Why are excessive measures such as mandatory mask wearing being introduced now in the UK as a new ‘social norm,’ when nothing of the kind was even considered before, when the public health threat was greater?
What a difference a week makes.
Last week, when out and about in my local city centre, it looked like things, at long last, were beginning to get back to at least something resembling normal. The vast majority of people were not wearing masks. Now, following the government’s change of policy – they are, and it all feels totally abnormal again.
Having been advised not to wear face coverings when the Covid-19 was supposedly at its peak in March, we are ordered to wear them now, in mid-summer, when daily deaths associated with the virus – but not necessarily ‘from’ it – have dropped significantly to very low levels. For the past five weeks, deaths have been below the five-year average: in fact, since the end of May they have been hovering near to, or below the average. In other words, just when the fear should be going, the government decides to ramp it up.
Astonishingly, most seemed to have accepted the government u-turn on masks without question. To reinforce the message, a whole host of politicians, public figures and ‘celebrity’ influencers have exhorted the public to ‘mask up,’ some more politely than others.
But if masks are really so effective, why weren’t we told to wear them in March? The current Establishment-sponsored cult of Maskism isn’t driven by science but by politics. We know this from the WHO. Not the rock group, but the World Health Organisation. The BBC’s medical correspondent Deborah Cohen revealed: “We had been told by various sources WHO committee reviewing the evidence had not backed masks but they recommended them due to political lobbying. The point was put to WHO who did not deny.”
Another way we know that something isn’t quite right is to look back to 2018. It didn’t get too much coverage at the time but that was a particularly bad winter for excess deaths in the UK. In January 2018, 64,157 people sadly died in England and Wales, a 42 percent increase on the December 2017 figure.
“Circulating influenza” was named as a contributing factor for the spike. The flu claimed the old and the young, as detailed here.
Even allowing for the over-counted Covid/Coronavirus figures (it was revealed earlier this month that Public Health England was counting as virus deaths anyone who had tested positive and who had died subsequently of any cause, many more people died in one month in 2018 than have died from the virus in the UK in 2020.
Also on rt.com More evidence emerges of inflated Covid-19 fatality rates – are we being intimidated?Yet the virtue-signallers and authoritarians ordering us to “just put a bloody mask on” now, were silent two years ago. If masks are effective in helping to stop viruses spreading, then surely January 2018 and not July 2020 was the most appropriate time to wear them?
The fact is that most people are only wearing masks now because they have been told to do so, not because they’ve actually analysed the evidence.
The willingness of people to obey official diktats, however absurd and illogical, is likely to lead to even more restrictions. Anyone who naively believes that they’ll have to wear masks for ‘just a few weeks’ is in for a rude awakening. The government directive itself lasts for a year and is not up for review for at least six months. And don’t think that it’ll stop at shops.
I urge everyone to read the new document Preparing for a Challenging Winter 2020/1, which is available to read on the UK government website.
Pay particularly close attention to Page 32, where it states “Further research is needed into: the value of face coverings in specific sub-groups (e.g. children); the effectiveness of face coverings in different settings (e.g. households in reducing transmission); and how face coverings could be encouraged as a social norm.”
Do we really want to see face coverings established as a ‘social norm’ including in our own homes? But this is where the most successful ‘Project Fear’ in history is taking us – unless there is a major public awakening. The next time you get accosted online or offline by someone telling you to ‘put a bloody mask’ on, ask them if they were saying the same thing in early 2018. And, if not, why not?
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.