Despite the woeful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by prime minister Dominic Cummings and his sock-puppet, wank-puffin Boris Johnson, I am happy to go along with having to wear face masks in shops from this coming Friday. I remain perplexed that it was not suggested that masks be worn when the virus was at its peak back in April, given that the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was a jolly good idea, but better late than never, eh? For the sake of a few bob, whilst the evidence suggests that whilst masks are of little benefit to the wearer, I will be helping to protect my fellow woman and man. That’s got to be worth it, right?
I reckon that most of us will go along with it, some happily, some grudgingly and some, like me, happy-to-go-along-with-it to keep the peace. It’s such a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, the last thing I want to do is perhaps put fellow shoppers under more stress, to annoy shop workers and, in the worst possibly scenario, waste police time. However, there will inevitably be those who don’t think this way.
Apparently, there was a minor demonstration in London at the weekend by a group of people who considered public safety as a threat to their freedom. Plus, the third-rate Sunday Times journalist Camilla Long (who she? – ed) advertised on twitter a piece she wrote for Rupert Murdoch’s drooping organ in which she referred to ‘mask Nazis’. Now pardon me, but this does seem to be a slight exaggeration comparing an admittedly hopeless UK government with Adolf Hitler, who to the best of my memory, did far worse things than just asking people to wear masks. Of course, Ms Long may have figured that any publicity is good publicity in a country that is fast turning into a banana republic. No wonder I never made it as a writer. I couldn’t compete with logic like that.
I wonder how many of these people who gathered, maskless, to complain about masks will also be climate change deniers and anti-vaxxers? At a rough guess, my answer would be all of them. They probably worship at the altar of former TV snooker presenter David Icke and Jeremy Corbyn’s even madder brother, Piers. These people make it so complicated.
If, as seems likely, as has always seemed likely, mask wearing is of some benefit, can’t we just go along with it, if for no reason other than to try something that will unite us? Can’t we all have a vaccination for the greater good, to ensure that vulnerable people in particular benefit from mass vaccinations? Put simply, can’t we just accept the very simple fact that whilst science doesn’t have all the answers, it has more verifiable answers than anything else? The contrarians have no answers at all.
It was Bernie Taupin who wrote, “And all the science, I don’t understand”, but his astronaut knew it worked for his job as a ‘Rocket Man’. Our entire future depends on science. Faced with the deadliest virus we have ever faced, this would be a good time to listen to experts. Look where the non experts have taken us.
