Sadiq Khan’s Mask Mandate on London Transport is Not Based on Science

We're publishing a guest post on the Daily Sceptic by one of the organisers of Smile Free, a group that campaigns against mask mandates. Turns out, Sadiq Khan's TfL mask mandate isn't based on a single scientific study.

3 min read

We’re publishing a guest post today by Rob Tyson, one of the organisers of Smile Free, a group that campaigns against mask mandates in the U.K. Rob points out that Sadiq Khan’s mask mandate on Transport for London doesn’t appear to be based on a single scientific study.

Britain’s well-established, pre-Covid pandemic plan, endorsed by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty as late as March 19th 2020 before being abandoned four days later, contains an interesting sentence relating to the wearing of face masks in the community (an intervention the plan did not recommend):

Although there is a perception that the wearing of facemasks by the public in the community and household setting may be beneficial, there is in fact very little evidence of widespread benefit from their use in this setting. Facemasks must be worn correctly, changed frequently, removed properly, disposed of safely and used in combination with good respiratory, hand, and home hygiene behaviour in order for them to achieve the intended benefit. Research also shows that compliance with these recommended behaviours when wearing facemasks for prolonged periods reduces over time.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that no nation on earth can demonstrate ‘widespread benefit’ of forced masking on infection control after a year of mandates, no-one in authority wants to disabuse the public of this perception.

Rather, they want to continue and even intensify this irrational behaviour.

Indeed it is striking how Sadiq Khan and Transport for London (TfL) – which runs the London tube, trains and bus network – justify their forced masking requirement.

“Following the science” this ain’t.

Numerous supporters of Smile Free, our campaign group advocating for the repeal of all U.K. mask mandates, have shared with us the responses they’ve had from TfL in response to their complaints about compulsory masking.

It’s a stock response references five pieces of opinion polling – but not one scientific study.

“YouGov produced the results that over two thirds of people support the retention of face coverings on public transport at this point in the pandemic,” TfL explains.

The majority believe that face coverings play an important role in giving people confidence to use public transport. 86% of customers say they are always wearing face coverings on our public transport services… More than most of the people want to wear them and feel safer doing so. Of the 14% not wearing a face covering at all times or not at all, almost three-quarters (75%) have an exemption or good reason under the regulations for not doing so. [“More than most”? What does that mean?]

TfL appears to think that quoting all this opinion polling makes a cast-iron case for forced masking. But to the critical reader it simply highlights the lack of evidence.

Could it be that TfL doesn’t quote cite a single study supporting forced masking because – like the Department for Transport – it hasn’t actually commissioned one?

As thin a justification as it is, later on in its stock response TfL even undermines its own case for masking.

“That said, the requirement to wear a mask is not to say that public transport is no less safe (sic) than any other similar setting,” it says. [It means “less safe” obviously – the double negative reverses the meaning of the sentence.]

“Independent testing by Imperial College has been carried out regularly since September, taking swabs of touch points and air samples in trains, stations and buses, and has found no traces of coronavirus on the public transport system.”

In which case, why continue to force masks on commuters? Particularly as TfL’s own advertising all over the network now also claims: “Air on our tubes and trains is refreshed every three minutes”?

Khan and TfL’s forced masking is everything wrong with the authorities’ Covid response in microcosm.

You can learn more about Smile Free, the campaign advocating for the repeal of U.K. mask mandates, here.

Comments

This week across the site:

Email me alerts for this discussion
Notify of

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

68 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Paul H
Paul H
4 years ago

Many people are simply ignoring the mask mandate on the tubes now. It is a small but very significant sign that resistance is growing.

Occamsrazor
Occamsrazor
4 years ago

A few weeks back I noticed a sign on a London station saying ‘wear a face covering out of respect for others’. Wt actual f? So not only should I wear a face covering – which of course I don’t – I am also expected to respect thick hysterics who understand not the first thing about anything at all. No. I have no respect for them because they’re idiots and their compliance is not just stupid but also dangerous. They can fuck off.

morganlefey
morganlefey
4 years ago

covid cult slave mask

LonePatriot
LonePatriot
4 years ago

There is an ivermectin panic on the big tech and MSM right now. Massive articles from MSM on Ivermectin trying to push a danger narrative and also negative press on Americans Frontline Dr’s, again, to keep the Covid narrative alive. Just go to the Goog and type ivermectin then look at all the panic news articles. We are over the target. Big-Pharma is panicking. This medicine has been widely used by humans without any problems for 40 years. It’s inventor won a Nobel Prize after 20 years of successful use and after 100 million people were cured of a broad spectrum of problems without any side effects. Get your Ivermectin while you still can! https://health.p0l.org

Noumenon
Noumenon
4 years ago

Had to go to London today and use the tube. Didn’t once use a mask or feel particularly like I’d be expected to. 60/40 split or so in favour of masks. Most who do wear them look like they do it “cos it’s the rules”. I feel there’s hope! Oh, and non-mask wearers tend to be better looking, but maybe that’s just because you can see them!

tom171uk
tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  Noumenon

Masks are a boon for butterface girls.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Its obviously a power thing, it gives some people a kick, to see people obey them

DoctorCOxford
DoctorCOxford
4 years ago

Haven’t been to London since summer. And that was passing through to the coast. All I care about personally is if you can still claim exemption. Have my lanyard in place.

Bigger question is this (and applies to planes), when do these mandates end? Because I am not sitting in a plane for 8 hours masked. When is the end date? Do they ever tell us?

How many pieces of case data showing no impact of mask mandates on infections are needed to end this insanity? It’s not science! Science and engineering tell us some things 10-100 times more porous than the virus can’t stop it. And I simply will not comply with the use of magic amulets any more than I would if I was told to cleanse my aura before going on the Tube.

JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
4 years ago
Reply to  DoctorCOxford

You think case data is going to sway the herd followers? In NL between March 2020 and December 2020, they pretty much followed what must have been the original flu pandemic plan – most things stayed open, the schools were supposed to stay open and only closed because people refused to send their kids to school (see what happens when you don’t play ball people?) and teachers wouldn’t go in. NO MASKS! The OMT was against it from the start.

Moron health minister pushed and pushed, along with moron mayor of Amsterdam, both wanting to be in the spotlight, neither with any knowledge of the matter at hand. Come December it was made mandatory, with the OMT still saying they were against it.

Do you think anybody questioned why 99.9% of the population managed to survive the first 9 months of the pandemic without masks? Of course not, they took to them like ducks to water. Haven’t had them since June, back in force today, plenty of people happy to wear their security blankets on their faces again – although I do think there is less enthusiasm than before. But it has never been discussed that we did fine without… Read more »

PatrickF
PatrickF
4 years ago

Please can mask wearers stop wearing them, to make me feel safer.

PatrickF
PatrickF
4 years ago

I wear a mask to comply. I wear a mask to signal my virtue. I wear a mask to show I’ve been jabbed and boosted. I wear a mask to show I’m frightened. I wear a mask to show I listen to and don’t question politicians and propoganda. I wear a mask to say ‘the State can choose to use me as a human guinea pig’, because my health and body doesn’t matter to me. I wear a mask to tell my friends, family and children to be just like me.
I wear a mask because I want another period of house arrest. I wear a mask because I want more furlough. I wear a mask because I hate you who does not wear a mask.

HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
4 years ago

Just to add finally…this ISN’T about health and they know it. Its about obedience training and making sure the serfs know their place. See how the serving staff have to be fully napped whilst serving the masters at COP-out26, and the G20? There’s article on the WEF website talking about “Agile Governance” or something. It’s graphics show a “master” in a suit getting off some form of transport, whilst surrounded by slaves, walking, dressed as SLAVES! All wearing the same outfit, with hat and complete FACE VEIL combination!

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/agile-governance-could-help-manage-uncertainty/

Oh what a wet dream this all must be for them!

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  HelenaHancart

A] what is the betting that UK govt has signed UK up to “agile governance charter” ?

B] the picture is terrifying – so incredibly “Handmaid’s Tale” in appearance that I am wondering did the NWO get the ideas from Margaret Attwood or did she get her ideas from them?

maggie may
maggie may
4 years ago
Reply to  Milo

Not sure our fat controller is capable of doing agile!

crisisgarden
crisisgarden
4 years ago

I’m not from or in London. Can someone explain to me how this snivelling little wanker became the mayor?

cloud6
cloud6
4 years ago

They (the zealots) think the Chinese face rag or nappy will save them or do they?

Bumped into a zealot I saw today at the local garden centre and guess what they were nappy less and the garden centre was heaving with people.

So it saves them? sometimes but only when it suits them… Hypocrites.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago

Mask mandates are the pillar of the nudging-by-lying psyops policy. The very day they were introduced I knew the world would never be the same – because of their obvious potential for dividing society. About which not a single word was lost by the learned authors of the paper which served as a justification to “convert” WHO at that time. And which has been a complete taboo in mainstream since (the discussion being instead artificially focused on whether they “work” or not).

JayBee
JayBee
4 years ago
Reply to  rayc

They were also the first mass assault on the inalienable individual right of bodily autonomy.
When that succeeded, the box of the Pandora was opened.
If you accept a mask mandate, you’ll (have to) accept any gene therapy mandate, and if you accept them, they can also castrate you or come for your organs.
Not my words, but Dr. Malone’s.

JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
4 years ago
Reply to  JayBee

Too many people never understood that. I almost got into a fight with the husband of a close friend when I was arguing that they are a breach of fundamental rights. He thought it was selfish to not be willing to wear one if you knew it would make people feel safer, because it was such a small thing.

He never gave me the opportunity to explain that I wouldn’t actually object to wearing one if I was going into a care home or some such place or visiting someone who was elderly or vulnerable and had been terrified by the relentless media onslaught. But that there is a incredibly important difference between choosing to do something small that might make someone feel better and being stripped of your fundamental rights for no reason, take away one right, more follow, absolutely.

Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
4 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

It doesn’t work as an argument anyway. Irrationality isn’t helped by that kind of pandering. Wearing a mask just assures them that they are right to feel frightened.

Smiling normality is what they need.

Alkanet
Alkanet
4 years ago

Such a stupid headline to appear on DS that I couldn’t be bothered to read the article or the comments. Questions need to be asked about why this site runs pointless articles, yes it’s useful to know what is going on but could be done succinctly ‘Mayor of London still deluded that masks work’ – there done it for you, not hard is it?

Leonk
Leonk
4 years ago

Well, I’ll stick to Gov’t advice as here:
https://bannedvideos.co.uk/face-masks-uk-government/

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Leonk

Indeed. I got as far as about 1 min in when JVT decreed that there is no evidence to support the wearing of face masks and by that point I couldn’t take any more so had to stop the video playing.

But excellent video – should be shared widely!

Old Maid
Old Maid
4 years ago

This is driving me mad. This is one of those ‘No sh1t, Sherlock’ pieces. We’ve KNOWN THIS FOR AGES.

Far better would be a piece on how Khan’s public transport mask mandate has made things worse for wearers, for others, and for the environment. Then I might bother to read it. Somewhere, there must, at the very least, be as much evidence for this as for the wearing of the gross things.

iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  Old Maid

“We’ve KNOWN THIS FOR AGES.” Well, yes, WE have, but TY???????

alw
alw
4 years ago

Sadiq’s mask mandate is ignored by more than 50% including bus, tube and railway drivers. The number grows each week. In any event his mandate is legally unenforceable.

caipirinha17
caipirinha17
4 years ago

Went to Center Parcs this week, happy to report seeing only a handful of nappy wearers the whole five days I was there, including in indoor settings.

A Y M
A Y M
4 years ago

Khan is a joke. He runs his policy on opinion polls, just like the Cons. And since opinion has been molded by behavioural scientists upon a largely woke London population that value collective control over individual choice, it’s not going to end anytime soon.
Meanwhile I’ll be mask free.

I am Spartacas
I am Spartacas
4 years ago

Mask mandates didn’t work for the Germans …

Screenshot 2021-11-05 at 21-57-29 Bruges Group 🇬🇧 ( BrugesGroup) Twitter.png
JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
4 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

I remember when the Germans stated that people had to wear FFP2 masks and could no longer wear just whatever rag they could lay their hands on. That alone was an admission that the ubiquitous face rag was useless, did any media outlet take that view? Did they heck.

Just like Fraudci claiming at some point that people should wear 2 masks. You’d think that some journo might have said “So, what you’re saying is, masks don’t work?”

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

And if I remember correctly was Biden not at one stage wearing 3 masks, because 3 were needed for total protection. Mind you the 3 masks might have done serious damage to his brain’s oxygen supply…

so, masks, a bit like jabs then. If at first 2 don’t work apply a third mask/booster jab.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

I remember that the official justification was that DIY masks were introduced to prevent a run on the Really Working Medical Masks(tm) in the beginning of the pandemic. In other words, they admitted of lying to the entire population while endangering anyone who followed their advice. But it did not bother anyone much. Most people quickly convinced themselves the new official masks will make everything So Much Better.

JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
4 years ago
Reply to  rayc

That was also a bit of a laugh. Everywhere in the world they said no masks, they don’t work, including the WHO. Then they turn around and said, in essence, that they had told an outright lie, they knew all along they worked, so use them.

Simple fact: they knowingly made 2 completely opposing statements, only 1 can be correct. They are telling you they lied, why should you believe them when they tell you which statement was the lie and which the truth?

Speaking of lying, anyone look at the graph in the Daily Mail yesterday, with the rising infection rates across Europe? Anyone notice how flat and low Spain’s infection rate is? Sureeeeeee. The only truth there is that they must not be testing and therefore they have no pandemic, its amazing.

The Rule of Pricks
The Rule of Pricks
4 years ago

Has Khan been on the tube recently?

Okay that’s rhetorical as I’m sure he wouldn’t sully himself unless there’s some virtue signalling photo op in it

I would say it’s about 50/50 for mask wearing and the majority of those wearing masks are more scared of being thrown off by a TFL minion and not being able to get where they want to go than that are of the virus.

Khan is worse than most in this as he’s using COVID to change London into what he thinks it should be rather than what tax paying Londoners want it to be

Mimi
Mimi
4 years ago

What is rampant mask-wearing doing to microbial evolution? Covid, sure, whatever, but lots of other viruses and bacteria get trapped in those filthy things. Have we just spent 18 months selecting for some really nasty bugs that favor the mask environment?

I mean, there are mites that only live in the pads of woodwind instruments. Evolution finds niches everywhere.

Horse
Horse
4 years ago

They use the face nappies to measure compliance.

A Heretic
A Heretic
4 years ago

No Sadiq Khan’s Mask Mandate on London Transport is Not Based on Science
There, fixed it for you.

JayBee
JayBee
4 years ago

Masks are Gessler’s hats. Nothing else.
On top of that, they INCREASE Covid spread, other illnesses and thereby reduce life expectancy.
Which is also all well known and fully intended.

IMG_20211106_115525_526.jpg
Hopeless
Hopeless
4 years ago

Masks – once a token of criminality or slavery. Nowadays, to those may be added “stupidity”.

marcusc
marcusc
4 years ago

Mingin….

AllieT
AllieT
4 years ago

I was in our local Co-op this morning, the young girl on the till (masked bless her) admired my lipstick. Told her one of my reasons I won’t wear masks is I like wearing lippy! Round here mask wearing is getting less & less

Tee Ell
Tee Ell
4 years ago

They seem to be stuck in a feedback loop.

“We tell people they need it to be safe, so they tell us they need them to be safe, so we mandate them because people are telling us they need them to be safe.”

So absurd.

Anti_socialist
Anti_socialist
4 years ago

‘SOS from Australia’

“The EventOn December 4th 2021 at 12pm midday, we call for an international ‘SOS from Australia’ event.
We call upon politicians, international leaders and all concerned citizens to respond to our SOS. 
Want to support us? This is what Australia is asking of you;

Make a public declaration on your own platforms, using your own letterhead or design, declaring that you support this event and our country’s fight for freedom. On the website, you will see our media release, feel free to use any part of that in your announcement. Reach out to us for design help [email protected] Familiarise yourself with the requests we are making to our government and if you support them, please include that in your announcement.  If you are a Member of Parliament and support the idea of giving a certain number of Australians asylum, please include that in your announcement.  If you are a country leader and have the power to give a certain number of Australians asylum, please include that in your announcement. If you are an influencer or run a media show or platform, please help promote this event. Monica will be available for interviews at your request. Please email… Read more »

DoctorCOxford
DoctorCOxford
4 years ago
Reply to  Anti_socialist

Id back an airlift to get them out. But no backpacks!

I am truly grateful to be living in England right now where my eyes can see lips (I have a hearing issue and need help), my smile can shine at others, and sanity is retained. If Boris goes to Plan B, I’m joining the protests. Magic amulets don’t work, and neither do masks (save survival grade that can only briefly be worn). It’s science (engineering). But it’s now a $300b industry. They don’t go quietly.

Thank you for reading. Please help us keep the Daily Sceptic going by becoming a donor.