Is there any sense in wearing masks again?

MIKE SOUTHON (Letters) questions why should there be free choice about mask-wearing during a pandemic. The simple answer is, because we live in a free country. Furthermore, masks don’t stop viruses. In 2003, companies that claimed their masks could stop the SARS virus were threatened with heavy fines in Australia, yet 17 years later, world leaders were telling us to wear them. If Mr Southon wants to wear a mask, he can do so. Others who choose not to wear one would be no risk to him if they really did offer good protection.

ROBERT PARKER, Crewe, Cheshire.

MIKE SOUTHON chooses to ignore the actual data on the usefulness of masks in preventing the spread of viruses, instead blaming their shortcomings on the type of mask most people chose to wear in the pandemic. instead of bolstering the case for future compulsory mask-wearing, he is in fact showing why it is indefensible. NICHOLAS Royall, eastbourne, e. sussex. YOUR correspondent Mr Southon states that the only effective Covid mask is the N95, which is expensive. During the pandemic, most of us just wore the blue ones that didn’t work, as holes in the mesh were larger than virus particles.

MICHAEL J. LOCKE, Gillingham, Kent.

MOST masks were as effective as a chainlink fence would be to stop mosquitoes. But they made a lot of money for some.

GLEN MORGAN, Croydon, surrey. WELL, Peter Hitchens (Mail), we are in our 80s, wore masks in the lockdowns and haven’t caught a cold since 2020, let alone Covid. We attribute this to still having our masks at the ready for when some dear soul in the checkout queue starts coughing their lungs up.

You must wear a mask when necessary, Mr Hitchens. Covid has not gone away.

ROS ROBINSON, Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset.