We've just returned from a week in the Norf, and could but not fail to notice that pubs are taking COVID regulations much more seriously than they are in the Sarf, or at least my part of Kent. Four of the seven pubs visited had some form of measures,from spacing of tables, table service, meeting at the door,to the full temperature testing routine.
Personally, I was appreciative of this, as it hasn't gone away,immunity seems to be declining, and we havn't had our booster yet.
Incidentally, people generally in the country towns that we visited seemed to be using masks and distancing much more than round here.
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
I have been to a random selection of pubs between Exmouth and Scarborough over the last month and came across very few with anything resembling serious measures. A few still have perspex screens at the bar (largely ignored), one or two were table service only and hardly any staff wore a mask. Some still clearly have increased table spacing but thankfully pretty well all the silly one way systems have disappeared. Just one was asking for contact details.
On leaving the bar, I felt a strong blow to the back of my head. Turning round, I discovered it was the pavement
Life is essentially normal here and I've not used a mask since Freedom Day on 19th July, when virtually all restrictions were lifted, barring using a mask (I don't) on T f L. The only measures I've seen in place are Perspex screens in McDonald's and my local supermarket which is essentially hygiene theatre, but I've not seen any precautions in pubs for months, other than the occasional empty sanitiser bottle or QR code, flapping loosely in the wind. I take the view that COVID in now endemic, so is never going to go away and as long as my vaccinations (and relative age) keep me out of hospital, then I'd like my life back; I'm booking a booster tomorrow, which is when I become elligble.
I have seen the occasional strange thing: a women next to me on the Tube the other day was still wearing a mask, but whenever she coughed, she moved it to one side, completely defeating the purpose. On another recent occasion, I was sitting at a window drinking ledge in a rammed pub with no restrictions, as is the norm here and a man wearing a mask walked towards the pub along a deserted street and on entering, took it off.
I noticed on a recent trip to London that masks are more in use on transport there than on trains up north. Use of masks on buses and trams in Sheffield is still pretty well observed. I would estimate 10% to 20% use on trains; 75% on trams and buses. Wearing a face covering on TFL vehicles either above or below ground is a condition of carriage, but I suspect it is rarely enforced. Nevertheless, I would estimate 90% compliance on tube trains.
I think many people misunderstand the effectiveness of masks, as your story of the woman moving hers aside when coughing illustrates. Its main purpose is in preventing the spread of virus particles from an infected person to the air within an enclosed space. The more people are using masks, the less the potential spread of airborne particles of virus. Ordinary cloth masks offer almost no protection to the person wearing them, unless almost everyone is wearing them.
Vaccines are not 100% effective, neither are face coverings. We can protect ourselves and others by getting vaccinated. We can also protect ourselves by habitually wearing face coverings so that it becomes normal behaviour and so protects everyone to a certain extent.
As well as wearing a mask in shops and on buses, trams and trains, and when asked to on entering some pubs, I have also on a couple of occasions reopened windows on trains that had been shut, and I've seen a few buses where the windows have been altered so that they can't be fully closed. Ventilation is a better protection against the virus than wearing face coverings. I was in a pub a couple of weeks ago where it was getting busy and there was hardly any ventilation (the fans were disabled after the smoking ban 14 years ago!), so I asked my drinking companion if it was ok to go around the corner to another pub that was quieter and better ventilated. And in a pub in York last weekend I noticed that the windows were getting steamed up, so asked if a door could be opened - this had an effect quite quickly and I don't think anyone complained about the cold.
Even if fully vaccinated, Covid-19 can be a pretty nasty disease to contract, even life-altering. Pubs and other leisure facilities being closed because of the disease was something that many of us felt very strongly was a loss of freedom, and "I'd like my life back" would also have summed up my attitude to the restrictions in the lockdowns - though I could appreciate why they had to be applied. I don't consider that wearing a face mask in certain situations and looking out for how well a room or vehicle is ventilated constitutes a loss of freedom.
Come On You Hatters!