This morning (July 24th, 2020) I went to my local Waitrose. There was no queue, but I was bawled out by the woman on the door for not wearing a face mask. At the time, I was not even aware of the idiot legislation just passed. I asked her if she wanted to stop me going in to the store. She demurred. I did my shopping in about 10 minutes. At the checkout, I was behind a lady who had obeyed the latest idiocy, but complained about it. The checkout operator, knowing me, said nothing about masks.
Now, are “face coverings” efficacious? Anything less than a military-grade mask doesn’t protect you against inhaling the virus. The argument for wearing a mask is that it protects others. But does it? When you take the mask off, where do the viruses go? Think about that.
And if the government really thought that masks were effective to stop the virus, why didn’t they mandate them back in March? Or, at least, April, by which time entrepreneurs would have had time to produce enough masks for the general public?
As Edmund Burke said, 250 years ago: Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
Indeed. As no less a man than Frank Zappa once sagely observed: America is a land of laws, poorly written and randomly enforced. I guess that extends to the UK too (Apples don’t fall far from the tree?)
Here is an interesting thing here in the US. There are masks being promoted called the N95. Now in my past life as an industrial safety specialist I was hip deep in a wave of new and improved OSHA standards between 1994 and 2002. Among these were a set of new standards governing PPE in confined spaces. The N95 was developed to OSHA specifications. They do a spectacular job of filtration on the intake – surprisingly good in fact – but they have ZERO filtration of what is exhaled. If anything the use of these masks in this application will more likely increase the spread of infection.
And in Ohio his eminence, governor wormshit, has issued his edict for masks statewide now. This on the same day that the world renowned Cleveland Clinic comes out with their paper stating that the masks are of virtually no use at all. They’re medical professionals, I’m pretty certain. People come from all over the country for their expertise. I’d sooner trust those doctors than any of the political hacks at CDC and WHO.
and when petty tyrants use businesses to enforce these ridiculous mandates under threat of fines or closure because they don’t have enough hired thugs to strongarm the citizens, THAT is tyranny and cowardice served on the same plate