On June 4th 2020, Grant Shapps (then Transport Secretary) announced that the wearing of face coverings would soon become compulsory when travelling on public transport. The next day, this mandate was extended to healthcare – for staff, patients and visitors – and, the following month, masks became mandatory in all shops, on pain of £100 fines for the non-compliant. At this time, hiding one’s face behind strips of cloth or plastic was portrayed as an act of virtue, and the masked compliers were perceived as occupying the moral high ground. To impose a public health restriction in the absence of robust evidence for its effectiveness was bad enough. But, even more shameful, was the total disregard of the harms of community masking.
So, on this five-year anniversary of forced mask wearing, let us pause and spare a thought for the multiple victims of mask mania.
Let’s not forget the swathes of babies and toddlers who failed to bond with their faceless care givers, thereby stunting their longer term cognitive and emotional development.
- Children had “limited vocabulary” while some babies had “struggled to respond to basic facial expressions”, partly due to interacting with people wearing face masks. (Amanda Spielman, Oftsed Inspector)
- “We were really really concerned about that [harms from masks] and we fought really hard to have that taken out of the guidance. … We know now how many additional support needs there are for children as a result of mask wearing. Speech and language issues have exponentially increased because the children were not seeing the visual cues from their caregivers.” (Lorna Kettles – policy manager at Early Years Scotland, Scottish Covid Inquiry)
Let’s not forget the many victims of historical physical and sexual abuse who were further traumatised by the mask requirements.
- “Mandated mask-wearing has caused me numerous problems. I was sexually abused for years as a child where I was smothered and muffled, anything to stop me crying out. … So mask wearing has been a trigger for me both wearing and seeing people in masks – particularly children.” (Anonymous female)
- “I suffer from PTSD as a result of childhood abuse. I have been working on my mental health for years… but I didn’t even consider that wearing a mask would be a problem. At first I was finding myself very anxious not being able to see people’s faces properly… I would feel dizzy and short of breath when wearing a mask. It gradually got worse until I started having flashbacks, very sudden images of my abuser covering my mouth.” (Charli MacVicar)
Let’s not forget the 18 million UK adults with hearing difficulties who – because masks muffled voices and made it impossible to lipread – were plunged into a communication vacuum.
- “The evidence demonstrated that the use of masks caused distress, confusion and considerable difficulties with communication. Residents couldn’t see smiles, had difficulty recognising relatives and those with hearing difficulties couldn’t lip-read or read facial expressions or visual clues.” (Care Home Relatives Scotland, closing statement to the Scottish Covid Inquiry)
- “Garden visits were described as being ‘horrendous’ with no privacy. They were impractical in the Scottish climate and visitors had to shout to be heard while wearing masks and sitting two metres apart.” (Central Scotland Care Homes – evidence to the Scottish Covid Inquiry)
Let’s not forget the patients with existing respiratory problems whose breathing difficulties were exacerbated, those who were put at greater risk of contracting pneumonia and other bacterial infections, and those who were exposed to the inhalation of micro-plastics.
- “I am a 59 years old male, suffered from severe asthma in my 30s but have not used medication for 20 years thanks to a breathing method. … Wearing a mask causes me severe difficulty because it pushes me below the acceptable level in terms of intake of air. After a few minutes I feel that I am being asphyxiated, which is extremely stressful.” (Anonymous male)
- “I have chronic bronchitis and use asthma inhaler on a daily basis. … Only time I wore a mask out I collapsed in the supermarket. … I use an oximeter daily on GP advice. If I put a mask on my oxygen levels go down quite rapidly – to around 86% and become very lightheaded. …. I was advised to call an ambulance if it went below 90%. Truly ridiculous.” (Anonymous male)
Let’s not forget the millions of distressed and frightened NHS service users and care home residents who, as a consequence of the often stymied relationships resulting from masked protagonists, experienced sub-optimal care.
- “She hated masks… she never saw a member of staff without a mask on for two years. … Towards the end of July 2020, I was permitted to have garden visits, but these were difficult for both of us. I had to wear full PPE and sit at least two metres from her. She used to get upset and distressed… that we had to keep a distance from each other. She hated me wearing a mask as she couldn’t even see my face properly.” (Verona Gibson, mother of a 39 year-old daughter with learning difficulties/mental health problems who resides in a care home – evidence to the Scottish Covid Inquiry)
- “If you are surrounded by a group of people 24-7 wearing masks, and you don’t see people smile for up to two years, what kind of effect is that going to have on your mental health and wellbeing?” (Alison Walker, former BBC sports presenter, whose parents mentally and physically deteriorated in a care home in 2020 – evidence to Scottish Covid Inquiry).
Let’s not forget the rational minority who, because they opted not to wear a mask, were harassed and abused by others. On one occasion such an assault led to the death of a young woman.
- “I got a lanyard, but it was still a nightmare. I was followed round shops, had nasty comments, challenged regularly – and these things also led to massive anxiety. We live in a rural area where compliance is high and also I look pretty meek and anxious when I’m out so people aren’t scared to have a go, and they do. … There was a period where I felt so much hate towards me… that I just couldn’t even face going to shops for food. (Anonymous autistic female)
- “For her [12 year-old daughter] the mask mandate has been catastrophic and has curtailed her life and caused deep trauma. When she puts a mask on she hyperventilates – it immediately makes her panic and feel anxious. … When the mask mandate started in schools we did manage to get her an exemption. … But with the exemption comes discrimination – from the children who call her ‘selfish’ and a ‘granny killer’ or ‘antivax’ – to some of the teachers who have described her as ‘one of those’.” (Anonymous mother)
Blanket masking requirements achieved little if any benefits yet caused multiple – often profound – harms. Five years on from the imposition of the first UK mask mandates, have our public health decisionmakers learnt the errors of their ways, and is there now general recognition that state-sanctioned cover-your-face orders must never happen within our communities?
Encouragingly, in 2025, wearing a mask in shops, leisure facilities, workplaces or on public transport is for the most part confined to a tiny minority. Alas, the exception to this return of sanity is the health and social care sector, where a few pro-mask ideologues residing in the infection control departments recurringly succeed in muzzling their staff, patients and visitors. While these pockets of fanaticism exist, there is always a danger that – fuelled by the contagion of safetyism – the imposition of mask requirements can re-ignite across all community settings. With this in mind, on this five-year anniversary of the first UK mask mandates, the campaign group Smile Free is about to release a short film, Masking Humanity, in which health and social care experts vividly convey the enormous harms of masks in these settings. Please help to spread the word to assist in the mission to keep blanket masking out of health and social care.
Dr Gary Sidley is a retired NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist and co-founder of the Smile Free campaign opposed to mask mandates. Subscribe to his Substack page.
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I will never forget or forgive any of it
Seconded 👍
Thirded.
Fourthed. It was all unforgivable. I will never vote again for any party or politician who supported, or even stood by and allowed, any of this. That means all of them, except Reform.
Same here. What they did was unforgivable.
Hear hear!
Are we being softened up for the next stage in the testing of the control system?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/d263ea2bf3488ee9
The description of our systems makes Wuhan look good.
Oops! Wrong link. Sorry:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/uk-not-ready-for-major-animal-disease-outbreak/
Just watched a youtube video about school education in California, apparently the prison service works out how many spaces will be needed in the future from the data on reading proficiency in school year 3.
When our deranged government announced its mask mandate – although it knew that masks weren’t any defence against air-born corona viruses – I looked up the relevant studies on mask effectiveness. It quickly became apparent that the global Establishment had been having studies which showed that masks didn’t work deleted from websites that published them. It was from that point that I knew that the authorities were lying to us about the “pandemic”.
Mask mandates were introduced, like everything else, in lockstep around the world. So which is more “deranged” – to think up a mask mandate, or to fall in line when some unelected spook in America tells you to impose one?
Coronavirus: Face masks could increase risk of infection, medical chief warns…
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-news-face-masks-increase-risk-infection-doctor-jenny-harries-a9396811.html
“…For the average member of the public walking down a street, it is not a good idea.”
Dr J Harries, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, 12th March 2020.
If memory serves right, mask mandates coincided with rebranding Public Health as Health Security, with Dr (later Dame) Harries becoming Head of UKHSA.
The Health Security Gestapo were complicit all along.
It was awful, simply awful.
I haven’t lived through a war and so perhaps that is much worse.
But the mask era was basically a period of intolerable totalitarianism. There’s no other way to describe it. It was arbitrary, irrational, it made everyone suspicious and fearful of each other, it brought out the nasty little dictator in those who have that lurking inside them, it was a hideous abuse of power.
It marked out clearly the types of people we have in society.
We all know into which category we fall.
Sadly, I fell into the “weak” category first time around. Not because I feared the authorities, but because I didn’t want to unsettle those around me. Having now had time to reflect on the ridiculousness of it all, I have a much more rebellious attitude to all of this state control stuff.
That is the one silver lining from the experience. It has increased the level of scepticism in the population which I really celebrate.
I never will forget, or forgive. Having been on the receiving end of much abuse. But the Grant Scahpps, Boris Johnson’s, Michael Gove’s, Hancocks of this world go unpunished, in fact they have for the most part continued to thrive having ruined a country, and millions of people’s lives.
I hope they sleep soundly at night.
One small memory – my then pastor found it even harder to preach to a church full of masked people than he had speaking to camera for lockdown livestreams. Reading faces is vital at every level of conversation from chat to public speaking.
I remember I was in Aldi and a very small child give me a huge smile for no apparent reason.
Then I realised that I was the only one in the shop not wearing a mask.
I smiled manically at everyone, everywhere I went. And it was so easy to find like-minded people. Ah, I remember well that warm glow of solidarity upon making eye contact with the other rare Literally-Hitlers who weren’t wearing the face nappies.
I remember it well. You are right as far as you go, but what did happen at almost the same time was that a branch of the Civil Service published on-line exemption paperwork, including the artwork and an explanation of how to produce suitable printed badges etc.
I did make use of it, and declared exemption unilaterally. No one had any right to ask why, without being in breach of GDPR, and I never wore any such “mask”, once I realised it was a psychological con. There was only one occasion, at my car dealer’s place in August 2020, where I didn’t wear one, and once I declared exemption, the assistant just shut up and got on with the job.
There are still some stragglers though. About a year ago, I went to the local hospital for a routine screening appointment (AAA screen for certain age groups), and the person assisting visitors at the main entrance wore one. Once in, no one else did in the outpatients department!
I did likewise, but never had to visit a care home or face serious opposition. For some it was a genuine jobsworth. Seeing a class of masked children was utterly repulsive. A truly loathsome and deeply sinister imposition. It must never happen again – why does facial recognition still allow for mask-wearing???
ISTR that Apple actually modified the iOS for iPhones to allow for them; not sure, as I never used them, although I do use the face recognition for payments, bank access etc.
Playing along with this nonsense by wearing a lanyard seemed, to me, like a cop out and somehow worse than obediently masking up.
Its like using the enemy armies emblems and flags to keep out of trouble.
We dissenters should be out and proud, to encourage the others and to show how many of us there were
Another significant victim was the truth and regard for objective reality. Those things had been under assault for a while but the lies and delusions during “covid” really took the biscuit.
Most disturbing of all for me was that almost all people seemed to welcome being half-suffocated.
Upon hearing about the requirement to “mask”, I immediately looked for a legal way out. And, unlike in most other countries, the UK had made provision. You could exempt yourself, and no-one had the right to even ask you why. Yet, when I told people this (what I believed to be) excellent news, they denounced me and called me selfish.
Terrifying time.
It was almost the same with most foreign travel. When I tell people that I am not jabbed, only allowed one “COVID test” (a man waggled a cotton bud on my tonsils for a fraction of a second) and yet travelled without let or hindrance all over Europe the whole time, they say I am lying… People just don’t want to be free.
It was, At the time, it looked like an insight as to the psychology of what can happen, almost like 1930s Germany. Too many civilians who just did what they were told – perhaps it’s always an easy route to follow, not just for them.
While we remember what happened with Covid 5 years ago and vow not to repeat the mistakes the WHO has issued its Pandemic Treaty which appears to have been signed up to by many countries including the UK.
Two articles about this treaty. … One .. a detailed interview with Christine Anderson on europeanconservative.com
The other is on GatestoneInstitute.org
Both denounce the whole thing as a massive power grab by yet another Globalist Gang. Both highlight an item buried in this treaty … there is the newly acquired, enforcement instrument called the “Digital Global Compact” (DGC) that seeks to make it impossible to criticize this new UN/WHO reign of terror.
Horrible, disgusting things. The worst part was realising that the majority of your fellow human beings were bought in to this utter nonsense. Trying to explain the size difference between a virus and the weave of those useless rags was soul-destroying, even when using what I thought were amusing analogies like transporting loose sand in a shopping trolley or erecting a chain link fence to keep out mosquitoes. I began to question my own sanity rather than theirs.
I wouldn’t talk about it in the past tense. They are comin gback and next time they will be accompanied by even more hideous measures. Don’t assume that your little kiddy is going to enjoy the rest of his childhood untortured. That was just a warming up and a way of doing a lot of damage before much heavier blows to finish the job.
The enforced wearing of mask was one of the cruelist actions the govt could have taken, based on a mountain of falsity claiming effectiveness. It was a huge tissue of lies. I still feel sad for Her Majesty, sitting alone, masked, at the funeral of her beloved husband, a scene replicated countless times across the country. It’s a pity more people didn’t say “if your mask works, I don’t need mine”.
This is just one aspect of the evil Tyranny, the Establishment launched against us.
It is why I will NEVER vote for the Not-a-Conservative-Party ever again, as long as I live. I would never vote Labour or LibDem anyway.