The Real Danger in Facemasks and Social Distancing

…and I’m not talking about civil liberties, carbon dioxide, social development of our next generation, or even debating the science around how effective they are.

All of those are legitimate concerns for sure but they’re not what I’d call ‘dangerous’.

What’s dangerous is the feeling that we’re doing something positive and ‘fighting covid’ when we wear them.

Probably it will save lives in the short term which is a good thing.

But if the vast majority of our population end their day and sleep easy thinking they’ve done something to solve this problem of a global pandemic then we’re just storing up trouble for later.

There’s so much more work we need to do to fight this pandemic and the inevitable mutations and other infectious diseases that will follow it.

A few examples.

1. If obesity increases the likelihood of having a bad covid-19 experience (as has been publicly declared by the CDC among other public heath bodies) then what effect does being simply overweight have? When 70% of Americans are overweight and the rest of the world hot on their heels, are we really being serious about tackling this?
2. One of the most widely credited explanations for where covid-19 came from relates to deforestation and displacement of wildlife. These animals are then more likely to transmit diseases to humans. What are we doing to tackle deforestation?
3. It was long feared by our top scientists that anti-biotic resistance would eventually train a ‘super-bug’ that would lead to a pandemic. This threat still exists. Also the threat of antibiotics being less effective in future to treat the secondary infections that many covid sufferers die from is a very serious issue. How are we addressing both routine antibiotic usage in agriculture and over-usage in hospitals?

There is nothing whatsoever controversial in the three points above and yet these issues get a fraction of the coverage in the media compared to covid case figures/facemasks/social distancing/a vaccine.

They also get a fraction of the legislative time in parliaments.

And yet these are the sorts of issues and endemic problems we *must* tackle honestly and with determination if we are to save lives and our children’s lives.

For sure put your mask on to save lives in the short term. But if that’s all you/I/we do then we’ll be back here and worse in a few years’ time.