Will Face Coverings Mask Boris Johnson’s Problems With Test And Trace?
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Masking the problem?
Oh, the irony. Boris Johnson, who famously described women wearing burkas as looking like “bank robbers”, is from Friday legally requiring the public to wear face coverings in shops. On Thursday, as he toured Scotland, the PM himself was sporting a black mask that made him look like an albino Dick Turpin.
And in a double irony, the mass face mask wearing that will be compulsory in shops, cafes and supermarkets is not an act of ‘stand-and-deliver’ plunder but of self-interested selflessness. The science suggests that covering up does not protect you much from others who have coronavirus, but it does protect others if you unwittingly have the disease.
The new practice (well, new to England) is in many ways the pandemic-induced version of the Golden Rule that has powered moral codes and religions for centuries. As the second commandment lyrically put it, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Way back on March 3, when the ‘Three Amigos’ No.10 press conferences of Johnson, Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance first began, it was the chief medical officer who predicted: “The response of the British public to disasters and emergencies is extraordinary outbreaks of altruism.” But even though South Koreans and Japanese had long worn masks, that particular altruism wasn’t encouraged by Whitty or the government early in the covid wars.
As we all get used to the new facial fashions (just as every other country apart from the US seems to be doing with little fuss) there’s even a hope that they could help stop the spread of flu this coming winter. One obvious benefit is that they will very visibly remind the public that despite ‘unlockdown’, this virus is lurking invisibly. At a stroke, they will do more to ram home the need for caution than No.10’s lame ‘Stay Alert’ slogan, a line that few can remember.
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