People on public transport are wearing face coverings again, while hospitals are asking staff and patients to mask up.

Not just a blast of nostalgia for 2020, it’s due to a strain of flu rampaging through the country causing so much pressure on the health service a hospital had to declare a critical incident yesterday.

So if you don’t want to catch it and be laid low for the festive season, are masks effective in stopping transmission, and protecting you?

The short answer is: yes.

While this was a thorny topic of debate during the pandemic, with some protesters even cutting the mouth out from their masks to show they refused the ‘new normal’, the science is now more settled.

In a review of the evidence earlier this year, the British Medical Journal said: ‘In community settings, any ma

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