Harms
Masking the healthy is not and has never been a harmless intervention. For many who are deaf or hard of hearing, abuse victims, PTSD sufferers, the autistic and more, mask mandates destroy quality of life. Here is a selection of first-hand as well as expert accounts bringing the harms of forced masking to life.
“11 years ago I was attacked; grabbed from behind by a man holding an arm over my nose and mouth to silence my scream, I was then held at knifepoint for hours on my kitchen floor. This is why I have NEVER worn a mask, it’s too much for me to have my mouth and nose covered in this way.
I shouldn’t have to explain this to anyone (I never have) but I almost feel like I have to to justify why I won’t and can’t comply with the mask rules.“
Anon
“Mandated mask wearing has caused me numerous problems.
I was sexually abused for years as a child where I was smothered and muffled, anything to stop me crying out…
So mask wearing has been a trigger for me both wearing and seeing people in masks… particularly children!
I have had to stop shopping and going places where masks are worn.
But saying that, I have been in the fresh air in parks and mask wearing has become so popular they are now worn outside.
Also because I am exempt, many weeks ago I went into a shop and was aggressively followed by a man who wore a mask under his nose!
It was very intimidating and luckily my husband was with me and it did not escalate. Hence also my reluctance to go into shops. They give me a feeling of dread and depression and panic.“
Anon
“I am exempt, have been all the way through, some years ago I was violently sexually assaulted where I was strangled to unconscious, to have anything covering my neck or face triggers me to feel very vulnerable and unable to breathe.
I have had a few incidences throughout the last 15 months of confrontation for not wearing a mask, each time I have found I am less able to stand my ground and panic sets in, with my legs giving way and publicly suffering a panic attack – my trauma is my story to tell if I wish to share it not to have it publicly exposed that although I function in a day to day basis I am different for the trauma I suffered and the mask mandate has exploited my personal issue.
My doctors refused me treatment unless I covered my face, I showed them the guidance, explained I was exempt, I was told they have to wear one so I do too.
I offered to put my scarf over my face which I did then collapsed in the nurse room with a panic attack I could not stand, breathe or begin to speak, I was met with – ‘oh, it is bad then.’
I wrote a letter of complaint to the practice manager (January 2021). I still have yet to hear if any response.
This has made me feel like my voice has yet again been taken away, no aspect of the mask mandate has ever made me feel protected or that I mattered, instead I feel exposed, vulnerable and afraid to go out anywhere I may be challenged, this is not living.“
Anon
“My 88-year-old mother finds it difficult to put on a mask due to a lack of feeling in her fingers. She finds it very difficult to hear what people are saying to her in shops etc when they and she are wearing masks, leading to confusing conversations. She also feels hot, sweaty and faint when wearing a mask for more than a few minutes.
As a result, she is losing confidence in going out alone. Far from making her feel ‘safe’, masks are significantly adding to the daily difficulties in her life.
Throughout this whole ‘pandemic’ there has been a growing disregard for the everyday needs of the ‘able’ elderly, with the removal of seating in public areas, closure or limited use of public toilets and all the anti-social aspects of enforced mask-wearing.“
Anon
“I didn’t realise quite how much I depended on lip reading and facial expression until mask wearing became mandatory.
My ‘hidden disability’ is now very visible because I have to ask people to repeat themselves as masks muffle their voices and I can no longer lip-read or read faces. Reluctantly I have to declare that I’m deaf. People then tend to raise their voices not realising that volume isn’t the issue – it is the higher frequencies I can’t hear so clarity is lost. I don’t like to ask people to lower their masks – I’m aware that many are anxious. However, the combination of background noise in public places, mask wearing, plastic barriers and physical distancing makes daily communication fraught for the deaf.
In addition, putting a mask on and off can dislodge hearing aids, which balance quite precariously on the back of the ear. And replacement is expensive – even the most basic aids cost over £1,000.
I’ve taken to shopping online and avoiding public places rather than enduring this rigmarole. While this is less stressful it is somewhat isolating and I feel more disabled now than I did before the mask mandate.
I fear for the emotional wellbeing of the socially isolated and the elderly with hearing loss – those for whom a brief conversation might be their only social contact of the day.”
Anon
“I am a 59 years old male, suffered from severe asthma in my 30s but have not used medication for 20 years thanks to a breathing method. Technically however, even though I don’t have wheezing symptoms, I still have “low peak flow” i.e. suboptimal lung capacity.
Wearing a mask causes me severe difficulty because it pushes me below the acceptable level in terms of intake of air.
After a few minutes I feel that I am being asphyxiated, which is extremely stressful.
I could not for example travel by air or train as it would involve wearing a mask over my nose and mouth for many hours.
As I am not taking medication for asthma I do not qualify for a doctor’s exemption.
People need to be made aware that not everybody breathes the same, and what is comfortable for some people is unbearable for others.“
Anon
“My hearing is severely impaired and I use hearing aids for everyday conversation and communication. Like many others in my situation I do not lip read, but I do rely on visual clues to help understand what is being said to me.
When people wearing masks speak to me not only is their voice muffled, but I miss these visual signals which make things even more difficult than usual.
I have no particular, dramatic example to illustrate this. It’s just an additional, ongoing and avoidable difficulty that I, and thousands of others face, every day.“
Anon
“I teach university students. When we were allowed to teach in person this year we were required to wear masks in the classroom – both the students and the teacher.
This rule was eventually changed for schools and colleges but not universities, whose students have been one of the worst treated groups ever since all this started.
With a class of 15 or 20 wearing masks means I can’t hear them, they can’t hear each other, and they have a lot of difficulty hearing me. I’m constantly asking them to repeat everything. Not being able to breathe comfortably is also definitely affecting their concentration.
Overall masks make it harder for them to learn and me to teach. I’m really worried these really damaging rules will be kept in place by the university for the next academic year.
People who say masks don’t matter are people who only wear them for ten minutes in the supermarket – mostly the same old people we’ve been locked up to protect all year.
Anyone who has to work, let alone teach, in a mask knows that it is really urgent to get rid of them and that abolishing the government’s ‘guidance’ (then imposed on all public sector workplaces) is absolutely crucial.“
Anon
“I got headaches after a two hour driving lesson every week. The mask was a serious irritant, so much so I feared for mine and other road users’ safety. Just a matter of time.“
Anon
“I am a mum of a 5 year old and I have autism (Asperger’s). When masks were first introduced as mandatory it was a complete nightmare for me. I was in an impossible position and it is still very difficult.
I initially tried to wear a mask but it was a nightmare and not fair on my five year old as I kept having ‘autistic meltdowns’ – in my case that means that I breakdown crying, stop being able to think clearly or really even pull a coherent sentence together. I couldn’t complete my shopping (the only thing we really did back then) and it was really traumatic for both of us, and often caused a big scene in whatever shop.
Frankly anything would set me off and after it starts we just have to leave as it’s not possible to control it then – only way to manage them is to prevent them in the first place. There were one way systems at the time and people were really antsy about keeping a distance and that you didn’t touch things, but I both struggle with judging distance and space as part of my Asperger’s (I’m dyspraxic too), and I have a five year old who wants to touch everything. It was just too much to try and do at once, while I’m also in sensory overload from the mask (I can barely think straight wearing one and end up confused and anxious), and people are getting annoyed with me for being all over the place and not being able to follow the rules properly.
So I got a lanyard, but it was still a nightmare. I was followed round shops, had nasty comments, challenged regularly – and these things also led to massive anxiety. We live in a rural area where compliance is high and also I look pretty meek and anxious when I’m out so people aren’t scared to have a go, and they do.
My daughter started school, reception class, last September. And one day we were denied access to a bus when I was taking her to school because I was wearing a lanyard. She was in her school uniform, 5 year old, it was raining heavily and he said his company don’t recognise my lanyard (green sunflower one) and I had to take it up with his head office. I contacted his head office and told them what had happened and I got no response.
I got taxis there and back for a few weeks as I was just too scared to try again and frankly utterly exhausted and broken by it all. I then bought a car so we don’t have to deal with it anymore.
There was a period where I felt so much hate towards me for wearing a lanyard that I just couldn’t even face going to shops for food and that meant sometimes we didn’t have what we needed. I couldn’t go to get it even with the lanyard because of my anxiety wearing it.
For months we didn’t go anywhere apart from to a park we could walk to (couldn’t face public transport), unless my partner was up as I felt ok when he was with us as no one challenged me then.
These lockdowns and all the extra covid rules, including by mask wearing and the awful stigma that goes with the lanyard, have set me back years and and basically made it feel like it’s impossible for me to just exist. I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have my kid.”
Anon
“Before lockdown my daughter was a smiley, happy, sociable 12 year old – she did have some anxiety issues as teenage girls do – and had been suffering from light headedness and some fainting issues.
For her the mask mandate has been catastrophic and has curtailed her life and caused deep trauma.
When she puts a mask on she hyperventilates – it immediately makes her panic and feel anxious.
As a result it has completely curtailed her life. When the mask mandate started in schools we did manage to get her an exemption (at the recommendation of her therapist – whose services we only needed as a result of the psychological impact of the first lock down).
But with the exemption comes discrimination – from the children who call her “selfish” and a “granny killer” or “antivax” – to some of the teachers who have described her as “one of those”.
She is made to wear an orange badge on her blazer as proof of her “exemption” status so everyone knows all the time.
On a daily basis she is made to feel less worthy as she is not wearing a face mask.
She is reluctant to use a bus or the tube as she worries someone will be rude to her if she does not wear a mask and she cannot deal with that.
She regularly asks me “will life ever be normal again – I just want to swim, ice skate and go out with my friends without feeling bad”.
For my daughter’s sake this story is anonymous – she is terrified of being singled out if anything should get back to anyone at school.”
Anon
“At first I trusted the advice and assumed that the requirement to wear a mask must have a good reason, so I went along with it.
I didn’t know the impact it would have on me.
I suffer from PTSD as a result of childhood abuse. I have been working on my mental health for years and usually know what my triggers might be and how to care for myself, but I didn’t even consider that wearing a mask would be a problem.
At first I was finding myself very anxious not being able to see people’s faces properly and not being able to express my emotions properly.
I would feel dizzy and short of breath when wearing a mask. It gradually got worse until I started having flashbacks, very sudden images of my abuser covering my mouth. Naturally this would cause me to panic.
Even while experiencing this, I kept doing it for months, not because I believed that it made any difference to the spread of the virus, plenty of evidence has shown the cloth masks and useless; I was doing it to make other people more comfortable.
About two months ago, I finally had enough. I was becoming aware that not everyone was so convinced the government mandate was right, and that maybe I wasn’t alone. I decided to stop putting everyone else’s comfort ahead of my mental wellbeing. I smile freely at anyone who stares at me not wearing a mask.
I now have the problem of dealing with my family members who want me to wear a mask when they visit. I have explained to them why I stopped, but they still want me to do it because they are worried about what people might say. This makes me really sad and I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do.
Masks are causing so much distress to so many people. They are unhygienic, unnecessary, and make life difficult for lots of people. It is not just a piece of cloth, it a symbol that we are being controlled and that there is something to fear.
To anyone whose mental health is struggling, you are not alone, you are so strong, and you don’t ever need to feel guilty for putting your own wellbeing first.”
Charli MacVicar
“I suffer from claustrophobia, wearing a mask actually makes me feel extremely anxious because of this so I don’t any more. Over the last 16 months my world has become smaller and smaller because of this.
It takes a bit of bravado to go bare faced into a shop alone where you don’t know if you’ll be challenged or not and so I don’t really go out to shops any more alone. I don’t want to fall out with anyone.
I used to love going to see my hairdresser every three months or so, now I don’t go because they want me to wear a mask and I can’t, it was the only place I could go for a bit of a girly chat as I don’t have any female friends in this area and now that’s gone, I now dye my own hair and I even cut it myself this week.
I feel I just can’t normalise the wearing of them any more and even if they didn’t make me feel stressed I would refuse to wear one.”
Anon
“Myself and my 15 year old son exempted ourselves over a year ago from the mask mandate. It was causing such distress and very low mood, in part due to to autism, disability, asthma, acne, eczema and not being able to properly interact with other humans.
There is something rather frightening and very disturbing about facing the general public with faces covered, it is extremely dehumanising.
I had to write a letter to our local doctor’s surgery, as after a year and a half of Covid rules where we could still walk in, sit and get treatment unmasked, they decided to not let anyone in who wouldn’t/couldn’t put a mask or face shield on…. I pointed out the ridiculousness and the discomfort and possible trauma that could inflict on those unable to wear them, not to mention government guidance and the law, and thankfully a week later, they changed their policy.
There is so much evidence now that masks are harmful to all, both physically, mentally and emotionally. Never mind the impact on the environment. And there’s very little to indicate any benefits to wearing them. They need to go now.”
Anon
“Masks are harming me daily in my role as a nurse.
I have to wear them despite knowing their use is pointless in an infection control capacity and that they are damaging to both me and my patient.
I find them utterly awful to wear as I feel hot, my glasses steam up (so I chose not to wear them and opt for poor vision instead) and they have a massively negative impact on the nurse/patient relationship.
A lot of my patients are elderly and struggle to hear my normal talking voice (now also muffled behind the mask) and they can no longer see my lips which helps with communication.
I am forced to shout and in doing so I’ve strained my vocal chords. I now have a constantly sore throat, my voice is raspy and I suffer with headaches due to not wearing my correction glasses at work.
I cannot bear it much longer, I am seriously considering leaving nursing if this ridiculousness continues. Good luck replacing all the NHS who will be finding alternative jobs Boris, we have had enough bullshit.”
Anon
“At first I thought that wearing a mask was the right thing to do.
I bought cloth ones with wires round the nose and was happy with the fit.
I am however, disabled: I have mobility issues and use both crutches and at times a wheelchair.
Communication with my carer when being pushed in a wheelchair and negotiating obstacles or discussing where you want to go is extremely important as it’s frustrating enough when you don’t have your independence.
I noticed how when I wore a mask I struggled to get any carer to hear me when in a busy shopping environment especially. It became so frustrating that I felt I wasn’t being heard or had to repeat everything so much louder & more often. One shopping trip to the Garden Centre left me in tears and feeling like it was impossible to go out anymore.
Then I began to read and discover more and more evidence to suggest that the mask mandate helped very little – if at all – to mitigate transmission person to person.
And yet I still wore one thinking it couldn’t do any harm and might be seen as disrespectful to go maskless.
Then on one particularly fateful visit to the dentist I was using my crutches and stumbled (as I now realise I often did with a mask on as it was so much more difficult to see my feet) and fell against a shop storefront. I started to wonder why I was putting myself at risk for something that was causing me so many more issues on top of my disability.
That’s the day I stopped wearing one and I haven’t worn one since. I feel safer and liberated.
My heart goes out to the elderly people whom I see struggling along, unsteady in their feet sure in the belief that it’s worth feeling less mobile if it protects you.
I only wish I could convince them otherwise.”
Anon
“I have chronic bronchitis and use asthma inhaler on a daily basis.
Only time I wore a mask out I collapsed in the supermarket – came to in the yoghurts with some genius asking me if I was ok? Like I often have a little rest in the chilled dairy cabinet!!
I use an oxymeter daily on GP advice. If I put a mask on my oxygen levels go down quite rapidly – to around 86% and become very light headed…. I was advised to call an ambulance if it went below 90%. Truly ridiculous.”
Anon
“My daughter works as a kitchen assistant in our local pub and is also starting a hairdressing apprenticeship. Both of these roles mean she is required to use a facemask and in the case of the hairdressers a face visor too!
The pub environment in particular is particularly hot and uncomfortable and my daughter’s skin has suffered badly. She also finds at times that she is becoming extremely anxious due to the stifling nature of masks.
She continues to use them as at age 16 she doesn’t want to put her head above the parapet to continually defend her position.
We are all waiting for this lunacy to end but people’s fears have been so played upon I do wonder if we’ll ever return to a sensible normal.“
Anon
“I am a health care assistant working in the community for my local NHS Trust.
As a requirement we have to wear full PPE, masks, visors, gloves and aprons. We are required to use one mask per every 4 hours, a new face shield and apron at every call which could be anything from 15 mins to a full hour, we have on average 30 calls a day.
The amount of waste created from the shields alone is on a massive scale.
As most of our patients are elderly they have the heating on 24/7 which makes it incredibly difficult to breath with mask and visor, most patients are hard of hearing and have difficulty understanding what we are saying as they can no longer rely upon lip reading. I am asthmatic and have hay fever in the summer months, I am plagued with recurring sinus infections and throat infections which my GP has said is a result of the masks.
I have had to increase my inhalers and take my nebuliser more often as my asthma has become much more severe, all due to masks. I have constant headaches and fatigue as a direct result of masks and a colleague who had childhood asthma is now on steroid, preventer inhalers and nebulisers.
Prior to Sars Cov 2 our infection contamination training stated that medical masks do nothing to protect against viruses, so what changed?
This is nothing more than theatre and needs to end now, the damage being done to us health care workers with the unnecessary use of masks is both mentally and physically draining and needs to be stopped now before any more damage is inflicted upon us.
I love my job but if we are required to wear masks and ridiculous visors for much longer I am going to have to look for another job, all my colleagues are of the same mind.”
Anon, Healthcare Assistant
“I’m a confident 31-year old Head of a department at a successful therapy company. Since the age of 13 I have struggled with Acne Vulgaris, a condition which presents with spots over the face, scalp and back.
This condition destroyed my confidence as a teenager, and even into adult life, and it was only when I was in my late 20s did I finally take the dreaded Roaccutane to clear my symptoms up (this was after a very long and misguided attempt to use all drugs but Roaccutane, including one that nearly killed me due to allergy).
Naturally, now with clearer skin, being in a position of management, with a fiance and a clear life goal, I want to keep clear skin to keep my confidence up.
That’s why initially I decided to not wear a mask. I haven’t work a mask at all since they were mandated, because I believe it’ll make my skin bad again. If I were concerned with C-19 – which I’m not – then I’d rather contract it than get bad skin. It’s an affliction that is rarely spoken about in this age of virtue and victimhood, but Acne, at least in my case, has been very psychologically, as well as physically, scarring.
As a teenager I believed people would avert their eyes from me because of my skin, that they would move away from me on the pavement because of my appearance, and so naturally the social distancing guidelines threw me back to being a vulnerable and self-conscious teenager, which people averting their eyes from me in shops because I was maskless, avoiding me at all costs. What a horrible time that was. 2020 was a horrible year for me, not because of covid, but because I was thrust back into the near-permanent state of self-consciousness that consumed my teens and early 20s.
I explained to one person on a train who challenged me for not wearing a mask, that living with Acne for 17 years and being the only maskless person on a carriage of masked people was a much harder ordeal than fitting in and complying with the status quo.“
Max
“I suffered severe labyrinthitis late March last year, lost all hearing in left ear.
Having hearing on one side only means I have to concentrate when talking to people. Add in masks, and I have to ask the person to speak up or remove their mask. I do have a hearing aid now and trying to wear a mask without dislodging expensive hearing aids and glasses is difficult. I now use a sunflower lanyard and do not wear a mask.
Consider what it is like for some one who has to lip read!“
Anon
“In January 2021 I was expecting my third baby and was attending clinics regularly at Exeter hospital (my first baby had suffered Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy as a result of long labour and medical negligence 8 years earlier).
I didn’t wear a mask.
After the scan I was sitting in the waiting area when a midwife came and said she needed to talk to me in the scan room.
I felt anxious there was a problem with the scan. In fact she was taking me aside to ask why I wasn’t wearing a mask. I explained that I didn’t think I needed to tell her why and that I was exempt. She wasn’t satisfied with my answer. She told me she had a responsibility to keep her other pregnant ladies safe and that I could still be seen by the Consultant but I needed to wait in the corridor.
I felt really angry, frustrated and worried. I also felt concerned that my antenatal care was being compromised because I wasn’t wearing a mask.
I realised the scan had been performed more quickly than usual with little interaction from the sonographer.
The next time I visited I was told they wouldn’t see me unless I wore a mask, I put one on but ended up crying in it. I was already feeling very anxious about having a baby and the mask was making it worse. When I went in to have my baby I wasn’t asked to wear a mask and I didn’t, not one person said anything. The whole thing was very inconsistent. Although of course I was glad they didn’t ask me to wear one. And that my husband didn’t have to wear one either.
My daughter has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, cerebral visual impairment (CVI) and hip displaysia. She attends a mainstream school with full time 1:1.
At times staff have refused to work with her without a mask on despite her disabilities. During these times she has been very anxious and badly behaved in and out of school. The CVI makes it difficult for her to see faces clearly anyway, so the mask made this worse. She also has a speech delay and kept saying she couldn’t hear the teacher when they were wearing a mask.”
Sally Moran
“From an earlier point I noticed I had a significant problem around mask wearing and after a consultation with my GP, it was agreed I was exempt.
I’m an NHS Clinical Psychologist and the Trust initially accepted this. However, they soon brought in a blanket rule that anyone, even if exempt had to wear a mask at all times.
I really struggled with this and eventually had to work from home, despite continually asking for a risk assessment around mask usage; such an assessment was never forthcoming and the trust showed no sign of concern that this was illegal.
Not only has this caused me a significant amount of stress, but it has impacted upon client care with a lack of face-to-face sessions available for trauma psychotherapy. It’s unethical and appalling.”
Anon, NHS Psychologist
“Maia, a lady in her 50s, is a relative of mine. She is married, middle class and in reasonably good health (apart from mild asthma). However, her life over the last 18 months has been horrific.
Maia has complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), caused by a childhood of emotional neglect and abuse, leading to a deep sense of abandonment, rejection, and a perception that the world is not safe. It’s all hidden to the outside world, but during the pandemic she has suffered chronic intense distress, switching between utter despair, debilitating fear and raging anger.
You might perhaps imagine that the fear of catching the coronavirus was the trigger for all these extreme emotions. But no. It is the way in which the Government and media have ‘handled’ the pandemic that is the source of her greatest distress. Especially since she knows that the measures introduced to ‘protect’ the public have done exactly the opposite for many, many people (including her), and mental health has been utterly ignored to any practical degree.
Face coverings are the biggest, most obvious manifestation of the wrong she has been subjected to. The mere sight of someone wearing a face covering elicits intense anger and despair. She is exempt (on two counts), but has rarely been into shops because of the feelings of rejection that the incessant and subtle virtue signalling triggers. Even going for a short run is timed to avoid as many people as possible who might trigger these powerful, debilitating feelings.
What makes matters far worse is that she knows that face coverings are beyond unnecessary; they do far more harm than good. Not only is she aware of the evidence showing that they do nothing to reduce viral transmission, but she has seen (and felt intensely herself) the huge range of negative impacts of these conspicuous markers of governmental control.
So to her, the seemingly never-ending government persistence in mandating use of face coverings are far from a protection against the virus; they are the ultimate visible manifestations of hopelessness, incarceration and control.
For someone with complex PTSD, as Maia has, it is imprisonment without parole.”
Anon
