DR MICHAEL JOHNSON’S letter in The Argus was most interesting in its theme and content in that he thinks the responsibility for wearing face mask rests with the user to protect everyone else.

He notes that at the moment Covid infections are running at 25,000 per day and that figure doubles every eight days, and this is before we reach liberation day, July 19.

What he does not mention is the severity of the infection or the effect of the vaccination programme on the general wellbeing of society. For instance, as I write, today there have been six deaths within 28 days of a positive test for coronavirus and that is just within 28 days of a positive test, and makes no mention of the “actual” cause of death.

Being a good citizen I always wear my face mask in enclosed spaces and I also observe social distancing. However I also wear glasses, and as a result I have noticed that they tend to steam up when I am wearing a mask, and it does not matter which mask I wear, including NHS provided masks. This tells me that air is escaping at the top of the mask, and by deduction also at the bottom and both sides. We know that a virus is an airborne transporter of a tiny piece of mutant DNA, that will infect certain vulnerable people who may be unfortunate enough to breathe it in.

As a result of this observation I also note that I do not suffocate when the mask is on, and the only conclusion I can draw from this is that there is air is coming in around the whole of the mask. By this I conclude that I may be breathing in and breathing out Covid-infected air, the same as everyone else.

However last week we were told a startling piece of news. Infections from another Covid-type airborne virus, the influenza virus, have fallen by a staggering 95 per cent. The reason given is that this is the major positive effect of wearing face coverings and social distancing.

The inference here is amazing. Wearing a face mask and social distancing still means 25,000 Covid infections a day and rising, but at the same time it reduces the instances of influenza infection by 95per cent.

I look forward with bated breath (into my face mask of course), to reading the PHD thesis on how someone can explain away this apparent dichotomy.

Don McBeth

Grand Avenue

Hassocks