During testimony at the UK government’s COVID inquiry this week, England’s former deputy chief medical officer at the height of the pandemic admitted that there was never any proof that face masks were effective in slowing or preventing the spread of the virus, and in all likelihood made the problem worse.
Professor Dame Jenny Harries, now the head of the UK Health Security Agency, explained that the policy wasn’t based on scientific reality and had the effect of instilling a “false sense of security,” convincing people that they would reduce their risk of becoming infected if they wore a mask.
She also told the inquiry that government advice on how to make a mask out of bits of cloth and old t-shirts was wholly “ineffective”.
“There appeared to be a view permeating through, and a real concern and risk, that it was being conceived that if you did one metre (social distancing) and you wore a face covering slung round your cheek, or whatever it might be, that was fine,” Harries noted.
She continued, “So, there was a risk that in encouraging face (masks) people would stop doing the thing that was really important, which was distancing and all the other things.”
“What was being conceived was if you wear a face covering and reduce everything to a metre, the face covering will make up for the difference, and the answer was no, it won’t, and it definitely won’t if it’s ever not evidence based,” Harries added.
Watch:
The COVID face mask policy was not evidence based and it made things WORSE. The words of England's former deputy chief medical officer at the height of the pandemic. Still see people wearing them NOW though. How many times they got to be told this? #CovidInquiry #masks pic.twitter.com/s51AmUevW1
— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) December 1, 2023
The BBC was broadcasting the testimony, but decided to “break away” when Harries started to explain how the use of masks was not evidence based and instilled a false sense of security among people wearing them.
BBC: 'And we're just going to break away from the COVID inquiry there because what the medical professor is saying about face masks doesn't fit our narrative' #CovidInquiry #BBC #Masks pic.twitter.com/RSGICRjv6A
— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) December 1, 2023
In 2020 when it was all kicking off, Harries advised people not to panic buy and wear face masks saying that “it’s usually quite a bad idea” to wear a mask if you haven’t been expressly advised to do so by a medical professional.
She also told the BBC that masks could potentially “trap the virus” and help it spread.
.@UKHSAn boss Dame Jenny Harries is in the news for what she said @covidinquiryuk about masks being ineffective and having the opposite effect than intended. This is pretty much what she said at the time. These two clips of her are from around 12 March 2020. pic.twitter.com/VQCXmVvWG5
— Coronavirus Plushie (@c_plushie) November 30, 2023
Thanks for admitting this 3 years later after all the demeaning crap you put everybody through. pic.twitter.com/I9WGPkeHzw
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 12, 2023
