One of the major frustrations throughout the COVID-19 crisis has been the failure of high-profile journalists to ask ministers and SAGE scientists challenging questions about the rationale for their – often unprecedented – decisions. When they were not baying for earlier and harder restrictions, the journalists who participated in the numerous coronavirus press conferences typically restricted themselves to questions seeking clarification about the detail of a new rule or imposition rather than imploring the experts to justify the reasoning that led to their non-evidenced diktats.
I am sure I’m not alone in fantasising about the sort of questions I would like to put to the key rule-makers responsible for this extraordinary two-year assault on our basic human rights. Consider, for instance, Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, and his belated support for requiring people to wear masks in community settings, arguably the most insidious of all the COVID-19 restrictions.
This is not an academic issue. Thanks to the Government’s relentless messaging about the purported benefits of face coverings, there is a real danger that widespread community masking – with all the attendant physical, social, psychological and environmental harms – could become a permanent feature, at least in certain sections of our society.
Prof. Whitty’s track record on the contentious issue of masking healthy people is, like that of many of the high-profile political and scientific rule-makers, characterised by contradiction. In early March 2020, he unequivocally stated that healthy people should not be wearing face-coverings. One month later, he was faltering, saying that, “The evidence is weak, but the evidence of a small effect is there under certain circumstances”. Since this time he has supported – or, at least silently colluded – with the pro-mask lobby. What changed his mind? No robust evidence supporting mask efficacy emerged in spring 2020, nor any time since, so what ‘nudged’ him to relinquish his anti-mask stance?
To clarify the reasons for his change of mind, I would be keen to be given the opportunity to ask our Chief Medical Officer the following questions:
- Around April/May 2020, what piece of robust real-world research made you change your mind about the ineffectiveness of masking healthy people in the community?
- As late as December 2020, a WHO document concluded that: “There is only limited and inconsistent scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of masking healthy people in the community.” Do you agree with the BBC Newsnight reporter Deborah Cohen that the WHO’s U-turn on masks was likely to have been the result of political lobbying?
- With regard to the imposition of masks, what has been the specific rationale offered to you by the Government’s behavioural scientists, such as Professor David Halpern?
- Is it merely a coincidence that masks powerfully help enforce the main ‘nudges’ promoted by behavioural scientists to achieve compliance with COVID-19 restrictions?
- Do you agree that the most robust type of scientific evidence is that provided by real-world, randomised controlled trials? If so, how can you reconcile your promotion of mask wearing with the results of such trials that consistently show that masks do not significantly reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2?
- Do you agree that, in a democratic free society, the evidential bar for mandating an intervention (such as masking the healthy) should be set very high? If so, do you believe that the empirical evidence for the benefits of masks as a means of reducing viral transmission reaches this threshold?
- There are a wide range of harms (physical, social, psychological and environmental) associated with masking healthy people, including the maintenance of inflated levels of fear that will have contributed significantly to the tens-of-thousands of non-Covid excess deaths and the current mental health crisis. Do you believe that a marginal reduction in viral transmission can compensate for this extensive collateral damage?
- If the Government’s behavioural scientists had not promoted masks as a way of increasing a sense of ‘solidarity’ that encouraged general compliance with the COVID-19 restrictions, can you confirm whether you would have changed your advice?
Growing numbers of people would like to hear Whitty’s answers to these important questions. Given the opportunity, I would be very happy to directly put them to our Chief Medical Officer in a public forum. Failing this, maybe a high-profile journalist will rise to the challenge. Ah, we can but dream.
Dr. Gary Sidley is a retired NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist, a member of HART and co-founder of the Smile Free campaign.
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Those eight questions are the same type of questions I would ask, and have been saying for the past two years and since. I have to bite my tongue when I see people still wearing cloth masks in the many places I see them. Why, why and why?
Because he’s a crook.
Not just Whitty, but also Dr Jenny Harries who in March 2020 stated that masks should not be made compulsory a nd words to the effect that they were not effective etc. In Sept. 2020 she made a statement saying the exact opposite! I heard both on the BBC, I assumed the latter was the political statement.
I am in hospital and never wear a mask!
Someone remind me please, what did Sir Whitty Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government do exactly, to earn his title? I’m still struggling with it.
have we NOT had enough of this man!?? it’s passed Malfeasance hasn’t it?? it all deliberate & international causing injuries & endangering people’s & particularly our Children’s lives. I have had enough of these creatures….
I recently had 24 hours in hospital and the ubiquity of masks made the experience worse by several orders of magnitude. Staff may as well have not spoken. If they were giving essential info I wasn’t receiving it.
Tut tut- don’t you know that ‘Questions are a burden to others, the answers a prison for oneself’?
Here’s an interesting short video about masks from New Zealand (Voices For Freedom). ”Mask Mandates Exposed”.
https://odysee.com/@voicesforfreedom:6/mask-mandates:3
I recall reading somewhere, a year or so ago, that many more children were presenting with bacterial respiratory problems. Not much more was said since then.
He changed his mind after Valance discussion telephone call with Fauci, when they agreed to go along with the plans to use this manufactured pandemic to introduce the new style vaccines. SAGE were used to propagate fear to incite the populations into taking the vaccines. JennyHarries etc all changed their tune right at this time. They have done this for ego and money, because otherwise the time taken to approve these vaccine would have taken at least another decade. The responsibility for the chaos the world is in is purely and simply down to the unbounded arrogance, and stupidity, of these people who could not and did not see the effects they would cause. Too late now, though they should face retribution for the consequences of their quite deliberate action.
You do them FAR too much credit! Of COURSE they could see the effects they would cause. And that’s what makes them even more evil.
Why did he? Probably because he was told to.
Remember what he said back in May of 2020 before he changed his tune? ”UK Government confirms Covid19 harmless to VAST MAJORITY of people”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adj8MCsZKlg&feature=youtu.be
Masks indicate compliance. That’s all.
I haven’t worn one yet, I have no intention of wearing one in the future. Not jabbed. Still not dead.
Whitty hasn’t been seen for weeks. He did the job required of him and now appears to have been put back in his box.
He will never answer these questions, or any others, until the Public Inquiry is held and by then the people responsible for the destruction of our Civil Liberties over a Low Consequence Infectious Disease will have agreed what their responses will be.
No-one will be held to account. But we will be assured that “lessons will be learnt.”
I’m pretty sure I saw Whitty being interviewed early on and he was asked what had changed in relation to the science…his answer…the science hasn’t changed, policy has…..one of the reasons I started thinking all was not as it seemed!
The Health Foundation Covid Policy Tracker……this is a good source for looking at each policy as it came out…easy way to follow ‘the narrative’ timeline.
https://covid19.health.org.uk/theme/536?sor
https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/blogs/a-year-tracking-covid-19-policy?
better link, I hope…
Aha ! Chris Whitty again! I wonder if Billy Hunt has had his Three Jabs…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpCxpmegbnE
With the legal requirement for masking currently removed, it’s the many places that want to retain them that are the problem. We all know about supermarkets, but academic institutions can be worse. I am engaged in long-running battle with the RNCM (Music College) in Manchester about their requirement to wear a mask whilst watching a performance – – they have a superb programme of events open to the public, but I won’t go until I can be mask-free. They won’t even discuss this until Easter at the earliest.
I was just reading that, at the American Superbowl, celebrities went maskless, despite a mandate to wear them, and after many had damned others for not doing so. And the National Youth Orchestra had to play – muzzled.
https://aflds.org/news/post/celebrities-politicians-go-maskless-at-superbowl-despite-mask-piety/
Why? Because he’s a copper bottomed hypocrite with the backbone of an amoeba.
Excerpt from a response I got to an Official Information Act request here in New Zealand about the scientific evidence for our face mask mandates on public transport back in April 2021. They have of course been greatly widened since then.
“Maintaining the requirement for face coverings on public transport in Alert Level 1 provides wider benefits that support the overall response to the pandemic. For example, face coverings are a constant reminder of the ongoing threat posed by COVID-19 and will help prompt people to be more vigilant about other important behaviours, such as physical distancing, scanning using the New Zealand COVID Tracer App, hand hygiene and coughing and sneezing etiquette. Familiarity with using face coverings also supports community preparedness and may help to limit transmission of COVID-19 in the event of any subsequent community outbreak where transmission may have been undetected for a time. ” In other words – mask mandates are to keep people fearful in order to “nudge” them into certain behaviours. They are also in place so that people get used to wearing them for when in they future they are considered more needed. I didn’t get a clear answer on the science behind their effectiveness,… Read more »
I had this from Voices For Freedom (New Zealand)- an excellent group:
https://odysee.com/@voicesforfreedom:6/mask-mandates:3
Yes they are wonderful. I honestly don’t know where we would be without these three brave women starting up this group.
The other irony in this response is the statement “undetected for some time”. If it’s “undetected for some time” doesn’t that indicate that it’s not a problem? It reminds me of this: “As I was going down the stair I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today, oh how I wish he’d go away”
Masks are a public menace. They are a psychological crime, they are a crime against children, they are an environmental crime, they are a crime against reason, they are a crime against science, they are a crime against health. They litter every pavement, they clog every drain, they lie in corridors at the end of every school day. They are medieval in justification, fascist in utility, and totalitarian in conformity. They are divisive, they are talismans, they are artefacts of oppression, and tokens of discrimination.
The questions posed to Whitty in this article are a good start but we need a forensic investigation into the timeline of their emergence globally. Who was taking advice from whom exactly and when? This is one of several Corona crimes that must be traced to its source. That source has a fuckload to answer for.
And, of course, if they really WERE effective, then there’d be hazardous waste bins all over the place, with dire warnings.
I’ve been arguing that the masks must be a bio hazard if they’re so effective, so how come you can just dump them in any old bin?
Also I went out Saturday a vegan Meetup around Brixton I have been to with two friends before since 2017 three people wore masks not arriving one carried a black mask in his hand he was a nice guy I hoped he had given up the mask after the mandate lifted he was not a friend and I do not remember getting his number yet some still seem to not want to give up the mask it is astonishing . I met him first at a potluck bring your own vegan food so I made vegan tuna and sweetcorn pasta bake it was Finsbury Park inside the Van Gogh cafe walking inside he wore masks walking in with a woman he got on very well with she wore one walking in as well then took it off sitting down insane you do not have to wear masks in cafes in England . I have been on various 6 mile hikes with people early thirties more near my age I am 30 in May too about sixties , seventies some wore masks on particular Meetup recently a vegetarian vegan India place in Islington, one woman arrived with her mask on she… Read more »
I’ve never worn a mask on the tube and never been challenged by anyone. The worst that’s ever happened is I got ‘evils’ from some maskoid woman, and some other maskoid sat down next to me then moved when she saw I was a free-facer. I just smiled at them.
Face masks are dehumanising they make me think someone is trying to commit a murder or steal from a shop wearing a black balaclava . I have seen a lot of young men wear a balaclava on the tube and buses in London . I do wonder in future if criminals will be hard to find as masks hide their face , also it must help facial recognition used on train stations to stop criminals only uses the eyes and hair in age of masks that must be very much the agenda ,
The whole point of masks is not to protect others more to cause anxiety fear , and stop us connecting as human beings the globalists know this it is our facial expressions that make us human most daily communication is done by the face mouth talking take it away and you have a society of faceless drones who cannot communicate their feelings, so they all become less human ,
I still see thousands now wear masks outside near my work in Finchley Lots of people were wearing them outside and some looked like they never took them off , also some teenagers about a week… Read more »
what concerns me is the health implications of continues mask wearing for x number of hours a day in for example the workplace, I would not have thought wearing a cloth and breathing in your own carbon dioxide is very healthy.
Ask these people if they drink their own piss and eat their own shit too. Sorry for being crude but it’s the same thing, a bodily waste product.
On another note: I’m in Wales and they have just announced they intend to inject 5 to 11yo with the jab. Can’t believe it has come to this, it must stop. I know some people that have kids here in Wales, is there any type of legal notice that can be given to some of the teachers. I have warned some kids that go to this particular school and I intend to warn some more.
“Can’t believe it has come to this”
Why not? This has been on the cards for months. As you see, no-one stopped the 12-18 year olds from being injected. 0-5 year olds next. It’s all for ‘The Greater Good’ (profits for Pfizer and backhanders to the politicians).
The next thing has already started, where they control our money. In Canada they are blocking accounts sending your own money to the truckers, already done it to those who they said tried to invade the White House.
Everyone should go to their banks and withdraw all their cash, in cash. A run on the banks would do nicely.
My 75 year old aunt texted me last night to tell me she and my uncle tested positive for Covid. I drove to their house at 12:30 AM and dropped off Ivermectin pills, HCQ, zinc, and Quercetin. She told me today her fever came down and that I may have saved her life. Uncle is feeling great. This is considered a negative outcome by the cabal. They would prefer my family dead. Their evil is no longer a theory and very much a reality. You can get your ivm by visiting https://ivmpharmacy.com
Can someone please explain why anyone would down-vote such a positive post? Her relatives got better! How can that be a negative?
He possibly lost his marbles but the greater issue was the loss of personal and professional credibility and integrity, never to be regained. Despicable.
Whitty’s private home hard drive should be seized and examined thoroughly.
As mask dynamics are studied in the Physics of Fluids, have any of these “experts” bothered to consult a physicist as to the dynamics of masking?
Since none of them even consider the effect from the wicking of droplets by masks, with the consequent impact on evaporation rate, it’s obvious that they have not. (Virus will become aerosolized by masks in microseconds and either inhaled or exhaled. There will be an humidity gradient if the ambient humidity is higher inside the mask as expected, so virus will tend to be exhaled by mask wearers.)
Nor do these “experts” even realize that they are out of field.
I’m very happy to report well over 95% of people at the Metrocentre in Gateshead were maskless on Sunday.
They still can’t leave the country without Vaxx Passes or ‘proof of not being infected’ (for which they have to pay).* And how many of them have been ‘vaccinated for Covid’?
And we all know that as soon as Boris snaps his fingers again and tells people that they MUST wear masks, then they’ll be back on in a jiffy – just as I predicted last time.
*unless they fancy going to Norway, apparently, which is all cold and snowy with streets full of ice and slush.
IN APril we won’t give a toss about such characters things will have moved on. We all need to pay serious attention to our situations.