Politicians are fond of phrases and slogans: let's fight corruption, let's fight the shadow economy, let's fight social division and inequality, let's promote economic growth, social solidarity and the well-being of the population. For all the good, against all the bad. And so on and on. Completely empty words. But they are afraid of direct, concrete questions. For example, would they vote for the restoration of the mask regime?
This year, due to travel restrictions to Russia, Liepāja has become a cruise ship stopover. Another giant, the Balmoral, has just entered the port of Liepāja. Watching the coverage of the ship's arrival in Liepāja, it was strange to see how many tourists were wearing medical face masks as they disembarked.
Looking at these tourists, I felt a certain pride that here in Latvia, people no longer have to succumb to this whim of induced psychosis - that you must cover your face with a strip of cloth. It is true that the abandonment of this psychosis in Latvia was influenced by external factors. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the horrors there, Covid-19 suddenly did not seem as threatening as before. The behavior of the guests on the cruise ship Balmoral shows that those living further away from Russia are still trapped in the psychological grip of the pandemic.
The economic benefits of the pandemic for a large part of society have already been repeatedly written about, and the jump in inflation worldwide is a direct consequence of the huge money issuance (USD 5 trillion in the US, EUR 2.4 trillion in the euro area) related to Covid-19. Not only the medical staff in direct contact with the disease, but very broad sections of the population received various Covid bonuses. During the pandemic, salaries in many sectors have risen significantly. This is particularly true in those sectors linked to the public budget, but not only.
Now that the Covid bonus (“there is now more money than there has ever been”) is gone and prices have only just started to really rise, people are understandably irritated and unconsciously want to keep things “as before”. When money was plentiful and prices were low. Since people are always (often unconsciously) trying to repeat the same actions that once brought success, many have an unconscious desire to return to the "old way", when you could go to work two days a week or not at all, now and then joining Zoom meetings; get extra bonuses and write off what you haven’t done to Covid. For such bonuses, one could also tolerate some inconveniences - for example, the need to wear protective masks in public places. Fortunately, we did not go to the extent of obsessing that a strip of cloth should also be worn in the street, in the woods, in the park and on the beach.
But you never know. The Covid numbers are high again, and the World Health Organization, once at the helm of global governance (with the world's big governments responding to them and even listening), does not want to find itself on the periphery of attention again (with corresponding cuts in funding), so it is trying to keep the fear of pandemic alive for as long as possible. Calls are again being made for tighter restrictions, with the ritual wearing of masks being one of the basic elements.
If anyone wants to refer to studies that supposedly show that protective masks under certain conditions restrict something, then find the place in those studies where the protective efficacy of these strips of cloth is described when they are worn repeatedly, for several days at a time, stored in the pockets completely crumpled up.
If our own government had once readily granted €5,000,000 for the notorious “salad” studies (Cabinet Order No 278 “On the national research programmed to mitigate the effects of Covid-19”), it could also have investigated the wearing habits of these protective masks in Latvia. How many people dispose of the mask after each use and wear a new one each time? In the absence of such studies, there is no point in using the word science, which has so often become a laughing stock in recent times, not to say even harsher: an order desk to buy the necessary "scientific" justification for one's political-business projects.
For the time being, people in Latvia can wear medical masks voluntarily at their own discretion. But in the upcoming public pre-election debate, I would like to hear politicians clearly define their own and their party's position on the potential renewal of the Covid-19 restrictions. So that there are no unpleasant surprises after the elections. So that voters know clearly what they can expect from their representatives. Not in the abstract categories of "let's promote" and "let's fight", but in very concrete terms: Will you be prepared to vote again for various restrictions, including the compulsory wearing of protective masks? Yes or no?