We have to remember Chris Witty's words last year. "In terms of wearing a mask, our advice is clear: that wearing a mask if you don't have an infection reduces the risk almost not at all. So we do not advise that".
When did the policy change? When the Governments of the world wanted to encourage people to go out and spend money. It was felt that mask wearing would increase the feeling of security and provide solidarity with others. There has been no randomised control trials that prove masks are effective, the research hasn't changed, just the policy mandating them. In Dec 2020 the WHO Director General said 'at present there is only limited and inconsistent scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of the masking of healthy people in the community to prevent infection with respiratory viruses, including SARS Covid-2 (CV-19)'
The European Centre for Disease prevention and Control ECDC) concurs that evidence regarding the effectiveness of non-medical facemasks for the prevention of COVID-19 is scarce. Matt Hancock advised that they would give people more confidence to shop safely. The economic bounce back wasn't strong enough, after the first lockdown, and it was felt that masks would make people safe enough to go shopping.
All of which is reason enough for me to welcome the prospect of being released from having to wear one from 19th July. For those for whom masks do give that feeling of security, then of course they should go on wearing them, in order to try and get some sort of normality back to their lives, but they don't have that effect on me, and I will be happy to enter a shop or church with my face on show again.