Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) Regulations 2020

Lord Flight Excerpts

Friday 18th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, taking the Motions we are discussing now and the previous ones, there are 50 speakers in total. It speaks for itself that 50 people care about this particular area of legislation. I see it rather as Sweden versus lockdown, in that there are very much two camps of thought on this territory. Bit I start by congratulating my noble friend Lord Bethell on the thoroughness of his explanation today.

Sweden gets to be known as the herd immunity group. People are obliged to wear masks but there is no facility for fining them. The UK laid down statutory instruments requiring people to wear them, with fines if they do not. The face coverings are with the aim of reducing the spread of Covid-19 and the regulations include a list of places where people must wear face coverings. The regulations add places to be covered when they are reviewed every year. The approach is designed to shelter people from contact but does not grow immunity, whereas the Sweden approach is in essence to permit immunity to grow and so far looks as if it has been successful. Not many masks are yet compulsory. There is the key issue of older people who may have health failings such as asthma and diabetes and need full medical treatment. It will be interesting to see how Sweden deals with that aspect of things.

I conclude by saying that, properly managed, health masks work. I have a son who is training to be a doctor in New York. He and other young men and women are regularly in hospitals that are badly affected by the current problems. Remarkably, there is almost a nil incidence of paramedics working in his hospital being struck down by Covid-19. That says that masks work. They will work in the short term, but my worry is the long term and the potential repeat of the illness. That is where the Swedish approach needs more attention and application.