To Mask or not to two - Mask Megathread cont.

Leftwaffe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118620282#Comment_118620282

I didn’t demonstrate at all if you read my post. I actually wore a mask into the premises too.

Im pointing out that the wearing of masks is pure theatre at this present time. I respect those who want to wear one. However, there should be no requirement to wear one anywhere bar healthcare settings possibly.

I cannot wait for the day they’re dropped. There will be a lot of people disappointed but I for one will be delighted.

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118620282#Comment_118620282

And what law exactly says that you have to wear a mask anywhere in a restaurant if you're a punter?

Mecanudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118621526#Comment_118621526

Businesses are still free to ask patrons to wear a mask.

Leftwaffe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118621627#Comment_118621627

So it’s not in the law?

Mecanudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118621669#Comment_118621669

Under the law they are allowed to ask. Is that ok for you?

Equally people can do what they wish. As what happened in the case of the comment I replied to. Personally if a member of staff asks me to wear a mask as part of their policy I will. They get enough **** from eejits everyday.

DLink

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118621744#Comment_118621744

If they ask for masks they are either just pandering to the panickers, or virtue signalling. I'll be keeping my money if they look for a mask.... make a shítty request, get a shítty reply.

Cork2021

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118621804#Comment_118621804

It’s virtue signalling! We need to have the choice asap! Wear one don’t wear one it doesn’t bother me, I won’t be all going well in a few weeks

Seanergy

Queing up at 8 bells Saturday monring inside a building supplier when a pair of maskless rags at the cashier who were looking to be served were given surgical masks to wear. Tough as nails.

Refusal was not an option, they realised they would have to abide, had a quick scan of the who was watching before donning the masks, one went straight into nappy position and the other nose poke position.

Without escalating the situation that is near the best the staff can do.

The legisaltion around masks has been weak, enforcement has been a joke, this needs to be reviewed and acted on before the next wave/another variant catches us out as then it will be too late to adapt.

Fair play to the staff, still enforcing the law as best they can in face of such idiotic illegal behaviour.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118624353#Comment_118624353

No, no it doesn't

At the end of this month the mandatory requirements need to go so that we can equally dispense with the even more nonsensical situation where the 2 guys ("maskless rags" - charming!) in your example can entirely legally go into the coffee shop next door or the pub for lunch without needing to wear a mask at all but are still expected to wear one in other random settings for "reasons" (insert rolleyes here)

The Gardai have far more important things to be dealing with such as an increasing wave of burglaries in rural Ireland where some are being attacked in their own homes for trying to defend themselves and their families and property, or things like increased drug-driving and the problems that causes, than worrying about whether someone is wearing a mask to protect others from what is now a dose of the sniffles.

This post however highlights my biggest issue with mask wearing.. zealots and holier-than-thou types trying to impose their own fears and/or virtue-signalling nonsense on the rest of us.

Seanergy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118624446#Comment_118624446

It wasn't my example, it was my experience, that's the sort of twisting of words that I've come to expect from denialists.

The law is different in the pub so not a relvant example. rollyeye all you want.

I think you will find the virtue signalling and fear was being done by the two rags who wear pulled up on breaking the law and in their protest wore the masks half arsed, afraid of who was looking, afraid of a bit of fabric.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118625291#Comment_118625291

So your example/experience/whatever (it's the same thing - denialist indeed!) is basically all about being put out because the 2 guys weren't following the law (and an inconsistent, arbitrary one at that) which in turn offended your sensibilities - that's it?

I thought at least there would be some sort of medical justification behind it, but no, at the end of the day it's just about taking a morally superior stance over 2 lads who are (like many others) only reluctantly going along with the farce, and then coming on here to complain about it while simultaneously highlighting how compliant you yourself are.

Did I wake up up in 70s/80s Catholic Ireland this morning?

Mad_maxx

I've stopped wearing masks in shops ,only been stopped once so far ,was an interesting but civil exchange

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118594795#Comment_118594795

I was in a cafe yesterday ( takeaway coffee), no one said anything despite my wearing no mask, I was stopped in a supermarket though ,foreign member of staff who was polite and seemed to be just going through the motions

I wouldn't argue strongly with staff who stop me but I wouldn't aquaisce either

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118620282#Comment_118620282

They absolutely do not need to " abide by the law "

Local cafe where I attend most frequently have no mask rules ,enforcement is optional and always has been, it's just some enjoy the authority over others

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118624353#Comment_118624353

It’s not a law.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118628413#Comment_118628413

To be fair to him, at the moment it still (unfortunately) is - HW stores like in his example would be classed as retail where it's still a requirement.

Seanergy

Only country in the world where school children are not wearing them properly. Áine Lynch of the NPC at it again, threw her teeth. When interviewed by RTE, the IT or the Indo she never mentoined the Anti-mask groups had been targeting her and the organisation.

"So if they're not wearing them properly, it really does I suppose raise the question of why are they still wearing them at all".

"Of parents that are contacting us, it's the majority view".

She says parents have several concerns in relation to masks on younger children.

"Generally they're concerned about their children's social, emotional development.

https://www.newstalk.com/news/face-mask-measures-in-primary-schools-should-be-lifted-overnight-1311153?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1644825609

Been highlighted in thread before....

https://www.thejournal.ie/telegram-parents-council-bombard-masks-covid-5615151-Nov2021/

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118630479#Comment_118630479

And again, so what? I genuinely don't get what point you're trying to make or prove with these news dumps. Maybe she didn't mention "anti-mask groups" "targeting" her organisation because.. it didn't happen?? I read your Journal article and the "far right" nonsense just discredits any point the author may be trying to make.. this is Ireland! We don't even have a "Right" anymore let alone a "far right". It's telling that Comments are disabled on that article.

They got 700 calls in hours after a huge behavioural shift in young children was "recommended" - seems about right TBH considering the national debate that followed, and the end result of the mandate being only recommended and left to schools to sort out in the end!

Kids are the statistically LEAST vulnerable group and yet among the ones most affected by restrictions - particularly at primary level where it absolutely negatively impacts on their ability to interact with their teacher and classmates, and it's even more illogical when their parents and even their "vulnerable" grandparents can go for coffees and to the pub without their masks for as long as they like!

Mask wearing is not a normal activity no matter how much some wish to make it so, and this applies doubly at school level. It needs to go as quickly as the nonsense of having kids sitting in cold class rooms because some supposed-adults are scared of "de virus".

CalamariFritti

The tide is turning anyway. Ok this article on Bloomberg is an opinion piece but it provides facts and data and some interesting links all the same

But there’s no avoiding it: The benefits of universal masking have been difficult to quantify. One controlled study in Bangladeshshowed a small but statistically significant benefit — among people who consistently used masks, 7.6% got symptomatic infections compared to 8.6% in the control group. Other studies have been inconclusive.

...

It is intuitive that a barrier ought to prevent germs from being emitted into the air. But if that’s true, why isn’t there more evidence for the benefits of masking two years into the pandemic? Experts associated with The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota have laid out a more complex analysis: Given the current understanding that the virus is transmitted in fine aerosol particles, it’s likely an infectious dose could easily get through and around loose-fitting cloth or surgical masks.

...

All those factors may explain why the states with mask mandates haven’t fared significantly better than the 35 states that didn’t impose them during the omicron wave. Rhode Island, where I live, has had a mask mandate since mid-December; nonetheless, we saw our January surge rise far higher than any other state. There’s little evidence that mask mandates are the primary reason the pandemic waves eventually fall — though much of the outrage over lifting mandates is based on that assumption. Many experts acknowledge that the rise and fall of waves is a bit of a mystery, as epidemiologist Sam Scarpino explained to me on my podcast.

Seanergy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118630696#Comment_118630696

Still with the "and again so what" which at this stage is just plain rude and belittling IMO. Not nice.

Your incorrect to say we do not have a right or a far right, numbers may be few but exists.

Always having to end your replies to me with a healthy paragrpah or two your trademark dumbing down of "de virus".

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118631413#Comment_118631413

A random Twitter account does not a "far right" make but then too much stock is put into social media nonsense generally these days in fairness.

The virus has never been of particular risk to children, or indeed most of the population of this country as evidenced by the stats and demographics of those who actually ARE at potentially significant risk, and that is simply the facts of the matter - and a very GOOD thing I might add, considering the dire predictions early in 2020.

As for my "rudeness" - my apologies if you were offended but I will continue to bring some perspective to posts like that one above. Also, you seem to have no problem with insulting random people you encounter in your day, or labelling posters you disagree with with more nonsensical (and wholly inaccurate) Twitter-style labels, so well...

But what I still, honestly do not understand is what the concern is now that Covid has become endemic and even NPHET have stopped with the scaremongering.

Seanergy

LOL some people think there was a national debate on children and masks between the 11th HIQA meeting from the 2nd of March 2021 and the 14th HIQA meeting on the 6th of April 2021.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118631461#Comment_118631461

Because... there was? It was all over the radio shows, papers and social media and ultimately resulted in the requirement being watered down to a recommendation and left to individual schools to administer.

Again, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with random links, but those are the events that occured

Seanergy

Seeing Áine Lynch took to the airwaves this morning it is worth recalling her initial contribution as a stakeholder to the Expert Advisory Group in March 2021 prior to being targetted.

@Seanergy

@Seanergy I'm reading your posts here and thinking thanks be to all the Gods that your time is up, covid is over, and no one is going to take your paranoid hysterical ravings seriously from now on.

People like you had 2 glorious years of being the centre of attention. Now please go back to your irrelevant hypochondriac dystopia and leave the rest of us to live our lives.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118631586#Comment_118631586

I blame social media (and yes I'm aware of the irony of using a social media platform to complain about it! 😂)

Back in the day such stuff would have been confined to the tabloids or a fella standing at the Dail with a "The End is Nigh" placard. Unfortunately Twitter has given anyone with a smartphone a global audience, and is setup in such a way that they have the incentive to try to be the next "viral" (no pun intended!) poster, hence ever more outlandish nonsense that is then picked up by formerly respected outlets (which are now themselves staffed with similar Social media addicts) and what would have just been rantings is suddenly legitimised.

If this pandemic had happened even 25/30 years ago, we would have largely just gotten on with it.

Dohnjoe

Good piece here about masks during that 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Interesting to see the similarities with modern anti-maskers, the same arguments.

https://www.history.com/news/1918-spanish-flu-mask-wearing-resistance

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118631784#Comment_118631784

It did happen in the past, people wore the masks. But even then there were a minority of anti-maskers and contrarians. Masks reduce the spread of this virus to others, it's been a no-brainer.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118631983#Comment_118631983

Well they didn't seem to do much for us. Cases rose and fell regardless of almost universal adherence, even more noticeably so with Omicron. Luckily Covid just isn't that dangerous to the majority.

In any case, I hear this morning that they've dropped the mandatory requirement in the North, so hopefully we won't be far behind now that "someone else" has gone first.

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118633062#Comment_118633062

You realise masks reduce the spread of the virus, not stop it entirely.

The virus spreads predominantly on aerosols and droplets exhaled from your mouth and nose, masks reduce that. Obviously we can't wear masks 24/7, at home, etc, but any mask-wearing in closed situations is obviously better than not wearing in that situation.

No offense, but I am quite surprised that at this stage in the pandemic, that certain people don't know/understand this.