Masks

GT89 · 17-07-2020 11:59AM

No: I will wait for the HSE to recommend

So the government advice 3 or 4 months ago was that face masks were not effective but now your a dangerous conspiracy theorist if you believe that

odyssey06 · 17-07-2020 12:02PM

GT89 wrote: »

So the government advice 3 or 4 months ago was that face masks we're not effective but now your a dangerous conspiracy theorist if you believe that

In January if you believed coronavirus would lead to pubs being shut for months on end you'd have been called a conspiracy theorist too.
It's a fast moving year

Our authorities believed too much of the crap China fed the WHO when they were trying to pretend human to human transmission of coronavirus was rare.

drunkmonkey · 17-07-2020 12:03PM

No: other

Boggles wrote: »

Not yet AFAIK.

Who's going to police it, just done a count there outside the local post office, 7 people queing outside, 3 of those had masks, 1 under their nose, 1 dirty as hell n95 mask, 1 using it as a chin strap, 3 more people in store no masks, 2 meter not being adheard to outside of store but compliant in store. Average age 70+, it's pension day.

There's absolutely no point making it law if nobody is going to enforce it. Don't expect retailers to become law enforcement.

It'll be interesting to see how they make this become law.

17-07-2020 12:04PM

No: other

odyssey06 wrote: »

...........
Our authorities believed too much of the crap China fed the WHO when they were trying to pretend human to human transmission of coronavirus was rare.

Which is why we'd lockdown?

timmy_mallet · 17-07-2020 12:05PM

odyssey06 wrote: »

They shouldn't be but even if they do, better they touch a mask than sneeze and cough into your face.

Right, because that's the alternative.

odyssey06 · 17-07-2020 12:08PM

timmy_mallet wrote: »

Right, because that's the alternative.

It's not an alternative, it's the scenario they are there for.

Tork · 17-07-2020 12:09PM

Yes: to protect others

We're paying the price for them trying to protect those limited PPE supplies at the start of the pandemic. I also wonder is there a bit of racism thrown into the mix. Asians love their masks and until now they looked ridiculous out of place when wearing them out and about in Ireland.

timmy_mallet · 17-07-2020 12:14PM

odyssey06 wrote: »

It's not an alternative, it's the scenario they are there for.

All those people going around coughing and sneezing in yer face, then yes, I would advocate for masks, but given that is not happening (nor has ever happened me in my life), it would be a strange person to stand behind and advocate for public health policies based on extremely rare scenarios and limited evidence.

Arrival · 17-07-2020 12:16PM

Augeo wrote: »

And if they have unknown covid improper use of a face mask is largely useless and can lead to more contaminated surfaces then if they had no mask.

How? If they happen to be infected then without a mask they're spreading the virus simply by breathing and talking wherever they go; their aerosols and droplets would freely spread and land on surfaces around them. With a physical barrier over their face, even if the individual mishandles it, they're not going to be spreading it as much since those aerosols and droplets aren't escaping as easily - if the virus is on the outside of their mask then they'd only contaminate surfaces they specifically touch. The main thing is they wouldn't be potentially causing airborne virus particles to linger in areas people walk through

I think as time goes on people will generally get more used to wearing masks and these issues become less, especially with efforts to educate people on wearing them correctly and hygienically

timmy_mallet · 17-07-2020 12:16PM

Tork wrote: »

We're paying the price for them trying to protect those limited PPE supplies at the start of the pandemic. I also wonder is there a bit of racism thrown into the mix. Asians love their masks and until now they looked ridiculous out of place when wearing them out and about in Ireland.

Blimey. Someone questioning racism as a motivator, follows it up with a sentence beginning "Asians love their masks". Haha! Classic.

odyssey06 · 17-07-2020 12:18PM

timmy_mallet wrote: »

All those people going around coughing and sneezing in yer face, then yes, I would advocate for masks, but given that is not happening (nor has ever happened me in my life), it would be a strange person to stand behind and advocate for public health policies based on extremely rare scenarios and limited evidence.

You've never been on a bus or train or shop and heard someone cough or sneeze within a few metres of you? Effectively, they were coughing in your face, cos you are going to be exposed to it.
We can't keep buses at 25% of capacity indefinitely.
What's your alternative plan?

timmy_mallet · 17-07-2020 12:19PM

odyssey06 wrote: »

You've never been on a bus or train or shop and heard someone cough or sneeze within a few metres of you? Effectively, they were coughing in your face, cos you are going to be exposed to it.
We can't keep buses at 25% of capacity indefinitely.
What's your alternative plan?

oh right - 'coughing in your face' is now 'coughing within a few metres'.

I have no issue with masks on public transport.

Arrival · 17-07-2020 12:28PM

Arrival wrote: »

Czechia: 13,612 cases and 355 deaths

Slovakia: 1,965 cases and 28 deaths

Ireland: 25,698 cases and 1,749 deaths

Czechia has around twice our population and Slovakia has around the same size population as us. Both countries are smaller so they're more densely populated than us. Both countries are also located closer to Italy -- the epicentre of the pandemic in Europe -- and had their first cases around the same time as us, a bit earlier actually if I remember correctly. Both countries implemented masks as a measure in Mid to late March, with their officials wearing masks during all daily briefings and public addresses to help encourage their normalisation and usage. Their lockdowns were not as extreme and nowhere near as long as ours and they got their curve suppressed quicker than we did. Their medical experts massively attribute their objectively great success in handling the pandemic very well compared with the rest of Europe to the high percentage of people respecting and adhering to the mask guideline.

Outside of Europe, looking at the Asian countries which have relatively recent experience with similar outbreaks who have handled it excellently, we see similarly great results and, again, their medical experts strongly urged people to wear masks from the beginning.

Taiwan: 454 cases and 7 deaths

Hong Kong: 1,714 cases and 10 deaths

Two regions literally right next to China with populations of 7.4m and 23.7m, got their first cases way before us, and again very densely populated countries.

The medical experts in these Asian countries and regions certainly would know better about handling these things than our own, and they've been saying masks should be used since the start. Yet we've people such as yourself many months into this pandemic arguing against them, like morons. An absolute joke! It's such a small inconvenience to wear a barrier over our faces yet it helps so much, so get the **** over it.

No response to this from timmy_mallet, as expected

GT89 · 17-07-2020 12:31PM

No: I will wait for the HSE to recommend

odyssey06 wrote: »

You've never been on a bus or train or shop and heard someone cough or sneeze within a few metres of you? Effectively, they were coughing in your face, cos you are going to be exposed to it.
We can't keep buses at 25% of capacity indefinitely.
What's your alternative plan?

Public transport is 50% capacity now

Beanybabog · 17-07-2020 12:32PM

No: other

I was in Dundrum today and there’s a definite change in the numbers wearing masks- previously it’s was probably 10-20% now it’s probably around 80%+

SleetAndSnow · 17-07-2020 12:33PM

No: other

Majority of people in my local Aldi wearing masks today, change from last week even where it was about 30-40%. More like 70-80% today

timmy_mallet · 17-07-2020 12:36PM

Arrival wrote: »

No response to this from timmy_mallet, as expected

1. Differences in reporting measures. Are you certain they are all reporting data in the same way?
2. Hong Kong has closed schools early amid an outbreak.
3. Czech Rep. is experiencing growing cases at the moment. You nor I cannot determine mask efficacy in retail settings preventing further spread or contributing to it.
4. Ireland suppressed with essentially no mask usage while retail outlets remained broadly open.
5. Public health policy and legislation based on poor or in fact no evidence is not something I could stand behind.

(Let me know next time how long you'd expect a response from me, thanks)

GazzaL · 17-07-2020 12:40PM

weldoninhio wrote: »

If someone is infected and breathing into a mask, that mask is a biohazard. Where are all the biohazard bins for all these used masks?

You'll have loads of people touching their dirty masks and then touching everything around them.

GazzaL · 17-07-2020 12:42PM

Who's going to police people in shops if they're not wearing a mask? Will someone stacking shelves approach people who aren't wearing masks and say "Excuse me, madam, do you have a medical condition or special needs?"?

timetogo1 · 17-07-2020 12:42PM

No: I don't care enough

SleetAndSnow wrote: »

Majority of people in my local Aldi wearing masks today, change from last week even where it was about 30-40%. More like 70-80% today

Me too. Just back from Lidl in Swords. Id say its about 70% to 80% wearing them too.

I kept an eye out for all these people constantly touching their faces that some posters here were talking about. I didn't see one. Obviously that's anecdotal. I was in and out in 15 mins. They could have all started touching their masks after I left.

There was one genius (a staff member) wearing his mask down to just above his upper lip but that is just advertising his stupidity and he was behind a screen anyway.

joebloggs32 · 17-07-2020 12:43PM

SleetAndSnow wrote: »

Majority of people in my local Aldi wearing masks today, change from last week even where it was about 30-40%. More like 70-80% today

Just back from my local supervalu.
Definitely a lot more wearing them.

yosemitesam1 · 17-07-2020 12:47PM

timmy_mallet wrote: »

1. Differences in reporting measures. Are you certain they are all reporting data in the same way?
2. Hong Kong has closed schools early amid an outbreak.
3. Czech Rep. is experiencing growing cases at the moment. You nor I cannot determine mask efficacy in retail settings preventing further spread or contributing to it.
4. Ireland suppressed with essentially no mask usage while retail outlets remained broadly open.
5. Public health policy and legislation based on poor or in fact no evidence is not something I could stand behind.

(Let me know next time how long you'd expect a response from me, thanks)

Add to that how much of the differences are down to nursing homes and hospital management?
There was a lot of mismanagement that made a massive difference to our national figures in those two settings

drunkmonkey · 17-07-2020 12:52PM

No: other

Beanybabog wrote: »

I was in Dundrum today and there’s a definite change in the numbers wearing masks- previously it’s was probably 10-20% now it’s probably around 80%+

It's a Dublin phenomenan, the rest of the country is no where near that level of adoption. A lot of the county see it as mainly Dublin problem anyway. I've seen people being cursed down here for bringing down the Dubliners into the community.

Wibbs · 17-07-2020 12:52PM

Yes: other

timmy_mallet wrote: »

1. Differences in reporting measures. Are you certain they are all reporting data in the same way?
2. Hong Kong has closed schools early amid an outbreak.
3. Czech Rep. is experiencing growing cases at the moment. You nor I cannot determine mask efficacy in retail settings preventing further spread or contributing to it.
4. Ireland suppressed with essentially no mask usage while retail outlets remained broadly open.
4. Public health policy and legislation based on poor or in fact no evidence is not something I could stand behind.

We didn't suppress it particularly well at all. Not given our population density and island nation. Sure we did better than somewhere like the UK which was a complete sh1tshow where they decided they'd rely on Best of British know how and failed dismally, burying over 40,000 people because of it. The US is worse(and by god the idiot levels over there over "personal freedoms" are staggering).

Now if people feel better comparing themselves to the village idiot and thinking that makes them clever then game ball, but it actually further exposes their stupidity. Believing masks work in one setting but magically don't in another makes it plain to see. We have had ten times the number of deaths when allowing for population than the Czechs. Add a few zeros to that in comparison to Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Me. Earlier. wrote: »

My worldview such as it is didn't initially see community mask wearing as being of much benefit and was much more about how I could protect myself with P3 level of filtration. I bloody hate wearing one and further if I'm honest don't want us to look like many Asian cultures constantly wearing the damn things.

However the more I read and observed of nations that fared far better than us, it became pretty bloody clear that they were another effective risk reducer in community spread of a respiratory virus that western nations for the most part were ignoring for reasons like shortage of PPE(understandable) a need to feel it's all grand and yeah the "I don't want to look like a twat" angle(understandable if idiotic).

With the exceptions of Greece that had a much more severe and enforced lockdown than most so communities weren't out and about to spread it(though Greece has subsequently added masks to the mix as they came out of that), Iceland which had the most comprehensive track and trace on earth and New Zealand over in the arse end of the planet who locked down their borders, every single nation that has had the best results against this virus mandated masks from the get go. The worst didn't. Its quite as simple as that.

As part of a cohesive strategy to reduce the infection and death rates we have a few tools at our disposal, testing(up and down like a whoers knickers here), contact tracing(minimal and delayed here), lockdown(mostly good with some glaring idiocy and faffing about by authorities), border control(eff all), hand washing(hard to quantify) and social distancing(mostly good) and masks(all over the place).

All have a part to play and all should be utilised. Those nations that implemented them all including masks have had the best results. Them's facts. That's evidence. No ifs, buts, or maybes and frankly at this stage to keep on denying it is a sign of mental intransigence at best, or being a witless contrarian, or avoidance of the real reason why people don't want to wear masks, which can usually be summed up with "I don't want to look like a twat". The latter is most of it IMHO.

Sconsey · 17-07-2020 12:52PM

No: other

timmy_mallet wrote: »

(Let me know next time how long you'd expect a response from me, thanks)

I'm still waiting for you to explain how you know that there were zero transmissions in shops, in the whole country, since the outbreak of the pandemic. You have been ignoring my question. I guesss you made it up right?

MadYaker · 17-07-2020 01:05PM

Yes: surgical

I was in a supermarket and another shop in Galway this morning and I was happy to see the number of people wearing some sort of face covering has shot up. Well over half in the supermarket. No idea why the government didn’t do this ages ago. I never get buses but from glancing at them it seems like everyone is wearing them now. Hopefully help us avoid another lockdown.

timmy_mallet · 17-07-2020 01:05PM

Wibbs wrote: »

We didn't suppress it particularly well at all. Not given our population density and island nation. Sure we did better than somewhere like the UK which was a complete sh1tshow where they decided they'd rely on Best of British know how and failed dismally, burying over 40,000 people because of it. The US is worse(and by god the idiot levels over there over "personal freedoms" are staggering).

Now if people feel better comparing themselves to the village idiot and thinking that makes them clever then game ball, but it actually further exposes their stupidity. Believing masks work in one setting but magically don't in another makes it plain to see. We have had ten times the number of deaths when allowing for population than the Czechs. Add a few zeros to that in comparison to Taiwan and Hong Kong.

As part of a cohesive strategy to reduce the infection and death rates we have a few tools at our disposal, testing(up and down like a whoers knickers here), contact tracing(minimal and delayed here), lockdown(mostly good with some glaring idiocy and faffing about by authorities), border control(eff all), hand washing(hard to quantify) and social distancing(mostly good) and masks(all over the place).

All have a part to play and all should be utilised. Those nations that implemented them all including masks have had the best results. Them's facts. That's evidence. No ifs, buts, or maybes and frankly at this stage to keep on denying it is a sign of mental intransigence at best, or being a witless contrarian, or avoidance of the real reason why people don't want to wear masks, which can usually be summed up with "I don't want to look like a twat". The latter is most of it IMHO.

We didn't suppress it particularly well at all: What kind of nonsense is this? It was suppressed. The govt and the medical experts said so.

Those nations that implemented them all including masks have had the best results. Them's facts. That's evidence. No ifs, buts, or maybes: Cherry picking data to suit your worldview. Talk to us about Australia and New Zealand and their mandatory retail mask wearing rules and cases.

timmy_mallet · 17-07-2020 01:06PM

Sconsey wrote: »

I'm still waiting for you to explain how you know that there were zero transmissions in shops, in the whole country, since the outbreak of the pandemic. You have been ignoring my question. I guesss you made it up right?

I don't have to prove the negative there, horse. You prove there was spread in retail settings.

Paddygreen · 17-07-2020 01:09PM

No: I will wait for the HSE to recommend

This year I will be going to a virtual Halloween party as Dr Doug Ross from ER. the family have been great so far, still insisting that I don’t meet them. Probably for the best after what happened last Christmas in any case, I’m still a bit raw. Great that masks are mandatory now guys, just like clapping for our hero’s the donning of the mask is great progress towards oneness. Namaste

drunkmonkey · 17-07-2020 01:17PM

No: other

How's everything in the estate Paddy, you still manning the watchtower?

Masks

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