Masks are effective at mitigating transmission when they are used properly and most people are not using them properly. They need to fit to the face without gaping at the sides, cover the mouth and nose, and be changed when they become damp from your breath or contaminated. Masks are contaminated when you touch them so if you adjust the mask without using fresh gloves you have contaminated the mask. The same applies with gloves, most people are not using them properly. Neither masks nor gloves are designed to be worn for extended periods of time without being changed and concurrently engaging in contamination minimizing behaviors. You can’t just put on a mask & go on your merry way, that just gives you an entirely false sense of security. The action of wearing a mask is NOT enough to prevent airborne transmission. Minimize your contact with others where possible, wash your hands twice as much as you think you have to, and use barrier PPE the way it is designed to be used. 

@laura__palmer maybe we should also train our daughters to cope with a man threatening to punch them or brandishing a knife at them. Until it escalates and they become just another DV statistic he hasn’t ‘actually done anything but give them lip’. Are you suggesting threats of violence should be ignored in general or just threats of violence towards groups of people that don’t include you? Which groups of people are ok to verbally abuse and threaten? How about rape threats against nurses? Would you tell a nurse ‘it’s just words, it’s part of the job’ ? Would you tell a teacher backed into a corner by a parent brandishing a chair ‘don’t over-react it’s not like she actually broke your skull with the chair she just said she would’ ? 

There are a lot of mixed messages about abuse on this website. Articles like this that gloss over the fact that the boy in question made threats towards someone, and countless other articles that talk about how domestic violence is a process that escalates over time and there should be zero tolerance for abuse. Aboriginal women and children suffer from domestic abuse at a devastating rate but here is an Aboriginal teenager making threats towards another person but let’s ignore that part. Are you saying some people are allowed to threaten violence and others are obligated to accept it? If he threatened to punch his girlfriend in the jaw would you tell her ‘It’s just talk, he’s just angry, be the bigger person’ ? Should the police officer have kicked his legs from under him? No. But don’t try to make a helpless victim hero narrative about a teenager who already thinks they have the right to threaten violence towards others.