For the last two years, one question has been on everybody's lips: "When do we get back to normal?" In Scandinavia, the answer is: tomorrow, as Sweden lifts all mandatory Covid-19 regulations, joining Denmark and Norway in a new, light-touch approach to the pandemic. 

People will only be encouraged to stay at home if they are ill. No more vaccine passports, curfews, limits on socialising - and no more face masks.

About time, say some critics. Among them is author Ian Miller, who points out that in the first months of the pandemic, public health experts across the Western world insisted that masks did nothing to stop the spread of the virus. He thinks after they reversed course, they never bothered to check that masks actually work.

And, he argues, the evidence suggests they do not. For example, the city of Los Angeles has had a mask requirement for most of the pandemic. Yet it has had higher infection rates than neighbouring Orange County, which has had no mask requirement for the last year.

Others think this does not prove much. The population density of Orange County is about half that of LA. All viruses spread more easily in densely-populated areas, because people simply have more contact with each other. Studies comparing the impact of masks in more similar settlements suggest they do have an impact on the spread of the disease.

Still others suggest that even if masks did have no direct effect, they could still be useful. Wearing a mask is a reminder to keep abiding by other Covid-19 measures. And it reassures others that we are taking these duties seriously.

Yes: Masks have become a culture war issue, dividing countries down the middle. Now it seems they have done little to stop the spread of the virus. They have done more harm than good.

No: Although a lot of health experts initially got it wrong, there is solid evidence that masks do slow the spread of Covid-19. They have likely saved millions of lives, and we should keep wearing them.

Or: The main benefit of masks was not restricting the spread of the disease, but acting as a social signal to others that we take their health seriously. They helped us stay united in the dark days of the pandemic.