To Mask or not to two - Mask Megathread cont.

There's an absolute gem in this Irish Times article:

This is so ridiculous it's actually quite amusing. They don't believe masks really work but think they should be kept just to make people feel better! No wonder they chose to remain anonymous!

From my own circle, not wearing a mask has been declared as "selfish" and doing so seen as "the right thing to do".

In the former case, the person is normally right on trend so no surprise, but the latter is from someone who usually has more of a copped on attitude. In both cases, they're regularly in the pub or out socialising generally.

The power of consensus and messaging right there. It's actually frightening how deeply it affects some people nowadays, and not just the younger or elderly generations. Middle-aged adults happy to sideline independent decision making and critical thought for the reassuring feeling of doing what they've been told, even if it doesn't make sense!

It's no wonder the Catholic Church held such sway for so long in this country.

There is definitely a different mentality here compared to many (but by no means all) other countries. I would imagine countries like Spain that had masks mandatory outside for most of the pandemic must be even worse.

I was in Copenhagen last September and the number of people wearing masks was effectively zero amongst Danish people. Zero. Not 50%, not 10%, not 5%. Zero. The only people wearing masks were tourists and even then there weren't many. So you can either draw the conclusion that Danes are reckless and selfish or they are good at risk assessment and trust their government and public health experts.

I think mask wearing will gradually decline here and will probably be fairly uncommon other than amongst the elderly by the summer months.

That's just people doing the best they can for themselves. We've all tried to do it and not terribly well at times.

Not really something I care about nor am I bothered by it. I'm certainly not about embrace any kind of score settling for people who dealt with things the best they could. The good news is that this is almost over for everyone, a cause for celebration and time to move on.

And to quote myself from way back in 2020, we can only be responsible for ourselves and people who matter to us. Things will come back to normal and it's really a waste of energy railing against public health policies. Including masks, they have been used as individual countries saw fit and some of that was questionable.

The game was up when the pubs and clubs went back to normal.

Teachers have just shown themselves to be ridiculously conservative, inflexible, lazy and irresponsible throughout this whole saga.

They were the only profession that didn't want to return to work after Xmas. Nice legacy that people won't forget.

Listen pal, I’m a teacher and any of the staff I’ve asked want masks gone. My close group of teacher friends want them gone long ago too.

You can’t just label us all like that. I wanted to return back after Xmas without masks. It’s the unions you need to be taking it out on. They’re a disgrace.

If the mask mandate ends soon, it will be very interesting to see the level of continued mask wearing in shops and transport, especially people who wear FFP2 masks for extra protection. I'd say the medical masks wearers will largely stop wearing them but the FFP2 people will continue.

It'll take people a while to adjust. Its been 2 years.

For the last few weeks there have been thousands of conspiraloonies mending relationships theyve damaged over the last 2 years.

Apologising to their sheeple friends and family. Humble pie being eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I really dislike masks but I might still wear a mask on packed public transport, in winter at least.

I'm glad masks aren't remaining mandatory on public transport. My local bus route is usually quiet and < 10 people upstairs is normal outside peak times. I really don't see the use in wearing a mask in situations like that.

Exactly they knew exactly what they were going to do without meeting just like all previous meetings they had.

I am a teacher ffs. Check my post history. Sorry for using the word pal, I forgot teachers are not allowed be normal.

The unions represent teachers as they pay their dues to the unions. No hiding from that. It's tiresome seeing teachers pretending unions don't represent them when they very much do.

I'm certainly not interested in your post history. But sure you are a teacher.

How about making your voice heard at ASTI branch meetings?