I AM glad to see that the ‘ante is being upped’ against the Covid restrictions and against those who forced us to suffer under these for month after month. At least, I see these things being challenged effectively in these pages and in some other outlets.
The fewest punches are being pulled by columnists in TCW Defending Freedom. We were indeed fools, as explained by Laura Perrins on Thursday, to follow any of the government restrictions and we should be less than forgiving to the lockdown fanatics and mask maniacs as explained by James Delingpole on Monday. We were long ago urged here to ‘Ditch the muzzle!’
The people now bleating about how we may have been wrong are, most certainly, turncoats who want to end up on the right side of history. But turncoats are not converts and these people were provided daily with evidence that contradicted Covid related restrictions in these pages, in the Daily Sceptic (formerly Lockdown Sceptics), OffGuardian, Unity News Network, Polticalite and other outlets. They ridiculed those of us who promulgated an alternative to the Covid narrative and wilfully ignored evidence contrary to their own position.
Mask mandates have been lifted at last and, with any luck, permanently in England. However, the fainthearts are much in evidence in the devolved jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, in London, in leading retail stores and in higher education. It is time that the British government took a step beyond lifting mask mandates and simply no longer requiring people to wear them. They should stop tolerating nonsense from grocers and university vice-chancellors. Legislation should be introduced to ban the wearing of face masks within our shores at any time and in any place under all circumstances.
Here are ten reasons why:
1.They don’t work. There is no convincing evidence that masks are effective in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses. In fact, there is no convincing evidence that any of the Covid related restrictions have had any tangible benefit as demonstrated by comparing administrations where measure have been stricter with others where they have been more relaxed. Moreover, masks are costing a fortune. In 2020 alone we had already spent £190milion in the United Kingdom and currently the worldwide face mask market is worth $50billion. It is clear that someone is profiting from masks and other aspects of the pandemic, and it is easy to see why there is pressure from vested interests to maintain the wearing of face masks.
2.They impair breathing. Despite ‘research’ purporting to show that face masks do not impair breathing, they do. An easy experiment is to put one on and climb a steep flight of stairs. Even the fittest among us will be shorter of breath than normal at the top.
3.They are bad for oral health. Dentists have been vexed about the effects of prolonged face mask wearing. On a recent visit to Slovenia, I spoke to a health informatics expert who not only confirmed that Covid restrictions were ineffective but that they were gathering systematic evidence on the harm wearing face masks was doing to children’s oral health by increasing oral acidity and softening teeth.
4.They impair children’s development. There are few things more pitiful than the sight of very young children being forced to wear face masks. Even worse, they have been shown to impair development. They also engender fear in children that they are going to die of Covid. It has been shown that the language skills and even the intelligence of children has been hampered over the course of the Covid restrictions and it is too early to tell if they will be able to catch up. The teaching unions continue to insist that children are masked in classrooms despite the fact that this requirement was dropped many months ago. This is definitely an issue where the government needs to intervene and overrule the unions. It is at times like these I can only imagine how Mrs Thatcher would have dealt with them.
5. They spread fear. The widespread wearing of face masks is bad for mental health – ask Mind. Face masks lead to anxiety in vulnerable people and, as so aptly described by Laura Dodsworth in A State of Fear, they spread fear amongst the general population and help to maintain it.
6.They engender a sense of false security. There has been a concerted campaign based on ‘research’ to claim that wearing face masks do not engender a false sense of security. But as long ago as 2020 the World Health Organisation indicated that they do. It is obvious that masks engender a false sense of security. Why else would people who are terrified and never miss an opportunity to squelch about with hand sanitiser wear them? They perceive that the dangers are high, and they think that masks work. It is only logical that their sense of security is false.
7. They litter our streets. It is impossible to walk a mile in my city without counting ten to twenty discarded face masks. They are everywhere: hanging from trees, floating in puddles and blowing across car parks. One study reckoned that there has been a nine thousand per cent increase in mask litter since the early day of the pandemic. But there is not a word about the risk that this poses to health. Who knows what diseases the person who discards a mask is harbouring and whether this can be transmitted by these masks persisting in the environment? That is one study that waits to be done and a question that is not being asked by the BBC.
8. They are polluting the sea. When even the Guardian is telling us that discarded masks are polluting our seas, you know there is a problem. The surgical masks that have been widely worn during the pandemic contain plastic and there are now, allegedly, more masks than jellyfish in the sea. Ever since the Blessed David Attenborough warned us about plastic pollution in our oceans there has been a global panic about single use plastics, which is why we must now suffer soggy straws at Starbucks. Strangely, the pollution of the high seas by discarded face masks has been reported more with amusement than concern. Certainly not a sense of panic. If ever there was a cause for St Greta Thunberg to take up, surely this is it.
9. They engender a sense of moral superiority. I was tempted to put this one top of my list: I detest the sneering comments on Twitter about mask wearing directed against those of us who discarded them months ago or never wore them. These people are unconcerned about the evidence for face masks and quite openly see them as a ‘symbol of solidarity’ (with whom I have never ascertained). Face masks for many are simply a virtue signal and ordinary citizens should surely be imbued with the right to walk up to these folk and rip them off.
10. They make you look ridiculous: more ‘research’, this time from the belly of the Covid jackboot beast in Wales, at Cardiff University claimed that face masks make people look more attractive. Get a grip, folks, and take a good look in the mirror. I rest my case.
