Wear a Mask For Humanity! Stop the Madness…

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

As I sit in my Kailyard I wonder often about the future.

It’s here in the UK – freedom… Well so says the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnston. We have been released from the COVID requirements in England though a more cautious approach is being taken up north in Scotland.

For those not in the know, let me explain…

Are you sitting comfortably…?

I shall now begin…

The United Kingdom is split into England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The mainland, Great Britain, includes Wales, England and Scotland. Over the Irish sea and in the island of Ireland sits the Republic of Ireland – who left the United Kingdom in the early part of the twentieth century and the six counties of Northern Ireland or Ulster, which stayed in the United Kingdom. All the nations who are not England have devolved parliaments and have a degree of autonomy. There are no borders between them, though Northern Ireland have an artificial one, due to Brexit but that is a really touchy subject. All COVID regulations, which the UK government has announced apply mainly to England but tend to be the template for all of the UK, though there have been notable variables in each devolved nation especially Walesa and Scotland.

The biggest variant is now masks.

They have flung them off in England.

In Scotland, our First Minister has told us all that they shall be here to stay for some time.

Masks slow down the rate of infection. They do NOT lead to breathlessness for those who have no underlying health conditions, and they are unlikely to cause you to have some kind of fit due to having to wear them. But I am not Dr. Facebook and cannot vouch for the eejits and theorists who have a PhD in BS.

Like elsewhere in the world – we have our fair share of conspiracists who are on the internet spouting drivel.

I see from over here that over there in the US COVID seems to be surging. It appears that there are quite a few folks not getting vaccinated – about 45% of registered Republicans whilst up in the 80% bracket the registered Democrats would appear to have brains.

We are not looking across the pond with any kind of envy any more as the lack of restrictions which led to you being world leaders in infection and death, have been further relaxed and are being relaxed here too.

Your vaccination rate was also impressive, and we were trying to catch up, though the roles now appear to be reversed.

We see the issue of masks being raised once more and there is resistance in the byways and burghs of the good old US of A.

To be fair we have people over here, who now are rubbing up against you in shops unmasked, think nothing of coming right into your face to ask questions without a mask and walk through crowded areas as if the world has returned to normal since the pandemic has been announced as being over.

Expect it hasn’t.

It still kills.

It may be killing less, and we may have to accept that, just like a virulent strain of flu it will contribute to yearly death rates of the vulnerable who can’t get away from the flu virus BUT we are not out of the woods.

COVID is metamorphosing. It is changing, adapting and developing into variants. Those variants shall need further research and perhaps even a new vaccine. What they do not need is space to breath and grow.

And so, this week I shall be going into a live theater for the first time in about 18 months. One of my “other” jobs is as a theatre reviewer and I shall be visiting the world’s largest theatre festival in Edinburgh to do that. The city is not as packed as it normally is each August for the Festival. It is not the jamboree it usually is. It will not operate as if the pandemic has been beaten. I shall be wearing my mask. I shall continue to do so for some time. Who knows it may just be that I shall spend the rest of my time on this planet masked up? And it would not be a bad thing.

If 55% of republicans don’t get vaccinated and then find themselves unable to vote in the next set of Primaries or Elections, it could be argued as no bad thing. The issue for people who are genuine supporters of democracy though, is that we should win people by argument and not by the problems associated with their ignorance. We should allow a death virus that is cutting swathes through our population, to kill our opposition. Democracy needs a proper debate between two sides. If we lose genuine republicans, caught in the miasma of Trump, then that is genuine tragedy right there, but I do recognize that, for some that may need a transplant that insurance does not cover…

A view from the new Kailyard or, how you look over there, from over here…

(kailyard n. a genre of sentimental Scottish literature turned into effective invective comment from one Donald worth reading…)

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