'The government is masking its failure to get a grip on Covid-19'

Blue surgical face masks layered on top of one another

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George Monbiot in The Guardian
Allegra Chapman on the i news site
Travis Aaroe in The Spectator
Amelia Tait in The New York Times

published 16 October 2023

Covid deaths are on the rise again, so what happens? Mask-wearing in hospitals is scrapped

George Monbiot in The Guardian

In "many surgeries and hospitals" across the UK, mask-wearing is no longer "required", writes George Monbiot in The Guardian. The policy indicates "Covid-19 is all but over. It's not true"; death rates are "climbing steadily". There is "plenty of masking going on, but not the kind that prevents infection", he continues. "The government is masking its failure to get to grips with this virus" and "masking the cruelty of a system that shuts down the lives of clinically vulnerable people".

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"I love Halloween," says Allegra Chapman on the i news site, but "I'm sure the Halloween displays in shops and public spaces have become distinctly more horrific." "Pumpkins, paper ghosts and…cardboard bats" have been replaced by "freakishly disturbing monsters". Businesses "have a responsibility to ensure" public spaces are "safe and comfortable for everyone". Turn your home into "a portal to a brutal hell dimension if you want, but let's keep the fruit and veg aisle free of murderous ghouls."

Technocracy today is considered "something post-ideological, prudent, scientific, expert-driven, and without illusion", writes Travis Aaroe in The Spectator. Some politicians have been labelled technocrats merely "because they come across as quiet and understated". The "British establishment is often thought of as a technocratic one", when in fact "few societies are less committed to rational optimisation, hard realism, or bloodless economism." In 2023, Britain is a "loose confederation of turbulent and mutinous quangos: decentralised, romantic, sentimental".

"Our society hates and fears bellies," says Amelia Tait in The New York Times. There have been "great strides in the body positivity movement", yet "round tummies" remain "taboo". It's as though "we are collectively suffering from belly dysmorphia; we are blind to…what most abdomens actually look like", says Tait. If society were to "accept the belly, not necessarily as something beautiful but merely as something that is", it would "end…the wars raging in so many women's minds".

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