The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

[gavdann]

Despite being one of only 3 people I saw at the festival wearing a facemask, I still caught Covid-19

This made me lol.
I do hope you know that wearing a face mask doesn't protect the wearer?

[Czech's Mate]

[*]Despite being one of only 3 people I saw at the festival wearing a facemask, I still caught Covid-19 [/list]

Hope you get over it as quickly as possible

[metaldinosaur]

Despite being one of only 3 people I saw at the festival wearing a facemask, I still caught Covid-19

This made me lol.
I do hope you know that wearing a face mask doesn't protect the wearer?

It give you 5% protection, I think. Not much. Its stops others getting it through. However, been outside in the sun and wind, tgst can really help, so maybe you got it elsewhere? Who knows?

I hope its not a rough one for you.

[Mabawsaritchie]

The good:
Getting into VIP on Thurs morning without any issues and getting set up next to the folk I usually camp with.
The much improved VIP toilets and showers - so much better than the bog of eternal stench last year.
Finally getting to see Exodus after so many years of missing them when they played semi-locally to me. Also saw a good few bands over the weekend and enjoyed what I saw.
The normal friendly security and bar staff - always a pleasure. The price of a pint was also reasonable at £5 a time.
The rotisserie chicken and potatoes!

The Bad:
The heat meant I missed a few bands I really wanted to see as it was just too damn hot and I struggled with the heat and my medication effects.
Security not checking wristbands going into VIP from arena - saw a good few standard camping folk just wander in over the weekend and Security clearly didn't care.
The lack of shade in the arena, really needs to be planned better for future years.
Food prices in the arena - rotisserie chicken aside I really noticed the increases this year and some of the food portion sizes were piss poor for what I paid.
VIP goodie bags - first time I've felt they weren't worth queueing for and definitely not as good as previous years.
Issues with card payments, I saw a number of folk struggle to get card payments processed (myself included) and I will be taking more cash next year and only using cards as backup.

The ugly:
Folk half in the scud getting quite badly sunburnt - come on folks, slap some sun lotion on - help yourselves and help ease the strain on the medical/welfare tent!

[gavdann]

Despite being one of only 3 people I saw at the festival wearing a facemask, I still caught Covid-19

This made me lol.
I do hope you know that wearing a face mask doesn't protect the wearer?

It give you 5% protection, I think. Not much. Its stops others getting it through. However, been outside in the sun and wind, tgst can really help, so maybe you got it elsewhere? Who knows?

I hope its not a rough one for you.

Yes, sorry Tet I should have wished you a speedy recovery first. I realise now that sounded quite brutal but really wearing a mask offers the wearer virtually no protection. It only works if everyone else is wearing them. A surgeon and their medical staff performing open heart surgery for example, doesn't wear a mask for their own protection.

I had Covid a month or so ago and tbh I've had worse colds. I'm 50, had 3 jabs and so I'm not going to fret about it any more. Apparently Moderna have a new vaccine which improves the protection against Omicron and Delta so I see it going the same way in the future as with Flu vaccines.

[Tet]

I do hope you know that wearing a face mask doesn't protect the wearer?

Actually, this is just utterly incorrect misinformation. There is considerable evidence for masks protecting the wearer in the academic literature. It's true that the masks are particularly effective at preventing infected people from transmitting, but they also protect the wearer from infection as well. It's not perfect, and the protection varies depending on the type of mask you wear. A cotton mask has some benefits, and FFP2 is better and an FFP3 is better still. I was wearing FFP2. Depending on the study, that should bring between a 60% and a 95% reduction in infection rate. I'll take that.

[metaldinosaur]

I do hope you know that wearing a face mask doesn't protect the wearer?

Actually, this is just utterly incorrect misinformation. There is considerable evidence for masks protecting the wearer in the academic literature. It's true that the masks are particularly effective at preventing infected people from transmitting, but they also protect the wearer from infection as well. It's not perfect, and the protection varies depending on the type of mask you wear. A cotton mask has some benefits, and FFP2 is better and an FFP3 is better still. I was wearing FFP2. Depending on the study, that should bring between a 60% and a 95% reduction in infection rate. I'll take that.

This is a really sexy conversation, but...

There are different levels of protection in masks that are more effective; but doesn't the lack of effectiveness upon the person who has it on come from real world conditions? So, things like touching the mask when scratching your face and transferring it from fingers? That's my understanding of the issues around mask wearing. Obviously surgeons have cloves on and have lats of procedures around keeping clean. There is a lot of disinformation out there, so to be frank, I don’t really know.

[Butthead]

Tet I don't understand your faith in these studies. The mask provided you with a 0% reduction in infection! The same protection as everyone who wasn't wearing one haha.

[Tet]

The mask provided you with a 0% reduction in infection!

Those are the words of someone who doesn't understand statistics.

[Butthead]

Guilty!

[gavdann]

The mask provided you with a 0% reduction in infection!

Those are the words of someone who doesn't understand statistics.

The number of infection attempts over the course of the weekend need to be taken in to account.

[WorMzy]

As one of the other two who wore a mask (FFP3), I came back fine.

Hope you're doing okay, Tet. Covid sucks.

[Czech's Mate]

As one of the other two who wore a mask (FFP3), I came back fine.
.

Bet your suntan is interesting.....

Ps, I fully get the mask wearing if you or others round you are clinically vulnerable.

[WorMzy]

As one of the other two who wore a mask (FFP3), I came back fine.
.

Bet your suntan is interesting....

fortunately it wasn't too bad. My biggest concern was during the queue to get in on Thursday, not sure if I had an obvious tan line after that, but it seemed to have faded/merged in with the rest of my face by the time I got home on Monday. Aside the entrance queue, I only really needed to wear masks inside the Sophie, NB and Rock Soc tents. Being an introvert has it's benefits in that, outside of the Rock Soc tent, I only had a conversation with ~3 people all weekend, and one of those was the person who gave me my wristband.

Edit: and I don't personally work with vulnerable people, but my partner does. If I bring back covid and she then passes it on to her elderly patients... Well, I'd rather that not happen. She still has to do daily covid tests in any case, so hopefully our personal lives will never cause anyone under her care to contract covid. I'm still happy to wear a mask, for whatever good it does.

[Tet]

Ps, I fully get the mask wearing if you or others round you are clinically vulnerable.

Yeah, I'm not just being paranoid. My wife has a compromised immune system, so the consequences of her catching it are likely to be significantly worse than for the general population. Plus it means that the vaccines are less effective for her as well, to make the situation even worse.

Fortunately, I went straight into isolation in a separate room as soon as I got back, just as a precaution. She managed to remain uninfected, and as of today, I've finally been allowed out into the rest of the house after a couple of negative tests.