On the eve of yet another round of rule changes and legislation to bring in new nationwide restrictions, it is time for a statement of the obvious. The mandating of face masks in public places has been a complete failure as an attempt to prevent a second wave of Coronavirus infections across Europe. The question remains as to why masks have become such a shibboleth for so many people; so politically symbolic and socially divisive.
I, like the majority of the population have gone along with the requirements as they have evolved over the last few months; from first having to mask-up on public transport, then in shops, and finally the somewhat absurd ritual of wearing them when standing up in a restaurant or pub between my table, the door and the toilet. But let me be clear, I have gone along with this not because I thought that I was contributing to the general “fight against the virus” or that I believed mass mask wearing would prevent a second wave of infections. I did this principally to avoid confrontation, to avoid explaining myself and being treated like a leper. I prefer a quiet life moving across the city rather than having to fight my way from East to West with my face uncovered. I have my suspicion that many other people are similarly motivated.
The mass psychology of mask wearing is something that will furnish many a thesis in the years to come. “But the science shows” … enough! There is no more science in the wearing of masks than when your grandmother told you to cover your mouth when coughing. The difference is that until now no one proposed making her advice the subject of legislation which could lead to financially ruinous fines or incarceration. Many things can be speculated about the mass wearing of masks and we should remember that until the beginning of the summer the general tilt of that speculation was towards the “don’t know” or “probably won't make much difference” camp. Indeed the World Health Organisation has never claimed that masks in themselves have a role in significantly reducing infection rates when mandated for the general population, nor as yet has there been evidence to the contrary. This was good honest advice and after all, what exactly would such evidence look like and where would it come from?
The basic proposition that a covering over one’s face reduces the spread of infectious agents into the surrounding air is obvious and clearly doesn't need any major research studies to demonstrate. As I said, even your grandmother knew this. The problem is that there is so little data and practically no way of modelling the effects of masked vs mask-less approaches in different settings during a pandemic situation. One of the reasons for this, as should be plain from the ever changing pronouncements on rates of infection, is that the hot spots are constantly changing. One week it’s transmission in the home between households, the next it’s between groups of friends in pubs, then it’s students in halls of residence. None of these pronouncements, backed up by data which is at best opaque and at worst dubious, is able to tie in how mandated mask wearing has succeeded or failed in each case.
To put it bluntly the entire discourse around masks is hyperbolic, and while “common sense” tells us - just like your grandmother used to - COVER YOUR MOUTH!, the reality is that it has made no demonstrable impact in preventing the virus getting out of control across Europe once again. And we should remember that many countries introduced mask wearing in public places earlier than the UK. It didn’t save them, it isn’t saving us. You might well object and claim that “if it weren’t for the masks our infection rate would be even higher!” That may be true, but it’s only speculation, and we’re being “led by the science” yeah? The bottom line is that the basic claim that mass mask wearing would control the infection rate and help prevent another national lockdown has proved to be false. And yet the discourse around masks, on TV, radio and on the street would have you believe that they are still the only thing between us and total oblivion. How did we get to this point?
In the face of such a counterintuitive response there is only one conclusion; masks have become a collective comfort blanket.
This
shouldn’t surprise anyone that was paying attention to the rhetoric around
masks back when their introduction was mandated at the beginning of the summer.
In his speech of the 5th of June World health Organisation director
general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus summarised the issue in these five points:
-People can potentially infect themselves if they use contaminated hands to adjust a mask, or to repeatedly take it off and put it on, without cleaning hands in between.
-Masks can also create a false sense of security, leading people to neglect measures such as hand hygiene and physical distancing.
-I cannot say this clearly enough: masks alone will not protect you from COVID-19.
-Masks are not a replacement for physical distancing, hand hygiene and other public health measures.
-Masks are only of benefit as part of a comprehensive approach in the fight against COVID-19.
As the summer sneaked in and lockdown measures were relaxed there was a general push across Europe and America to get people back to work and the economy up and running again. Both these aims required that people return to workplaces, use public transport and visit restaurant and hospitality businesses. Here we should absolutely note the second of the Director General’s points, that masks can create a false sense of security. A sense of security? False, perhaps, but from the perspective of politicians wanting to get the economy up and running, absolutely desirable. During the summer we were bombarded with positive rhetoric about “Covid security”, all the while playing up the role of masks in both “keeping you safe” - still in contradiction to the WHO advice - and preventing another lockdown. Could it be that this rhetoric which has metastasised into yet another front in the Culture War was cynically deployed as part of a strategy of providing false security and getting the economy up and running again?
A second related effect of the obsession with face masks is that it conveniently deflects criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic onto “selfish anti-maskers”, or “Covid deniers”. We find ourselves projecting all our anger and fears onto that stranger huddled in the corner of the train carriage, furtively pulling down his mask below his nose. All the tens of thousands of deaths and disruption to our daily lives is suddenly heaped upon his shoulders, and we sit fuming hoping that the weight will crush him to a bloody puddle before our eyes. Nothing is more useful to an incompetent government than a public ready to scapegoat anyone but it for the situation we find ourselves in.
I’m not proposing mass disobedience to the mask regulations. I have my justification for complying and in many instances there is little enforcement anyway. Masks, and the pathological rhetoric around them are irritating and a pointless locus for staging a protest. By blaming each other for non-compliance and wanting to “kill my grandparents” we avoid the real battleground which is the accelerating destruction of democratic life and its replacement with a totalitarian digital dystopia which every day is tightening its grip. The question that few are seriously posing is what kind of world do you wish to survive into? Moving “beyond the mask” means (metaphorically at least) casting off the comfort blanket and looking reality in the face.
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