I believe the real purpose of masks is social control – it’s time to turn down the fear dial, writes GRAHAM BRADY, Chairman of the Tory 1922 Committee

17 July 2021

When I asked a Health Minister in the Commons how she could justify banning healthy activities such as golf, tennis or bowls, she actually replied that while those activities were indeed safe, if we ‘let people do those things, they might think they can do other things too’. …

We see this divide most clearly in the near hysteria about facemasks. Almost nobody is asking the serious questions about whether facemasks are actually effective in stopping the spread of Covid.

Until very recently, both the World Health Organisation and the public health authorities in this country were saying there was very little evidence in favour of wearing them.

The experience of different US states is instructive. California covered up and Florida didn’t, but it was the Sunshine State that emerged in better shape from the pandemic. …

Many politicians and advisers will admit privately that the policy change compelling people to wear masks was not really about the spread of infection at all but about the psychological effect that they would have.

That real purpose is social control – to provide a constant reminder to maintain distance from other people.

To maintain a state of anxiety that leaves people more likely to comply with the restrictions that might otherwise be resisted or forgotten.

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