JANUARY
As Covid-19 begins to spread across the world, the British Government holds its first Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meeting to discuss the impending pandemic on January 22. Minutes from the meeting show no mention of face coverings or masks, despite them already being commonplace elsewhere around the world.
In certain areas of Asia, members of the public have long worn face coverings. The 2003 Sars virus outbreak, which killed thousands across the region, and heavy air pollution in cities means coverings are part of everyday life. Donald Low, a behavioural economist and professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, says that for Asians “putting on a mask every day before you go out is like a ritual, like putting on a uniform”.
On January 29, the first coronavirus cases on British soil are recorded, after two Chinese nationals from the same family fall ill at a hotel in York. The Government raises the Covid-19 threat level from “low” to “moderate”.
FEBRUARY
The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group on February 3 suggests those with symptoms should be encouraged to wear a surgical face mask in public “providing that it can be tolerated”.
MARCH
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries says wearing a covering or mask is “not a good idea” on March 12. “You can actually trap the virus in the mask and start breathing it in,” she says.
As the number of cases begin to spiral, Boris Johnson announces UK lockdown on March 23. Johnson calls for a “huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus.” Wearing face masks or coverings is not mentioned in his address.
Days later, George Gao, head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, tells sciencemag.org: “The big mistake in the US and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks.”
By the end of March, Venezuela becomes one of the first places outside Asia to make coverings mandatory on public transport and in public. Elsewhere in South America, Brazil’s Right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro causes outrage by rubbishing efforts by local authorities in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to contain the virus with partial lockdown measures.
APRIL
On the second day in April, the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health institute, changes its previous recommendation that only people with symptoms should wear masks in public to include people without.
Meanwhile, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the UK’s deputy chief medical officer, reiterates on April 4 that wearing of face masks by those who are not sick is not recommended by the British Government. He says there is “no evidence that general wearing of face masks by the public who are well affects the spread of the disease in our society”.
In early April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the national public health institute in the USA, recommends face coverings in public places. On April 8, New Jersey becomes the first state to require customers and employees to wear face coverings at essential businesses and construction sites. The states of Maryland, Connecticut and New York then follow suit. President Donald Trump is unconvinced. “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it,” he said. “Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens — I just don’t see it.”
Meanwhile, Bill Keevil, Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Southampton, says non-medical grade coverings will “not protect you” from infection. He calls the CDC’s ruling on coverings “knee jerk”. “What the US government has done is say, ‘People should wear masks.’ But if people are wearing inappropriate face masks, it is creating a false sense of security.”
With countries such as Cuba, Austria, Argentina, Poland and the UAE all making face coverings mandatory, pressure mounts on the UK Government. Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty says: “The evidence i s weak, but the evidence of a small effect is there under certain circumstances.”
On April 17, Mayor Sadiq Khan tweets: “Governments and mayors around the world are advising people to wear non-medical face coverings in public to help stop the spread of #COVID19.
“In circumstances where it’s not possible to keep our social distance, I think it’s time we did the same. These would NOT be medical masks. It is time to act.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says evidence about the effectiveness of coverings remains “quite mixed”.
On April 24, Health Secretary Matt Hancock says: “On masks, as more information comes through, the science is constantly evolving and we always bear in mind that science and then take the decision. As of today, the government position is unchanged.” On April 30, Johnson, who has recovered from the virus, uses the term “face covering” for the first time.
MAY
Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, tells MPs on May 5: “The situation with masks... is that the data, and the evidence, are not straightforward.” He says Sage thinks the evidence of masks preventing the spread of infection is “marginal but positive”.
Days later, on May 10, Johnson urges the UK to begin easing out of lockdown in a “vague” public address. A 60-page document detailing ways to curb the spread of Covid-19 says Britons should: “Wear a face covering in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not always possible and they come into contact with others that they do not normally meet, for example on public transport or in some shops.” Google Trends data shows searches for face coverings had a 3,911 per cent rise since December.
In America — where protests about lockdown measures were common a month before — the backlash begins. Ohio’s Republican governor Mike DeWine U-turned on an order for residents to wear masks in public as businesses reopened, calling the measure “a bridge too far”. In New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says: “You can kill someone because you did not want to wear a mask. How cruel and irresponsible would that be?”
JUNE
On June 4, Mr Shapps announces that coverings will be mandatory on public transport from June 15. He says: “Wearing a face covering can play a role in helping us to protect each other.”
The following day, June 5, the World Health Organisation changes its official advice on face coverings.
Its director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says: “In light of evolving evidence, the WHO advises that governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where there is widespread transmission and physical distancing is difficult, such as on public transport, in shops or in other confined or crowded environments”. Until this point, the WHO had not advocated the wearing of masks because of limited evidence.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is ordered by a judge to rectify his “at best disrespectful” behaviour by wearing a mask in public in the capital, Brasília. Coverings have been mandatory across the country since April. In mid-June, Brazil overtook the UK to have the second largest death toll.
JULY
In early July, Bolsonaro approves a law for wearing masks in public — but vetoes clauses that would have required them in churches, schools, shops and factories. The President confirms he has Covid-19 on July 8.
Meanwhile, President Trump — who previously mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask — begins to buckle to pressure. “I’m all for masks,” he said. On Sunday, as he left the White House wearing a mask for the first time in public, he said: “I’ve never been against masks but I do believe they have a time and a place.”
On July 12, the PM says the UK “needs to be stricter in insisting people wear face coverings in confined spaces”. Michael Gove says two days later that he thinks it is better to “trust” the public and wearing a mask was a matter of “good manners.”
On July 14, the Government announces that masks would be compulsory in shops from July 24.
AUGUST
On August 25, the UK Government makes its latest U-turn of the pandemic and begins advising that face coverings should be worn by secondary pupils and staff in some areas of England.
The Department for Education says the measures should be taken in areas under local lockdown, and that face coverings should be at the discretion of schools across the rest of the country.
The move comes after Education Secretary Gavin Williamson had earlier insisted measures being adopted by schools to limit the spread of coronavirus meant masks were not required and a day after a Number 10 spokesman said there were no plans to review the guidance.
Similar directions had already been in Scotland, where Deputy First Minister John Swinney had said face coverings would be obligatory from August 31 in corridors and on school transport.
“There is increasing evidence that face coverings can provide some protection for the wearer as well as those around them," he said.