Richard Madeley was back on Good Morning Britain today, debating with Dr Hilary Jones over the latest coronavirus news.
Last night, Boris Johnson announced that the legal requirement to wear face coverings will be removed when his road map out of lockdown reaches the final stage, which is expected to be on July 19.
Speaking at a Downing Street briefing, the Prime Minister urged people to "exercise their personal responsibility but to remember the value of face coverings both in protecting themselves and others".
READ MORE: Have your say on lifting all covid social restrictions on July 19
Asked if there were circumstances in which he would continue to wear a face covering, Mr Johnson said it would "depend on the circumstances".
He went on: "Clearly there's a big difference between travelling on a crowded Tube train and sitting, late at night, in a virtually empty carriage on the main railway line."
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the Commons it would be "sensible" to wear a mask on a "very crowded" London Underground train.
Discussing this change, Richard said while he was glad he was being told he no longer had to wear a mask, he would still wear one.
Adding that it was a personal choice, he said: "It's up to us to take that responsibility ourselves."
However, Susanna Reid, who said she was worried about her elderly parents, argued back: "It's not up to my parents what other people do, so it's alright if my parents wear masks but the point is you want the other people to wear masks."
Dr Hilary Jones offered his insight into the conversation.
He said: "We’re putting far too much faith in vaccinations.
"Everyone’s saying it’s been a wonderful thing and it has.
"It has weakened the link between cases, hospitalisations and deaths."
He added: "We’d have been in a great position if we’d only been dealing with the Alpha variant and the Kent variant, but actually we’re dealing with the Delta variant, which is much more transmissible."
Dr Hilary said he expects there to be 50,000 new cases in the next couple of days.
As Richard tried to interrupt Dr Hilary, he said: "There are going to be other variants."
He then asked Richard about the scenario that the UK has another variant that is resistant to the vaccine and more transmissible.
But Richard said: "If it's resistant to the vaccine we have a problem, but how much longer are we going to go on fearing the possibility of a variant arriving?"
Dr Hilary said: "We don’t need to fear it, we need to be aware of it and we need to be careful."
