Bouleversee wrote:They are only one voice. I have heard others, including WHO, saying that it is essential to wear a mask in confined places.
Were the WHO talking specifically about the situation in Britain, or generally globally?
As the article I referred to pointed out, the situation in Britain is somewhat different to other countries because the cases have been front loaded from the relaxation of restrictions in summer, that even if everyone in Britain caught covid now, the number of hospitalisations would not be so great.
Bouleversee wrote:You may not care if you are one of those who are still dying as a result of a covid infection...
As I already mentioned, I've already had both jabs, and will be getting the booster as soon as available. However, even before the vaccines, I'm already in the lower risk age range, so it wouldn't be rational for me to live in fear of being 'one of those dying'. Maybe I will be very unlucky and end up one of those dying, even having had the vaccines, but equally I could be hit by a bus, or die in a fire. We have to keep risk in perspective, life isn't risk free. We can't let the fear of dying stop us from living. We've already lost enough months of our lives from really living, with all of the restrictions.
Bouleversee wrote:... but for the sake of those who would rather not and may not have any/sufficient antibody immunity, please wear a mask. It would stop you passing on to the vulnerable sny infection (what is today's rate?) you might have acquired by close, unprotected contact. Surely not too much to ask?
Sorry, but no, this is getting ridiculous. We are transitioning to covid being endemic.
There have always been people vulnerable to existing endemic infectious diseases, but we don't go around wearing masks to prevent spreading flu or colds to protect them.
Where were you nannying people into wearing masks in previous winters to protect the vulnerable from flu?
It's already been established by research that catching covid generates a similar immunity protection (against future infections) compared to the vaccine.
Other diseases like colds and flu don't overly bother us because we get repeatedly exposed to them, so our immune systems stay 'topped up'.
If we keep hiding from covid, then we're going to be dependent on boosters every few months in perpetuity.
Also, research has shown that the immunity from catching covid is broader than from the vaccine (not unexpected because the vaccine only targets a small subset of the virus, whereas infection exposes your immune system to the whole virus).
So protection generated from an infection could provide better ongoing protection against new variants.
So there is a reasonable argument that letting the virus spread now that people have had the vaccines, could help 'bed in' societal tolerance to the virus, helping us build up tolerance to covid like we have tolerance to colds and flus.
We already find ourselves in a preferable position now compared to other countries precisely because we had greater virus spread before other countries, and then relaxed restrictions before them. That's why we find ourselves in a better position now, going into winter, than the rest of Europe.
I've also pointed out (with references, but I'm not going to go digging them out again because I doubt it will change anyone's mind anyway, but if you really are interested just google), that scientists already accept that there have been a number of cases of cancer being cured without medical intervention, but in all cases it appears to be related to the patient having experienced a serious infection. So much so, that apparently deliberately infecting people was actually used for a few years in the last century. It's therefore quite plausible that low levels of infection might (just might, not yet proven though) be helping our bodies combat very, very early stage cancers before they take proper hold and get noticed. It's perhaps no coincidence that rates of cancer increased as our lives have become 'cleaner'.
In general, it's pretty well established that the immune system is in many ways like a muscle - if you don't exercise it, it becomes weaker.
So all in all, sorry, no, it's getting ridiculous all this insistence on greater enforcement of mask wearing and such like when covid cases have been moving side ways for a few months now.
We need to get back to living with - and coming into contact with - infectious diseases and letting our immune systems do what they've evolved over thousands of years to do very well indeed.
If we continue to go around paranoid, wearing masks, washing our hands with disinfectant all the time, then our immune systems will go the way of the muscles of an athlete who stops training and just sits in front of the TV all day.
Is that what you want for your immune system?