Mandatory masks are an insult to our intelligence

Were pandemics possible in Neolithic times? It is hard to imagine a ‘superspreading’ event among cavemen. No, disease, is a cost of civilisation. In the earliest stages of Western literature, the horrors of diseases become visible for the first time. The epic poet, Hesiod, bemoans the “deathless ones” that come on man “by day and by night”. Why? Burgeoning trade across the Mediterranean promoted the need for small conurbations and infectious disease suddenly had a new ready-made environment. Standing water, cramped housing and malnutrition in times of crop failure all allowed the rapid spread of new pathogens. Throughout Antiquity, terrible plagues were a constant.

Over the centuries, we have learnt new techniques to frustrate their spread. “Contact tracing” was born in the Middle Ages; and quarantine was used for ships, which were the main international disease vectors of their day (as aeroplanes and airports have proved this year).

The coronavirus is no exception in the history of disease. It does well in cramped conditions, in tower blocks and in dormitories, in commuter trains and buses. It has hit the poor disproportionately hard as a result. And it can be contained through well-known techniques – by breaking chains of transmission with tracing and encouraging quarantine of those infected.

By contrast, because of a combination of luck, prosperity and improved sanitation, and medical advances in the diseases which were common in the Victorian period, the West has largely been shielded from the modern experience of disease – in 2018, around 1.5 million people died of TB, around 4,100 deaths per day. As a result, in the West, we tend to think of infectious disease as a nasty intrusion on the normal run of things.

In Asia, a continent which has a much keener memory of disease and natural disaster, mask-wearing is common. In some cities, it is a tool to combat dire air quality; in others, the mask is a social signal – there is a bug going around, let’s keep our distance. This is not a view rooted in “the science”, for the science on masks is, as in all of medicine, coloured in shades of grey. It is a view rooted in human experience, in the long struggle to live alongside disease.

So I am quite happy to wear a mask as a signal that I am being careful and I respect that others are too. But the British government’s ploy to make masks mandatory in shops, while we have been told to “eat out to help out” by the Chancellor, and that we have a “duty” to go to the pub, is an insult to our intelligence.

It was an announcement made in the spirit of constant drift that has dogged this government’s response to the pandemic. First the flavour of the month was “flattening the curve.” Then “stay home, save lives”. Then it was antibody testing. Then the in-house app. Then it was “enjoy summer safely.” Now, it’s mask up or risk being fined £100.

Is this really learning to live with disease as Asia has learnt to do? It doesn’t feel like it.