British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pushed back when a health official suggested that people may be wearing masks for “many years” to come.
In a COVID-19 news briefing, Jonathan Van-Tam, the United Kingdom’s deputy chief medical officer, suggested that the new habits that have been formed during the coronavirus pandemic, such as wearing face coverings and the use of hand sanitizer, might be longer-lasting than initially expected.
“I think those kind of habits that we’ve learned from that clearly stop the spread of other respiratory viruses such as the flu will perhaps persist for many years,” Van-Tam said during the briefing. “And that may be a good thing if they do.”
The Conservative prime minister was standing at a nearby podium and interjected that he hoped vaccinations will bring life back “pretty much as close to normal.”
“I have high hopes that, eventually, the vaccine will make a very, very significant difference in the way we live our lives,” Johnson said.
Boris Johnson openly disagrees with Jonathan Van Tam about people perhaps adopting habits to stave off respiratory viruses in the future & still wearing masks pic.twitter.com/cyQ1QHlGoi
— Toby Earle (@TobyonTV) December 2, 2020
Van-Tam said he didn’t mean to imply that the government would still be mandating masks for many years, but rather said that some in the U.K. may change their own habits following the pandemic. He pointed out that even prior to the pandemic, some in Asia wore face masks, according to Fox News.
The U.K. has consistently been among the countries with the largest number of coronavirus infections. As of Friday, the country has had more than 1.6 million confirmed cases and about 60,200 deaths associated with COVID-19.
Johnson himself contracted the virus and was hospitalized in April after being diagnosed. He was later moved to the intensive care unit for three days as his condition worsened before he recovered and was released.
