Masking ‘requirements’ still have a foothold in the UK, in many healthcare settings. Even if this doesn’t affect you directly at the moment, it’s a problem because:
- it normalizes masking
- engrains it as a habit, and
- reinforces the fiction that widespread masking significantly reduces viral spread – and thereby helps the NHS.
All of which makes reintroduction of forced masking in other areas this winter much more likely.
Here’s a quick update on what Smile Free have been doing over the summer, to counter all this…
We sent our Open Letter, signed by around 9,000 people including over 2,000 Doctors and other medical professionals, to ditch the mask in healthcare settings to the heads of the NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland around the beginning of June.
We are still yet to receive replies from NHS England’s Amanda Pritchard, or Health Minister Robin Swann who has the responsibility in Northern Ireland. We have prompted them to reply again. However NHS England did change their guidance on 8 June.
Effectively this left masking ‘requirements’ to the discretion of local healthcare sites. This was welcome in some ways but we warned that ‘by far the most likely outcome is that masking in English hospitals will now become a “postcode lottery” based on the whims of local staff,’ and so it has come to pass.
However NHS Scotland [here], and NHS Wales [here], did reply to our Open Letter.
Smile Free’s Dr Gary Sidley summarised the issues with both responses in an article for The Critic, an excerpt of which is as follows:
Although the NHS Scotland reply contains some welcome elements — for example, endorsing the principle that no patients should be refused treatment (nor visitors refused access to loved ones) should they choose not to wear a face covering — both formal responses from the NHS executives contain three fundamental flaws in their attempts to justify the persistence of widespread masking in their clinical areas.
First, contrary to the evidence, there is an underlying assumption that masks are effective in reducing viral transmission. They defend this position by mostly citing reviews conducted by state-funded public health bodies, with insufficient weight given to independent researchers who have conducted randomised controlled trials in real-life settings and comprehensive evidence reviews that all conclude that masking healthy people achieves no appreciable benefits.
Second, it is likely that NHS directives regarding how staff can promote the wearing of face coverings — expressed as “politely encouraged”, “strongly encouraged”, “highlight the benefits” and “recommended” — will habitually morph into the harassment of those people opting not to follow this advice. Consequently, there is a risk of alienating a vulnerable subset of the general public (for example, the elderly, the previously traumatised and those with existing mental health problems), thereby discouraging them from both seeking medical help and visiting hospitalised loved ones.
Third, and most importantly, both responses from the NHS chief executives convey a blinkered perspective on risk. They focus almost exclusively on the threat associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, whilst disregarding the substantial non-COVID harms resulting from the expectation that everyone should wear masks in hospitals, GP practices and health centres. Some of these negative consequences of masking are especially problematic in healthcare settings, including: impaired communication between staff and service users; the aggravation of respiratory problems; the re-traumatising of those with histories of physical and sexual abuse; and the increased risk of falls for the elderly due to the restriction of lower peripheral vision. Apart from fleeting references to “glasses steaming up” and staff sometimes feeling “hot and uncomfortable”, the NHS executives fail to acknowledge the wide-ranging physical, social and psychological harms of masking.
By failing to consider many of the potential harms of face coverings, it is highly questionable whether the NHS is acting in the best interests of their service users. Furthermore, this neglect of the risks associated with masks may leave the NHS vulnerable to future complaints and litigation. How could the NHS defend itself against claims that their blanket masking policies were responsible for catastrophic outcomes? A hard-of-hearing man, for example, who accidentally overdosed on prescribed medication, after a mask rendered his doctor’s instructions inaudible? An elderly lady who died shortly after fracturing her femur in a fall after being pressured to wear a mask in an urgent care department?
(The issue of potential liability for harms caused by masking in healthcare is not theoretical – a coroner reported that a man died at Watford General Hospital, when ‘as a result of failure in verbal communication between the doctors, aggravated as both were masked, a dose of 15mg/kg was heard as 50mg/kg and an overdose was administered.’)
Smile Free was created to stop forced masking in the UK, and we’ll stick doggedly to that task. We’ve therefore written new replies to NHS Scotland (here) and NHS Wales (here), and we’re investigating different avenues including the possibility of legal action.
Over the summer, we also put together first hand video accounts from a range of healthcare professionals expressing the issues with masks in healthcare, to encourage hospitals and GP surgeries to #MoveOnFromMasks.
In addition to encouraging pressure from users of healthcare services, and the huge numbers of well-qualified people who recognise the problems with ongoing masking, we want to help empower employees who are still affected to resist.
Do take a look at our informational webinar from last month (“Masks in the working environment: what does the law say?”) if this affects you, and share it if relevant with friends, family, colleagues.
