Mask mandates are back now omicron is here... but they should never have been dropped

Shortly before Boris Johnson’s government dropped all pandemic-related restrictions in England, the British Medical Association conducted a survey of more than 2,500 doctors.

Some 90 per cent wanted masks to remain mandatory on public transport, 78 per cent in shops, 68 per cent in hospitality settings. USDAW, the shop workers union, said much the same thing. General Secretary Paddy Lillis described mask wearing as a “basic and sensible” measure. Which they are.

Mercifully, England is, from today, belatedly part of the way back to where the majority of doctors wanted it to be (the devolved administrations having already taken a more enlightened stance on the issue). Masks will be legally required in shops and on public transport..

However, it has taken the emergency of the scary looking omicron variant to move the needle with the Johnson administration. Just how scary it is remains unclear, and all reports should be taken with a pinch of salt until a scientific consensus emerges. But the risk it poses is clearly there.

The trouble is, plenty of risk was there when delta was playing the role of baddest variant on the block. This country’s case count has remained stubbornly high throughout the autumn. People working in consumer-facing industries have been rolling the dice every time they clock on as a result.

Coming into contact with large numbers of customers every day puts them at risk of coming into contact with the virus, even if they’re doubled jabbed. The more often you come into contact with Covid, the greater the risk of having it break through the vaccine’s walls.

While it’s true that deaths and hospitalisations have been far lower than during previous pandemic peaks, a greater use of masks would have served to further reduce the numbers. It would have kept people on the frontlines safer in the process, as Lillis has pointed out.

It would also have served to protect the economy.

The government is desperate to avoid another debacle around Christmas, like the volte face it performed last year, and/or a lockdown lite. Small wonder. The economic price of one would be ruinous. The hit to its shaky credibility could be terminal.

Masks could be its best friends. And really, how is putting one on any more of an imposition than putting on a seatbelt?

Moreover, the value of mask use has always been recognised by the government, as you will see if you read its previous guidance. They are recommended in many situations. Ministers “expect” people to do the sensible thing.

What they’ve lacked is the courage to require them, in no small part because they remain in hock to right-wing yahoos who trade in absurdities, such as comparing the wearing of a small piece of cloth to protect one’s fellow citizens with a communist takeover.

Omicron, which overdid it at the Mutation Shop’s Black Friday sale, has drowned out their grating sound and fury because of its potential threat, and because the government has seen the devastating consequences of its flat-footed past responses when the virus has thrown its particular brand of shade around.

Even if it does ultimately prove to be more of a beta variant than a delta in terms of the threat it poses, and the potential for chaos it brings with it, the mandate should remain in place until the pandemic is properly under control. However long that takes.

As for those who seek to abuse the shop worker or bus driver who politely asks them to mask up while the mandates are in place? They should face consequences. If the government insists on trying to jail people for spray-painting statues of old racists, standing behind retailers and transport operators is the very least it should do.

This is the prudent course to take not only from a public health perspective but from the standpoint of the UK economy.

Nearly half the world has yet to be offered a first Covid vaccine. Until that changes, it’s time to cover the mutation in cloth, and omicron with it.