Laura Dodsworth Subscribe Sign in Sign in Are masks 'training pants'? And why it was always about you, Plan B... Laura Dodsworth Nov 27 69 1 My first Substack article, ‘Winter is coming, and so are the nudges’, warned that the UK government’s ‘Winter Plan’ was all about Plan B. Here’s an excerpt: Boris Johnson announced today that face masks will once again be required in shops and on public transport in order to “slow down the spread” of the new variant. How will masks do that? Face masks are increasingly discredited, but certain journalists fell hungrily upon a recent new study which concluded that face masks reduce transmission by 53%. The Guardian, The Times, Metro and New Scientist positively feasted. However, that fragrant soupçon of a percentage was based upon weak evidence, there were confounding factors and caution was required. In fact, out of 340,000 people in the mask and control arms, the difference in symptomatic cases was just 20 over eight weeks. Perhaps some journalists need to pull the face masks from their eyes when reading the data. Omicron is so transmissible that it exceeds the dangers of variants to date by orders of magnitude. Yet it may also be contained and controlled by home-spun face masks. (Which don’t really work.) Journalists at the Downing Street press briefing seemed in a panic, demanding more Plan B, but forgot entirely about asking for the evidence which would under-pin the NPIs. So, why has the government re-introduced masks? For now, I am sticking with my first hypothesis: it is another example of ‘foot-in-the-door’. Masks are a gentle incursion into Plan B, readying you for more Plan B, perhaps the Covid Pass? They will also serve as a visible public reminder of the pandemic, turning us back into walking billboards pronouncing danger. Some contrarians have called face masks ‘face diapers’, but they are more like ‘training pants’, preparing you for the roll out of Plan B. It was always about you, Plan B. Subscribe Share 69 1 Brian Perks19 hr agoLiked by Laura Dodsworth Laura, on the money again. We are told that a majority of the population agree with the Governments position regarding mask wearing. Where I live they obviously must be asking only people who wear masks because I see at most 5% (and that is being generous) wearing masks in Halifax town centre or in Tesco supermarket. Do people who freely go about their business without a mask on a daily basis vote for mask wearing when asked? 6Reply Top New Community What is Laura Dodsworth? Ready for more? Subscribe © 2021 Laura Dodsworth. See privacy, terms and information collection notice Publish on Substack Laura Dodsworth is on Substack – the place for independent writing Our use of cookies We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We also set performance and functionality cookies that help us make improvements by measuring traffic on our site. For more detailed information about the cookies we use, please see our privacy policy. ✖