IN response to letters in Wednesday’s paper (Gazette, July 29, “Wearing masks is about public health”) I just do not agree.

We have gone through the awful pandemic without face masks.

I truly object to having to wear one now. They make you feel very panicky.

It will not encourage me into shops.

In fact it has had the adverse effect.

Our economy hangs in a balance. The local shops must recover and this is going to hinder it.

I was in a supermarket on Saturday and had never seen it so quiet in 30 years.

The shop girls were saying trade had been very slow.

I am a big Boris fan, so my opinions are not anti-Government.

At the end of the day, after coronavirus we must recover.

Someone has to pay for the massive help the Government has given us.

It’s not for free.

The next generation will be paying for it for years to come.

I watch the endless empty buses up and down my road, “ghost buses” I call them. Constantly running empty.

I also feel very sorry for shop assistants whose employers have made them wear masks when the Government didn’t make them.

It should be a matter of choice.

It was drilled into us how little effect the masks really have.

S French, Colchester