A fascinating insight, here, into how difficult it is going to be for Governments to open up fully. The UK Government announced last night that from July 19th, facemasks would no longer be mandatory in England. A cause for celebration, you might think? Not so fast:
The majority of Britons say face masks should continue to be mandatory on both public transport (71%), as well as in shops and some enclosed public spaces (66%) beyond when restrictions are liftedhttps://t.co/hlpfOq16kg pic.twitter.com/hxva59kEiC
— YouGov (@YouGov) July 5, 2021
Make no mistake: Though no comparable poll has been carried out (at least for public consumption) in Ireland, the results would be similar, if not even more conservative. Unlike Ireland, the UK has a pretty strong anti-lockdown element to its media. It is significantly more vaccinated, as well. And despite all of that? People still want mandatory masks. Why?
Part of it, of course, is a misunderstanding of the measures being announced. Making masks optional does not prevent people from wearing them if they wish to. Making that clear, you would expect, would reduce the numbers somewhat. But even then, it is likely that a substantial number of people would still object, and prefer mandatory masks. Which makes, of course, zero sense.
This is a pattern that is not new. In the United States, where the pandemic has been on the wane for months, many people have clung on to masks, distancing, and so forth, long after they remained necessary. Psychologists will be studying this phenomenon for decades, and some have already offered explanations:
First, those explanations go, people like to feel safe, and a mask, being a physical barrier, makes people feel safer. Second, masks allow people to show others that they are responsible. If you are wearing a mask then you are protecting others, and not just yourself. It is a point of pride, for many people. Third, fear of the variants is real: It has been drummed into people, who are just unwilling to believe that the world is as safe as it is.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly: Partisanship and trust. In the USA, liberal voters in particular want to keep wearing masks because it has been conservative lawmakers, mainly, who have abolished them. In the UK, Boris Johnson is telling people they can take them off, so a big chunk of voters will keep wearing them to defy him. It is a political rebuke, as much as anything else: I don’t believe the Government, I believe the scientists. So long as there is any scientist, anywhere in the world, who continues to believe masks are necessary, these people will continue to wear them, as a personal mark of their faith in science.
Those of us who are lockdown critics in Ireland should not underestimate the power of this phenomenon. A large chunk of the public has decided that masks and lockdowns are the righteous and moral way to live their lives, at least until such time as the scientists give them their blessing – vaccines be damned. The scientists show no sign that they will ever give such a blessing.
It is going to be a long, hard, road back to normality. In the UK, at least, they are trying to go down it. In Ireland, it will be a long time before any politician defies polling numbers like this.