What are anti-maskers hoping to achieve? | Emma Kay

Anti-maskers – what are you hoping to achieve?Last Sunday, with pavements of social distanced pedestrians minding their own business, there was a full on anti-mask protest on our streets.
A woman wears a face masks carrying shopping bags on July 14, 2020 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.A woman wears a face masks carrying shopping bags on July 14, 2020 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.
A woman wears a face masks carrying shopping bags on July 14, 2020 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.

Protestors were spitting out words like ‘shackles’, ‘government agenda’, ‘conspiracy’ and ‘Covid-19 is a hoax’. Children gleefully waving around handmade T-shirts like a lone sailboat on the horizon. Stopping mask-wearers on the street. Shouting, swearing and stamping in a hot haze of exuberance and red anger.

Whether you believe in the conspiracy theory or whether you believe the government made this all up for a bit of jolly, the mocking of mandatory masking ridicules all of us who play by the rules.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Masks have been a heated form of contention. Viral videos of mask meltdowns are commonplace. Anti-maskers believe their freedom is being violated and trampled on. But here’s the thing – anti-maskers cannot fundamentally figure out that freedom does not give you a free pass. It does not mean you can recklessly endanger the lives of others to promote your make-believe mask-less magical realm.

Real people do not have the time for your own particular brand of idiocy. Real people have been buried hastily in the ground without a fitting farewell.

Real people have lost loved ones forever. Do you have the courage to face them, mask off, with demonstrable lies and a banner waving in their face?

By proclaiming your stance, you also put a target on the backs of those unlucky enough to be exempt from wearing a mask and you are selfishly taking them down with you.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Those who rely on lip reading, clear sound or facial expressions to communicate. Have a physical or medical impairment or disability. Babies. Children. They did not ask for this. They do not want to be behind you. Or in front of you. Or anywhere near you at all.

We are all tired of breathing through masks, but not as much as we are tired of people pushing a paper thin agenda of selfishness and stubbornness to get their own way. Haven’t we all got enough to deal with already?

Coffee subscription is going to have bad effects on health

Pret a Manger are launching their surprise subscription service. For £20 a month, you can buy up to five hot drinks a day.

I rarely chug down a cup of coffee and find it alarming how many around me are going to become hyperactive little caffeine bombs about to go off. The recommended limit a day for coffee is 400mg, which translates to four cups.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Drinking huge amounts of coffee has horrid side effects such as insomnia, irritability, restlessness and even nausea. This can snowball into unhealthy behaviours.

Having a subscription will make people feel pressured to get the five drink limit every day to get their money’s worth. Is this scheme creating a whole new generation of over-caffeinated consumers?

Waving goodbye to summer and embracing cold autumn

With our pandemic-ridden summer ebbing away and the inevitable emergence of a beautiful but breezy autumn, should we feel ecstatic, as it was a bit of a lost Covid-19 cause, or should we be mourning the loss of soft ice-cream and corn-coloured sand for another year?

Many would say their favourite part of autumn is the rust-coloured leaves. Mine would undoubtedly be the excuse to have evenings with a favourite blanket on the sofa and copious amounts of milky hot chocolate that have followed heavenly stews heavy with dumplings and beef.

Which do you prefer? The orange glow of autumn with its imminent chill in the air or the hazy wafts of summer?