Re: Masks
 

Many stores around me appear to be relaxing the requirements :( I know of at least 2 people who brag that they say on entry that they are exempt (there is no reason for them to claim this) and are not required to wear one in Tim Hortons, LCBO, Walmart, a local pet store and Canadian Tire... this might help to explain why I haven't been inside a store since February... so many people just don't care - and put others at risk.

#SMH :(

Re: Masks
 

i took great delight in refusing to share an elevator in our building with someone who wasn't wearing a mask.
we were temporarily down to one elevator. I'd waited 5 minutes for the one i was in. I hope she had to wait another half an hour

Re: Masks
 

That's it in a nutshell - they willfully refuse to acknowledge that a mask is primarily useful to stop the wearer spreading disease, and they frame the entire argument as one of "freedom of choice", or as I prefer to think of it "freedom to be a selfish a-hole". :nod:

Re: Masks
 

we stayed at our condo over the weekend...first time since February. It seemed rather quiet, although security said the building is almost fully occupied. We only saw a handful of people in the building, I was pleased to see that everyone wore masks. I estimate around 60-70% of the people we saw whilst walking around the Harbourfront wore masks.

Re: Masks
 

At least she respected your choice not to share the elevator.

We are using the stairs because people where we are don't care they will just get in the elevator.


AC repair guy wouldnt wear a mask yesterday, but I couldn't refuse entry as proper norice was given for entry and rules dont let tenants refuse entry anymore due to COVID.

Re: Masks
 

I have my doubts about that in my part of Canada. The government missed a trick - they announced it would be mandatory in all premises where the public could be and then backtracked on it the day before.
Now we have a mish-mash of some places that 'encourage' mask wearing and some don't but even the places that do are not enforcing it.

NB has done very well so far, everything was shut down early, travel between here and other provinces was initially very restricted and that prevented covid taking hold. Except for 'patient zero' who initially accepted his irresponsibility but has since denied it, I don't think we've ever had as many as a dozen active cases in the province and we currently have two.

So it's not easy to convince people to take precautions with hardly any cases but they don't seem to realise the lack of an outbreak (patient zero aside) is precisely because of those previous precautions. They just hear of the occasional new case which is always travel related and 9 times out of 10 it's a TFW testing positive during a period of supervised quarantine anyway.

It should have been mask wearing when they originally said so, instead I worry that those of 'misguided beliefs or sheer bloody-mindedness' will have grown in numbers making resistance more difficult to counter if and when the time comes to do so.
Stores-wise I've only been to Giant Tiger and Lawtons (big pharmacy chain like Shoppers DM) and both are more relaxed than a month ago. Little or no mask wearing, people only paying attention at the checkouts; the only place where floor markings are observed. GT has even removed the hand and cart sanitising spray from the entrance. The 'masks at the door' availability is now well inside the store and looks like part of the display rather than an invitation to bloody well put one on.

Re: Masks
 

I noticed the Supermarkets not long sanitize the trolleys, seems odd, and the diy option seems to have gone. Still see masks in stores.

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The stores I go to were doing such a bad job of sanitizing they may as well not even do it, which they no longer do from what I can tell, plus it made them have to have extra staffing, and the last thing grocery stores want is more staff. They even took away the COVID pay they had been providing their employees for several months, even though we have more cases now than we did then, apparently the hazard is lower now.

I feel bad for min wage workers, being shoved to the front lines with little PPE and no respect from the general public at all.

Re: Masks
 

Yep i agree. Went to West Kelowna Walmart for prescription collection today, first time for a week or so. I knew the mask requirement so put it on and followed woman into store who didn't have one on. She asks the guy with his counter where something was and he directed her. No mention at all about her missing mask. Once inside i notice that quite a lot of people were not wearing them. I also noticed that it appears only the left side doors have a sign about the requirement and it isn't very big. So poor signage and no reminders from door staff and the bloody mindedness of some and its a free for all. Even though i don't like them i kept it on for my short trip. Clearly we aren't seeing spread events in these places as yet anyway and unless there is a BC wide mandate i cannot see anything changing.

Re: Masks
 

Interesting because in the US seems to be taken much more seriously yet the media implies that the US is much worse than elsewhere. Every Walmart I have been in has limited access, signs etc and have not seen anyone without one.

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I agree - I was surprised to see back in the summer, that compliance with mask wearing ordinances/ recommendations in the US was much higher, like 2-3 times higher, than in the UK.

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I’m really not liking masks I haven’t worn one yet and I’m an electrician and work on site with maybe 100 other people, in the U.K. still and there is 0 social distancing on site and nobody wearing masks. I’ve worked with asbestos from time to time and you have to wear a face fit mask something like what firefighters wear with a P3 filter and have to be clean shaven so it fits your skin properly the pieces of cloth people are wearing has huge gape at each side and above the nose under the chin etc.

there’s a couple of hand sanitizer stations that’s it. In the beginning U.K. government said wearing masks wasn’t required due to the lack of scientific evidence they work and in the U.K. they said there was 900+ people dying per day at the height of it. Now 5 months later and down to like 5-10 deaths and less per day. And we have to wear masks I just think that speaks for itself.
Not only that but the U.K. government said oh let’s eat out to help out so they pay half your bill on a meal only if you eat in at a restaurant. What a good idea that was put everyone in a small room with 0 masks on. But I go to Asda that’s massive compared to the restaurant and I have to wear a mask. I could actually social distance in Asda it’s that big. But not in the restaurant.
it all just seems ridiculous when they do idiot moves like that it makes you have 0 faith in their advice and capabilities to lead.

im more scared of the powers governments have given themselves during Covid. And the quickly developed vaccine that normally take years to develop will countries make it mandatory?

Re: Masks
 

The idea is that the mask prevents the sneezes and coughs of the wearer from flying around too much. It's purpose is the opposite of the filtered ones.
It's widely accepted that there was a shortage of PPE in the beginning and the priority was given to NHS and other front line workers. Discouraging people from buying them all up was to protect the limited supplies.
A few weeks ago the UK was having about 500 new cases daily. More recently it was regularly at 900. New cases have been just short of 3000 for five consecutive days.

It may be that treatments have been more effective than they were to begin with. Perhaps there was a burst among the most vulnerable and they are now taking and receiving better care. But the infections are currently running at six times the rate they were a month ago. It's no time to be complacent.

Re: Masks
 

:goodpost: To which I would add, I am, as per Bow21, sceptical about the competence of governments, UK, US and elsewhere, and that is why I started wearing a mask before they were mandated, before they were recommended, before that when there was no recommendation to wear a mask, and actually before even that when, for some inexplicable reason (acknowledging Bristol's partial explanation about not diverting supplies of masks needed by healthcare workers) it was recommended that you do not wear a mask.

When governments are failing us, now is the time to take personal responsibility for ourselves, not assume the governments of the western world have our best interests at heart, when they clearly do not!

Indeed, but I smell negative/ "tough guy" peer pressure - "We're construction workers, we don't need no stinkin' masks!" ..... Until they do, then one infected person will infect half the site, three or four will end up in hospital and poor ol' Bob, who had a history of bronchitis, will die. :(

Re: Masks
 

I managed to find something I posted some time back. This article is either 5th April or 4th May :lol:
Abrupt reversals on face mask policy raise new questions