austin repro at BEAULIEU

[Hedd_Jones]

…But so is venturing out in a 90 year old car with poor brakes, poor lights, poor crash protection and an engine mostly not capable of exceeding 45mph…
You decide what and how much risk you want to take, for yourself and others you might affect by your actions.

LOL, I got 50 out of my 93 year old car this morning on my way into the office I'll have you know.... the propshaft vibrates if I go faster.

As for the rest of it, indeed. The face covering thing is very much seen as 'best practice', and I more than implied it in my first post. Their benefit is as described above and this benefit is very much derived from what can be best described as balance of probabilities. There is very little full scientific data available one way or another. The fact that 90% of the world has recommended them for this purpose suggests some broad agreement from both the scientists and politicians, worldwide.

There is plenty of evidence however that wearing what amonts to a bit of rag, or perhaps a B&Q dustmask over the mornings stubble isnt very good as Personal Protection. And anyone suggesting otherwise really needs to read up on the facts. Though I don't generally do anectotes (well other than the speed bit above), when I wore a simple B&Q dustmask to clean the firebox of my steam roller, my snot went black. Once I upgraded to the B&Q FFP3 jobby, even with out the face fit test, it didnt go black at all. Marvellous. Real life evidence of science.

[Tony Betts]

Accepting the limitations of the effectiveness of masks for airborne protection (but any protection enhancement is good in my books), I think they provide a personal reminder of 'being careful'.

Lots of statistics about how often you touch your face/mouth in an average hour. So if you are wandering around an autojumble touching things many people have touched before you then there has to be a risk that covid (or other viruses) have been transferred to those items. If you are wearing a mask then it must by definition offer a little reminder not to touch your mouth having just rummaged through a box of bits.

So for me it is mask wearing...

Hi andy,

This is why I have hand sanitiser as well

It limits my chances.

Tony.

[Rpm]

Absolutely correct Hedd. what I say, if you can smell someone's fish and chips through your mask, then you can catch CV19. Although wearing a paper face nappy gives you and others a  sense of security.  I still continue wearing face-covering in shops out of respect for others.
Enjoy the day at Beaulieu.
Rpm

[Chris KC]

I don't want to drag this out unnecessarily but I have watched the thinking on face masks with interest. As an employee of a Japanese motor company, for years I have observed the wearing of face masks by Asian colleagues with a certain amount of amusement, the consensus among European colleagues being that it was entirely pointless. A month or two into Covid-19, the WHO told us Asia has been right all along and I ordered a batch for self and family without delay. Yes I'm conscious of the fact that surgical masks/ old socks don't provide much protection for the wearer, but (as others have said) even so they "send a message" and serve as a reminder. I'm not convinced that the UK government has really done all they can. Some months ago I learned that my sister, who lives in Germany, was now required to wear minimum FFP2 mask when out at the shops. I didn't need to think about that very long before following suit. Some of the advice on the Government website (basic symptoms even) is horribly out of date and wasn't that accurate to start with. One thing I hope may come out of this in the longer term is an improvement in the quality of PPE; as has also been said above much of it is barely fit for purpose and unusable in conjunction with other PPE gear. It's small wonder so many don't bother with it. 

Anyway all that aside, stay safe people - it's still out there and those in their golden years are still at considerable risk, vaccinated or not.