Author Topic: At work with a mask on - Sucks  (Read 5379 times)

Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #15 on: July 20, 2021, 13:04:00 PM
Meanwhile the UK government insists on almost fully opening up everything and removing restrictions while the infections go up above 50,000 a day.

The Tories are loons, why the people voted for Boris I have no idea.

Signs in supermarkets claiming that empty shelves are due to demand, far more due to no transport due to the EU drivers and farm workers going home. Again Tories to blame with the worst possible Brexit deal and encouraging racist behavior.

People don't vote for policies, or people.  They vote colour.

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #16 on: July 21, 2021, 12:52:47 PM
Meanwhile the UK government insists on almost fully opening up everything and removing restrictions while the infections go up above 50,000 a day.

The Tories are loons, why the people voted for Boris I have no idea.

Signs in supermarkets claiming that empty shelves are due to demand, far more due to no transport due to the EU drivers and farm workers going home. Again Tories to blame with the worst possible Brexit deal and encouraging racist behavior.

People don't vote for policies, or people.  They vote colour.

Only a few, and you have to include race and religion in that. Most vote simple soundbite policy. At the last election it was "get Brexit done!" Except it isn't done and probably never will be as long as we are outside the EU.

Which is the whole issue of Brexit, it was never simple and nobody understood it. Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Jeremy Corbyn and all the rest of them simply lied.

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #17 on: July 21, 2021, 13:26:27 PM

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #18 on: July 24, 2021, 11:39:57 AM
All politicians are snakes and the system is irreparably broken, it's a waste of time hanging onto every word they say as seemingly so many in the UK do, honestly I think they could claim that they're in charge of ensuring the sun comes up in the morning and lots of UK mugs would applaud the excellent job they're doing  :lol:

None of them are fit to run a bath nevermind tell ordinary people how to live, regardless of your feelings regarding re-opening people are once again free to choose, not quite ready yet? Don't go out, nobody frogmarches you to the pub.
Last Edit: July 24, 2021, 11:41:59 AM by matt5cott #187;

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #19 on: July 26, 2021, 04:02:07 AM
All politicians are snakes and the system is irreparably broken, it's a waste of time hanging onto every word they say as seemingly so many in the UK do, honestly I think they could claim that they're in charge of ensuring the sun comes up in the morning and lots of UK mugs would applaud the excellent job they're doing  :lol:

None of them are fit to run a bath nevermind tell ordinary people how to live, regardless of your feelings regarding re-opening people are once again free to choose, not quite ready yet? Don't go out, nobody frogmarches you to the pub.

And it is the same for every country.
Most governments are out of touch with reality and even if they are they are then hand tied by SOMETHING be it the fact they are governed by big business, have 2 parties that ultimately have to agree (and hardly ever do0 and have too many in leadership putting spanners in works or making their own mandates that profit them and their mates.


Australia had 6 months of a vaccine that was supposed to be going to over 60's and care and health workers (And not). The government did not push the role out here or get stock in. If they had actually pushed things from the start and got the population as much as possible vaccinated then if cases or a variant kicked off (like now) we would not be f***d as we are now :(

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #20 on: July 27, 2021, 09:25:21 AM
Meanwhile in NZ I'm getting increasingly nervous for when covid inevitably gets in and stays in. We've been so sheltered from it the world will have moved on when NZ is learning to deal with it. Like most things here, we're years behind heh.
Where are you in NZ again?

Rotorua. Auckland has had a few mini lockdowns, the rest of NZ has gotten off quite lightly. It's been interesting seeing the Australian workers when they finally were able to come back when the bubble opened, how much more "trained" to Covid they were compared to the Kiwis.

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #21 on: July 27, 2021, 18:53:44 PM
idk why anyone makes a fuss about a mask, doesn't bother me at all, if anything a mask is the least of the problem, better to keeps the masks and relax other stuff

Yeah, that's what bugs me too, well I can understand it being a bit annoying for long periods of time (then again dentists and surgeons have to wear them) - but the amount of moaning about just having to wear one for 15 mins in Tesco or on your train/bus journey where you'll be sat down and hardly doing anything physically active is just ridiculous.

I've got two pro-"freedom"/libertarian mates who hated lockdowns and were so keen for the government to open up - the problem is that they also opposed/mocked stuff that would reduce the chance of lockdown - like getting angry about masks and contact tracing last summer. It's so self-defeating + now one of them is anti-vax too FFS!

The government (and to be fair SAGE too) were slow on masks (it's not like the SNP in Scotland or Labour in Wales were doing anything differently here either early last year) - this was annoying as it was so obvious - I ordered a respirator mask back in January 2020 +  a load of online food deliveries as the supermarket shelves were bound to get stripped at some point, had a bunch of KN95s too well before they were mandatory - it annoyed me that even when I went for a hospital appointment there were hospital staff walking around indoors with no masks on (the new rules hadn't come in at that point) - clearly they will have spread it like crazy among themselves and no doubt infected a bunch of patients on the non-covid wards.

The problem is by the time they did the u-turn on masks there was so much conflicting info in the press and a bunch of people were hostile to them so they implemented a half-arsed approach whereby anyone could just declare an exemption - the major supermarkets played a part here, claiming they didn't want to enforce mask rules. this is a cop-out for them as they're perfectly capable of telling a group of chavvy teens they can't buy fags or booze and they seem to be quite happy to police women's clothing (see the regular press story from some seaside town where a young woman has been turned away form some supermarket for wearing a bikini top or short shorts).

The exemptions just created a load of entitled people - anyone who wanted to could claim that they can't wear a mask because of anxiety or asthma etc.. -conversely there are very vulnerable people with severe COPD or people with CF who have had a lung removed etc... quite keen to wear masks because they're genuinely vulnerable. It was a complete cop-out - given that the basic surgical or cloth masks don't restrict your breathing. There was a doctor on Twitter who filmed a video hooked up to an oxygen monitor to demonstrate this, it's purely a psychological thing - despite the social media nonsense about CO2. The respirator style ones do a bit (KN95/N95/FFP2) but they aren't required - I choose to wear them as they offer much more protection.

I asked my sister (a doctor) if she could think of any legit reasons why someone really couldn't wear one, she thinks it's BS too, can't think of any. I was curious about whether this was even a thing when she was at medical school - out of the hundreds of students there back when she was at medical school pre-pandemic did any of them not wear a mask because of some claimed "medical reasons" or had she ever heard of such a thing - the answer, nope - it just wasn't a thing pre-pandemic.

She's in a medical speciality now but also carries out some surgical interventions + had done a bunch of different surgical rotations as a junior doctor and when putting training on hold to work overseas in Australia - she had never seen any doctors or nurses claiming they're unable to wear a basic surgical mask during an operation.

Yet when the mask requirements came in, I could look around my local Tesco and about 25% of people weren't wearing masks, plenty of them young or middle-aged people happily walking around and talking normally, clearly not out of breath etc.. It was total BS - the government should have simply required mask-wearing indoors on transport and supermarkets and simply told supermarkets to enforce it just as they enforce ID for alcohol purchasing + fine them if they don't enforce it... either the security guard at the door refusing entry or the cashiers refusing service to anyone not wearing a mask.

For the sake of completeness, assuming there are a tiny tiny portion of people with very serious breathing difficulties or severe mental health issues and really do struggle with masks (need full-time carer support etc..) then home deliveries of food etc.. should have been provided for them - I mean frankly if your breathing was so bad that even a basic cloth mask is going to cause issues you probably shouldn't be in a supermarket and mixing with others.

Anyway, random rant over... I do miss forums sometimes, can't post a big rant like this on twitter LOL

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  • Offline Rivkid

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #22 on: July 27, 2021, 23:07:45 PM
idk why anyone makes a fuss about a mask, doesn't bother me at all, if anything a mask is the least of the problem, better to keeps the masks and relax other stuff

Yeah, that's what bugs me too, well I can understand it being a bit annoying for long periods of time (then again dentists and surgeons have to wear them) - but the amount of moaning about just having to wear one for 15 mins in Tesco or on your train/bus journey where you'll be sat down and hardly doing anything physically active is just ridiculous.

I've got two pro-"freedom"/libertarian mates who hated lockdowns and were so keen for the government to open up - the problem is that they also opposed/mocked stuff that would reduce the chance of lockdown - like getting angry about masks and contact tracing last summer. It's so self-defeating + now one of them is anti-vax too FFS!

The government (and to be fair SAGE too) were slow on masks (it's not like the SNP in Scotland or Labour in Wales were doing anything differently here either early last year) - this was annoying as it was so obvious - I ordered a respirator mask back in January 2020 +  a load of online food deliveries as the supermarket shelves were bound to get stripped at some point, had a bunch of KN95s too well before they were mandatory - it annoyed me that even when I went for a hospital appointment there were hospital staff walking around indoors with no masks on (the new rules hadn't come in at that point) - clearly they will have spread it like crazy among themselves and no doubt infected a bunch of patients on the non-covid wards.

The problem is by the time they did the u-turn on masks there was so much conflicting info in the press and a bunch of people were hostile to them so they implemented a half-arsed approach whereby anyone could just declare an exemption - the major supermarkets played a part here, claiming they didn't want to enforce mask rules. this is a cop-out for them as they're perfectly capable of telling a group of chavvy teens they can't buy fags or booze and they seem to be quite happy to police women's clothing (see the regular press story from some seaside town where a young woman has been turned away form some supermarket for wearing a bikini top or short shorts).

The exemptions just created a load of entitled people - anyone who wanted to could claim that they can't wear a mask because of anxiety or asthma etc.. -conversely there are very vulnerable people with severe COPD or people with CF who have had a lung removed etc... quite keen to wear masks because they're genuinely vulnerable. It was a complete cop-out - given that the basic surgical or cloth masks don't restrict your breathing. There was a doctor on Twitter who filmed a video hooked up to an oxygen monitor to demonstrate this, it's purely a psychological thing - despite the social media nonsense about CO2. The respirator style ones do a bit (KN95/N95/FFP2) but they aren't required - I choose to wear them as they offer much more protection.

I asked my sister (a doctor) if she could think of any legit reasons why someone really couldn't wear one, she thinks it's BS too, can't think of any. I was curious about whether this was even a thing when she was at medical school - out of the hundreds of students there back when she was at medical school pre-pandemic did any of them not wear a mask because of some claimed "medical reasons" or had she ever heard of such a thing - the answer, nope - it just wasn't a thing pre-pandemic.

She's in a medical speciality now but also carries out some surgical interventions + had done a bunch of different surgical rotations as a junior doctor and when putting training on hold to work overseas in Australia - she had never seen any doctors or nurses claiming they're unable to wear a basic surgical mask during an operation.

Yet when the mask requirements came in, I could look around my local Tesco and about 25% of people weren't wearing masks, plenty of them young or middle-aged people happily walking around and talking normally, clearly not out of breath etc.. It was total BS - the government should have simply required mask-wearing indoors on transport and supermarkets and simply told supermarkets to enforce it just as they enforce ID for alcohol purchasing + fine them if they don't enforce it... either the security guard at the door refusing entry or the cashiers refusing service to anyone not wearing a mask.

For the sake of completeness, assuming there are a tiny tiny portion of people with very serious breathing difficulties or severe mental health issues and really do struggle with masks (need full-time carer support etc..) then home deliveries of food etc.. should have been provided for them - I mean frankly if your breathing was so bad that even a basic cloth mask is going to cause issues you probably shouldn't be in a supermarket and mixing with others.

Anyway, random rant over... I do miss forums sometimes, can't post a big rant like this on twitter LOL

Largely agree with this, but I do have to dispute one area. Whilst I've worn a mask religiously since we were asked to, in all circumstances (shops, busy area's, on a 4.5 hour flight etc) - as an anxiety sufferer I have to say it hasn't been easy. Nothing wrong with my breathing so the 'you probably shouldn't be out and about' argument doesn't wash for one second with me I'm afraid  - but as a psychological issue whilst I've been able to fight through it, it hasn't been easy and there's been multiple times when I've had to fight off panic attacks. Honestly if you've never suffered with anxiety firstly let me say thank god because it sucks, and secondly its not something you can just switch off.  Particularly bad when queuing I found - when your brain has time to wander...  My case these days is fairly mild, so I can imagine people with severe anxiety will likely have really struggled with masks and it makes me very uncomfortable thinking of them being made to feel bad about it.

That said - fact is I've managed - I've never once made an excuse and not worn one, and actually I agree the amount of people I've seen not wearing masks has been laughable/depressing as there's no way they've all had a genuine medical reason. Strange how its frequently 3/4 members of the same family too....
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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #23 on: July 27, 2021, 23:18:37 PM
I actually like wearing a mask, it keeps most cretins away from you and you can pretend you're some kind of wasteland warrior  :lol:

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #24 on: July 28, 2021, 20:24:38 PM
Honestly if you've never suffered with anxiety firstly let me say thank god because it sucks, and secondly its not something you can just switch off.  Particularly bad when queuing I found - when your brain has time to wander...  My case these days is fairly mild, so I can imagine people with severe anxiety will likely have really struggled with masks and it makes me very uncomfortable thinking of them being made to feel bad about it.

I'm familiar with anxiety, it might well have been a struggle, I'm not denying that - the point is though that it doesn't prevent someone from wearing a mask. It's not like dentists and surgeons are all immune from anxiety, they still wear masks, this just wasn't a big thing until the notion of being exempt from masks was introduced.

Though on the subject of anxiety think about, for example, an elderly or immunocompromised person with anxiety and how having to do their shopping when people around them aren't wearing masks can equally affect their anxiety too.

I'd see the tradeoff there as being:

anxiety of mask + no actual danger from it < anxiety of being around maskless people + actual danger from infection

Then throw in just the general increased risk for everyone by having these maskless people around - plenty of whom are just anti-social distancing measures in general and so higher risk of being infectious too and it becomes an easy choice. I think the default should have simply been that masks need to be worn, we had limited treatment for this thing, no vaccines and yet we were pandering to people to the point where they merely needed to declare they were exempt, that was bad.

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #25 on: July 29, 2021, 16:10:08 PM
I actually like wearing a mask, it keeps most cretins away from you and you can pretend you're some kind of wasteland warrior  :lol:

Remember when there was protests about women wearing masks? If everyone has to wear one that is not an issue anymore.

Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #26 on: July 31, 2021, 00:12:30 AM
locally... no masks in sight (not that I get out much)

at work I popped out to the shop, grabbed some masks because was running out in my car... lads at work asked what I was doing saying no-one is bothered anymore, not in shops, busses, trains etc. etc.

got to the shop and I was the only one in there with a mask on, it was busy too, good dozen people in there

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #27 on: August 03, 2021, 01:17:03 AM
It's getting worse. Government is putting all hopes on the virus not mutating and becoming more dangerous.

Then I went to the local Iceland a couple of days ago, almost every customer had a mask on, but the staff didn't.

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #28 on: August 03, 2021, 22:29:36 PM
Was in a shop the other day and passed a lady talking to someone else saying jokingly she had a cold the other lady better keep her distance.

In NZ the mantra has been if you're sick stay home. Has been for the last 18 months. Urgh. Its hard but it's what has kept us safe so far...

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  • Offline Rivkid

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Re: At work with a mask on - Sucks
Reply #29 on: August 05, 2021, 15:04:39 PM
the point is though that it doesn't prevent someone from wearing a mask.

Actually you don't sound that familiar with really bad anxiety. Anxiety isn't just being a bit nervous about something (i.e as you describe the old lady who is anxious about getting her groceries). If you've got severe GAD the physical symptoms of that are absolutely crippling and most certainly could prevent someone from wearing a mask. Like I said I was lucky that my really bad anxiety days were behind me (hopefully forever) way before COVID hit, and so the symptoms and attacks I've had to fight off due to a mask have been mild (hence I've always managed to wear one). However if this had been in 2017 I could barely leave the house without the world swaying and twirling and going blurry, feeling faint and unable to focus - there is no way in the world I could have worn a mask back then I'd have passed out.

I do think we're largely on the same page - I've worn mine religiously and still think its the right thing to do, but I couldn't denounce someone for not wearing one because I know there was a time I couldn't have.

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