Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

Apologies if I have been unclear, but all along here I have been talking about introducing masks at a macro level in Ireland being useless, not on an individual level. Of course if someone buys the best mask, and is careful about how they wear it, and adheres strictly to this it will be effective, but this is not how the overwhelming majority will operate. Many of those pontificating about mask wearing (the "omg I'm the only person on the bus with a mask, we're a nation of idiots!" crowd) are pissing in the wind wearing their cloth mask, probably last washed a week ago if you're lucky. Of those people who I do still see wearing masks, the overwhelming majority are wearing the wrong sort.

To bring back a mask mandate is a pointless exercise in virtue signalling at this point, as the health minister said (and was presumably instructed by his relevant experts) the only thing that will be effective now is severe restrictions and this is totally unwarranted.

If people want to wear a mask to make themselves feel more comfortable or that they are contributing to society that is up to them, they should not be ridiculed for it. But suggesting that we all need to start wearing masks to solve this problem is re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic. It won't help.

I'm no freedom fighter, as I said already I am pro vaccine, I was pro restrictions earlier, I was pro masks earlier in the pandemic too. But circumstances change, and they are no longer relevant, and unfortunately there are a lot of dopes on twitter and whatever else getting themselves all worked up over inconsequential things. As I've also said numerous times, if people want to wear a mask that's up to them, but moaning that everyone else isn't wearing one is genuinely daft at this point.

The masks that the overwhelming majority of the general population wear (i.e. not the N95 / FFP2 masks) are NOT effective against the super transmissible variants like omicron. This is not even a contentious point at this stage.

What we do know though, in locations where proper masks (i.e. n95/ffp2 masks) ARE worn, covid is rampant. One way we know this is by the fact that at least 50% of the people who have covid in healthcare settings catch it in healthcare settings, where mask wearing is extremely rigorous.

We also know, thanks to the health minister (and presumably his expert advisors) that anything short of extreme restrictions being imposed on a macro level is a total waste of time.

This pandemic has given quite a number of hypochondriacs a lot of public attention and I think some of them are having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that this is all coming to an end and the reality is that everyone moving on with their lives now.