Mask mandates far from harmless, point out campaigners

EC1Y, U.K. - Dec. 3, 2021 - PRLog -- Here we go again. In England we are back to compulsory masks in shops and on public transport, and perhaps worst of all in schools. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland there has been no respite from mandatory mask wearing, despite the lack of good evidence in support of the practice. Along with this new legal imposition in England the pressure on people to wear masks at work and in other situations is bound to increase.

But in addition to their terrible environment impact - with 53 million masks going to landfill every day in the UK - face coverings and 'masked society' cause great suffering to many people.

Smile Free, the campaign to end mask mandates in the UK, asked for personal stories to illustrate the harms caused by mask mandates. Here are a few extracts from the many responses received.

"I was sexually abused for years as a child where I was smothered and muffled, anything to stop me crying out… so mask wearing has been a trigger for me, both wearing and seeing people in masks… particularly children."

"My 88-year-old mother finds it difficult to put on a mask due to a lack of feeling in her fingers. She finds it very difficult to hear what people are saying to her in shops when they and she are wearing masks, leading to confusing conversations. She also feels hot, sweaty and faint when wearing a mask for more than a few minutes. As a result, she is losing confidence in going out alone."

"Masks are harming me daily in my role as a nurse. I have to wear them despite knowing their use is pointless in an infection control capacity and that they are damaging to both me and my patient. I find them utterly awful to wear as I feel hot, my glasses steam up and they have a massively negative impact on the nurse/patient relationship."

"I didn't realise quite how much I depended on lip reading and facial expression until mask wearing became mandatory."

"I would feel dizzy and short of breath when wearing a mask. It gradually got worse until I started having flashbacks, very sudden images of my abuser covering my mouth. Naturally this would cause me to panic."

Dr Gary Sidley of the Smile Free campaign said: "Masking the healthy is not and has never been a harmless intervention. The evidential bar to justify mandating a behaviour should be set very high, and the research in support of masks offering protection against coronavirus infection falls a long way short. If people choose to wear face coverings, so be it, but this should be a personal decision for each individual, not one imposed by Government diktat."

For more information about the Smile Free campaign go to https://smilefree.org