Baby Steps vs 'Business As Usual'

I listened to Boris Johnson last night explaining his 'route map' for getting the country out of lockdown which was immediately denounced by the SNP's Ian Blackford (the party leader at Westminster) as a return to 'business as usual'. 

Now I'm not a fan of Boris Johnson, but the suggestion that he was calling for an immediate return to 'business as usual' is way over the top - an example of the worst kind of Punch and Judy politics.

Lots of questions about coming out of lockdown safely remain to be answered, but the direction of travel is clear and is shared by governments across Europe who are all  grappling with the same challenges and problems.

For example, I am all in favour of relaxing the current rules to allow people to meet family members and close friends while practising social distancing and I also think that we should all be wearing face masks in situations where keeping 2 metres apart is difficult or challenging.

I also agree that the workplaces should be a safe and as reassuring as possible which means learning from areas which have kept going since lockdown began back on 23  March 2020.

   

Masks On vs Masks Off (09/05/20)

The Scottish and UK governments have been faffing around for weeks on the question of face masks - are they helpful or not in preventing the spread of Covid-19?

Seems to me the answer to that question is 'Yes' because everyone seems to agree that the virus is spread by coughing and sneezing either directly on to others or on to surfaces which people then pick up with their hands.

Wearing a face mask helps prevent the first problem, especially as no-one knows who has the virus for sure,  whereas regular hand washing combined with not touching your face helps prevent the second way of spreading the infection via your eyes, nose or mouth.

In other words it's not rocket science and repeating this message over and over again is the most effective way of combatting the virus, along with telling everyone that face masks will become compulsory in more confined spaces where social distancing is difficult or impossible.