Sir, – Covid and influenza are both airborne diseases.
The wearing of masks on public transport and in supermarkets and other public places will greatly help to reduce transmission of Covid and the flu to the elderly and other vulnerable people out and about on their necessary business during the daytime.
It is a small inconvenience to wear a mask for the relatively short period of time while out shopping or using public transport, but it could help in reducing infections of the vulnerable.
The Government naturally doesn’t want to be seen to be going “backwards” by reintroducing mandatory mask wearing, but it would be a useful experiment, at very little cost, in January and February, to see if it would help reduce the spread of respiratory diseases which are putting our vulnerable at risk and filling our hospital beds, with the consequent knock-on effects on waiting lists.
It is worth the experiment of limited mask wearing during day and evening time, which is when most vulnerable people (who won’t be frequenting late-night pubs and nightclubs anyway) will be getting their necessary business done.
It will either have a positive effect, or it won’t. Let’s try it and see. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.