Someone already said that in Scotland masks are now mandatory in public, enclosed spaces such as shops. I actually don't agree that Boris has done well. I feel he has lifted lockdown too early and too quickly. The other countries in the UK are all going much slower and having much lower infection rates. Guidance in England has been woolly and unclear and the 'we recommend you do this, that, whatever' without any enforcement leaves the way open for blaming the public. Try watching Nicola Sturgeon - very clear guidance with health at the forefront. When everyone flocked to a Glasgow Park on the hottest day of the year, they were moved on by the police and the park was closed.
I'm not saying Scotland is perfect, but only 7 new cases yesterday and no deaths for 3 days suggests that the strategy is working.
I agree with you fully on that score. Lockdown happened too late in the UK and those two weeks in the run up were wasted, not to mention allowing people to continue visit relatives in homes until full lockdown by which time the virus was entrenched. That is one of the main reasons the UK is the worst affected country of the G-7 (although in defence of the UK government, they were not alone in that - most European countries were at that time oblivious that their protection of care homes was woefully inadequate); the other reason is economic and the result of the Tory agenda of hollowing out and dismantling public service for over a decade now...
Unfortunately, too many people will dodge wearing a mask unless it is made mandatory like in other countries - and that will include especially people who are most likely to spread it and some people who are more highly vulnerable at contracting it. As of last week, I was still in a small minority of people wearning a mask when shopping - despite official goverment recommendations.
It is a fact that about 80% of coronavirus cases have been caused by only about 20% of infected people - and most have happened in indoors settings with close contact, bad/recycled air ventilation and talking/singing loudly (i.e. expelling the infected particles from mouth and nose more strongly) as a US study has clearly shown. The more of these factors come together the more likely they are to create another 'super-spreader' event (which has likely already happened somewhere or in several places anyway). It is also worth noting that many of these incidents have happened before the infected person has shown any symptoms at all or when dismissing mild symptoms.
I have my family in Switzerland to compare; especially as they live just across the border from one of the worst French hot spots ( (a several days free church Lent event attented by thousands from all over the place, including of course Swiss members) and have been initially quite affected by it as well considering also that a lot of people are working in Switzerland for higher wages but live in the surrounding countries so Switzerland has never been able to close their borders completely.
Lockdown happened very quickly but it was effective in getting on top of the outbreak much faster and keeping the death rate down despite initial massive problems with securing PPI after they had sent a lot to China at the start of the pandemic. Infection rates and death rates were a lot lower (near zero) before they started reopening very cautiously again; restaurants etc. just about at a similar time with the UK.
I appreciate that Boris Johnson is in a very difficult position economically as he cannot keep lockdown support going indefinitely after his initial plan of keeping 80% of people working at any time during the pandemic has clearly failed, especially with schools not being able to reopen. The starvation and hollowing out of the public sector is sadly coming home to roost in the worst way possible.
But we are walking into a second spike scenario eyes wide open and with the warnings writ large on the wall, just a few weeks behind the USA due to opening up again too much too fast.
In my eyes Boris' leadership and the UK government's response has been seriously lacking when it comes to clear messages and leading by example - except by a negative one re. providing the world with a nice example of why the virus is not just a bad flue by nearly dying himself... which has served to wake up at least some people! Give me a country with a woman at the helm anytime; they have overall fared so much better in a real crisis with prompt reaction, clear messages and leadership by example. There are always situation and people who are negatively impacted by any comprehensive measure but the you do it as you see best approach is giving more people a let out then it discommodes others. The results will be unfortunately even more costly - and ultimately we have to pay for it one way or other for years to come.
When it comes down to it, until there is a vaccine to inoculate enough people in order to achieve herd immunity, we have to see it through as a society with all people contributing to minimising the spread and affecting the vulnerable - nothing has changed in that. It is and never should be a political issue used to further a political agenda and political division; it is a societal one.
A vaccine is not happening overnight and then there will be inevitably the next very ugly battle with the anti-vaccine misinformation lobby on social media...
I have piggies on my mask but it doesn't have a nose strip so I'm thinking of getting a second one with a nose strip. I even mask my kids in the event we have to take them to the shop like when they all grew a shoe size xx
Sam's is amazing quality! xx
It's really a shame how big the servings are. That's why we love going to buffets there, but because of Covid-19, we didn't go to any buffets when we were in America on Feb.
As a virologist I just see it as a way of getting on with life. It’s a bit of an inconvenience, not an infringement on human rights or oppression. Until a vaccine is widely available we need to protect each other as a society, it’s a way of caring for other people, especially those who otherwise couldn’t leave their house for the next year. If everyone does it we’ll help reduce transmission, if large numbers of people don’t comply then transmission will increase 
