//No, let's follow the advice of some random guy on the Internet's cousin ...//
No, let's not do that. Let's look a little wider afield.
//Only a real fool would argue against a front-line clinician.//
OK then. Left it for a day but yesterday in a couple of the "dailies" there was a letter from a real fool. It came from a Professor John Fairclough, of Cardiff. Problem is, he is a front line clinician as well. I looked him up:
http://www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/schoolofsport/staff/Pages/Professor-John-Fairclough.aspx
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-professor-john-fairclough-named-1800739
Seems like a good egg. Far more well qualified than my cousin, I'm sure. Not what you'd call "a random bloke on the internet" either. Here's what he wrote:
"I wore a mask as a surgeon for 40 years but there is no evidence in scientific publications that mask-wearing by the general public reduces the overall transmission of Covid-19.
Masks are not airtight and are constantly touched, put down, picked up and reused. In effect they are a biohazard, a Petri dish for biological transmission."
So it's not only me - and my cousin. The government is being driven by the ridiculous hysteria coming from parts of the population. Their hysteria overwhelms any thought or reason they may have had. The government has reacted to this. "We must do something to allay their fears. Enforcing face masks is something we can do, so we'll do that."