Poll: Do you still wear a mask in shops?

[Arborbridge]

I went for what turned out to be the least popular option - it depends what other people are doing. My reasoning is that although I am not worried myself, I realise other people still are. Therefore, if I go into a supermarket where there is a number of people wearing masks, I do the same in deference to them.

Conversely, I went to a ballet event recently where the "standing instructions" were to wear masks, but I didn't. Virtually no one else was, even the official staff, so it seemed pointless to stick to the management request. I did also ask if they prefer I wore a mask, and they shrugged and said it's up to me.

Tube trains if crowded, perhaps. The incidence of mask wearing now is getting very low in Town, even on rush hour tubes.

BTW, my wife caught Covid a few weeks ago and this resulted in no more than cold symptoms. Despite her breathing all over me, so to speak, I didn't catch it.

Arb.

[pje16]

I went for what turned out to be the least popular option - it depends what other people are doing. My reasoning is that although I am not worried myself, I realise other people still are. Therefore, if I go into a supermarket where there is a number of people wearing masks, I do the same in deference to them.

Conversely, I went to a ballet event recently where the "standing instructions" were to wear masks, but I didn't. Virtually no one else was, even the official staff, so it seemed pointless to stick to the management request. I did also ask if they prefer I wore a mask, and they shrugged and said it's up to me.

Tube trains if crowded, perhaps. The incidence of mask wearing now is getting very low in Town, even on rush hour tubes.

BTW, my wife caught Covid a few weeks ago and this resulted in no more than cold symptoms. Despite her breathing all over me, so to speak, I didn't catch it.

Arb.

I still wear a mask in supermarkets and on TFL, (not at the moment as I am temporarily unable to walk)
but each to their own and it's impressive to find someone with that great deferential consideration
Good Man

[Hallucigenia]

Another new preprint review on long Covid in the Lancet :

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... id=4099429

And an article about long Covid in kids, which isn't really well characterised at all other than it seems to be a bit different to adults :
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/06/heal ... index.html

It has kept him from staying at school all day. He has to limit how much he plays baseball with the other neighborhood kids.... Studies suggest that between 2% and 10% of those children will develop long Covid, but the number may be larger. Many parents may not know their child has long Covid, or the child's pediatrician hasn't recognized it as such....Some are coming in with heart failure after asymptomatic Covid infections...What's striking to me is that it usually occurs about four weeks after infection, and infection can be really asymptomatic, which is really startling....
His pulmonary function test and EKG came back normal. "The Covid clinic said this is very common in kids with long Covid. Sometimes, all the tests come back normal...Everything 'looks normal,' but the kids aren't functioning like normal...Adults' problems tend to be more obvious, Edwards said, because they are more likely to have organ dysfunction that shows up on tests....Doctors are still trying to understand why long Covid happens this way in children....

At Sexson Tejte's clinic in Texas, children tend to fall into a few categories. Some have fatigue, brain fog and severe headaches, "to the point where the some kids aren't able to go to school, grades are failing, those types of issues," she said. Another group has cardiac issues like heart palpitations, chest pains and dizziness, especially when they go back to their regular activities...

Energy has become such a problem that Jack can't go to school for a full day. His parents started him back with one to two hours a day and have gradually increased it to about 5½ hours a day."We've been trying to bump him up to six, but it hasn't worked so far," ...

I've got two kids in wheelchairs after having had Covid who were never in wheelchairs before. There's one kid on crutches. I've got a kid who lost the use of her hands

[Hallucigenia]

ONS today - 1 in 35 have Covid, 1.8 million report they have long Covid.

More than two-thirds of those with self-reported long COVID (67%, or 1.2 million people) said their symptoms adversely affected their day-to-day activities. Nearly a fifth (19%, or 346,000 people) said their symptoms limited them a lot.

The most common symptom reported was fatigue, experienced by 51% of those with self-reported long COVID. This was followed by shortness of breath (33%), loss of sense of smell (26%), and difficulty concentrating (23%)...

Among triple vaccinated adults, the odds of reporting long COVID were higher following infection with the Omicron BA.2 variant than the BA.1 variant.

[Itsallaguess]

More than two-thirds of those with self-reported long COVID (67%, or 1.2 million people) said their symptoms adversely affected their day-to-day activities. Nearly a fifth (19%, or 346,000 people) said their symptoms limited them a lot.

The most common symptom reported was fatigue, experienced by 51% of those with self-reported long COVID. This was followed by shortness of breath (33%), loss of sense of smell (26%), and difficulty concentrating (23%)...

Among triple vaccinated adults, the odds of reporting long COVID were higher following infection with the Omicron BA.2 variant than the BA.1 variant.

I wonder if it will ever be possible to differentiate between the physiological and psychological effects of the COVID disease itself, and the medium to long-term effects in both of those areas of over two years of severe and debilitating social and work-related restrictions that we've all generally had to go through?

I think what I'm asking is whether it might be possible that a substantial number of 'long-COVID' symptoms might be more to do with the difficulties of being asked to get back on the 'life-bike' after being forced to sit off it for so long, rather than being the after-effects of COVID itself...

I am absolutely sure that those that are suffering with 'long COVID symptom's are feeling unwell in ways that they didn't experience before this pandemic, but I do wonder that if we're not able to properly differentiate between the above two possible root-causes, then if we look to maintain behavioural restrictions to cope with what we think might always be a set of post-viral symptoms, we may actually in some cases actually exacerbate any potential underlying 'restrictions-based' symptoms themselves...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Hallucigenia]

More than two-thirds of those with self-reported long COVID (67%, or 1.2 million people) said their symptoms adversely affected their day-to-day activities. Nearly a fifth (19%, or 346,000 people) said their symptoms limited them a lot.

The most common symptom reported was fatigue, experienced by 51% of those with self-reported long COVID. This was followed by shortness of breath (33%), loss of sense of smell (26%), and difficulty concentrating (23%)...

Among triple vaccinated adults, the odds of reporting long COVID were higher following infection with the Omicron BA.2 variant than the BA.1 variant.

I wonder if it will ever be possible to differentiate between the physiological and psychological effects of the COVID disease itself, and the medium to long-term effects in both of those areas of over two years of severe and debilitating social and work-related restrictions that we've all generally had to go through?

I think what I'm asking is whether it might be possible that a substantial number of 'long-COVID' symptoms might be more to do with the difficulties of being asked to get back on the 'life-bike' after being forced to sit off it for so long, rather than being the after-effects of COVID itself...

I am absolutely sure that those that are suffering with 'long COVID symptom's are feeling unwell in ways that they didn't experience before this pandemic, but I do wonder that if we're not able to properly differentiate between the above two possible root-causes, then if we look to maintain behavioural restrictions to cope with what we think might always be a set of post-viral symptoms, we may actually in some cases actually exacerbate any potential underlying 'restrictions-based' symptoms themselves...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Sure that may be a factor - but I'd note that in general lockdown seems to have had far less of an impact on people than was first feared/hyped, rates of suicide and self-harm stayed the same for instance. And the ONS breaks down long Covid by when people got their Covid :
Of people with self-reported long COVID, 556,000 (31%) first had (or suspected they had) COVID-19 before Alpha became the main variant; this figure was 249,000 (14%) in the Alpha period, 446,000 (25%) in the Delta period, and 438,000 (24%) in the Omicron period.

Other ONS documents seem to treat the pre-alpha phase up to the end of May 2020, and and the alpha wave from September 2020 to the end of April 2021. Obviously it's a bit fuzzy but if you say that pre-alpha and alpha takes you up to the end of lockdowns a year ago, they are responsible for half the current reported long Covid, but half the long Covid cases happened in people who were infected after the end of all lockdowns.

Obviously one factor is testing - the fact that around 1/3 of infections are aymptomatic and there will be many like me who had bad flu symptoms in that initial phase but never got tested to confirm it (but I've had no sense of smell since, the assumption must be that I'm a case). The modellers have different opinions on how many were infected in that first wave - IHME say 3.3m, YYG 4.7m, LSHTM 4.3m and Imperial 8.1m, compared to an official tally of 0.25m. Of the ones who modelled through to the present, IHME reckon that (prealpha+alpha) account for 25% of the total, Imperial reckon 55%.

And then you have to allow for the fact that the delta and omicron waves happened in a population that was largely vaccinated which reduces your chances of getting long Covid, and there's some datato support eg omicron's long Covidness is repressed more readily by vaccinations than previous variants.

So it's complicated, and the error bars are massive. But I think there's enough to say that from a high-level, hand-waving perspective, the null hypothesis is that long Covid is caused by getting Covid rather than lockdowns.

[Julian]

...
Obviously one factor is testing - the fact that around 1/3 of infections are aymptomatic and there will be many like me who had bad flu symptoms in that initial phase but never got tested to confirm it (but I've had no sense of smell since, the assumption must be that I'm a case). The modellers have different opinions on how many were infected in that first wave - IHME say 3.3m, YYG 4.7m, LSHTM 4.3m and Imperial 8.1m, compared to an official tally of 0.25m. Of the ones who modelled through to the present, IHME reckon that (prealpha+alpha) account for 25% of the total, Imperial reckon 55%.
...

Do you think it would be possible at this point to confirm whether you were infected in that initial phase via an N (or any non-S I suppose) SARS-CoV2 antibody test or do you think that the level of any antibodies from your presumed(*) early infection will have contracted so much by now as to be below any reasonable threshold of detection?

(*) Very reasonably presumed given the symptoms at the time and the enduring loss of smell.

- Julian

[Hallucigenia]

Do you think it would be possible at this point to confirm whether you were infected in that initial phase via an N (or any non-S I suppose) SARS-CoV2 antibody test or do you think that the level of any antibodies from your presumed(*) early infection will have contracted so much by now as to be below any reasonable threshold of detection?

(*) Very reasonably presumed given the symptoms at the time and the enduring loss of smell.

I actually paid for an antibody test (from Testing for All, it was a Merck one IIRC) as part of my risk assessment for Christmas 2020. And it was negative. I was probably three months too late anyway, but having done similar tests myself in a lab - from sample prep to final result - I was cringing a bit at how imperfect it was preping a sample at home to send through the Christmas post.

And then I binned Christmas anyway, a week before Johnson cancelled it for everyone, as I just didn't like the way the numbers looked, something felt wrong and we now know it was the rise of alpha. Those were hard conversations with the family, I even had to deploy the "You do remember I used to work on infectious diseases?" line.

I guess you might be able to do something clever with genetic analyses of individual immune cells that might be able to distinguish a subtle signature between a Wuhan infection two years ago and AZ+Pfizer vaccinations last year, but it would be bleeding edge stuff taking man-weeks of lab time and £10k's probably.

So in the real world - no, especially since I've had three jabs and who knows what asymptomatic infections since.

[DiamondEcho]

Yes I still wear masks in shops, also in close proximity of others outdoors, on crowded streets, transport etc. I have ever since this started, in what, Spring last year? It's a simple and basic measure for me. I've been formally diagnosed as near-death before, I reeeally don't want to go there again.
I've become used to recent increasingly 'Are you paranoid or what?' looks and even questions from passing strangers outdoors, but I ignore them. I know my own health status incl 3 jabs so far, and experience, they don't, and it's nothing to do with them.

Then this weekend I tested (and retested) positive for the first time and am now in isolation, Day#2 in. Quite a shocker, 'HTH did this happen to me, despite ALL the precautions I've always taken?'...

ps. I feel lucky so far, it feels little more than a head-cold excl. of course the +ve covid tests I'm producing! But I'm monitoring very closely.

[servodude]

Then this weekend I tested (and retested) positive for the first time and am now in isolation, Day#2 in. Quite a shocker, 'HTH did this happen to me, despite ALL the precautions I've always taken?'...

That's a bummer!

The HTH thing though is simply because at this stage in the pandemic with the variants that are around ("more infectious than measles" not being something I ever thought I'd hear) wearing masks at an indvidual level, as and when one believes the risk to be raised, is little more than performative


That's not to say it can't help at all; folk were saved in wars by bullets hitting cigarette cases
And masks are a VERY GOOD idea for anyone who has a sniffle and a sense of common decency - or if you're going to be with someone you want to protect

But unfortunately using them in the way that's been drilled in (for self protection) doesn't really give the user the degree of protection in the current environment that might be hoped for (or commensurate with the sense of protection they might afford)
- would be a different story if "everyone" was using them (but that's not where we find ourselves)

I wish you a very speedy recovery

- sd

[richfool]

Yes I still wear masks in shops, also in close proximity of others outdoors, on crowded streets, transport etc. I have ever since this started, in what, Spring last year? It's a simple and basic measure for me. I've been formally diagnosed as near-death before, I reeeally don't want to go there again.
I've become used to recent increasingly 'Are you paranoid or what?' looks and even questions from passing strangers outdoors, but I ignore them. I know my own health status incl 3 jabs so far, and experience, they don't, and it's nothing to do with them.

Then this weekend I tested (and retested) positive for the first time and am now in isolation, Day#2 in. Quite a shocker, 'HTH did this happen to me, despite ALL the precautions I've always taken?'...

ps. I feel lucky so far, it feels little more than a head-cold excl. of course the +ve covid tests I'm producing! But I'm monitoring very closely.

You have my sympathies.

Yes, similarly for me, in that I wear a mask when in proximity to others and in shops etc, and if the street is busy, and would if I took public transport. I have done so since mid February 2020 when and upon returning from the Far East, (where at that time 80% of the people in the street there where wearing masks). I was the only one wearing a mask in my Doctor's surgery on or about the 20th February 2020 (when my GP told me it wasn't really necessary). A few months later when attending for my flu jab, everyone had to wear one, and still does, and my GP wears a plastic apron, gloves and a mask.

I am shortly to have an operation and the hospital has told me to avoid other people and wear a mask, if I go near other people, for the 14 days before my operation and to self-isolate for the last 3 days. I am happy to do those things. A significant risk to me is from my wife and step-daughter, who both work (I am retired) and who in fact both caught it from the care home where they work, a couple of months ago. We had a bit of a ritual then, with them isolating in separate rooms and me catering from the kitchen and putting their food outside their room doors... but I managed to avoid getting it. My operation has been postponed twice which has extended my period of semi isolation.

My brother (and I suspect my sister) was one of the "better to get it and move on, then we all develop herd immunity", types, and would mix with other people and frequent pubs. Then he and my sister (separately) caught covid a couple of months ago. My brother has come through it OK, but my sister seems to be suffering from long covid symptoms and after almost 12 weeks is suffering from acute tiredness.

So I am happy to continue to wear a mask in busy or crowded places (though I try to avoid such places) and in shops AND sanitise my hands when entering and leaving such places, despite any looks or comments. Yes, I expect that wearing a mask probably protects others more than myself and thus, ideally, it would be better if others wore masks, but unfortunately I see too many selfish, short-sighted and self indulgent people these days, who insist on exercising some perceived right or freedom to do as they will or wish, even if it might be to the detriment of others. So I do what I can to protect myself and my family.

Hope you recover quickly and without issues.

[Julian]

Then this weekend I tested (and retested) positive for the first time and am now in isolation, Day#2 in. Quite a shocker, 'HTH did this happen to me, despite ALL the precautions I've always taken?'...

…
The HTH thing though is simply because at this stage in the pandemic with the variants that are around ("more infectious than measles" not being something I ever thought I'd hear) wearing masks at an indvidual level, as and when one believes the risk to be raised, is little more than performative


That's not to say it can't help at all; folk were saved in wars by bullets hitting cigarette cases
And masks are a VERY GOOD idea for anyone who has a sniffle and a sense of common decency - or if you're going to be with someone you want to protect

But unfortunately using them in the way that's been drilled in (for self protection) doesn't really give the user the degree of protection in the current environment that might be hoped for (or commensurate with the sense of protection they might afford)
- would be a different story if "everyone" was using them (but that's not where we find ourselves)

I wish you a very speedy recovery

- sd

I haven’t seen any well controlled experiments so I’m only working on a hunch but right now I think I might meet you half way on the mask situation in the face of the various Omicron strains. I wonder if the situation wrt an individual protecting themselves might be better characterised as “at least N95 if you want any reasonable level of protection” as opposed to any mask being ‘little more than performative”.

And if DiamondEcho says “but I was wearing an N95” then I’ll make a tactical retreat to “at least N99”. If DiamondEcho then says he was wearing an N99 then OK, I’m a bit stuffed, but maybe my last stand could be “but you need eye covering as well” . Essentially though I agree, I suspect that a decent level of protection by masking has at the very least got a lot harder to achieve.

DiamondEcho - best wishes from me too for a speedy recovery.

- Julian

[richfool]

I haven’t seen any well controlled experiments so I’m only working on a hunch but right now I think I might meet you half way on the mask situation in the face of the various Omicron strains. I wonder if the situation wrt an individual protecting themselves might be better characterised as “at least N95 if you want any reasonable level of protection” as opposed to any mask being ‘little more than performative”.

And if DiamondEcho says “but I was wearing an N95” then I’ll make a tactical retreat to “at least N99”. If DiamondEcho then says he was wearing an N99 then OK, I’m a bit stuffed, but maybe my last stand could be “but you need eye covering as well” . Essentially though I agree, I suspect that a decent level of protection by masking has at the very least got a lot harder to achieve.

DiamondEcho - best wishes from me too for a speedy recovery.

Couldn't, DE could have caught the virus by physical contact? Early in the pandemic contact with contaminated surfaces was bandied around as a very likely way of catching it, though that (possible cause) seems to have gone quiet of late, so I don't know how viable or likely that is.

[servodude]

I haven’t seen any well controlled experiments so I’m only working on a hunch but right now I think I might meet you half way on the mask situation in the face of the various Omicron strains. I wonder if the situation wrt an individual protecting themselves might be better characterised as “at least N95 if you want any reasonable level of protection” as opposed to any mask being ‘little more than performative”.

And if DiamondEcho says “but I was wearing an N95” then I’ll make a tactical retreat to “at least N99”. If DiamondEcho then says he was wearing an N99 then OK, I’m a bit stuffed, but maybe my last stand could be “but you need eye covering as well” . Essentially though I agree, I suspect that a decent level of protection by masking has at the very least got a lot harder to achieve.

DiamondEcho - best wishes from me too for a speedy recovery.

Couldn't, DE could have caught the virus by physical contact? Early in the pandemic contact with contaminated surfaces was bandied around as a very likely way of catching it, though that (possible cause) seems to have gone quiet of late, so I don't know how viable or likely that is.

Yes. Though it still needs to go through the respiratory system; it's partly why they're strict about decent mask hygiene in places where it is considered important/worthwhile (don't fiddle with it, make sure it fits well and replace it regularly with very clean hands - sanitize before you open the packet, etc). That's how we have to do it for hospital visits; and folk still catch it there

But if you took that care putting on a fresh mask before you left home and kept it on till you got back you'd probably have a decent level of protection from it. Pulling one out your pocket when you think it's worth it doesn't seem to stack up anymore; even though that's how the advice progressed, and we go used to behaving.
This is now just too bloody insidious
They used to take all sorts of precautions dealing with measles patients (avoiding the room for hours, wiping down, seeing them at the end of the day) and this is worse.

So I agree with Julian that a fresh well fitted N99/95 mask provides a decent level of protection - if it's on your face when you're not in a knowingly safe location; that's a lot harder than it sounds

-sd

[DiamondEcho]

That's a bummer! The HTH thing though is simply because at this stage in the pandemic with the variants that are around ("more infectious than measles" not being something I ever thought I'd hear) wearing masks at an indvidual level, as and when one believes the risk to be raised, is little more than performative
That's not to say it can't help at all; folk were saved in wars by bullets hitting cigarette cases
And masks are a VERY GOOD idea for anyone who has a sniffle and a sense of common decency - or if you're going to be with someone you want to protect
But unfortunately using them in the way that's been drilled in (for self protection) doesn't really give the user the degree of protection in the current environment that might be hoped for (or commensurate with the sense of protection they might afford)
- would be a different story if "everyone" was using them (but that's not where we find ourselves)
I wish you a very speedy recovery - sd

Oh I hear you and have heard it before. Some close family (solid medical backgrounds) observing early on there is no point wearing masks/gloves as I 'wouldn't use them properly'. But if the simple measure stops me say holding a hand-rail in public and then scratching my face it's bonus enough. If it reduces viral load, why not. The other thing is, like supposed 'Japanese germ-freaks', office workers or tourists here in masks, in fact that's to protect others and not the wearer. They have the germ, you don't, yet. Tokyo is where I first understood and used them, 30 years ago now. Next time someone challenges me here perhaps I should tell them 'I have Covid and this is to protect you from it: If you want a chat about it should I take it off? '.

I went to hospital today to receive a supplemental infusion of anti-viral drugs. Expressing my shock at the test result I observed that reported cases are now so low that almost no one wears masks etc., however I'm more comfortable just continuing to do so for now. The doctor replied, cases aren't going down, reported cases are. The long/short seems to be that now there is no longer 'free' testing ==> there is much less testing and reporting. Which leads me to wonder if there might be an unspoken aim to reach herd-immunity into the summer... hmmm.
Thanks SD, yep recuperating well and feeling positive....er...

[DiamondEcho]

Yes, similarly for me, in that I wear a mask when in proximity to others and in shops etc, and if the street is busy, and would if I took public transport. I have done so since mid February 2020 when and upon returning from the Far East, (where at that time 80% of the people in the street there where wearing masks). I was the only one wearing a mask in my Doctor's surgery on or about the 20th February 2020 (when my GP told me it wasn't really necessary). A few months later when attending for my flu jab, everyone had to wear one, and still does, and my GP wears a plastic apron, gloves and a mask. [edit]

Thanks Richfool. Yes I observed the above 'flip-flop' at the time too, it's not required/doh you'll do it all wrong anyway and then shortly after the government were requiring them to enter just about any building. Best of luck with your operation!

[DiamondEcho]

I haven’t seen any well controlled experiments so I’m only working on a hunch but right now I think I might meet you half way on the mask situation in the face of the various Omicron strains. I wonder if the situation wrt an individual protecting themselves might be better characterised as “at least N95 if you want any reasonable level of protection” as opposed to any mask being ‘little more than performative”.
And if DiamondEcho says “but I was wearing an N95” then I’ll make a tactical retreat to “at least N99”. If DiamondEcho then says he was wearing an N99 then OK, I’m a bit stuffed, but maybe my last stand could be “but you need eye covering as well” . Essentially though I agree, I suspect that a decent level of protection by masking has at the very least got a lot harder to achieve.

Thanks Julian for your wishes. Can I just observe though that any of the masks you mention out in public would help to stop me rubbing potentially grubby hands on my face etc. Seems like a sufficient starting bonus right there.

[DiamondEcho]

Couldn't, DE could have caught the virus by physical contact? Early in the pandemic contact with contaminated surfaces was bandied around as a very likely way of catching it, though that (possible cause) seems to have gone quiet of late, so I don't know how viable or likely that is.

Last week I briefly visited a shire town from London. On the way back it was hot and I took my mask off when walking through Kings X station to the tube. I wasn't close to others, but there were a lot of people. I then continued on the tube home with my mask back on as usual. If I were to put money on the infection source that was the most relaxed I was during that whole trip.

[Hallucigenia]

Couldn't, DE could have caught the virus by physical contact? Early in the pandemic contact with contaminated surfaces was bandied around as a very likely way of catching it, though that (possible cause) seems to have gone quiet of late, so I don't know how viable or likely that is.

It's now reckoned to be really quite unlikely for SARS2 - not impossible, but rare. There's actually quite an interesting story behind why it took so long to recognise the importance of aerosol transmission - it's a complex mix of people "fighting the last war" against viruses that were more surface-transmitted, the jargon used by medics and aerosol physicists being different so they just talked past each other, and misreading some of the early data that led to the conclusion that large droplets were the main transmission route.

I still open train doors with my elbow, and spray/wash my hands after I've been touching surfaces I don't know the history of, but you should mostly worry about aerosols. Which means masks and ventilation/filtration.

Expressing my shock at the test result I observed that reported cases are now so low that almost no one wears masks etc., however I'm more comfortable just continuing to do so for now. The doctor replied, cases aren't going down, reported cases are. The long/short seems to be that now there is no longer 'free' testing ==> there is much less testing and reporting.

The least bad source of data is the weekly ONS prevalence survey, which currently estimates that 1 in 45 have it in England, having been as common as 1 in 13 in early April, rather than the dashboard we've all been watching hitherto.

Infection rates get complicated, but it's no bad rule-of-thumb to think that if you're in a poorly-ventilated space with 45 people, then one of them is infected. Ditto if you go into two successive spaces with 23 people - changing from one train to another for instance. With better ventilation you can relax a bit, but the ventilation on the concourses of a typical train station isn't so great that you can ignore the fact there might be 4500 people there and so 100 infected people, so I'd still wear a mask on the concourses.

(yeah, I know some of the infected will be at home in bed, conversely people going through train stations are probably exposed to more people in their daily lives than the average person. As I say, it's just a mental model.)

[88V8]

I was at a concert Sunday, quite a high churchy space but no specific ventilation afaik. Most of the time I wore my mask, but even though the audience and the performers were mostly oldies, few others did.
At Waitrose, masking has plumetted.

It's dropped out of the news, so it must be over, seems to be the attitude.

V8