Contradictory statements on the use of Face Mask by British Government

Observers have accused Johnson’s government of failing to offer transparency on the mask issue in the days since he began backtracking on earlier advice suggesting such coverings were not necessary.

But now Boris Johnson has served notice that tougher rules on wearing face masks could be on the way, as he appealed to people working from home to go back to work.

He also said he wants people to now go back to work if they can, to try to escort their lives more normally and feel confident to use shops and restaurants, while following official guidance.

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On a question asked by members of the public in a pre-recorded online “People’s PMQs”. He replied:

“As we get the numbers down in the way that we have and we really stamp out outbreaks in the way that we are, I do think we need to be stricter in insisting people wear face coverings in confined spaces where they are meeting people they don’t normally meet”.

“We are looking at ways of making sure that people really do have face coverings in shops, for instance, where there is a risk of transmission.” The prime minister said expert opinion on face coverings had shifted over the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

Johnson himself wore a mask for the first time in public last week, and went further on Monday, urging the public in England to wear masks in shops as “extra insurance” against the coronavirus. On a visit to the London ambulance service, he said: “The scientific evidence of face coverings, and the importance of stopping aerosol droplets; that’s been growing. So I do think that in shops it is very important to wear a face covering.”

Johnson is a survivor of corona virus Johnson spent three nights in the ICU at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where he said medical workers gave him “liters and liters of oxygen.” During that time he said, his health indicators were headed in the wrong direction.

“It was hard to believe that in just a few days my health had deteriorated to this extent,” Johnson said. “I remember feeling frustrated. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting better.”

“But the bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe,” Johnson said, which would have forced him to go into a medically induced coma.

The prime minister attributed his recovery to National Health Service (NHS) doctors and nurses.