By Dr Gary Sidley - December 17, 2025

“They’re here.” Many will recall the little girl from the 1982 Poltergeist film, standing in front of the TV set, announcing the return of the malevolent spirits.

These iconic words seem an appropriate way to announce the reappearance of the pro-mask ghouls who, over recent days, have been beseeching us all to wear a face covering to protect ourselves (and, of course, the NHS) from the consequences of the scary-sounding ‘super flu’.

It is the usual suspects who are screaming again. A senior NHS mandarin, Daniel Elkeles, has said that the UK faces “a tidal wave” of illness and that people should “get back into the habit” of mask-wearing. Pandemic industry technocrats at the UK Health Security Agency have repeated their highly dubious claims that strapping pieces of porous plastic across our airways can protect ourselves and others from those pesky microscopic pathogens.

Most predictably of all, Professor Trish Greenhalgh has popped her pantyhose-clad head above her ideological trench to broadcast the benefits of multi-layered face coverings. And of course, the BBC has been keen to amplify this nonsense in its reporting of specific hospitals that are recommending masks for their staff and service users.

It hardly warrants repeating that the more robust scientific studies, together with the bulk of the real-world evidence, show that masks constitute an ineffectual viral barrier, and no amount of evidential cherry-picking and fantastical claims about ‘source control’ will change that conclusion. And how do the muzzle mafia manage to avoid any consideration of the multiplicity of significant harms associated with ubiquitous masking? Maybe their mono-focused minds don’t care about the collateral damage of their crusade. After all, what does it matter if we:

- Torment the elderly and confused in our care homes by denying them human comfort in their final years of life;

- Stunt our children’s verbal and cognitive development;

- Re-traumatise victims of physical and sexual abuse, the autistic, and many with mental health problems;

- Plunge the millions who are hard of hearing into social isolation;

- Compromise the effectiveness and acceptability of healthcare consultations;

- Poison our citizens by contaminating waterways with chemical additives and micro-plastics?

Did we learn nothing from the Covid debacle?

Given the apparent irrationality and self-destructiveness of it all, one is left to speculate on potential motivations underpinning this insanity. A number of possibilities come to mind: . . .

[SNIP]