I don't think there's a huge amount of point in me going through and responding individually to everyone who responded to my original post, namely
@bramling,
@yorkie,
@DavidB and
@43066, as they make fairly similar points. However, I do have some further comments to make:
I am not really in favour of a mask
mandation (slight change in my opinion from a while ago), however I don't believe masks are bad, per-se. Advising that they are worn would be an entirely proportionate measure. However, the equality issues
must be addressed. In my opinion, challenging someone not wearing a mask should not be considered acceptable, especially more than once. It's humiliating for those who have a genuine reason not to.
I don't believe the aforementioned equality issues are a problem with the masks themselves. Rather, the masks have brought out many of the underlying stigmas in society, that many people thought were close to elimination, and which have since transpired not to be - for example, the expectation that someone with a condition requring specific support will be easily identifiable. Of course removing the mask requirement would be a good start to eliminating these, but ultimately it's like putting a sticky plaster on a broken leg. The societal issues will still remain, ready to rear their ugly heads as soon as anything else unusual happens.
As for the actual effectiveness of masks, we really need a proper scientific study on this. But it's unclear how one could happen. Infect a load of people with Covid, have them cough on others, and then measure the success rate of the masks? Doesn't sound particularly humane to me.