A group of anti-maskers, from different sections of civil society, are determined to fight on, despite a tumultuous past weekend. The clutch of anti-maskers had gathered near Dadar station over the weekend to raise awareness, “about various unscientific claims about masks helping stop the spread of Coronavirus, as we have no data to support this,” said participant Firoze Mithiborwala.

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Mithiborwala an Andheri resident, who with others in the 30-strong group was supposed to walk from Dadar to the BMC office in South Mumbai, without a mask and distribute literature to people on the way, said, “We were to give people a copy of a Right to Information (RTI) query about masks made to the Government of India’s Health Ministry. The answers do not provide scientific information or proof that masks, especially the ones that most people wear, the R10 or so face coverings, can stop the transmission. Nor has the government provided any answers to the queries about the adverse effects of wearing these face coverings for hours. We wanted to alert the public about this. Many of us are also anti-vaxxers. There should be no coercion about taking vaccines. The government says they are not forcing people, but covert pressures are there. There should be no restrictions for the unmasked too.”