It—the pandemic—is over. For some of us it never really started. As far as restrictions go, anyone with any sense abandoned their mask months ago and has entertained as many people for dinner as they wanted. But still the faint hearted, and the health Hitlers are determined to keep the mask momentum going and not only in our own country.
Sainsbury’s has just lost my custom by announcing that it will continue to insist on the wearing of face masks by customers. Just what is wrong with these people is hard to fathom. What do they think they know that the rest of the country does not? In which world do they live if they think that this is the way to go? It has been proven beyond all reasonable doubt that face masks are completely ineffective. Moreover, they are downright terrible things to wear; they impair breathing, they spread fear, they are bad for oral health and, frankly, they make you look downright stupid.
In a generous mood I could believe that these people have been frightened into a state of paralytic anxiety which, remarkably, is only alleviated by wearing a strip of cloth on your face. This must be something to do with it and as Laura Dodsworth explains in A State of Fear, this was always part of the plan. The Great Covid Panic by Paul Frijters, Gigi Foster and Michael Baker explains how we had an ‘illusion of control’ over the pandemic and I guess that those who insist on wearing masks and insist that others wear them are under that very illusion. More like a delusion. These people are just control freaks.
My own employer—but only until the end of this month, when I retire—the University of Hull has just issued its own guidance under the heading ‘Covid-19 Government guidance update’ and, guess what? Despite the government guidance abandoning face masks, the university says ‘Having considered these changes, and with the safety and wellbeing of our University community at the forefront of our thinking…’ face masks will continue to be worn indoors and there will only be a staged return to working on campus. Exactly which part of the changes they considered is not clear. They end the update with ‘We are determined to take appropriate steps that protect our community and the NHS and would ask you to please play your part by remaining vigilant’. Sickening stupidity in my view. ‘Remaining vigilant’ is code for ‘continue to be scared’ and just what exactly are we saving the NHS from? The NHS is not overwhelmed and it is highly probable that it never was. For example, we never used the Nightingale hospitals.
Looking over the Atlantic, at the US Department of Defense from which I obtained a copy of a recent letter to employees in Aerospace. It starts off so well! The opening sentence is ‘As we near the end of January, we are beginning to see a decline in the surge of positive COVID cases at Aerospace’. Any euphoria in the reader is quickly extinguished as the next sentence asks employees ‘that you remain vigilant in following onsite protocols to ensure we keep workplace transmissions to a minimum’. There is that word ‘vigilant’ again; it’s almost like there is an internationally coordinated campaign of fear-mongering. And ‘ask’ is a good word as it conveys politeness and choice but, in this case, it means ‘demand’. The rest of the letter makes clear that employees must ‘wear medical grade surgical masks or higher-level respirator masks (i.e., N95, KN95 and KF94) when working onsite. Cloth masks are no longer acceptable unless they are worn as an additional layer.’ At least they are recommending masks that have some effect, but these are even more obtrusive and are no guarantee that infection will not be transmitted. The guidance is framed around ‘protection against the Omicron variant, which now makes up 99 percent of coronavirus cases in the United States’. But, as any schoolboy knows, the Omicron variant leads to a mild infection. To date is has killed 0.00012833% of the UK population. This amounts to 75 deaths. It is likely to be a great deal more harmful to wear a mask than to become infected with the omicron variant.
So, the pandemic may be over, sensible countries are lifting restrictions—even Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where the Covid jackboot has been much in evidence, are easing off on Covid related restrictions. Our closest neighbour Ireland has largely thrown in the Covid towel. But there appears to be a substantial body of people who are pandemic addicts. Their empty and unsatisfying lives were finally given purpose making up rules and bossing others around (many of these people hang out in Human Resources offices) and they just cannot let go. They are given all the moral support they need by many in the medical and nursing professions who continue to bask in pandemic hero worship and who simply cannot step out of the limelight. Moreover, most of the NHS continues to have cruel and unnecessary Covid related restrictions that continue to restrict the extent to which fathers may accompany pregnant partners and restrict visitors from seeing their sick relatives. For example, my local NHS Trust ‘Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is stopping all visiting to patients except specific cases approved in advance by senior ward staff…’ If these people will not, respectively, stop bossing the rest of us around and do their jobs (like clearing the care backlog of 8 million people) then the government needs to insist.
Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
