

Managements,all over,will simply repeat whatever mantra is published by "The Authorities",which is all I would expect really,as I'm assuming they need to keep their core businesses afloat ?

Very little mask wearing outside the clinical environment is being carried out according to protocols...just checkout the footpaths and hedgerows for examples.

Sorry for your predicament,but only you can address the issues to your own satisfaction.

fun loving criminal · 26-06-2021 4:11pm

Seanergy wrote: »

I'd be peeved, you have to be shown how and told why. The later may be why they are not doing the former.

Obviously they are trying to stretch the function of an object to do more than it is not designed to do. The media inside good quality SM's are up to the challenge but the design and one size approach to surgical masking is what is holding back surgical masks from becoming more than droplet barriers.

I'm presuming all the SM's are the same size and you have no choice in size.

Are you allowed to wear a fixthemaskbrace or similar ontop of your SM? Are they supplying any ear savers, mask extenders to help with fit?

Any chance of seeing this mask policy, even a retracted version?

Not allowed that mask brace gadget or ear savers or extenders in work. I'll see if I can get the mask policy next week.

Tenger · 26-06-2021 4:21pm

fun loving criminal wrote: »

Not allowed that mask brace gadget or ear savers or extenders in work. I'll see if I can get the mask policy next week.

Seems a bit OTT.

My own workplace insists that we wear the disposable surgical masks. They provide us plenty for use during our shifts (4 per shift) but have no procedure concerning tightening the sides.

I use an ear protector myself because I find the strings chafe my ear and sometimes I get shorter strings.

fun loving criminal · 26-06-2021 5:17pm

With Delta being more transmissible, should we be moving to N95 masks?

fun loving criminal · 26-06-2021 5:49pm

What do people think of wearing masks outdoors? I know the advice is mask outdoors in crowded areas.

I avoid huge crowds anyways. But with Delta variant more transmissible what about outdoors in less crowded areas?

Seanergy · 26-06-2021 6:19pm

fun loving criminal wrote: »

With Delta being more transmissible, should we be moving to N95 masks?

Who is the we? Are you not going to be presented with the same problem your currently experiencing with the SM's at work, seal/fit.

Seen just as many poorly fitted N95's as SM's. The one size/shape fits all approach to masking does not work, be it SM's or N95's.

Both N95s and SMs are made up of Non-Woven Polypropylene(NWPP), melt blown fibers and sealed using induction welders, the big difference being shape/fit.

If you were to offer me a poorly fitting HQ N95 or a tightly sealed HQ SM, I would choose the SM over the N95 everytime.

Regardless of the more transmissible nature of Delta, as a basic standard, all staff working in suspected or confirmed COVID-19 zones should be wearing tightly sealed masks.

Diabhalta · 26-06-2021 6:19pm

fun loving criminal wrote: »

What do people think of wearing masks outdoors? I know the advice is mask outdoors in crowded areas.

Makes no sense, people look like idiots when they wear them when there is no one around. I guess people wear them in cork city centre because they go from shop to a shop but still.. what are you doing people? Pls stop.

The covid numbers are so low, you're outside... there is no need.

And people alone driving in cars with masks on? Really?

Diabhalta · 26-06-2021 6:20pm

Seanergy wrote: »

Who is the we?

Covid worshippers.

xhomelezz · 26-06-2021 6:37pm

Diabhalta wrote: »

Makes no sense, people look like idiots when they wear them when there is no one around. I guess people wear them in cork city centre because they go from shop to a shop but still.. what are you doing people? Pls stop.

The covid numbers are so low, you're outside... there is no need.

And people alone driving in cars with masks on? Really?

Pls stop

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000 · 26-06-2021 7:21pm

fun loving criminal wrote: »

With Delta being more transmissible, should we be moving to N95 masks?

Turn.off.your.tv.

xhomelezz · 26-06-2021 7:38pm

I'm a bit curious how poster's question connects with all the dots in TV post.

Edit: of course we can sort anything by.turning.off.tv.

Seanergy · 26-06-2021 8:15pm

Diabhalta wrote: »

Makes no sense, people look like idiots when they wear them when there is no one around.

Your right, that makes no sense, how can you see someone if there is no one around?

Seanergy · 26-06-2021 8:17pm

Diabhalta wrote: »

I guess people wear them in cork city centre because they go from shop to a shop but still.. what are you doing people?

Shopping?

Tenger · 26-06-2021 10:12pm

Diabhalta wrote: »

Makes no sense, people look like idiots when they wear them when there is no one around. I guess people wear them in cork city centre because they go from shop to a shop but still.. what are you doing people? Pls stop.

And people alone driving in cars with masks on? Really?

Delivery drivers with products in the car?
People who are visiting someone and won't get a chance to wash hands after getting out of the car?
People who maybe are picking up/dropping off someone?

General advice is to try not to constantly take your mask on/off. As the more you handle it the less clean it is.
EG. My bus stop is a 2 min walk from the supermarket. So I usually just walk from one to the other with my mask on.

As for N95s. I would agree with the above. N95s need to be worn correctly to work. EG. No beards.
Easier for the public to stick to the simpler washable or disposal masks.
After all no-one is claiming that mask wearing is 100% prevention (except in the minds of the anti-mask crowd)

I don't get why people wearing mask outside upsets you. How exactly does that affect you?
Let other act as they want as long as it doesn't interfere with other members of the public.

Unicorn Milk Latte · 26-06-2021 10:37pm

fun loving criminal wrote: »

What do people think of wearing masks outdoors?

Aerosols accumulate quickly indoors, and disperse very quickly outdoors. Like cigarette smoke.

This is why there is an indoor mask mandate, but no outdoor mask mandate.

Wearing masks outdoors is not only ineffective, it's counterproductive: masks become inefficient when they get wet, so if someone wears a mask for an hour outdoors, and then enters a shop, the mask is less efficient where it counts.

IIRC, over 95% of infections occur indoors.

Seanergy · 27-06-2021 12:07am

'Counting to 10 is important in leadership': Micheál Martin marks a year as Taoiseach

“Look, there were issues around masks for example. I would have thought masks would have been brought in much earlier. I had discussions with Tony and Ronan [Glynn, deputy chief medical officer] about this and they would have argued, culturally, it was more of an Asian thing,” he says.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-40322387.html

odyssey06 · 27-06-2021 9:38am

fun loving criminal wrote: »

What do people think of wearing masks outdoors? I know the advice is mask outdoors in crowded areas.

I avoid huge crowds anyways. But with Delta variant more transmissible what about outdoors in less crowded areas?

This was a summary pre Delta of outdoors transmission concerns... focus on crowded places like venues or bus stops. Places where people are static and could be downwind of an infected person for a period.
https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comments-about-outdoor-transmission-of-sars-cov-2-and-use-of-facemasks-outdoors/?cli_action=1624176774.918

Less crowded areas even with Delta variant I havent heard flagged as risky unless they are so sheltered as to almost be indoors.
Its rare to get a dead calm day here... maybe in hotter countries inland you could have very little wind to disperse droplets.

fun loving criminal · 27-06-2021 1:33pm

Unicorn Milk Latte wrote: »

Aerosols accumulate quickly indoors, and disperse very quickly outdoors. Like cigarette smoke.

This is why there is an indoor mask mandate, but no outdoor mask mandate.

Wearing masks outdoors is not only ineffective, it's counterproductive: masks become inefficient when they get wet, so if someone wears a mask for an hour outdoors, and then enters a shop, the mask is less efficient where it counts.

IIRC, over 95% of infections occur indoors.

Someone posted in the Delta variant thread that her son caught covid, the Delta variant and he was outdoors.

So I'm worried about outdoor transmission now.

To Mask or not to two - Mask Megathread cont.

Comments