Measures taken now, such as mask wearing and better ventilation in schools, would help the NHS avoid further costly delays to non-Covid treatment
A small room, with the windows shut, packed tightly with more than 30 people, none wearing masks. This is the image the government released last week of Boris Johnson’s reshuffled cabinet at their first meeting. The people around the table may have changed but the fundamentals remain: this is still a government determined to cut support for low-paid parents during a pandemic and to target asylum seekers in its willingness to stoke the culture war. And it is still a government acting with gross hypocrisy with its measures to control the pandemic. Ministers say they “expect” us to wear masks in crowded and enclosed spaces but that expectation appears not to extend to the senior politicians running the country.
With the prime minister and his cabinet publicly flouting their own guidance, it is perhaps little wonder mask wearing has dropped significantly since mid-July, when the government made face coverings in England a recommendation rather than compulsory on public transport and in shops. Surveys suggest only six in 10 people had worn a mask when in public places in the past two weeks, down from seven in 10 a few weeks earlier.