Skyscraper
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Looks like a fair few airlines have decided to still enforce masks on flights after the 19th.
This will be to protect operations as much as anything else. While the risk of passengers contracting Covid on an aircraft is probably relatively low, a passenger also sits in one place for one flight and then goes about their day. Going by typical short haul flights, the flight attendants on the other hand will interact with about 800 passengers a day over 4 separate flights. So masks for all will reduce the probability of the crew members having to isolate - too many staff isolating would cause the flights to have to be cancelled so retaining masks for the time being until vaccination rates worldwide match the U.K. isn’t a terrible ideaLooks like a fair few airlines have decided to still enforce masks on flights after the 19th.
Hospital admissions data shows that vaccinated people are being admitted. And a small proportion are dying. It’s fair to say the risks are reduced, pre-vaccination the admission rate for Covid was 1-in-10 now it’s closer to 1-in-45. Obviously this extrapolates down into deaths quite dramatically.
That is why I support the decision to relax the restrictions. The reason I think masks should still be worn on public transport and in shops are:
1) For many these are essential activities and not everyone can be vaccinated, we are effectively saying those who can’t be vaccinated or the vaccine hasn’t taken hold (I’m not talking about anti-vaxxers) can not use public transport or shops safely.
2) Part of the reason masks work well isn’t always infection avoidance but reduction of viral load. The course of an infection is different if you where infected with an initial dose of 4 million viral particles than if you get a few thousand (your body has longer to mount a response before the virus gets a good grip the lower the viral load you receive).
I have worn surgical masks all my working life, people over exaggerate the impact they are having on their lives (I have no sympathy for those crying foul on masks but happy to smoke). If you do not have severe COPD or autism/ learning difficulties it is no big deal and just helps further minimise the risks particularly as infection rates are still high.
As I say I’m glad social distancing is being relaxed and I’m glad all business can open and although I’m too old for night clubs and have enjoyed having my booze brought to me whilst I keep my fat arse on a seat I’m glad the option to walk up to a bar is returning. I do think masks in certain scenarios would have been sensible.
Also stop referring to scientists as doom and gloom merchants, their job is to describe the risks. It’s the government that have to use that information to make decisions. Blaming scientists for their advice is like blaming the weatherman you went out in the rain, they advise they don’t decide.
Sorry to correct you there, people of all ages, vaccinated and not, are being admitted to hospital with covid, in increasing numbers.
Lots more young people because they go out in crowded places, first hand reports from the workers, today.
I too drive a nice big (shed) 4*4, but I care a great deal about people on public transport, but I'm not into trolling people who choose not to drive.
I also know hundreds of people who have dozens of masks, and boxes of disposable ones that are replaced daily.
Doom and Gloom...grow up, they are top qualified scientists, what are your qualifications on epidemiology, apart from "the school of hard knocks"?
Yes some vaccinated people are being admitted to hospital but very few and mainly old and frail.
The vast majority are not vaccinated as even Dr Gloom admitted at yesterday’s press conference.
Dr Gloom and Prof. Doom is a perfect nickname for Whittey and Vallance, they are the most pessimistic pair I’ve ever heard and have been found out twisting the figures on more than one occasion to make them look worse than they actually are, when they start being honest I’ll call them by their correct names.
On masks I never have and still don’t agree they do much except make things worse.
Someone wearing the same piece of cloth over their mouth and nose all day for weeks on end is just a breeding ground for bacteria, I don’t know anybody that washes them.
They are not part of our culture and never will be, if people wish to keep wearing them then good luck to them but I suspect after a few weeks nobody will be wearing them.
Businesses that carry on trying to force people to wear them will soon change their tune when they start losing money because of it.
It won’t surprise you to learn I don’t use public transport anyway, I have a nice comfortable 4x4 that is a lot more pleasant to travel around in so I’m not too fussed either way on public transport .
It might surprise you to know that despite the modern sensibility that “opinion” is of higher value that “truth”, reality doesn’t care about anyone’s opinion
The evidence is there on masks, the evidence is there on the remaining risks, calling scientists names might give you a bit of a thrill, but it doesn’t change the facts (name one cited time that either have actually lied or twisted statistics). Name calling and conspiracy rambling leads to crazies like those two numpties attacking these people who have done nothing but the job they where asked to do.
I don’t travel on public transport, I don’t have to experience something day to day to be able to consider the impact that might be felt by those that do. It’s not exactly rocket science to do so.
As I have made clear I agree the rules need to relax, mostly because we don’t want to push the third wave into autumn/ winter (as the scientists have recommended), but to isolate people who can’t be vaccinated and remain vulnerable for the sake of a little longer wearing masks just seems cold and cruel to me.
And I say all this as my place of work starts expanding its Covid capacity for the third time by shutting down elective cases……
As for hospitals filling up with COVID patients I simply don’t believe it, the released data doesn’t back that up.
The two things I am most bemused about is the removal of mask wearing on public transport and in shops, plus the lack of a covid certification scheme for allowing major events (and perhaps nightclubs) to open at full capacity.
The former is straight forward, I can think of no good public health or economic reason to scrap mask wearing on public transport or in shops. The only reasons I can think of are political; mininster wanting to keep backbench MPs and certain newspaper editors happy. Because to some masks seemingly equate to lockdown.
The latter I accept is more controversial. But it does beg the question of why have the government bothered with the very extensive Events Research Programme only to say at the end of it we are going to have a free for all. Now if the results of the research have come back and said that mitigating factors have little impact on tranmission then fair enough, and maybe this has happened but has not been widely publicised. But to me it makes sense to have to show either proof of full vaccination or proof of a negative (free) rapid test to attend an event at full capacity. It is not a safety net that will catch every case, but it would reduce the risk at these events that could easily become super spreader events.
I'm due to return to Leicester City matches from next month, and I must admit that with high covid rates and no mitigation I am much more wary of it than I was before. I'm wondering if the Premier League (and other event organisers) may mandate their own schemes for the time being.