But what is the logical answer to these situations we are seeing? Well of course we could revert back to restrictions and when i say restrictions i mean ones that actually work to seriously reduce spread not just reinstating a mask mandate and hoping for the best! The reality is that most people don't want that especially as we are heading into summer and lots of things are now planned that were cancelled the previous two years. Can we continue to bring back restrictions and force people to conform every time there is another variant or wave? Would there be no sixth wave if we had left the restrictions on for longer, if so how much longer?
Personally i am loving the fact that i am not seeing daily news about COVID and being constantly reminded of it. I love the fact that going out somewhere now is pretty much normal. It's been two years now of uncertainty and judging by what i hear from others i talk to most are not living in fear of the virus but more in fear of what restrictions might return and whether they were safe to book that holiday they have been putting off.

Masks, masks, mask, decent ones. Hand sanitisers, and more reminders of distancing. That will make a difference

There is still no actual hard evidence that enforcing a general mask mandate results in a significant reduction in cases. I said it before but when we had a jump in cases last year early summer in Kelowna it was obviously due to the influx of tourists at that time. The masks had been rescinded literally 2 weeks prior and then they reimpose the mandate because of the rise yet we did not see any reduction in case numbers until the tourist season ended weeks later. At that time the Interior had the worst numbers because everyone and his dog was travelling here for their vacation. Same thing happened in Cornwall in UK as tourists swamped the area and numbers went way up. Socializing is on again and you cannot do the pubs, clubs and restaurants masked up and entertaining in ones home is a free for all and certainly not a venue where one would normally mask up so unless your suggestion is going to add capacity limits, distancing and other such rules then masks are really not going to do much on their own.

If they don"t do any good then i wonder why we bother with them in hospitals?? Why all that fuss with infection control?? Barriers work. what doesnt work are flimsy old badly fitting masks. Supply populations with these and insist on their use.

Pre-pandemic, were they required in hospital outside of an operating theatre?

And, of course, some information. Some more publicity about how ambulances are queuing outside hospitals unable to unload their patients because the hospitals are full of covid patients.

Maybe something about increased waiting times and 'non-urgent' surgery delayed and how lack of beds, missing staff is actually covid related and not just "the usual" health services issues.

Maybe some "Why is covid killing and hospitalising as many people as before we had vaccines" items in the media with explanations that "yes, the variant isn't as bad for the individual as it was but due to vastly more infections and nobody being careful anymore responsible for making that even worse it kills and hospitalises just as many people."

Perhaps something on "why medical people are recommending masks in schools."

Of course the wearing of masks themselves will raise awareness and reinforce the need for better behaviours.

Yes, patients and visitors with a cough were required to wear a mask. Staff wear them when dealing with patients who are immunocompromised and with patients who have infectious airborne conditions, would often wear them if they were at work with a cough or cold or were going on vacation and didn't want to fall ill.
Various levels of precautions exist depending on the method of transmission. The most fundamental precautions are handwashing, masks, distance, Some precautions are much more complicated and include gowning up, gloves, eye protections, masks. Sometimes two pairs of gloves, two masks, plus faceshield.

YEp, people are going to continue to suffer for the lack of medical care because of COVID blocking access

Fair enough. I have to admit that, until covid hit, the only time I have experienced anyone in hospital wearing a mask was when I went into an operating theatre.

The trouble is, whether you like it or not, experience has shown us that the WHO didn't react soon enough to prevent people being able to spread the virus all over the world and society's acceptance of what some experts have stated needs to be done to contain it has been tarnished. They keep referring to "the science..." but when asked to produce the science, have not really been able to do so. For example, what science was used to show that truckers that had been perfectly able to travel across the border between Canada and US for 2 years during the pandemic, and were unvaccinated, were now such a risk either side of the border that such travel should have stopped?

But the only place currently in BC anyway where masks are still mandatory are hospitals and any medical facility. You are not only asked some basic questions before entering but also supplied with a medical grade surgical mask that must be worn. ALL patients, staff and visitors must adhere to this YET not one but two local hospitals here have new COVID outbreaks. How is this even still a thing when these facilities are amongst the strictest in terms of mask protocol? I'm not hearing about an outbreak at a local pub or store or library or council office, yet all these places are currently mask free as per current rules.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say a combination of masks not being 100% effective coupled with, some procedures requiring removal of masks (not least changing the mask you wore for the one they give you and potential transmission at screening - like being in the doorway or in the less than airy space between two sets of doors - and that people in hospital might just be more susceptible to infection (because they are ill in some way) or a more pronounced reaction to infection and therefore associated testing.
I think it's probably quite a bit easier to conclusively identify where someone temporarily living in a hospital gets covid than someone who has spent time in a pub, restaurant, work, the local library, shopping etc

Because people leave hospitals? Go home from work? Go out out into the unmasked, unsanitised world. It only takes one breach in infection control for an outbreak to occur, so Joe Bloggs letting that mask slip off his nose is a risk. Believe me I hate maskwearing as I use lipreading to help hear but to me it's the lesser of the evils,

Yes exactly my point, we are not in a severely restricted country currently so there is a risk wherever you go and certainly some places far more risky than others, this will always be the case without severe government clampdowns which really nobody wants. Yet if we continue to wear a medical mask while inside medical facilities then this should be regarded as pretty safe even if we have a cough or cold because masks work right?
If we are saying that due to certain factors masks are not completely effective inside a hospital setting then god knows how ineffective they in settings that are not in anyway controlled as such and therefore the general mandate is not really addressing the issue. I notice that someone posted a short while back that Philadelphia had reinstated its mask mandate. Today i learned they have now rescinded it yet again! Then there's the US federal airline mask mandate that is way more political than scientific. When a Florida judge can decide the mandate is unlawful and then the whole airline industry decides to do away with masks contrary to medical advice the whole thing becomes a joke. You can go maskless on a US carrier unless it's to a place that has a mandate in place such as Canada then you have to wear one but you don't if you were travelling to UK for example from the US but you do if you are travelling from Canada! The rules just became a complicated political affair with no bearing on scientific medical knowledge, or so it seems to me.

I refer back to my earlier post that asked if masks aren't effective then why are they used in hospitals? And I don't mean just in the Time of COVID but as part of general infection control practices.
Why is it so hard to wear a mask? They are effective, maybe not 100% because of fit but it's better than nothing. A simple measure that can help others. What is the big deal against wearing them?