IF being told to wear a face covering on the bus is the biggest injustice you’ve experienced, then you’re a whole lot better off than most.

In a discussion earlier this week I heard people complain about it being an infringement on their rights, but unless you care about everyone’s rights (and if you did you’d understand why you need to put a mask on) then you can’t use that argument.

I don’t care if it makes you feel hot or if your glasses steam up. I don’t care if you know someone who can’t wear one because of health reasons, what applies for the exceptions cannot be abused by the ignorant.

There are endless arguments around their effectiveness, always a study or story to counter the argument proposed. But it is this simple; if you are in a space where you are likely to be in close proximity to people i.e. under two metres, then you should have a mask on as it could save someone’s life. You shouldn’t need any more information than that.

Let’s imagine doctors and nurses at the beginning of all this had decided that they didn’t like wearing masks or visors or gloves. Would you be ok with health professionals opting out because they considered it an infringement of their human rights?

Check your privilege, mask up and sit down. Or even better stay indoors.

I, like so many others, am tired of talking about it. We are all craving whatever it is that normality is but we’re only going to get there if we follow the guidance; even when that guidance is uncomfortable, confusing or at times downright contradictory.

From the start I have been firmly in the ‘We are not all in this together’ camp.

There are huge differences in the lockdown experience between various groups of people; there are those enjoying working from home with plenty of entertainment for their children and then there are those living in bedsits wondering where their next meal is going to come from; there are those who are furloughed and enjoying some extra time in the garden or safe in their home and then there are those with no WiFi wondering how they continue their studies without Zoom video calls.

We are not in this together when it comes to lockdown but we

are all in this together when it comes to getting out of it safely.

For the people I meet through the work we do at Refuweegee it is almost impossible to follow the government guidance to the letter.

When staying in hotel accommodation or hostels on a budget of £5 a day, or for some absolutely no budget at all, there are no face coverings or hand sanitiser options.

So for those of us who can, it is then doubly important that we do. Some of this is simply about towing the line, knowing that while you may not feel you are making any difference at all to your own situation, you may be making a huge difference to someone else’s.