[News] Face Masks and Covid Passes to end in England from next Thursday

[Gabbafella]

Each morning on the bus to work I can guarantee the usual suspects, old bloke with his disgusting flea ridden dog will not have a mask on, some absolute nobber will get on with his customary chin strap, some skanky homeless looking bloke will not have a mask on, the middle Eastern guy will not only get on with no mask but will go round and close all the windows and all the school kids will wear no masks. Usually just me and the fitty who works in Shoreham will wear masks, for what it's worth.
Same at football, the amount being let in without masks on Tuesday was ridiculous, I just don't see the point of the club making a big deal about masks and passes when even the staff serving food had no masks on.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

Probably the dumbest thing I have ever read.

How exactly do you know wearing masks does NOT reduce infections?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

From BBC News website...

Professor Jonathan Van Tam said he does not believe healthy people wearing them would reduce the spread of the disease in the UK, saying "what matters now is social distancing".

I have always complied and worn a mask. But as we watched the announcement yesterday, I had a discussion with Mrs HS about it. Those wearing paper face masks ... do you throw them away after you've taken them off and then use a new one next time. We see so many people wearing paper masks that have started to go all furry/bobbly as they've been used time and time again. That's clearly not good/clever. And those wearing cloth masks ... do you wash them after each and every use? I'm sure most don't!

If wearing masks really are the panacea ... why have we seen the increase in infections ... which is now coming back down.

As I've said, I've always worn them on public transport, going shopping, queuing outside the Amex and until I'm in my seat. Mask back on as I start to leave again.

JVT has rightly been help up by the nation as a hero ... but I remember watching the early briefing when he clearly stated that he didn't believe wearing masks would reduce the spread.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

I will still wear a mask in shops, out of respect to the people who have to stand behind the counter all day. Whatever they say I still feel it helps.

 

[Motogull]

I think that masks and sanitiser help serve remind all that this is still a problem. My bro-in-law has tested +ve this week and is SOB and feeling rough. Hopefully that's it but despite being treble pricked, he's vulnerable.

The passports ain't no big thing.

It should be back to work with masks on public transport and in retail.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Come now.

This country is run by Johnson. The backing or not of the leader of the opposition is a bit like whether you approved of Potter's team selection yesterday.

But do carry whatabouting on. Love your work.

Yes or No would have done.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Yep, I will continue to take precautions like masks. The passport thing has been a bit of a waste of time (for me anyway) as I have never had it checked by anybody.

 

[keaton]

From BBC News website...

Professor Jonathan Van Tam said he does not believe healthy people wearing them would reduce the spread of the disease in the UK, saying "what matters now is social distancing".

I have always complied and worn a mask. But as we watched the announcement yesterday, I had a discussion with Mrs HS about it. Those wearing paper face masks ... do you throw them away after you've taken them off and then use a new one next time. We see so many people wearing paper masks that have started to go all furry/bobbly as they've been used time and time again. That's clearly not good/clever. And those wearing cloth masks ... do you wash them after each and every use? I'm sure most don't!

If wearing masks really are the panacea ... why have we seen the increase in infections ... which is now coming back down.

As I've said, I've always worn them on public transport, going shopping, queuing outside the Amex and until I'm in my seat. Mask back on as I start to leave again.

JVT has rightly been help up by the nation as a hero ... but I remember watching the early briefing when he clearly stated that he didn't believe wearing masks would reduce the spread.

I'm sure social distancing is more important but we're stopping that and encouraging people back into offices ( and trains and buses) that's the point. Wearing a mask isn't the complete solution but it helps, makes people feel more comfortable and has no impact on businesses and the economy( other than encouraging more people out as they feel safer).

Also you said infections are now decreasing when they were increasing, how is this evidence against mask wearing when we reintroduced this last month?

 

[W.C.]

If wearing masks really are the panacea ... why have we seen the increase in infections ... which is now coming back down.

Mask wearing in the uk is utterly half arsed so bit hard to tell really?

They of course help reduce the spread of infection.

 

[nicko31]

I think that masks and sanitiser help serve remind all that this is still a problem. My bro-in-law has tested +ve this week and is SOB and feeling rough. Hopefully that's it but despite being treble pricked, he's vulnerable.

The passports ain't no big thing.

It should be back to work with masks on public transport and in retail.

The is the proportionate response we should be getting

We are clearly over the latest peak but public need to be vigilant and caution should be the message.

FM's cost nothing and reduce the possibility of further restrictions later

 

[Deleted member 37369]

I'm sure social distancing is more important but we're stopping that and encouraging people back into offices ( and trains and buses) that's the point. Wearing a mask isn't the complete solution but it helps, makes people feel more comfortable and has no impact on businesses and the economy( other than encouraging more people out as they feel safer).

Also you said infections are now decreasing when they were increasing, how is this evidence against mask wearing when we reintroduced this last month?

I get what you're saying about feeling more comfortable - but that doesn't actually stop infection.

As I said, I have always worn a mask in all the situations when needed. I always hesitate posting on here as some are just overly aggressive in my view. My post was mainly as a response to saafend_seagull's comment when they said "Probably the dumbest thing I have ever read" ... which I just thought was uncalled for and I provided some evidence on mask wearing from someone that knows what they're talking about.

And re infections increasing and decreasing - the numbers increased (significantly) when mask wearing was in place.

 

[A1X]

Do you not think that the lifting of these restrictions might actually help the NHS to start reducing the backlog of cases?

Can you explain how wearing masks causes a backlog in NHS cases?

 

[Deleted member 37369]

They of course help reduce the spread of infection.

I say again ...

From BBC News website...

Professor Jonathan Van Tam said he does not believe healthy people wearing them would reduce the spread of the disease in the UK, saying "what matters now is social distancing".

 

[Wardy's twin]

Yes I'm for real. The death levels were over 1000 per day with less than half the infections back in the day. The NHS is not in meltdown (anymore than it was before COVID). If it was even close we would be in lockdown again.

Do you not think that the lifting of these restrictions might actually help the NHS to start reducing the backlog of cases?

Do you seriously think that the wearing of face masks reduces infections? Because it really hasn't.

Take a step back. The fact that the death levels WERE 1000+ a day is shocking and the fact that some(many) of those deaths were preventable is being brushed under the carpet. I will put this in context , 150k people have died of COVID in the last 20 months or so whilst 70k civilians died in 6 years of WW2. It has been the single biggest actual threat to our society since then (I am discounting the Cuban crisis as it did not materialise).

The NHS currently has the biggest back backlog in surgical cases in the last 15 years ( I don't have figures before that). The cases are growing because doctors & nurses are fatigued by nearly 2 years of treating COVID and more to the point currently 20k critical beds are not available because they have COVID patients (the majority unvaccinated ) occupying them. Reduce those numbers and you free up beds. I am not in the NHS but because of my wife I have spent a lot of time in and around hospitals over the last 3 years . If you speak to doctors and nurses its pretty clear what their view is. In particular I know that a cancer treatment called CAR-T which by its nature involves a stay in ICU has been not been used anywhere near the predicted numbers. Clearly higher levels of funding and resources would help but that is a separate argument .

Masks do work when worn properly by all people and combined with vaccinations, giving people space and lots of hand washing.

The problem we have is a Prime Minister who is (and has always been) signalling that he does not believe his scientists and that people have the right to choose not to follow scientific advice and a minority of people have caused large numbers of problems. He is effectively saying its over when its clearly not and is doing so to appease a group of his backbenchers not for medical reasons.

We are talking about mask wearing not lockdowns on this thread a massive world of difference and the impact on people's lives is minimal.

 

[JBizzle]

I'm at the stage where I'm convinced that every decision that this government makes for the next few weeks is solely in the service of keeping Johnson in power.

As a result, and because masks never bothered me anyway, I'll carry on until I feel comfortable otherwise.

 

[BNthree]

I say again ...

From BBC News website...

Professor Jonathan Van Tam said he does not believe healthy people wearing them would reduce the spread of the disease in the UK, saying "what matters now is social distancing".

JVT "believes" that; this Bristol university study last year found that masks DID reduce transmission of covid: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2021/june/covid19-maskwearing.html

 

[Wardy's twin]

I say again ...

From BBC News website...

Professor Jonathan Van Tam said he does not believe healthy people wearing them would reduce the spread of the disease in the UK, saying "what matters now is social distancing".

Re-read the statement he talks about Healthy people wearing them and that by my definition excludes people with COVID and that leads us to a problem when do you know you have COVID. Its pretty clear that there is a period where people have caught it and are infectious but are not showing signs so if you play safe then you just wear one. I re-ask the question what is the actual issue with wearing a mask , hospital staff have to that for 8-12 hour shifts....

 

[The Clamp]

Covid passes should stay so we can identify the anti-vax morons and exclude them from public life.

 

[e77]

I think anyone still denying face masks reduce onwards infections isn't going to be persuaded otherwise now, although how anyone can argue with the logic of a barrier appearing between two people partially stopping particles transferring is beyond me. Like vaccines and social distancing they aren't the solution on their own but do help.

 

[vegster]

The is the proportionate response we should be getting

We are clearly over the latest peak but public need to be vigilant and caution should be the message.

FM's cost nothing and reduce the possibility of further restrictions later

This.

Johnson just trying his usual booster tactics by gambling with people's health and trying to appear statesman like. It's pretty obvious this is a week or so too soon but it's all about Johnson atm.

 

[Is it PotG?]

This.

It's pretty obvious this is a week or so too soon.......

Where did you study pandemics and viruses?

'The bloke down the pub' does not count.