Irrespective of setting, masking healthy people does more harm than good. Yet much of the NHS persists with the expectation that everybody (staff, patients and visitors) should continue to wear a face covering in their hospitals, health centres and GP practices.
Whilst masks are a successful psychological tool to remind the public to remain alert, they are not effective in preventing the community spread of disease.
The evidence that masking healthy people in community settings reduces viral transmission is – at best – weak and contradictory. In light of this lack of empirical support for the effectiveness of face coverings, together with the multiple harms associated with them, HART welcomes the lifting of all mask mandates in the UK.
Mask mandates in high-school age children were continued in Scotland in the Autumn 2021 school term. At the same time in England, masks were made optional. We can compare the difference in case counts in both countries and see the effect of this difference in policy.
It would seem that Nadhim Zahawi’s most recent promised ‘material’ evidence for his recommendations for face coverings in secondary classrooms is as flimsy as some of the cloth masks our teenagers will need to resort to using.
In the week when the requirement (or is it only a ‘recommendation’?) to mask children in the classroom was reinstated, it is worthwhile to consider the likely reasons underpinning the decision to return to a restriction that is both ineffective and harmful.
On New Year’s day, just when we should have been giving children a positive message at the start of 2022, it was instead announced that secondary school pupils would be back into masks in class.
By Dr Gary Sidley Retired Clinical Psychologist and Dr Alan Mordue Retired Consultant in Public Health Medicine & Epidemiologist Whilst masks are a successful psychological tool to remind the public to remain alert, they are not effective in preventing the community spread of disease. In the summer of 2020, mandates were introduced to compel healthy […]
You can watch the entire debate on Parliamentary TV archives, Timestamp: 14:33:25. Click on this Timestamp from the pull down menu on the righthand side of the web page.
This week’s top picks from our members
In the knowledge that people are already in a state of heightened anxiety, what government would choose to further frighten and shame them? When citizens have amended their lifestyles in order to function under difficult circumstances, what government would seek to actively disrupt these necessary and understandable adaptations?
Some links we feel are worth your time.
The UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry need to work out the most important question ie did any of these measures work rather than why we didn’t implement them sooner. The same is true in Wales as in England.
Mathematical modelling has a role to play in predicting deaths but as with all modelling it needs to be used very carefully. We have seen modellers who make the assumption that everyone was susceptible to covid then producing dramatic graphs that show everyone would catch it. We’ve also seen modellers who assumed masks worked then producing dramatic graphs of how they could minimise covid. Of all modelling crimes, putting your conclusion into your assumptions is surely the worst.
Some articles and links we think are worth your time.
Some articles, links, books and series we think are worth your time.
A few articles we think are worth the time.
A selection of articles we feel are worth your time.
