I see ridiculous posters on the tube are still a thing.
TfL normally launch a campaign in the summer to get passengers to carry water, because one dehydrated disruption can cause a chaotic domino effect along the rest of the line. I query who these people are who can't last thirty minutes without liquids, and have long considered the advice that we all carry a bottle with us on every journey an insane over-reaction. However, the pandemic version of the poster is really something else.
Firstly, face coverings and drinking water don't go well together. Sure you're allowed to take your mask off for refreshment purposes, but TfL's advice to drink water is in direct contradiction to the official government advice which remains "avoid consuming food and drink on public transport where possible". Which is the bigger risk here, removing a face covering or feeling faint and delaying a train?
Secondly, the poster doesn't just tell you to have a drink, it has to dress that up with hygiene theatre. If you're taking off your mask you'll need to touch it and for that you'll need to have clean hands, or at least you do in the perfect world in which this guidance is drafted. Sanitiser first, then mask, then bottle. Whoever sneaked in the additional instruction about being "aware of others around you" as you prepare for a sip has all the practical common sense of a tediously risk-averse fusspot.
Thirdly, the poster reminds you to put your face covering back on again afterwards. I doubt anyone is stupid enough not to realise this, but otherwise the poster would only be telling you to take it off and subliminally that's the wrong message. This has led to the absurd phrasing at the end of the instruction which reads "and putting on your face covering to have a drink", and blimey they've worded this badly.
And finally, I have no idea what this poster was doing outside a station yesterday on a day with a maximum temperature of 16°C. It often feels like TfL wheel out these posters by looking at the calendar, not the weather forecast. Put the bloody thing away until the sun comes out, and reword it so it's less patronisingly nannying, and maybe this summer give the campaign a rest and focus on the real health issues instead.
