I have written a piece for the Mail today in which I say it’s becoming increasingly clear that the only way we’re going to get our freedoms back is if we take them back – and we should start with masks. Here’s an extract:
I’m sceptical that any of the lockdown measures reduce transmission of the virus – we’ve had three lockdowns and still have one of the highest Covid death counts in Europe – but the evidence that masks protect people who are wearing them is particularly thin.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Jenny Harries, the then Deputy Chief Medical Officer and now Head of NHS Test and Trace, cautioned against members of the public wearing masks, saying they could do more harm than good.
A scientific study in Denmark last year involving more than 6,000 people, in which half wore masks for a month and the other half didn’t, found those who didn’t wear them were no more likely to become infected than those that did.
Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Chief Medical Adviser to the U.S. President, admitted last year that store-bought masks were ineffective. In an email that came to light after a freedom of information request, he wrote to a friend that masks were “not really effective in keeping out [the] virus, which is small enough to pass through material”.
I have decided enough is enough – and I will simply refuse to wear them. If a security guard stops me entering a shop or building, I will explain that I am refusing to wear a mask as a protest against the continuing restrictions and that I will wait outside until they change their mind.
If I’m told to put on a mask when I get up to go to the lavatory in a pub or a restaurant, I’ll ask the waiter to explain why it’s necessary to wear a mask when I’m standing but not when I am sitting. If they fall back on the excuse that they’re just following the rules, I’ll point out that some rules are so silly they don’t deserve to be followed.
I’ve waited 15 months for my liberties to be restored and I’m not prepared to wait another month, even if I believed Boris’s assurance that life would return to normal by July 19th.
No, the only way to get our freedoms back is to take them back. And I will start by throwing out my masks on June 21st.
Worth reading in full.
How about this? A large group of anti-lockdown protestors take a trip to Boston, Lincolnshire on June 21st and hurl our masks into the River Withan? I suggested this on Mike Graham’s show on talkRADIO today.
As Lord Sumption said, “Sometimes, the most public-spirited thing you can do with despotic laws like these is to ignore them.”
Stop Press: Last year, the Czech Republic was universally praised for getting its infection rate under control in Prague by enforcing a draconian mask policy. See this USA Today article, for instance: “In this capital city of 1.3 million, among the first in Europe to decree mandatory universal mask-wearing almost four months ago, life has now returned to normal.” Fast forward to June, and now we’re seeing headlines like this: “Czech Republic: What’s behind world’s worst COVID infection rate?”
Masks don’t work. Period.
Stop Press 2: Israel has dropped the requirement for masks in enclosed spaces. The Jerusalem Post has more.
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