How The Government Spent Four Months Screwing Up Its Message On Face Coverings
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As lockdown eases, the government has been pushed to come up with a simple, definitive line on the wearing of face coverings in public to help fight the spread of coronavirus.
Unfortunately, the more ministers talk about the issue, the more confused everyone gets. By Monday, the Tories’ stance on the subject was about as clear as Dominic Cummings’ eyesight.
Hours earlier, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove had said it was “best to trust people’s common sense” rather than tell them what to do – but the very next day justice secretary Robert Buckland said he would support making them mandatory in public. Actually, he said he would “perhaps” support making them mandatory, whatever that means.
Just hours later the PM himself appeared on live TV and said coverings “have real value in confined spaces” and that people “should” wear them in shops.
The government has no shortage of divergent, nuanced opinions on whether or not we should be wearing masks. What it doesn’t have is any actual rules.
The govt - & the media - have been arguing whether we should wear #facemasks for 4 MONTHS (!) & are still unable to make the obvious decision based on the science & the precautionary principle.
Face masks are mandatory in 120 countries because they reduce the spread of #COVID19. https://t.co/BFHlsmsBOp— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) July 13, 2020
Finally, as though it was a new suggestion, on Monday it was finally announced Boris Johnson would decide “in the next few days” whether face coverings should be mandatory in shops as the Covid-19 lockdown is lifted in England.
That decision will finally come nearly six months after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the UK. So what’s taking so long?
January: ‘Very little evidence’
Way back in January, a blog post from Public Health England said there was “very little...
