Will you continue to wear your mask when they are optional?

'hoodwinked to make a tonne of cash'

Catch yourself on

I haven't been wearing them for a few weeks now

They're called countryside ditches, suburban gutters and our public parks. The councils have been lifting large amounts of them already from people just f*cking them on the ground.

I'm not worried about catching covid, or a common cold. But I'd rather not tbh. Plenty of countries didn't need covid to see the benefits of face coverings to prevent "normal" respiratory illnesses.

People banging on about personal freedoms the last two years, suddenly seem to have a massive issue with people exercising their own personal freedoms now around masks.

I just don't see the reasoning for it. There was (briefly) a case for restrictions and masks in early 2020 when we had little or conflicting information on Covid, and scary news coverage of events in Italy and China. As I've said before, the first lockdown was entirely justified on that basis - although I'll remind people that it DIDN'T include mask wearing, and yet there were no mass outbreaks in shopping centres.

However, by the summer of 2020 it was becoming clear that those who were actually at risk (outliers aside) were the same groups as would be vulnerable to those "normal" illnesses you mention, ie: the very elderly and/or immunocompromised - and even then the risk of dire consequences was far from guaranteed!

For reasonably healthy adults and especially kids (who have suffered most with restrictions), there has always been little real risk (which is a good thing!) and that already low level of risk diminished even further with Omicron which presented as a mild to moderate cold/flu to almost everyone who caught it. Mask wearing did not stop Omicron but this is also a good thing as we finally achieved endemic Covid and increased immunity among the general population.

There's also a case to be made that we have weakened our natural immune systems by trying to hide away from this and now those other relatively harmless illnesses. It's a good thing for the body to be exposed and fight off the common cold or a host of other minor illnesses. By continuing to wear masks unnecessarily you're actually putting yourself at potentially more risk of serious illness.

There's also the ongoing detrimental impact to communication which is very much reliant on being able to see facial expressions, but even just having a conversation in a mask is generally difficult. Socially it continues to highlight barriers and distrust of others in normal everyday activities which is not good either.

Unless you are actually in the potentially vulnerable category, there's just no reason for it anymore and the only other reasons I've seen given are virtue-signalling and a notion of "doing the right thing", or unwarranted concerns and fear of things that we all just got on with before 2020. It's like some people have regressed and are genuinely fearful of emerging from behind their masks.

For all these reasons, I see no valid argument for continuing or encouraging it TBH.

Listening to Pascal on NT earlier, I think it's more the economic reality and cost of all this has sunk in - we now owe approx 230 billion Euros after our Covid-splurge, or 47k for everyone in the country as they put it.

There's also no "rainy day" fund anymore (which Pascal confirmed) and concerns raised about diminishing Corporation Tax receipts in the next few years, added to energy costs and the costs of living generally spiralling, and now Russia seemingly poised to invade Ukraine which will only worsen this, the realisation seems to have set in that we need the country and economy fully reopened without limits or restrictions if we're to get through not just the next few months, but years and possibly another lost decade.

In short, they need everyone fully back to work and buying and selling in the economy, not still hiding away or concerned about a virus that is even less risk to the majority than ever.

That part where you say Yeah a brain is funny.

Some would question if there's anything between your ears at all.

Thanks, I’ve never heard of her just assumed she was some medical professional.

Maybe Change your name to Joe Biden it would suit your mindset so much better.

Have a think there about the line of logic that you are supporting. What is being claimed is that masks offer no protection against the spread of covid. Your argument, attempting to "prove" that they don't, is that you never saw nurses in general wearing them before covid? 🤣

Donald why would nurses wear them pre covid if it didn’t exist? You seem to think nurses wore them while doing their rounds in hospitals before covid existed, it’s a well touted line and is as lame today as when it was first used, almost as ridiculous as the seatbelt one.

Personally i wont, i think mask wearing has brought out a lot of anxiety in people as has the whole covid thing in general and we need to move on and get back to normal.

I'll continue to wear mine depending on busyness of wherever I am, etc.; I don't find it to be the enormous inconvenience some are making out. And I'll especially wear them when I'm ill - have done that before covid too, on flights. There were a group in sniffling and spluttering in the room in uni yesterday (masks on chins of course) - even with no covid floating about, it's still irksome behaviour.

Yeah I don't think you can come to any accurate conclusions on the popularity of something that's been a legal requirement for the last 18 months.

I think by April it will be clear how "popular" masks actually are. They won't just disappear next week. More and more people will gradually stop wearing them as they get more comfortable with it.

It blows my mind that after 2 years of this so many people still don’t understand the basics of how masks even work.

I think older people and others who feel more vulnerable will continue to wear them because it gives them a feeling of security. So I doubt they’ll disappear completely. I won’t be wearing one outside of work but in work I have no choice for now.

I won't be wearing one, can't wait to get rid of it! I know some people seem to not find them uncomfortable but I do and I feel for anyone who has to wear them fulltime. I have shopping to do and I'm putting it off until next week when I can do it without a mask, have put many things off since they became mandatory. I won't fly again either until they are gone.

People can make their own decisions about them but if someone is feeling vulnerable then obviously they should wear the FFP2 masks or similar to protect themselves, makes more sense than everyone else wearing a mask that may or may not be of any use.

In my day job masks are used in a controlled environment. There are procedures regarding how to put them on, fit them, no touching them etc. In that controlled environment our product doesn’t get contaminated once we completely follow these procedures any slight deviation can lead to contamination.

So in the real world where very few people are wearing a well fitting mask, many are reusing multiple times, rearranging it etc the effectiveness of masks is no way near the same as a controlled environment.

I think masks make people feel safer, but the protection might not be as high as they think. For those that are vulnerable I think they need to consider what mask they are wearing and wear a mask that protects them. That way they don’t have to consider all the poorly fitted masks or chin nappy’s out there.

I don't understand all the hostility from either side. Masks will no longer be mandatory from Monday, surely then everybody has a choice whether to wear one or not.

I am eldery and vunerable, and at no time during the last two years have I expected anyone to protect me. I am old enough to have the common sense not to put myself into what I would cnsider a dangerous situation, and that won't change,I will still wear a mask in hospital settings, which I agree with.

I am also deaf, and the masks have been a nightmare for me, I find it hard to breathe in them too, so for me I'm delighted to see them go. There is no joy anymore to browse in shops, I just go in and out in as little time as possible now. Whatever you choose to do, respect what choice the other person has made. I won't be giving anyone funny looks if they are wearing a mask, and I will expect the same respect to be shown to me for not wearing one. If anyone is breathing down my neck, whether they are wearing a mask or not, I politely ask them to take a step back, and that also won't change.

I can imagine them on the way into the shops next week..........

Voted yes in all situations as its the closest to what I will do. I'll wear them in shops and my work brings me in close contact with people so I will continue to wear one in work.