In New York we are required to wear masks indoors and anywhere that you can’t socially distance. so if I’m taking a walk and there’s nobody around I don’t need to be wearing a mask but I do need to put it on if I pass by a group of people that I can’t stay six feet away from. New York has very straightforward guidelines oh, but the rest of the states it’s a bit of a shitshow in some places
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In Rome, in public places and companies, stores, we are expected to wear masks. Social distancing is required for both indoor and outdoor venues like restaurants and bars. Restaurant owners halve seating capability, and many restaurants, bars may not open up at all, as well as many hotels , since not many tourists are around and staff and general expenses may not be’ compensated. Concerts and football games are not allowed , although concerts may be elsewhere in the country. Some Italians are asking for the end of lockdown measures rather than the continuation of national current partial opening policies.
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darinfan, it’s all crazy here, I agree.
Let’s just look after ourselves and each other as best we can. I do not believe we are going to get much sense / consistency from the powers that be so that’s challenging for sure.
The lockdown was indeed ‘easier’ in some ways, more clear-cut anyway. Though some lost it completely in that time and I can understand that.
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I agree that the inconsistencies are both confusing and dangerous. Masks create a barrier that helps keep ones exhaling contained. This is not a new discovery…many of us learnt the benefit of masks as Hawkeye performed many brilliant surgeries on the educational show way back called MASH and he always wore a mask!
There is a growing distrust in those who have been trusted with our health because they speak to us from both sides of their unmasked or sometimes masked mouths. In Canada, we were first told that we were not capable of wearing a mask safely so it was better without…until masks became available and we were then taught how to do masks…but only if we sing kiddy jingles while washing our hands.
It is very common for government to “dumb down” everything because, well, often society needs it!
Many of our stores have removed the hand sanitizer stations from the entrances and yesterday I saw unmasked people with winter gloves on touching everything in the produce aisle…sniffing the pears to see if they are ripe and putting them back.
Who knows where this will end…in the U.S. they might have the right to shoot the unmasked if they feel threatened!
A Rambling I will go…!
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Hey Stoney. I was planning to reply to this earlier and it vanished! Straightforward guidelines based on common sense are what we all need!
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We do at least still have the sanitiser stations.
I think a big mistake here in the UK has been doing away with the daily press briefings. At least they reiterated information, and allowed people to be reminded each day how many were dying or how many new cases there were. Doing away with these conferences basically had the effect of the govt saying “Ok, this isn’t as important anymore.”
My personal favorite is the N99 mask, I do make masks look stylish don’t I?
home cooked food restaurants
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The HEPA respirator is quite stylish also…
Having used these for work, you learn to forcefully take deep breaths. These are actually easy to breath through, but the respirator mask is hot, and makes you sound like Darth Vader.
For me I am more effected by the heat, my nose tends to heat up with erythromyalgia…
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I dare not answer this one as I truly don’t believe it’s based on the science. I’m glad though it’s not classed as face covering in England on its own.
There’s not a lot of rhyme nor reason with Covid 19 though either and of course it’s now heavily politicised. I’ve been ranting at the TV since Saturday night listening to the whinging about having to quarantine on a return from Spain. I can’t for the life of me understand a need to holiday abroad just right now. Maybe next year but just not right now. For me I stick with the rules that are made if I need to engage in situation where I’m told I have to abide by them. Mostly though I simply stay at home and away from others. Or walk my dog given we’ve finally stopped having people ‘go walking’ all over the place when they never did before. My rules are simple. I really don’t want to get this virus as I truly believe I won’t do well with it, for the reasons of crap lungs and the fact I’m overweight. So I don’t really take a lot of notice otherwise. I’ve no wish to go to cinema, get in a taxi, ride on public transport, or go to London to work. I’m extraordinarily lucky I can work from home. I’m extraordinarily lucky the supermarket delivers once a week too.
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Is anyone else having very bizarre dreams since all this started? Always been prone to this & kind of enjoy them, but now it’s every flipping night.
We all have different lives. Nobody escapes some aspect of the pandemic. Family breezed through lockdown, now one of them fears for their job. I can’t understand the desperation to get to a Spanish beach … though perhaps I can if I take a step back: some beaver away at work they hate, saving up all year - the holiday is the beacon of light.
Family member who has had a heart transplant wonders if they will ever safely set foot outside the house again …
If I lived alone I would be desperate by now, I would not be coping. I’d have kicked the TV in by now at the very least.
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I don’t understand the holiday thing either. Seems utterly mad at this time to travel halfway across the country, spend hours in an airport and then in a plane with a mask on, and then sit on a beach with the same colour sand you’ll find at any number of UK destinations! People knew things might change - or they should have known. But, then again, the transport secretary went, too, so who knows.
Oddly, one thing this has made me think is that, when things are back to normal (and I’m sure they will be at some time next year), do the things you want to do, and see the places you want to see, because you never know what might happen!
Sybil, I think it’s easy to think things will never go back to normal - and I do understand the transplant patients thinking that. But the world has been here before, and it’s always gone back to normal then, and so I’m sure it will now.
I was doing some research (unrelated to the virus) a few nights back and I came across this photograph from 1919 in a film fan magazine from the time. It shows cameramen using masks so that they could continue making films at the time of the Spanish flu. It’s just a reminder that we HAVE been here before, and things WILL eventually get better.
And that is my positive message quota for the week!
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I had weird dreams initially. My partner however spends most nights in his dreams ‘fighting imaginary intruders’, sometimes with falling out of bed and indeed trashing his bed. Stress is amazing as to what it can do.
I certainly don’t understand the need for a foreign holiday just right now. I’m just sitting tight waiting for more consequences of the easing up of lockdown to happen. For people to re-learn some lessons and hopefully then plod on a little more rationally each time. I have acquaintances who are perfectly happy ‘coronavirus has gone now’. I simply don’t understand that attitude. The lack of intelligence which promotes such thoughts concerns me greatly as it simply shows we persistently have a long way to go until it has ‘gone away’.
I think we’ve got a couple of years yet to go before a true sense of ‘normality’ returns. I certainly don’t think it will be next year. I think we’ll be doing ‘whack a mole’ for quite some time yet.
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Jon, Can you find a mask that matches your hat?
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Yes, I find respirators hard to wear for any length of time - was using one for asbestos removal years ago and it gets really hot, horrible in the humidity.
Better than when I first started my career though - the procedure was to wait until we’d identified asbestos in the drill holes, THEN tell everyone to put on dust masks. By that stage there were always lots of pretty flakes drifting around in the air (and that was of course before silica dust was considered a carcinogen - the drills were pumping that out merrily without thought). Goodness I sound old!
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There ya go!
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Another option…
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FWIW, here in Montana a face shield is acceptable if you can not wear a mask. ONE or THE OTHER is required period. Shops/stores are mandated to refuse service to anyone over the age 5 not wearing one or the other. No exceptions. There was of course some resistance from the Covidiots but the Governor simply said if you cant’e wear either you are too sick to be out.
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Steve Bullock? Finally, someone with a pair.
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Thats the man. Sorry his presidential campaign failed though it was never expected otherwise. Soon to be Senator Bullock we hope.
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