The evidence-thin campaign to get people wearing face masks is back in the UK, and elsewhere across Europe. It was, after all, “only a matter of time,” said nursing professor Roger Watson, pointing to officials who warn that the forthcoming flu season, “like all the ones that have gone before it, is going to be the worst ever.” But this time, there’s more of a backlash.
Daniel Elkeles, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said this week that a “very nasty strain of flu” meant people “need to get back into the habit that if you are coughing and sneezing, but you’re not unwell enough to not go to work, then you must wear a mask when you’re in public,” including in the office or on public transport.
We were all very good about infection control during COVID. And we really, really need to get back to that now.
A virologist was also on a major BBC news programme on Tuesday evening to warn that “we’re about two or three weeks ahead of where we would normally expect to be at this time of year” regarding winter flu cases.
The government has effectively backed Elkeles’ view, saying mask wearing is “something people can consider.”
In actual fact, evidence that face masks do any good is scant, to say the very least. Even England’s former deputy chief medical officer accepted in late 2023 that there was no solid proof that masks slowed the spread of COVID.
It is more likely that masks had—and, if they are taken up again, will have—negative effects. Their impact on babies, who after spending the first, perhaps most important stage in their lives surrounded by masked adults were found to have been struggling with basic facial expressions, is especially worth noting. So too is the fact the initial mandate came—as journalist Peter Hitchens put it in 2023—not from “scientific or medical knowledge” but “political pressure.”
Peter Hitchens: "The facemask frenzy didn't come from scientific or medical knowledge; it came from political pressure." pic.twitter.com/5GOijqYqGe
Responding to this latest push, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch stressed the importance of “common sense,” saying that “face coverings can be a barrier to social interaction, social cohesion, and I do worry about a mask mandate.” Her party was, of course, responsible for the COVID-era mask mandates, among all the other restrictive measures.
Reform leader Nigel Farage also said: “I didn’t wear them last time and I won’t wear them this time. This is nonsense.”
Murcia also last week became the first city in Spain to make face masks mandatory in medical settings until at least the end of the year, with citizens likely to be urged to wear them outside of these areas, too.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
