Went to Tesco for the first time since the mask rule change last night.
Quite interesting how many were not wearing masks this time. Far more than when masks were made compulsory last year.
The couple entering in front of me didn't have masks, and were gently reminded by the security guard - one seemed to then put a mask on, the other remained without, and continued to enter the store maskless with no further challenge (they were too far away for me to hear what they said, but from a distance it all looked good natured).
And walking round the store, there were quite a few couples - strangely it seemed to be people shopping as couples - that were going without masks.
Seeing the number of people without masks, it's fair to say this was likely replicated in other supermarkets around the area. And let's get real, there wasn't a policeman in sight dishing out fines.
Now you can jump up and down and get hysterical about 'evidence' and about 'respect', but at the end of the day, you need people's support to combat a pandemic.
Some of you may already have guessed from my earlier posts that I really object to wearing a mask, and am very angry at this moment (bearing in mind the relatively stable infection rates) that the mandate has been re-imposed, but I'm also somewhat rather OCD about sticking to rules. So last night I was wearing a mask.
My point being that even when you see people who are wearing masks, you cannot assume that they are doing so due to 'being on board'.
Where am I going with this?
Well, bearing in mind that one would presume that all those who are pro-mask, would already have been wearing a mask prior to this latest mandate - which actually seemed a not insubstantial percentage - was it really worth antagonizing the remainder by making mask wearing mandatory?
I certainly don't make any effort to wash my mask. It's not a medical grade mask of any sort. In fact, it's only been washed once since I bought it solely because of the mask mandates, and that one time was only because I left it in my pocket by accident when I washed my trousers.
And p*ss*d off at being made to wear a mask, I decided not to bother now using the hand sanitizer on entry to the supermarket this time - ironically I couldn't help notice previously that the majority of those wearing masks prior to this mandate just walked straight past the hand sanitizer and didn't bother with it.
And I, like I'm sure many others, fidgets with their mask while they're wearing it, almost certainly transferring any infectious agent from it on to their hands.
Now reading the comments at the bottom of the BBC news articles, it's clear that a lot of pro-mask wearers have quite a blinkered view on this. They seem to take it as read that if someone doesn't like wearing a mask that they must there for being covid denying anti-vaxxers.
Yet a quick look at the statistics shows that to be nonsense. Even now, with the mask mandatory by law, there was a higher percentage of people not wearing a mask in the supermarket last night, than have not been vaccinated according to the government figures.
So it's abundantly clear that many of us who do not wish to wear a mask, are certainly not covid deniers. Far from it. And we generally try to play our part in other ways.
But human nature being what it is, when we're forced to do something that we don't wish, then it certainly becomes harder for us to continue to be supportive of doing other things in support.
And judging by the numbers not wearing masks in the supermarket last night - it wasn't just one or two people, it was a reasonable proportion - it looks to me like a good proportion of people are now fed up with the nannying - so much so, that they were prepared to risk a fine, by refusing to wear a mask while they were shopping.
All in all, is it really worth antagonising such a significant proportion of the population by forcing them to wear a mask? Is wearing a mask really of such importance that losing those people's support in dealing with the pandemic in other areas, is really worth it?
My visit to the supermarket last night, showed me that a good proportion (I didn't count, but estimate somewhere in the region of 25 to 35%) of people are clearly not happy about being forced to wear a mask - so much so that they were now prepared to risk a fine rather than comply.
And the fact that there was no police presence there to fine them, really does emphasize more than ever that you're not going to combat covid by coercion - it's abundantly clear that you need people to be onboard with efforts. And you ain't going to get people on board through coercion.
Final note:
It hasn't escaped even the normally covid hysterical guardian just how politically convenient the latest variant has been for Boris...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... nt-cartoon
"Martin Rowson on Boris Johnson and the Omicron variant – cartoon"
What better way than to distract the country by reintroducing mandatory mask wearing to instill the fear of a new variant into everyone, to divert their attention.