In the pantheon of tiresome debates, mask-wearing has to be up there with pineapple on pizza. But the old argument is back.
The beastliness of this winter’s superflu is, according to NHS chiefs, “unprecedented". There were nearly three times as many flu patients in London hospitals last week, compared with the same time last year. This flu has all those distinctly Covid-y symptoms: fever, headaches, exhaustion and the famous dry cough.
As such, the advice of yesteryear is coming back. Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, told Times Radio earlier this week: “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 spaces, including on public transport.”
Should we be wearing masks on the Tube, then? Well, it depends who you ask. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch certainly won’t be, because she is “still slightly traumatised by all the mask-wearing that we had to do during Covid”. Poor lamb. She worries about a “mask mandate” because they can be “a barrier to social interaction”.
In spite of that NHS chief saying that sick people “must” wear masks, there doesn’t seem to be a government plan for any sort of mandate. A spokesperson for No10 said that mask wearing was optional: “This is neither new nor an instruction but simply something people can consider when trying to limit the spread of winter respiratory illnesses.”
That hasn’t stopped the issue becoming a political football. Much like oat milk or the National Trust making their scones with margarine, masks are seen by a certain strain of Right-wingers as a symptom of that other great affliction, the woke mind virus. They much prefer a gung-ho, pull your socks up approach. “We never had this nanny cry baby rubbish when i was a kid,” reads a classic comment on GBNews.
Reform leader Nigel Farage agrees. “I didn't wear them last time and I won't wear them this time. This is nonsense,” he told the Telegraph.
Masks are not fun to wear. Aside from the obvious aesthetic indignity, it’s a sobering, sometimes horrifying experience to hotbox one’s own breath. But the idea that wearing one makes you some sort of liberal pansy is ludicrous.
It’s all, rather boringly, much more simple than that. People wear masks because they don’t want to get sick, or make other people sick. Similarly, people drank oat milk because they liked it, not because they were trying to espouse their political values through a latte.
Bemasked commuters are not a festive sight, but nor is turning up to Christmas with a hacking cough. There’s no need to turn the debate into something it isn’t. Wear a mask on the Tube if you’re feeling fluey, because it’s a nice thing to do for other people. It doesn’t have to be any deeper than that.
