Targeted for wearing a mask on the bus - what should I do?

[Fambo Number Mive]

So I was on the bus today and decided to move further down to a double seat and open a window, especially as it was hot. Other windows were open on the bus and no-one seemed to mind.

Three teenagers sitting across from me took umbrage at me opening a window and started coughing at me while smiling - they don't know my medical history, I could be CEV. Doesn't deliberately coughing at someone in a pandemic constitute assault? One of them was saying to the others how she'd been on a bus and someone had opened a window, she'd closed it and they opened it again and then she started coughing loads, I presume to get them to close it.

I then went downstairs because I thought they would keep coughing at me, I looked at them and they were finding this hilarious, but as I started going downstairs they were getting off too and one of them went "Just for one stop", thinking I was getting off and objecting to the fact I had opened a window near them for one stop. I then went back upstairs once they had got off.

I think I can tell which school one of them goes to - would reporting them to their school help or make things worse if I saw them again? Can the bus company or the police do anything?

I don't know what to do in these situations. If I had confronted them, they might have started filming me or claimed I had said something offensive to them. I couldn't say anything to the bus driver while he was driving, and none of the other passengers seem to care.

It's just revolting though, trying to make someone sick by coughing at them because they are wearing a mask. They got off about 15 mins before me, so I might see them again on the bus. They really seemed to enjoy targeting me for wearing a mask and opening a window. Just baffled by it. And of course they'll continue doing stuff like that because teenagers can do what they want these days.

I feel a bit uncomfortable using the bus now and I don't see why I should feel like that, are they going to keep coughing at me every time I see them on the bus? What should I do?

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Christ

[Glebe]

Sorry this happened Fams, hope you're okay.

[Roxy Robinson]

Quite a lot of kids are inconsiderate dickheads and mean nothing by their impulsive groupthink stupidity. All that matters to most of the poor bastards is how they appear in front of their mates, they have such low expectations of themselves and such narrow parameters of what life can be. You have nothing to gain from challenging them except being insulted and they're pretty much exempt from consequences until they're adults. You might as well get down the zoo and start rationalising in the chimp cage, probably get a kinder more empathetic response.

Don't give them the negative attention and reinforcement they're obviously used to, poor little cunts.

[Fambo Number Mive]

That's very true.

It's annoying that I'll be worrying for the next four days if I got covid from them intentionally coughing at me, I'm also worried about what to do if I see them again and they start coughing at me - I suppose I could get off the bus and get another one but is that the response they want? Or I could ignore them and stay in my seat until they get off but if they cough at me for the entirety of a fifteen minute bus journey (between the stop they got on at and the stop they got off at, I was sitting in an aisle seat near the front when they got on so it was easy to notice everyone who got on) there is a good chance they could give me covid if they have it and I really don't want to get sick (especially if I am going to see one of my relatives who is immunocomprimised).

It does feel like a small minority but I've had a few incidents of people who like to target me for wearing a mask. I don't want to stop wearing a mask though.

I suppose no-one else on the bus did anything in case they got insulted.

[Sonny_Jim]

Harden the fuck up mate

[Endicott]

If no one else is wearing a mask, what benefit are you getting by wearing one? My admittedly limited understanding is that unless it's a fancy dancy one there is no benefit really.

What I'm suggesting really is making yourself less of a target.

Other ideas for when you experience trouble like this are ignore them if possible, next level action move to a different floor if it's a double decker, or as far away as possible if it's a single.

[Fambo Number Mive]

I double mask - wearing a Delphis Eco face mask over a disposable mask. They seem to be pretty good - I've only got covid once so far since the pandemic begins despite using the bus on a regular basis. Apparently double masking blocks over 80% of aerosol particles so I think it's pretty helpful for me to keep wearing them even though most bus journeys no-one else wears a mask (I do see some people wearing masks very, very occasionally).

My fear is if I stop wearing a mask on the buses I'll get covid more often, I guess I have to balance that against the risk of being targeted by people.

Do other people on here still wear masks on public transport and if not, are you getting covid that much?

Moving to a different floor is a good idea if I can't ignore them, I've done that a couple of times when people have been coughing for a long time.

[Sonny_Jim]

(just to add that I too get weirdly paranoid around unruly teenagers)

Round here a lot of people still wear masks, especially now that winter is coming.  I don't currently wear one but I don't think any less of people who do.

[Marner and Me]

Surely if you have been triple jabbed you should be fine?

I did see some little cunts throwing stones the other day blindly over a wall that certainly could have hit someone as it was at the football ground and people were shouting about it. Anyway I did say to them stip throwing stones you little cunts as I cycled past, I did fully expect a stone to come my way, but I think I'd have lamped the little bastard.

[Endicott]

Do other people on here still wear masks on public transport and if not, are you getting covid that much?

I can't help with this, I'm lucky enough to work from home full time and live close enough to pretty much everything that I only get the car out once a week to travel to a nature reserve.

If I do ever go on public transport I don't bother with a mask now that they are not very prevelent as I find them uncomfortable and because I'm either going to get it or not, now that the strains are weaker it's just 'one of those things' to me now.

FWIW I'm fully vaxxed and am lucky to have not caught it yet. Mind you everyone I know has had it at some point. I'm on my way back from my third trip abroad, sitting in departure lounge as I type so fingers crossed I don't develop it in a few days.

[chip]

Are we still 'in a pandemic' as long as even one person in the country has Covid? That's the only way I can rationalise that remark. Pandemic ended last year otherwise, I thought. But yes, I suppose a lot of alive people say that.

[Terry Torpid]

I think you're catastrophising again Fambo.

Look at it this way: they probably didn't have covid (because statistically they haven't), and even if they did, they probably didn't give it to you (because of your masks), and even if they did, it would probably be a very mild dose (because of your jabs), so you'll probably be fine. There are about three or four "backstops" in the way. The odds are in your favour.

[Endicott]

It's still rife in Greece. General feeling is it never really went away. However and FWIW I don't personally feel like it's a pandemic anymore.

[superthunderstingcar]

Do other people on here still wear masks on public transport and if not, are you getting covid that much?

I'm still wearing a mask when on public transport or in shops if they look busy or crowded. Admittedly that's not all that much, probably less than once a week on average, so I can't say for certain it has prevented me from catching covid even once. But I used to get colds and other bugs multiple times a year, and since the pandemic I have found myself getting those kinds of illnesses less often - so regardless of covid, I consider wearing a mask on the bus a small price to pay for not catching a week's worth of misery.

[stonkers]

Dealing with wee cunts on public transport is just going to happen unfortunately, nothing to be gained by goin gto the cops or reporting to the school.

I don't know or want to know your medical history Fambo, but immunosuppressed or not if you are vaccinated + boosters + previous infection + double masked + sitting next to a window your odds of catching and getting seriously ill from this are very low.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Ask the bus driver if you can ride on the roof.

[BlodwynPig]

Surely if you have been triple jabbed you should be fine?

I did see some little cunts throwing stones the other day blindly over a wall that certainly could have hit someone as it was at the football ground and people were shouting about it. Anyway I did say to them stip throwing stones you little cunts as I cycled past, I did fully expect a stone to come my way, but I think I'd have lamped the little bastard.

Arcturus Cometh.

I'd beat the living crap out of the kids, scatter their parts along the bus route...as a warning, like.

[Marner and Me]

Ask the bus driver if you can ride on the roof.

How would they know if he'd paid his fare?

[shiftwork2]

We're not in a pandemic.  The pandemic occurred between the years of 2020-21.  That was when you posted around 2000 articles from the news into this sub-forum.

One day I hope you meet someone who actually worked during the pandemic.

[Uncle TechTip]

"Teenagers these days". Let me assure you that this would probably have happened in the 80s in the same circumstances. Kids are kids.

I think continue to get the help that you've mentioned before.

[scarecrow]

This sub forum felt like a lifeline to me during the early stages of the ongoing pandemic. Sad to find it full of ignorant cunts now.

FFP2 (and above) masks work.

We're currently seeing around 600 deaths from covid a week, and a higher number of excess deaths than at any other stage of the pandemic.

Omicron is more severe in the acute stage of infection than the original strain - albeit weaker than the Delta and Alpha variants.

Most people are years on from their last vaccine - which unfortunately seem to lose most of their efficacy after several months.

It's wrong to focus purely on the acute stage of infection, when there's growing evidence of the damage that can take place during the chronic stage. Multiple infections pile on risk of issues such as dementia, heart attacks, diabetes, cancer etc. People with existing conditions have a higher chance of rapid deterioration after infection. For pregnant women, it means increased chances of children being born with cognitive impairment. It isn't in any way alarmist to attribute the huge rise in excess deaths to the fact that everyone is constantly being reinfected with a virus which causes mounting multi-organ damage.

[Fambo Number Mive]

We're not in a pandemic.  The pandemic occurred between the years of 2020-21.  That was when you posted around 2000 articles from the news into this sub-forum.

One day I hope you meet someone who actually worked during the pandemic.

I didn't work from home for all of 2020 and 2021, I was going to work (by bus) September 2020-December 2020 and April 2021-December 2021. So I did work during the pandemic. And even during the lockdowns I still had to go to the supermarket once a week, collect my medication once a month etc.

Also, the WHO continues to regard Covid as a pandemic.

[stonkers]

This sub was a nightmare full of doom merchants and actual anti-vaxxers - ie. people who say the vaccines "lose their efficacy after several months". At least it did partly silo that kind of stuff off from the rest of the forum, which in fairness was the original purpose of the sub.

[BlodwynPig]

We're not in a pandemic.  The pandemic occurred between the years of 2020-21.  That was when you posted around 2000 articles from the news into this sub-forum.

One day I hope you meet someone who actually worked during the pandemic.

We are still in a pandemic, by definition. Just because life 'feels more normal', does not remove the fact that the disease is prevalent globally and has yet to attain a 'steady-state', becoming endemic.

[Marner and Me]

This sub was a nightmare full of doom merchants and actual anti-vaxxers - ie. people who say the vaccines "lose their efficacy after several months". At least it did partly silo that kind of stuff off from the rest of the forum, which in fairness was the original purpose of the sub.

They do though

[stonkers]

Oh ok then.

[jamiefairlie]

That's why you need boosters

[stonkers]

Yes but there's a reason most peope aren't recommended to keep getting boosters ad infinitum.

I'm just going to leave this because reheating arguments from Covid twitter circa 18 months ago will just wind me up.

EDIT: Editing because it will annoy me otherwise, my "yes but" up there is probably being a bit generous.

[Roxy Robinson]

TOTAL FUCKDOWN 😅