Roll on Freedom Day but I'm keeping my face mask

July 19th is Britain’s revised Freedom Day when all Covid restrictions imposed in varying degrees will be lifted, however, can politicians deny reality? They will play word acrobatics to give the impression of freedom but there are already rumblings about maintaining social distance guidelines and Summer holidays abroad are unlikely without families being anxious about last minute quarantines.

Vaccines of course have given us a major boost and protection but as BBC presenter Andrew Marr shared this week, he caught the new variant despite being fully vaccinated with the posh and more resilient Pfizer vaccine. I had the workhorse and Best of British Astra Zeneca vaccine which is meant to be less resilient to new variants.

Apparently a key indicator of our freedom will be if we are allowed to go about our life without wearing a face mask. Of course life was better without face masks and I don’t look forward to the chore of washing them and rubbing off all the lipstick in the lining. Howeverrrrrrrr, I do really like that I haven’t had a cold since the pandemic started as face masks were mandatory in the UK. I also haven’t had my annoying dry coughs which I usually pick up at least once or twice a year, I don’t think that’s a co-incidence. Surely in places without fresh air or restricted flows of fresh air such as the London Underground, wearing a face mask would be beneficial with or without a pandemic?

Before the pandemic every UK government used to accept with a heavy heart that tens of thousands of, mostly old, people would die from Winter flu. Lockdowns, face masks, social distancing and good hygiene all combined to help older people not die from Winter flu and as they have been vaccinated hopefully they won’t get Covid-19. Why would the government not ask us all to play a part to help reduce flu deaths?

I think I’ll just keep my lovely face masks on and keep the germs off.