Hilary Cashman and Bill Sharp urge the UK to adopt the wearing of masks to stop the spread of coronavirus

The debate about face masks for community use (Coronavirus: should everyone be wearing face masks?, 15 April) has been hampered by British cultural blinkers. Masks have been portrayed as an ineffective attempt at self-protection, whereas mask-wearing in Japan and South Korea has always been altruistic – if you are coughing or sneezing, you wear a mask to protect others.

We should have adopted this early in the pandemic, along with the graceful and courteous practice of bowing instead of shaking hands. Clinical masks should be kept for health workers, but sewing machines are whirring in living rooms all over the UK to provide fabric masks for community use when the lockdown is lifted. “My mask protects you, your mask protects me.”
Hilary Cashman
Norton, Stockton-on-Tees