Silliness would ensue: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-don-t-wear-facemasks-says-minister-wkj8r7bls For my part, the mask covers the mouth + nose. It's snug, and add it's ridiculous how other people wear theirs.
Yes, As I said before, Clothe masks are of not much use.Just for show. May be a little protection from dust, polution and some from bacteria. But, No protection against Viruses. You may have a point and a lot of people do that, But Personally, I touch my face a lot less if I am wearing mask.
Looks like it's behind some kind of registration wall. I got the headline. Staring at people really helps a lot. I'm surprised a minister would propose staring at people, it seems like a good way to get beaten up if you stare hard at the wrong person.
Clearly it's an ongoing thing. Like any field of science, the results are conditional to further data. The frustration some people express towards the medical/scientific community is understandable but I think is misplaced. This virus appeared only some 6-8 months ago. Not exactly a lot of time to figure out all the possible vectors of transmission. Precautionary principle seemed the best approach in the face of the unknown. How the politicians/government agencies took that information and applied it to society is another whole discussion.
Better to think about them not wearing a mask, and that you didn't stare at them, and spend the evening grumbling like a good Scotish-but-definitely-not-English person. Also,
Theoretically they are required in stores here but increasingly places aren't enforcing it. Big chain stores with faceless corporate offices tend to have more people complying but if you walk past the sign that says "mask required to enter" with nothing on your face nobody says anything. Only this evening I went to get some beer, didn't put my mask on, nobody said anything. There was another customer with no mask on in there. The staff weren't wearing masks. Nobody cared. I think a lot of the problem is the mass of contradicting data from organisations that should know. First we were told not to wear a mask, then to wear one, then wear one if we were vulnerable, then they said everybody has to wear one but the only ones you can buy come loaded with disclaimers that basically say they don't offer any protection and, if my social circle is anything to go by (not scientifically selected samples by any means, but what I have) people are sick of being pulled in all directions, forming their own conclusions and figuring masks are largely pointless.
Yeah, Staring hard at wrong person also could create a medical emergency situation! Would put you in hospital/home quarantine for all the different reason.
Well said. As @teddyv said Medical faculty is learning the ropes about this and trying to help as best as they could, But Politicians, Bureaucrats, TV/Media experts, SM warriors are all bending it in all directions and making mess of the situations.
George Carlin had a great routine years ago on the immune system. Not socially or politically correct, and the language is, shall we say, unsophisticated, but youtube has about a nine minute video that is both hilarious and amazingly prophetic.
I read an interesting article about how the media hyped it and big tech suppressed dissenting views, and went on to show the levels of fear across different age bands compared to the actual threat faced by different age bands. If we spent every minute of every hour of every day being fed updates of how many people had died or been injured on the roads, with the odd tearful young widow explaining how her husband had gone to work that morning and was never coming home again, chances are the masses would be afraid to get in their cars.
Hardly surprising.... when you go from being locked down to not being locked down it's inevitable that anything contagious will start to spread. It's a major problem if people think otherwise - anything short of absolute isolation for an extended period won't get rid of the virus, and the absolute isolation would be totally unacceptable in anything even pretending to be a free society. The UK is having similar concerns. After many months of being expected to stay home restrictions are lifting and people are flocking to the beach, among other places. Government officials are spouting lots of fine-sounding words about avoiding places that are busy but the simple reality is that people don't want to be confined to their homes and if they have driven a couple of hours to go somewhere they aren't going to turn round and go home just because it's busy. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53212435 As far as whether lockdowns are being lifted too early the obvious question to ask would be, "If not now, when?", especially given the very real question of how much economic damage is done by locking everything down tightly and what social damage that causes in the form of lost life years, suicide, depression, substance abuse etc.
There is only one question: Can the US medical system handle the volume of people presenting to the hospital for treatment. The false narrative is that "more cases = need to close economy again." Narrative is always "Can the medical system handle the volume." "More cases = bad" is a false narrative. Builds a really pretty ladder but leans it against the wrong wall.