Thật sự không muốn dây

khẩu trang vô ích và phản tác dụng...

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Daniel Hannan continues to write with humanity, civility, and wisdom. A slice:

I hate the fact that face masks (khẩu trang) are becoming yet another front in our ghastly (đáng kinh tởm) culture wars (cuộc chiến văn hóa). And I hate, even more, the realisation that I am being dragged into combat. But I have little choice. The lifting of restrictions (gỡ bỏ hạn chế) on 19 July was our one chance to return to normality. If we miss it, we won’t get another.

The arguments in favour of facemasks were always ambiguous (mơ hồ, nhập nhằng). The WHO (Tổ chức Y tế Thế giới) and SAGE began by telling (ban đầu nói rằng) us that they were at best pointless (vô ích) and at worst counter-productive (phản tác dụng). They changed their guidance, not in response to clear new evidence, but out of a sense that every little helped. Whether or not masks did any good, they couldn’t do much harm, and it was worth trying anything that might slow transmission.

I accepted that logic. Some hardline (dứt khoát, kiên quyết, không khoan nhượng) anti-lockdowners raged at me for getting a mask in the colours of the Garrick Club, a jeu d’esprit that they saw as glorifying servitude or something. But it seemed to me that, next to the real lockdown privations – closed shops, empty classrooms, separated families – masks were not worth quarrelling over.

Equally, though, there had to be a moment when we drew a line under the whole business. That moment came three weeks ago, when it became clear that the rise in infections was not translating into a significant rise in illness. The PM ignored (phớt lờ) the naysayers and opened up – and, on the figures we have seen since, he has been utterly vindicated.

Bài trước: Chúng tôi ủng hộ