So, it’s going to be compulsory to wear masks in shops from 24th July.
OK – probably a good idea.
No – a very good idea.
But there are so many questions –
Why has it taken so long? How many people have become ill or even died due to masks not being compulsory?
If the powers that be have now accepted that it’s a good idea, why wasn’t it made compulsory immediately?
Masks work best when everyone wears them.
But what about retail workers? It appears that it isn’t going to be compulsory for us to wear them. I want to know why not. Are we immune? Or expendable?
You might only come into contact with one retail worker today – a retail worker will come into contact with potentially 100s of customers.
And another thing – I know that masks are intended to protect the other person. I don’t want to be responsible for infecting someone else, by not wearing one. But if masks aren’t compulsory for me, what does that mean? That I can’t be infectious? Or that no-one cares if I infect other people?
And wearing masks isn’t without its problems.
I need to wear glasses all the time, so a mask means that they steam up. Yes, I can cope – but as a designer, working on a computer screen a lot of the time, not being able to see what I’m doing is something of a draw-back.
The basic masks we’re provided with are too big for me. I have to tie a knot in the ear loops to make them tight enough to stay on, let alone tight enough to stop a stray virus.
Yes, it’s better than nothing – I get that. And I’ve started wearing one.
But it also feels like a backward step – I stopped wearing gloves all the time a couple of weeks ago. Again, because I work on a computer all the time, working in gloves (particularly gloves that were inevitably two sizes too big) was very difficult. And the information regarding gloves was very confusing, which didn’t help.
So, I feel like, somewhere along the line, I’ve either been lulled into a false sense of security or been bamboozled into thinking that the glove-wearers and mask-wearers were over-reacting.
I’ve been working without gloves (and without a mask) for quite a while – and it turns out it wasn’t safe. Because, if it was safe, why are people being advised to wear masks now?
I feel let down, confused, and guilty.
Luckily (and I suspect it is pure luck), I don’t feel ill.
How do you feel about masks being made compulsory? Were you wearing them anyway? Do you think it should have happened ages ago?
Scroll all the way down to Follow, Share, Like or Comment on this. And check out my ‘Sixty and Me’ badge.
I always reply to Comments from nice people.
