On Wednesday, August 11 I was refused medical treatment at Fisher Medical Centre, Skipton because I wasn’t prepared to wear a face mask.

I pointed out to the doctor that the Chief Medical Officer had advised in March 2020 that masks were pointless unless you were infected.

Professor Chris Whitty told Sky News on Wednesday that wearing a face mask had almost no effect on reducing the risk of contracting the illness. Prof Whitty said: “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.

“The only people we do sometimes use masks for are people who have got an infection and that is to help them to stop it spreading around," he added.

I informed the doctor that I was double-jabbed and had since contracted and recovered from Covid, I am not symptomatic and have tested negative for over ten days. The doctor was ‘visiting Japan the following week’ and didn’t want to contract the virus.

I suspect the vast majority of the country are sick to death of baffling petty ‘rules’ which have no basis in science or common sense (the latest being you need to wear a face mask between your table and the dance floor in a Scottish nightclub but not an English one).

The people I know understand the basics - limit the number of people you come into contact with and wash your hands - and have altered their behaviour accordingly over the course of the pandemic. The constant invention and fiddling around with rules has a sinister side to it as it’s clear 'The State' wishes to exert even more control over how we go about our business, where will it end: ‘I won’t treat you unless you show me your vaccine certificate’?

It’s also not escaped my attention that the rules are not enforced universally. Some people can fly around the world meeting and greeting but it’s best ‘we’ don’t. A ‘pilot scheme’ means some people don’t have to isolate/quarantine but ‘we’ do.

Whilst failing to treat me is not the most egregious act of discrimination I think ‘we’ should make it clear that you can only police people with their consent and I do not consent to having to wear a mask in the local medical centre when it’s not a legal requirement.

It did occur to me that if the doctor wishes to reduce the prevalence of the virus surely it would be better if and everyone else, for that matter, didn’t go to Japan, or perhaps some people can?

Richard Linkogel

Cowling

* A spokesman for Fisher Medical Centre said: "We do still ask that patients wear a mask when visiting our practices for the safety of all our patients and practice team. However, we have always prioritised the care and treatment of our patients throughout the pandemic, despite the challenges and difficult circumstances that we have faced during the past 18 months.

"If a patient did not want to wear a mask, an open dialogue would take place and potentially other solutions offered - for example wearing one of our disposable face shields or finding a larger, safer space for a consultation with more social distancing."