Health Concern?

[sw4400]

Tell me what you think...

I boarded a Lincoln bus yesterday, and what caught my eye was the Bus Operator. He had on a surgical mask over his mouth and nose. Wouldn't that scare you just a bit? One has to wonder why he was wearing it to begin with.

[Busjack]

The usual inference is that the wearer of the mask is afraid of getting something from someone else.

[Railwaymodeler]

There is a fellow I see sometimes on the bus up here, that often has a surgical mask on too. I eventually asked him about it, he said he was afraid of catching something that he might then pass on to his kid that has a weak immune system.

Wouldnt scare me - I remember when there was a SARS scare, a lot of people would wear them. Might be something to do with the Swine Flu too.

[jajuan]

There is a fellow I see sometimes on the bus up here, that often has a surgical mask on too. I eventually asked him about it, he said he was afraid of catching something that he might then pass on to his kid that has a weak immune system.

Wouldnt scare me - I remember when there was a SARS scare, a lot of people would wear them. Might be something to do with the Swine Flu too.

I would agree it may have to do with the Swine Flu concerns which we still are not out of the woods from yet. It wouldn't really scare me though, because think about it there are a lot of people who are inconsiderate or just plain nasty when it comes to their sneezing and coughing. They will sneeze and cough all over the place and not even make the smallest attempts to sneeze and cough on everybody else. Also take into account that we only sit on the bus for our portion of the trip to reach our destination. Those operators have to be on there for hours each of their workdays. A bus is a confined space to sit for hours each day, so you have a higher exposure to whatever germs are there. We never know how many germs we encounter just from our relatively short encounter on a bus. There's now telling how many fold operators get exposed to them having to drive a bus for hours. It might appear off putting to see an operator wear a mask, but like it or not, everyone is not so considerate about exposing you to their germs. The swine flu pandemic is in part a testament to that, so I don't read so much into seeing that kind of thing.