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January 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — British bank HSBC has warned their customers that entering branches without wearing a face mask could result in the withdrawal of their accounts. Banks and building societies are among the places listed in the U.K. government’s COVID guidelines where, without a “reasonable excuse,” the public are bound by law to wear a face covering and social distance.
The police have already been given extraordinary powers to enforce the new guidelines, now being able to issue a £200 fine on the spot for failing to comply with the mask mandate, among other new rules. The fine will double for each subsequent “offence,” capping at £6,400.
A spokesman for HSBC, Jackie Uhi, told The Mirror that wearing face masks inside branches is essential, in accordance with government guidelines. Any customer who refuses to comply with this, as well as social distancing measures, will be denied service, with the possibility of having their account withdrawn.
“Sadly, some people are failing to protect themselves, our branch colleagues and other customers by refusing to wear a face covering inside our branches or observe social distancing,” Uhi said.
He urged customers to satisfy their banking needs online, wherever possible, asking whether they “need to visit the branch or could manage your banking from the safety of your home via our digital channels.”
“If you do visit us, please wear a face covering and maintain a safe distance from others. If individuals put themselves or our colleagues at risk, without a medical exemption, we reserve the right to withdraw their account.”
The bank did not suggest how they might enforce their newly ramped up “safety” measures. Current government guidelines state that certain individuals, like those with medical conditions or other impairments, are exempt from wearing face masks. The guidelines also stipulate that those who are exempt “do not routinely need to show any written evidence” of the nature of their exemption, and “do not need show an exemption card” for entry into a business.
“This means that you do not need to seek advice or request a letter from a medical professional about your reason for not wearing a face covering,” the guidelines continue. “Carrying an exemption card or badge is a personal choice and is not required by law.”
Competitors to HSBC, including Barclays, Santander, Lloyds Banking Group, and the NatWest Banking Group, confirmed that they will not be enforcing account closures “over face mask refusals alone,” The Sun reported. Barclays and TSB both added that account withdrawals could be enforced if customers become aggressive after being asked to don a mask.
Like HSBC, a number of major British supermarket chains are also stepping up their enforcement of face covering rules in-store. On Monday, David Potts, chief executive of grocery giant Morrisons, said that customers “who are offered a face covering and decline to wear one won’t be allowed to shop at Morrisons unless they are medically exempt.”
Tesco also weighed in, declaring in a statement that “we won’t let anyone into our stores who is not wearing a face covering, unless they are exempt in line with government guidance […] we will have additional security to help manage this.”
As with HSBC, the supermarket chains did not state how they intend to discern those with exemptions from those without. Already there has been some fallout, with shoppers taking to Twitter to note their consternation at being refused entry, despite qualifying for mask exemption under current government legislation.
One such customer said she was “humiliated” at her local Morrisons store. Even after displaying her mask exemption card, the store employee responded, “no mask no entry.”
@Morrisons refused entry and humiliated at my local store today. Thrown out because i had a sunflower lanyard on and a badge stating exempt from mask wearing. Nasty employee said abruptly no mask no entry…so i didnt go in. Came home cried for hours.
— @cathsmith15 (@cathsmith151) January 11, 2021
A second person tweeted that her friend, also mask-exempt, was “verbally abused by other shoppers” after being stopped at the door without a face mask on:
PETITION UPDATE (8/27/2020)
Thank you for continuing to SIGN and SHARE this petition, which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse mandatory mask orders within their borders.
Facebook has restored the share link for this petition, saying that the decision to block it was a 'mistake...'
Please share with your Facebook friends, but we should all take heed of this warning: when an organization or individuals have to beg, plead and cajole just to express objective truths, it may be time to start looking for other social networking platforms.
Facebook needs to treat its users with respect, no matter their political persuasion. Moreover, Facebook needs to treat objective reality and facts with more respect.
One-size-fits-all oppressive government mask mandates must stop!
Healthy adults and children should not be forced - by the state - to wear masks when the risk of infection is low and the benefit of wearing a mask is highly questionable.
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PETITION UPDATE (8/25/2020)
Facebook is actively censoring this petition, saying that some people find it 'abusive.'
How anyone could find alternate facts about oppressive mask mandates 'abusive' is incredible...that is, impossible to believe.
This is exactly the kind of censorship which Big Tech is getting a bad reputation for.
The fact that Facebook calls differing opinion and objective reality "abusive" says a lot about Facebook and their agenda to silence reason and logic, not just conservatives and Christians.
But, people are more intelligent than Facebook give them credit for.
And, the more this continues, the more reasonable people will look alternate platforms to share their thoughts and connect with their friends and family. The more that happens, the less revenue Facebook will generate.
All of us have a decision to make, and the time is coming where we might have to tell our Facebook friends that we are moving to another platform.
We are encouraging people to continue SIGNING this petition and SHARING it via other platforms such as Parler and Gab, and to share the link below with your family and friends on Whatsapp, Telegram, Threema and Signal.
Thank you!
________________________________________________________________________________________
One-size-fits-all oppressive government mask mandates must stop!
Healthy adults and children should not be forced - by the state - to wear masks when the risk of infection is low and the benefit of wearing a mask is highly questionable.
Please SIGN this petition which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse mandatory mask mandates within their borders.
Public health policies should be based on science and logic, not on the type of political posturing and virtue-signaling which led Joe Biden to recently call for a national mask mandate.
And, public health policies certainly shouldn't lead to a situation where more people could become sick.
But, that is exactly what these mandatory mask mandates are doing.
Here are four inconvenient facts about masks:
1) Masks** are largely ineffective at stopping the transmission of viruses.
The vast majority of masks worn by the public are made from material which cannot filter-out viruses because virus particles are too small to catch or obstruct. Wearing cloth masks to stop a virus is like putting a bee in a bird cage to keep it from flying away.
Wearing a mask for long periods of time ensures that the wearer has a warm and moist receptacle around his or her mouth, on which viruses and bacteria can land and accumulate.
Thus, masks are actually likely to have little effect in stopping the spread of COVID-19 acting as a barrier, but could actually make things worse acting as a receptacle.
2) Mandates which call for masks to be worn outdoors are both absurd and oppressive.
3) There are clearly documented hazards of wearing masks for long periods of time.
4) And, since school is on everyone's mind...
Notwithstanding the above information on the ineffectiveness of most masks against viruses, we don't know if asymptomatic children can even transmit the virus.
But, it was a reported in an article in the July 21, 2020 Uk Times that: "There has been no recorded case of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world, according to one of the UK government's leading scientific advisers."
And, we also know that children are extremely unlikely to get seriously ill or die from COVID infections. In any case, children cannot possibly be expected to wear a mask properly in a way that would cut transmission.
There are still a lot of unknowns about COVID-19, but we have grown in our understanding of this disease since the beginning of the crisis.
The knowledge we have gained should allow government and health authorities to make more nuanced policies than the current one-size-fits-all mask mandates.
Where are the legislative hearings in county commissions, and state, provincial or federal legislatures before these drastic actions are mandated? Where are the open and transparent debates among experts that provide our representatives with the necessary information to make good policy decisions?
The real pandemic is the panic and the resulting tyranny that is being caused by dictatorial governors, corporate media and the monopolistic Big Tech.
The truth is that COVID-19 is like a bad cold for most people; this is not ebola or the plague.
Of course, the very elderly and those with serious health conditions should take precautions or be quarantined, but the rest of society should begin the long process of returning to normality.
The frenzy to force everyone to wear a mask, at all times, has gone beyond all comprehension, and goes against science and logic.
Please SIGN this petition which asks policymakers at all levels of government to reverse any mandatory mask order within the borders of their county, state, province, or country.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Explosion in mandatory masking isn’t driven by science, but fear', PART I - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/explosion-in-mandatory-masking-isnt-driven-by-science-but-fear
'Explosion in mandatory masking isn’t driven by science, but fear', PART II - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/explosion-in-mandatory-masking-isnt-driven-by-science-but-fear-part-ii
OSHA Document on Surgical Masks and Respirators stating that surgical masks do NOT prevent airborne particles (e.g. viruses) from being inhaled - https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3219.pdf
'PETER HITCHENS: Face masks turn us into voiceless submissives - and it’s not science forcing us to wear them, it’s politics' - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8537489/PETER-HITCHENS-Face-masks-turn-voiceless-submissives.html
**Here, we are referring to the masks worn by the vast majority of the public, not to specialist masks or respirator-type masks.
***Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
Just heard from a friend who went to a @Morrisons store today and was physically stopped from entering without a mask. He told them he was exempt, but they still refused entry. He had to show a sunflower lanyard as 'proof'. During this he was verbally abused by other shoppers.
— Jade Eloise Norris (@jadenozzz) January 12, 2021
The ramping up of mask enforcement is alleged to “keep customers and colleagues safe” in stores, a spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s said. But the data doesn’t support the claim that masks protect against the spread of COVID-19, according to America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLD), an organization of “diverse, exceedingly well-credentialed” physicians.
“The facts are not in dispute: masks are completely irrelevant to blocking the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” AFLD founder Dr. Simone Gold confirmed at the White Coat Summit in Washington, D.C., last autumn.
Commenting on the science of masking against viruses, Gold said that “prior to masks becoming political in March 2020, there was never even an attempt at a pretence that masks, let alone bandanas, stop a virus. It’s a complete fabrication. A virus is 1/1000 the size of a hair.”