It is the season of goodwill.
So, can I offer a scintilla of encouragement to a group who don’t see much of it in these pages?
The perma-masked.
You float among us, mouths and noses hidden, in the supermarket and on the Tube; sometimes even walking down the empty street. Around 2% of the London or Norwich population, I’d estimate, which is a lot fewer than the 50% I saw on the Taipei Metro and buses six weeks ago but isn’t wholly insignificant. You cannot breathe freely, nor wear glasses without them steaming up. Your mask swiftly acquires a scurf of debris and bacteria and disrupts the microflora of the skin beneath. Worse, and forgive my saying so, but, to the rest of us, you resemble living ghosts. We know not whether you smile or scowl. Many of you seem anxious to avoid any contact at all. We see the fear in your eyes and movements.
Let me be clear. I understand that some folk mask only briefly, and with some logic. They have colds, Covid or flu, and think it’s polite to mask until they recover. It’s a dubious proposition, given that masks won’t stop aerosolised virus and have no proven efficacy in preventing the spread of SARS-CoV2 or influenza at population levels. It’s also potentially dangerous because, as Jenny Harries (now Head of the UKHSA) pointed out early in the pandemic, wearing a mask while unwell likely promotes re-inhalation of virus particles, increasing the viral load. This cannot be healthy. Others, I appreciate, have good reason to mask: they are on shoplifting expeditions; plan trouble on the streets, or intend to paintball ULEZ cameras. These aren’t the folks I’m trying to reach. They have good or bad reasons to mask and, more vitally, aren’t doing so for very long.
No, the folks to whom I want to extend my hand are those of you who wear masks whenever you venture out and have done since 2020.
I appreciate that some of you are immunosuppressed, were told to shield in 2020 and haven’t given up, even though the Shielding Programme ended in September 2021, and even though you never previously masked for fear of influenza or any other respiratory virus at least as harmful as Omicron SARS-CoV2. Some of you were overwhelmed by Project Fear’s posters and exhortations not to kill granny and are now afflicted with Coronaphobia. You deserve sympathy, not derision. The Covid propaganda effort was a vile scam against free citizens. But that’s no justification for continuing to fall for it.
I will add – as also deserving sympathy and support – those coerced to mask by employer or peer pressure. For example, the unfortunate cabin crew on my excellent China Airlines flight from Taipei to London last month. The stewardesses wore masks for 15 hours straight. Since they were outnumbered 30 to one by unmasked passengers, a few coughing, their face covering was self-evidently pointless. And must have been deeply unpleasant for them. It’s not as bad as foot binding, but scarcely more sensible.
What drives my sudden empathy is recent cataract surgery. Both eyes: one week apart by an excellent man, seen privately at Moorfields. The operations was tricky owing to other medication and a previous problem with one eye. And because, though some freak of hereditary, I have a narrow anterior chamber, restricting the surgeon’s working space. Now, three weeks on, my vision is better than pre-surgery, and keeps improving. The surgeon is pleased and has sent me away for a couple of months before a final assessment, adding: “You won’t need glasses any longer, except for reading.”
And there’s the rub.
I’ve worn glasses from childhood to the present, except for a few years in my early 20s. I’m mid-60s now and putting them on of a morning is a normal part of dressing. I’m naked without them. It’s as if I’ve forgotten to put my trousers on and have wandered down the street in my underpants. Everyone knows me wearing glasses and I’m self-conscious without them.
Worse, I realise that, subconsciously, I see glasses not just as optical correction but also as vital safety kit. Without them my eyes risk imminent disaster. Which will surely befall them. Suddenly, I have an inkling of how you perma-masked folk must feel. Glasses were my shield, just as your mask is yours. Being told they’re unnecessary doesn’t make them unnecessary in my head.
If I walk into town with my wife, and it’s raining, the tips of her umbrella’s ribs dance at my eye level, for she is shorter than I. I swiftly become convinced that I will be poked in an unshielded eye. I consequently become paranoid, make ungenerous comments about how lethally she’s holding the umbrella, and she becomes cross. By the time we reach M&S we are barely speaking.
And I know it is only going to be worse, much worse, when I resume my ambition to walk the U.K.’s coastline. I’ve only the West Coast of Scotland left – from the Mull of Galloway to Arran, Kintyre, Oban, Barra, Stornoway, Ullapool and finally Cape Wrath, which I’ve already reached from the other side. The wind is wild up there. It whips the sand along the beaches and lashes your face on the clifftops. How will unprotected eyes face that assault? Even worse, come April, I’ll be back to photographing wild orchids in rough English woodlands. And in abject terror of having naked eyeballs scratched by an over-hanging bramble.
Already, there’s a temptation to wear sunglasses whenever I go out, however gloomy the day; to find a pair of lab safety-specs for the orchid hunting or to ask the optician to run up a pair of bifocals with a plain-glass ‘blank’ at the top and a reading panel below.
All would return me to my comfort zone; just as your mask does.
Yet, objectively, my fear is over-cooked. My wife didn’t previously keep hitting my glasses with her umbrella. So why should she now poke me in the eye? What’s more, a good 80% to 90% of folk on the London street aren’t wearing glasses and seem to remain unblinded. Moorfields A&E, which I’ve passed repeatedly these past three weeks isn’t a horror show of eye-sockets dangling bloody thorns, umbrella ribs or bits of trees.
Venturing out with unprotected eyes cannot be as dangerous as I think, my rational self tells me. But conquering fear is harder than recognising that it is overdone.
Even so, I’m trying to make the effort. Last Friday I walked the Thames from Richmond to Hampton Court with naked eyes. No disaster befell me. Yesterday, to dinner with old friends, who still recognised me. Next month I’m off to Gran Canaria to walk the mountains, promising myself that I’ll only wear sunglasses when brightness demands them. Baby steps. Afterwards, come spring, Scotland and the wild Atlantic wind. As for spectacle-free orchid hunting, that’s a step too far. Eye protection there really does seem a good idea. My late father scratched his cornea whilst botanising in the woods and, last year, I took a lump of flesh out of my forehead by walking into a branch when I was looking downwards. An inch lower might have been nasty. Better not to be totally reckless.
So, here’s my Christmas message to any good perma-masked folk who’ve strayed to these pages. Face the evidence. There are no good data to show that your mask is protecting you. But there is every scrap of evidence that it’s impeding your interactions with the world.
Try going bare-faced, as you always did when previous viruses abounded. Baby steps. Abandon your mask in the open air, then in the shop, and last, on public transport. I understand if you still want to wear it the GP’s waiting room when everyone around you is coughing. I doubt it’ll offer a hundredth part the solid protection of my orchid-hunting specs…. But I understand.
And, as for those poor stewardesses on the China Airlines flight: thank you for looking after me, but you really need to rebel.
Merry Christmas.
Dr. David Livermore is a retired Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia.
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Is frauchi wearing several masks there? Pity they aren’t effective at filtering oxygen atoms tbh. An utterly evil man whose career was booked ended by two epic frauds.
Yes ! Freddie Mercury & Rock Hudson probably succumbed to his dodgy drug treatment !!
And Kenny Everett
The strangest ones are the ones driving in their cars alone with a mask on. At first I thought maybe they were afraid of their steering wheel, then I thought well maybe they are putting the mask on before they go out so as not to disturb their hairdo. —-Then I finally realised they are just paranoid people scared of their own shadow.
Boxing Day 06:50 walking dogs back from the local park and not a soul around apart that is from an Asian lady crossing the road and walking up the street opposite fully masked. Goodness these poor people really have been scared s***less. Well done Matt Hancock great job.
At least Asians have a history of wearing masks totally unconnected with any disease and mainly wear them against air pollution.
Maybe she was a visitor and the air pollution that ULEZ is supposed to remove hasn’t gone yet?
Life-long speccy-wearer here too – but I’ve found them just as much hindrance as help on occasion. Blurring in the rain, steaming up in cold weather/gym/walking/DIY/hot tea etc, falling off while digging the garden, getting caught on branches & being torn off by brolly spokes (yes, really) – and being magnets for perma-sticky baby hands. Admittedly they stopped my eye being pecked out by rampant chickens when I cut my forehead (!) but otherwise wearing them is on a par with having to cut toenails: a necessary chore.
Good job we’re all different, eh?
I got hard lenses at 16. ——best thing ever. The only problem is the very occasional bit of dust (stoor, as we say in Scotland) that gets behind it and it can sometimes cause a bit of distress. It becomes difficult to get it out as the eye fills with tears. But that is very rare. ———-I would feel sorry for a perma-mask wearer with a bit of stoor in his een (eyes)
I second that. Even though I see very little of anything that’s more than a foot distant from my head without glasses, I sometimes take them off in heavy rain because the raindrops are too annoying.
Are they permanently glued on, which would prevent you taking them off at times when the situation dictates?
You used to be able to get a string, tube or chain that fitted to the ear hooks that allow you to take them off and hang them around your neck when you didn’t want them on but need them nearby.
They’re mentally ill.
As are the people who don’t understand the reality of gender.
As are the people who think we are irreversibly altering the climate with our fossil fuels.
The population now consists of an uncomfortably high percentage of people who are mentally ill and have lost touch with reality altogether.
Spot on. Flying viruses if you believe in them (I don’t) are supposedly 0.3 microns or smaller in size. They pass through and around just about anything (except concrete). Face anus wrappers are self-loathing, stupid, anti-science, wannabee fascists. The same people who jabbed 7 times and were enthusiastically lining me up for a cattle car and a ride to a ‘recreation camp’ for ‘delousing’ and gassing. The diapers go beyond being stupid to a world of intolerance and medical nazism.
“Reality”????———What is the difference between Reality and Fiction? ————Fiction needs to be credible.
Reality is that if you try to impregnate a man who claims to be a woman your chances of getting a baby are 0%.
That’s reality.
This really needs to be taken to the next level. Eg, gender-dysphoric trans-man, woman claiming to be a man who thinks he’s really a woman.
Not credible————–Just as I said.—- I think you may have misinterpreted my comment, and anyone who red arrowed what I said clearly has the wrong end of the stick. It seems to be quite common when people think you disagree with them when the opposite is actually the case.
I know you weren’t disagreeing and were making a joke.
Mine was a slightly clumsy follow on.
No… that’s misinformation and ‘transgenderphobia’.
Report for a thrashing.
Surely can’t be exactly 0%. I mean, Mary didn’t even have sex!
Reality of gender. Gender only applies to grammar. Words are differentiated by gender, Humans by sex.
A person’s physical and emotional characteristics – male or female – are determined by sex hormones which are determined by the gonads which are determined by sex, established at the time of conception. (Accidents in the womb notwithstanding.)
When Arthur wants to become Martha, it is sex hormones that are used, not gender hormones.
I think the figure is lower than 2% unless you live in an area with a lot of Chinese, Korean or Japanese people (sorry folks I struggle to tell the difference). Seems less than 1% to me where I live and in London.
The article mentions something called a “pandemic” as if this were a recent event. I don’t believe that “covid” (whatever that is) gets close to qualifying as a “pandemic” and referring to it as such is immediately conceding ground to enemies who wish to harm (and have harmed) me and my family.
“I don’t believe that “covid” (whatever that is) gets close to qualifying as a “pandemic” and referring to it as such is immediately conceding ground to enemies who wish to harm (and have harmed) me and my family.”
And that is a reality that we must never stop repeating.
100% I’m not afraid of sounding like a broken record!
“Chinese, Korean or Japanese people (sorry folks I struggle to tell the difference).”
You can tell by the size of their chopsticks.
Lol – next time I see some and need to know I will ask to see their chopsticks.
You’d have thought the authorities would be banning masks world wide- after all how is the face recognition software going to work?
The whole thing is dangerous as you have people walking round outside in the rain breathing through a damp bit of clothe.
Toby ——–Merry Christmas and all, but I need some new articles to comment on as I am suffering from a comment come down. If I don’t get some soon I might have to go and “score” from the Mailonline.
wink——and all the best for 24
Not only do they still wear them and I respect their choice to do so although they always seemed unhappy and disrespectful of my choice not to wear one, perhaps they should at least change them from time to time. More than a handful of these types seem to be wearing the same mask for many months!
good luck with your new eyes!
The only lunatics I see face-muzzled these days are the Transtifa and Hamasshole Hate mobs, who are wearing them for completely different reasons than the Covidiots. And I think we’ve all seen the psychological state of these unhinged nutjob groups, so ’nuff said really..
Sane folk do not wear face coverings of any variety. Simple as that.
In many ways I am much more bothered by the people who are not wearing masks but say they would happily go back to wearing them as long as everyone else is forced. I recall a recent opinion poll quoting some fairly high percentage in favour of mandatory masking on public transport – I can’t remember the exact figure but it was maybe 20-40%. Those are the ones we need to worry about, not the fringe loonies.
It was (headline claim) 45% reportedly in favour of a mask mandate on public transport and about 20% for reintroducing Corona-measures beyond that. My guess would be that they arrived at the number by asking Trisha Greenalgh and scaling her down by 0.45 for supposed bias correction.
Covid: Return of lockdown measures backed by extraordinary number of people (gbnews.com)
Yes, 45%; well remembered.
Sample size was 2,000ish. They say samples are “representative” – I think this should be treated with some scepticism but while the 45% may be an overstatement (sceptics probably hate filling in surveys?) I expect the figure is still quite high. Our Research Methodology (moreincommon.com)
“More in Common UK director Luke Tryl said: “Support for bringing back restrictions is highest among our Loyal National segment – the group that is the closest to matching Red Wall voters. Four in 10 back closing night clubs, nearly six in 10 want mandatory masks back.
“Worth saying, (and I think there is a mismatch that makes more engaged people find this hard to understand), Do qual on this and you find is a sizeable minority group of people who quite liked lots of aspects of lockdown (not the pandemic itself, but the lifestyle).
“On the difference between revealed/stated preference on masks.
“Again do qual and you find people on a range of issues want clear rules which don’t rely on personal choice (ditto on climate) lots of people would just like things banned rather than it left to their individual choice.””
The bit in bold seems right to me.
Support for bringing back restrictions is highest among our Loyal National segment – the group that is the closest to matching Red Wall voters.
That’s supposed to convey: In order to win the next election, the Tories must urgently bring back Corona measures starting with a mask mandate on public transport (they won the last election by the so-called Red Wall voters switching allegiances and hence, they really ought to humour them in order to win the next election, hence, I’m going to tell them what they want!).
The weasel-wording is also noteworthy: our Loyal National segment – the group that is the closest to matching Red Wall voters
This really means: All our segments are very much different from Red Wall voters but this is (according to our entirely objective and absolutely non-partisan opinion) the least different segment.
Gem from the web site: By conducting a segmentation analysis, we can join the dots
English: Put something together by tearing it apart. That’ll work.
This guy isn’t even really a clever fraud. But obviously, a much more competent wordsmith than I’ll ever become.
Fraud or not, I believe his suggestion that some people like to be told what to do as long as everyone else is told what to do along with them and punished for non-compliance, is an accurate one. It’s one of the traits that enabled the lockdowns.
I don’t think we will see the return of lockdowns unless they come up with something scarier than “covid”, and I think this is unlikely in my lifetime. I think they know they’ve shot that bolt. But the underlying traits and tendencies in modern society that enabled lockdowns are still very much present – as of course they before “covid”. Lockdowns were not really some outlying aberration, they were a natural result of some long term trends which are not going to be reversed in a hurry.
Fraud or not, I believe his suggestion that some people like to be told what to do as long as everyone else is told what to do along with them and punished for non-compliance, is an accurate one. It’s one of the traits that enabled the lockdowns.
That’s a sentence which is in there because its conjectured that it’ll appeal to some people prejudices and thus, lend an air of credibility to the fraud this is.
I very much doubt that man or his organization want to appeal to people like me, and from what I have seen of “More in common” I have nothing in common with them. Nevertheless, the existence of people who like to be told what to do as long as others are also being told what to do seems obvious to me and applies not only to masks or covid but to rules of all kinds.
“I don’t think we will see the return of lockdowns unless they come up with something scarier than “covid”, and I think this is unlikely in my lifetime.”
Another Scamdemic is a certainty once the revised I H Regulations are passed. The definition of a PEIHC will be placed in the hands of Tedros and he is very much in Billy’s pocket. Let’s not forget that Billy has promised that we will know about the next one.
I will be gobsmacked if a stunt similar to the C1984 isn’t pulled before the end of 2024.
I’m more worried about the “climate change” hoax, permanent war with Eurasia, and the replacement of European civilisation – but attacks could come in many directions, including another fake pandemic – I just think it would be a bit too obvious even for the half-asleep (but I may be giving too much credit).
Bi-focals with a blank top seem sensible, otherwise won’t you always be worrying about whether you’ve got your reading specs with you?
We walked across Gran Canaria back in March. A surprisingly brilliant hike. Depending which way you go, but the leg on the West side of the Island is a lot tougher than you might imagine. I’d recommend East to West.
The proper way to treat the perma-masked would still be to grab the mask, pull slightly away from face it’s covering it and insert a well-used chewing gum behind it.
He’s wearing a home made mask made from the lilac y-fronts he got from secret santa.
Met an acquaintance (who tested positive a week prior) how he and wife were feeling. He was almost back to normal but wife still confined to her bedroom after 10 days, still +ve. Having meals passed to her through briefly opened door.
Common civility prevented my jaw hitting the floor or any kind of snort of derision but this is a very real psychosis among us. I’m starting to feel unsafe knowing I’m surrounded by loonies.
Who the hell is testing these days? Where do you get the tests? I have to regularly pick up pills from our local pharmacy. I’m not aware of the tests being on the shelves. (of course, that last might just be me being unobservant).
As I posted on Lockdown Sceptics yesterday, Christmas seems to bring out the worst in covidians – a Pavlovian reaction based on all the hoopla about Christmas in previous years from 2020 onwards. Quite a number of people have told us that their plans for the “festive season” have been de-railed in whole or part by them or people they know and were due to see “testing positive” for “covid”. I did see some “covid tests” on the shelf in Tesco a couple of months ago so I presume they are still on sale, and I think many still have a stack of them from when they were free.
I’ve noticed my internal rage at seeing people in masks has morphed into a ‘you poor sod‘ thought. The rage comes back though when I see a small child in a mask.
Maskoids are perfect photo opportunities.
There’s a lot of revealed mental illness about, hitherto gone undiagnosed.
I have a neighbour nearby who holds a tissue in her hand to use when touching door handles.
I know ’tis the Season of Goodwill, and it is still (almost) a free country, but I have no love or patience left for idiots. These particular idiots are wearing masks for exactly that reason; they’re idiots. Of those among them with intelligence, they prove that intelligence does not equal common sense.
I have taken to rolling my eyes every single time I pass such an idiot.
Apparently a mask is like a scaffold around a building. If you chuck snooker balls at it, a few may hit a pole and bounce back, but the vast majority will just scoot right through.
As someone also said “wearing a mask to stop a virus is the same as erecting a chain-link fence to stop mosquitos”!
What an excellent (and amusing) article. Interestingly, I have also just spent 3 weeks in Taiwan and noticed the proliferation of ‘maskies’. I actually got to ask a local why. His answer, “people feel they need to wear masks because everyone else is doing so and they would feel uncomfortable not to conform”. It seems simply a case of ‘follow the herd’ which is very prevalent in the Far East! Having said that, I am now in Saigon, Vietnam, and nobody on the streets is masked (yes on scooters, as always, due to pollution). Not being as polite as Dr Livermore, I refer to our UK ‘maskies’ as ‘TIMs’ (Tw@ts In Masks). PS. I have also had (multi-focal) lens replacements and now don’t even need specs for reading. Fortunately I have no compulsion to cover my eyes!
I much enjoyed reading Dr Livermore’s amusingly written article. As it happens I too have just visited Taiwan and noticed the proliferation of face-masks. I happened to chat to a local and asked him why so many people were still wearing them here. His reply “they wear them because everyone else is wearing them and they feel uncomfortable not to do the same”. An interesting case of just ‘following the herd’; a common trait in some Far Eastern countries. I am now in Saigon, Vietnam. Nobody here (or very few) are wearing face masks on the streets (they still often do when riding scooters, but they always have as a protection against pollution, not a virus). I am not so polite as Dr Livermore and refer to the ‘maskies’ in UK as ‘TIMs’ (T@@ts In Masks)!
I’ve worn glasses since I was 7. I had contact lenses when I was younger but the passing of time and fluctuations of hormones lead me to give up the contacts and stick with the glasses albeit varifocals now.
I can read in bed with no glasses as I’m short sighted. That’s what I’d miss if I had to have cataract surgery and got lenses which meant I’d have to have reading glasses and couldn’t read lying on my side. I suppose I could get varifocal lenses implanted but I don’t know anyone who’s got them to ask how successful they are
Hello Gefion. I was beginning to develop cataracts and had worn glasses for reading for many years. I had ‘multi-focal’ lenses implanted by an excellent ophthalmologist. A short and painless procedure, if a little expensive! My eye-sight is now 20:20 and I don’t need glasses for reading any more. Money well spent in my opinion! The ophthalmologist should be able to implant whatever lenses you need. My multi-focal implants have been a resounding success!
Can you read a paperback lying on your side in bed???? Can you thread a needle? So far, I don’t have cataracts but I want to be prepared!