Sorry, but isn’t it a bit late for face mask law?
HERE’S a little exercise. The next time you brave your local supermarket, count how many people are wearing face masks. If yours is anything like mine, I suspect you’ll be able to do it on one hand. In my nearby megastore the other evening I counted just three people, other than myself, wearing a face covering, and at least one of them had pulled it down around their neck as though it were a jaunty cravat and not the only thing standing between them and a deadly global pandemic.
All that will change come next Friday. From then, face coverings will become mandatory in shops across Scotland.
But will things really change? A £60 fine will be set for those breaking the regulation, but who’s going to enforce it? I can’t quite imagine hordes of cops lurking next to the cold meat counter, ready to pounce on the first un-masked person to approach. After all, if they’d wanted a job as store detectives, they wouldn’t have joined the force.
Meanwhile, supermarket workers have enough on their plate these days without also being expected to act like bobbies on the beat.
Then there’s the Great Scottish Public. Do we really think the vast majority of the population will suddenly change their tune? And does the Government have a right to expect them to?
Because frankly, this edict should have been issued on March 10. April at a push. Both the Scottish and Westminster governments have dithered and dithered over the issue of face coverings, and now, it’s too little too late. Forget closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, the door was never on its hinges in the first place.
I understand that recommendations, not least around the science, change during a pandemic. And I think that for the most part Scots have been tolerant, patient and understanding as the Government seeks to navigate its way through this unprecedented (in our lifetimes, at least) event. These are uncharted waters, and the tide shifts with alarming frequency.
But as far as I, the least scientific person this side of a Standard Grade Biology exam, am concerned, face coverings have always been a no-brainer.
A quick look at places such as Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, where the virus was swiftly contained and the death toll remained relatively low, all show one thing in common: widespread wearing of face coverings.
The evidence shows that while they offer some, limited protection to the wearer, they are more effective at stopping the spread. It’s simple really. If you have the virus, wearing a face mask can prevent you from passing it on.
I’ve written before about how my fiancé and I brought back a packet of face masks from a trip to Japan a couple of years ago, charmed by their novelty, only for them to languish at the bottom of a suitcase gathering dust. By mid-March they had been hauled out and carefully distributed between us, worn every time we set foot over the threshold.
After each, increasingly rare trip to the shops we’d come home, sanitise them, then carefully hang them up in the bathroom, leaving them for a minimum of three days before wearing them again. Just in case.
We read up on mask etiquette, learning the two key things you must do are to make sure it is secured over your nose as well as your mouth, and not to touch it once you’ve put it on. Just one touch could risk contamination.
WE have always been a minority, and I honestly don’t blame people for that. With the Government so slow to issue any guidance on face coverings, as well as the fact that until recently they were extremely difficult to get hold of, many have decided not to bother at all.
So this latest edict – and the baffling delay of over a week before it is enforced – is flummoxing. Particularly when there seems to be no provision of face masks forthcoming from the powers that be.
In 1939 every man, woman and child in this country was issued with a gas mask. Can’t the Government run to a few cheap face coverings to keep its population safe, given how important they’ve now deemed them to be?
But no. We’re left to hunt through Amazon for masks that don’t take six months to deliver, or on the websites of the huge range of High Street stores who have suddenly woken up to the fact face coverings can also be stylish, and are charging eye-watering prices to go with their natty new designs.
I fully expect next Friday to be chaos, with supermarket staff attempting to turn away angry, unmasked customers, police constantly being called on site (as if they didn’t have better things to do) and a population left both frustrated and confused.
What a shame then, that the Government only has itself to blame.