You may ask why, when we’re 6 months into the coronavirus outbreak, I’m bringing up the wearing of face masks. It’s quite simple really….for those of us in the UK it has only just become mandatory to wear a mask in public. Not all public mind you…public transport, shops, museums, places of worship, aquariums (yeah I have no idea either!) and funeral homes. You can take your mask off if you’re eating in a place but not if you’re taking the food away. Also not in pubs which does bother me most. I understand you need to be able to drink but I do worry about the infection rate. A load of inebriated people aren’t going to be thinking about social distancing are they? Not likely they’ll be a good human and protect others.

So no one in the UK was wearing a mask before now?

Some people were but we had to have a lockdown because we couldn’t obey the simple instruction to stay home. We could literally kill ourselves or others and we still didn’t do it. So really the chances we’d all do it without being made to were slim.

Ok So why wasn’t it mandatory to wear a face mask before now?

It appears it’s because the UK government in it’s wisdom felt there wasn’t enough evidence that it made a difference. Now we are more than 6 months in and our death rate is one of the highest in the world it would appear that the strategies they did implement were either ineffective, far too late or both. Questions were being asked about whether wearing a face mask was a good idea months ago. You can read about it in more detail here. The failings of the government though are not why I’m writing this post.

Preventing coronavirus spread has always been more about social responsibility!

I do think it’s pretty awful that in this western society where we generally have it pretty good there is such a lack of social responsibility. We were pretty bad at staying home and now we’re bad at the very simple instruction “wear your face mask!” I’ve seen plenty of people not wearing them and don’t honestly believe they all have medical exemption. I’ve also seen people wearing them but pulled down under their nose. As the point of the mask is to prevent the spread of droplets when breathing or sneezing this renders them fairly pointless. These droplets can really go some way too. As this great You Tube video by Uncle Rob demonstrates here

I hate wearing a face mask

Considering the topic of this article this might come as a surprise to you but that’s good. Keeps you on your toes! 😉 I really hate my mask. Firstly I have asthma and while it’s not dangerous wearing it it does make breathing a bit harder. Secondly I’m a mouth breather so breathing directly into my mask makes me very hot and sweaty pretty fast. Last but not least I generally have pretty nice skin and the mask is giving me maskne (seriously it’s a thing, look it up!) All these things are just annoyances however when compared to dying or killing someone else don’t you think? So here’s me, dutifully wearing my mask! In Primark just in case you’re particularly interested.

So now you know I hate it too…

and yet I still wear a mask I’ll repeat my original plea to please be a good human, wear your mask now and wear it properly. A little inconvenience is such a small thing to ask when the worldwide death toll has been so massive. As the video linked to above demonstrated it DOES make a huge difference to how far the droplets can go. Do your part to reduce the spread, prevent the necessity for a second lockdown, support our health providers worldwide and of course save lives!

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