Whether or not you take on the burden of a legal challenge is an important decision. Anyone who’s ever done this knows the negative impact of the drawn-out process where the ‘he said, she said’ can become nasty and trigger personal buttons. In some cases, it is so important to set the record straight that the stress is worth the end goal. In others, you might feel you have already got your message across and changed attitudes or practices, just by complaining.
Let’s take a look at the thought process…
I was asked to comment on this letter, where this lady’s friend had been prevented from giving blood because of his mask exemption:
The question was,
“[my friend] wrote an email and the response admits and acknowledges that they should make adjustments but they were unable to… although now they can. Should he respond? Are they correct?”
Here is my response:
Hi Anita [not her real name]
From my understanding they [the blood donation centre] are wrong/misguided about not being able to find a safe alternative – it’s a requirement under the Equality Act that reasonable adjustments must be made to place the disabled person on a level playing field with their non-disabled counterparts.
The reasonable adjustment, as recommended by government, is to allow the disabled person to continue the same activity with no mask.
Having said that, is your friend being denied a ‘service’ by not being able to give blood, or are they just prevented from GIVING a service, benefit, or charitable donation to others? Is it a disadvantage to the donor, or a disadvantage to the potential recipient and the donation service itself?
If your friend DOES feel disadvantaged and thinks it is his ‘right’ to be able to continue giving blood, then he could consider challenging the blood donation service on this. For anyone looking to assert their mask exemption and challenge disability discrimination on the same, I have written these posts:
https://cacuk.uk/letter-before-action-face-covering-discrimination/ (which provides a template letter before action, and the steps to be taken BEFORE the letter is used)
and
https://cacuk.uk/assert-your-mask-exemption/ (which provides the government’s guidance on the subject).
But I personally wouldn’t be challenging in this situation – the tone of the letter is humble, polite and respectful, and I would take into consideration that a legal challenge to a group providing essential medical services to people would add more strain on their ability to provide those services – hence defeating the object of your friend’s intent, which presumably was to help those in urgent need of blood! What he might wish to do, if he is inclined to help educate others to prevent further mask discrimination, is to provide some of the resources in the two posts above (the template letter in the first post provides all the relevant law), and also this one:
https://cacuk.uk/everything-you-need-to-know-about-masks/ (which provides clinical studies proving masks don’t work but do cause harm).
Hope this helps, it is only my opinion of course but I hope it helps him to assess his thoughts on it.
My further thoughts on this are that the blood transfusion centre only “relaxed these rules” from 19th July because the government officially lifted mask mandates from that date! So, in actual fact, the centre would be requiring face coverings for no reason!
It’s a shocking state of affairs.
What are your thoughts?
Do you think mask mandates will come back? How soon? Are face masks here forever, as has been suggested by some of the countries top policy influencers? How will normal people adjust to a world where our senses are being constantly bombarded by followers and proponents of an anti-science policy-making cult?
I am currently taking my Ex Employers to Tribunal for Terminating my Contract over what I believe to be Discrimination against Mask Mandates in Nov 2021 and subsequently requesting my Vaccination Status due to me being a higher risk to Staff and Customers because I wont wear a Mask! I was dismissed with less than six months at the Company though so Im not sure if I stand a chance as they have called it an extended Probationary Period that they decided not to renew but I know it was due to my refusal to wear a Mask due to my Medical Exemption!