It’s crazy to imagine that after all that we have been through with the Coronavirus pandemic so far, that mask mandates don’t seem bad at all.
I remember a time where people would refuse to wear masks, fighting the mandates and seemingly outraged by the concept of forcing someone to wear a piece of fabric on their face.
But now, although we have received a breath of fresh air with relaxed regulations in the past few months, masks will once again be required in most indoor public venues and on public transport.
Luckily, it isn’t anything new. We’ve all done this before, and at this point, people care a lot less about simple mask restrictions than they once did; it’s just a part of daily life at this point.
The government only really updated three regulations: the reintroduction of mandatory mask wearing in a majority of public spaces and transport methods, the urging of people who ‘can’ to work from home, and the introduction of the NHS COVID Pass.
One issue presented is that you either need to get vaccinated, which isn’t difficult or costly, or you need to take a lateral flow test before going out and present your negative result. So really, you just need to make a tiny bit of effort to prove you’re ‘COVID free’, then you can go about your day like usual.
Another possibility is that the latest restrictions lead to further strengthened restrictions in the future, but if we have learned anything from the past two years, it’s to never assume the way things will go. Regardless of the precedent, things can take a turn in any direction, and getting pre-emptively bothered about the current restrictions just isn’t worth the time.
Sports fans will now just be required to wear masks in the stadiums, something everyone should be relatively accustomed to at this point. They must also provide their COVID Passport with either a negative test result or proof of vaccination, a slight bit more hassle than charging their phone to make sure they can capture their favourite team’s goal and proceed to get it taken down on twitter.
The only truly negative affect of the latest regulations is that some people will have to go back to working from home, but it seems more like a recommendation than an actual requirement for people who ‘could’ work from home. The world of sport remains largely unaffected besides a little more work for the people at the turnstiles.
Looking back to the restrictions in place last Christmas and New Year’s, the state of things could definitely be much worse. Although I’m sure that both businesses and customers are even more pained after the breath of fresh air offered by the loosened restrictions in the past few months, compared to a full lockdown this is nothing.
Even if small businesses have to suffer, saving lives and keeping the NHS afloat is the first priority. The small businesses would still suffer if the population were to dwindle instead of imposing the restrictions. So sadly, the world is currently in a lose-lose scenario, and it is the government’s job to do what they can to cut the losses.
Check out what the BBC had to say about small businesses here.
I am well aware that some people might still be bitter and resentful towards what Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last year and the entire situation that happened around Christmas of last year, but in the words of many great men in history, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
People shouldn’t mind the most recent rules and it really doesn’t affect the world of sport at the moment luckily, but who knows what it implies about the restrictions to come. Only time will tell.
