Many of us found the idea of wearing a face mask far from easy and in some situations the removal of masks could be seen as a very positive element. However far too many settings are high risk already and it will be much easier for the nation to restrict such changes now than try to reintroduce masks in a few weeks if the impact is as bad as many people have already anticipated. It is also vital for people who work in high risk settings such as retail, pubs and restaurants, travel settings to be protected. It will still be important when everyone has had a first and second vaccination but until that has happened it is vital to protect many younger people who work in such settings. It is also important to ensure that all of us who feel nervous and in some cases are very vulnerable are confident to move back into some level of normality as locations open up. We need a much more careful approach from the Government than they have made in the last 12 hours. Many thanks to Ruth Yeoman for her tweet. We need to give people like Ruth a chance to raise their views beyond the tweet settings. We need to hear from MPs like Zarah Sultana whose tweet says

Boris Johnson says mask-wearing will “rely on personal responsibility”. This is a reckless mistake. Masks are for collective protection. What about the bus drivers, shop assistants & millions of key workers who will be exposed to hundreds of people without protection every day?

I have a number of friends and some relatives who are already in a very high risk setting and the lack of facemasks places them in a much higher risk situation. Just as much as many of us want to take down our facemasks as soon as we can.