Too much science is forcing CDC to request a science do over after CDC’s own scientist and outside experts find N95 respirators don’t work better than masks—and neither do much to protect from COVID.
I volunteer in our local elementary school. Once school resumed and volunteers were allowed back into the buildings, I had to witness the tragic spectacle of children aged 5-12 forced to cover their faces for 8 hours a day with soggy, dirty, cloth masks. Masks were stuffed into a desk (or dropped on the floor) during lunch and then re-installed over the face when lunch was over. In many cases, the same masks were worn day in and day out without laundering. Children weren't "safe," they were just muzzled. You can't teach reading when both the teacher and student have their faces covered. And the reason for this heinous charade was that the CDC recommended masks in schools.
The face nappy became an outward signal of loyalty to the hygiene regime. Nothing else.
My biggest regret from the plague is that I participated a number of times in the technosegregationist division of society by allowing my QR Code to be scanned at restaurants and pubs I needn't have gone into while the unpure "unvaxxed" remained outside. My second biggest regret is I how often I complied with mask wearing despite knowing it to have been utterly pointless from a mechanistic biomedical standpoint. Indeed, social conformity pressures and hedonistic ease are quite the forces. 1930s Germany is now, post-plague, far less mysterious to me than it once was.
Here's what you need to investigate, if you are really interested in the masking issue:
"But for some reason, a “masks work” political movement began to grow"
WHAT WAS THE REASON? Clearly, it was not public health. Also, the politics came after the panic. So who incited the panic around masking and why? I would argue it was a key part of the quarantine-until-vaccine plan of the biosecurity-industrial complex. They had to drum up hysteria in the population, including the insane idea of universal masking, so people would agree to lockdowns and vaccines.
The importance of masks has always only been their ability to induce panic.
I distinctly remember watching the news where experts discussed why masks don’t work early on in the COVID break out. Then every thing changed, basically for political purposes. Now when the next pandemic happens who will we to trust other than people on Substack who report reality. Other than power and fear why would the CDC be so driven to distort facts about the masks?
Much better to improve air quality using venting, scrubbing, conditioning/purification. Simply opening windows greatly reduces indoor particulate. Or go outside. Remember police fining/arresting persons for going outside to exercise?
Nobody holds more disdain for liberal elites than myself, or hates being told to do nonsensical things. Still, nothing has perplexed me more than how someone wearing a mask to protect themselves or those around them could enrage people so... or why requiring masks in hospitals or around vulnerable people (like children, old folks and the "immuno-compromised") makes people feel victimized or oppressed.
Why do healthcare workers wear them in surgery?
Why do the Chinese wear them, is it cuz they're commies? Same with Japanese?
I absolutely get that the corporate capture of our governments, public agencies, universities and the media has destroyed any credibility they might have had and are now working with those companies to enslave or kill us all. Does that mean there should be zero-public health laws or guidance? Is being a decent community member really oppression?
In my mind it seems to be a distraction from the issue of who/what is responsible for Covid. Who is benefiting from it and who is it harming.
Is there good evidence for source control? Masks could also have the opposite effect by allowing mucus to dry with exhaled air spreading the residue far and wide.
the Cochrane review reached similar conclusions and even in that case the authors were attacked by the Hygiene Ideological Stasi. They can't help it, their dogma is "science is what i say"...forget about data, results, RCTs
I have a progressive friend who I have had a few discussions with about the Covid, Fauci, and the government response. This was an excellent article with a substantial amount of data backing up your assertions, so I thought it would be a perfect article to send him to support many of my opinions. Unfortunately, it made no difference. He objected to the statement “Even Anthony Fauci, the Left’s patron Saint of Pandemics” saying this article was no more than another right-wing anti-Fauci, anti-government tirade. I continued to go over the hard data presented, unfortunately he felt that until the CDC stated masks don’t provide protection, he would continue to wear his during a pandemic. It appears for some; political science is more important than real science. I can understand just trying to do something in the first months of a unknown pandemic, but looking back at hard data and refusing to adjust policy accordingly is baffling.
I am most amused by Laurie Garrett's outrage at the cost of Paxlovid. Honey, if Pfizer couldn't get $1,600 for Paxlovid, you'd be treating your Covid with ivermectin.
Dumb question on my part - if the mask provides source control which reduces the risk of a sick person passing a virus to someone else, is that not an example of the mask working in a way? It doesn't make the case for a healthy person to wear a mask, but doesn't it make the case for a sick person to wear one? I'm envisioning a conversation with my friend who will say "see, they work!" when I tell her about this article.
I volunteer in our local elementary school. Once school resumed and volunteers were allowed back into the buildings, I had to witness the tragic spectacle of children aged 5-12 forced to cover their faces for 8 hours a day with soggy, dirty, cloth masks. Masks were stuffed into a desk (or dropped on the floor) during lunch and then re-installed over the face when lunch was over. In many cases, the same masks were worn day in and day out without laundering. Children weren't "safe," they were just muzzled. You can't teach reading when both the teacher and student have their faces covered. And the reason for this heinous charade was that the CDC recommended masks in schools.
The face nappy became an outward signal of loyalty to the hygiene regime. Nothing else.
My biggest regret from the plague is that I participated a number of times in the technosegregationist division of society by allowing my QR Code to be scanned at restaurants and pubs I needn't have gone into while the unpure "unvaxxed" remained outside. My second biggest regret is I how often I complied with mask wearing despite knowing it to have been utterly pointless from a mechanistic biomedical standpoint. Indeed, social conformity pressures and hedonistic ease are quite the forces. 1930s Germany is now, post-plague, far less mysterious to me than it once was.
Great work as always Paul.
Here's what you need to investigate, if you are really interested in the masking issue:
"But for some reason, a “masks work” political movement began to grow"
WHAT WAS THE REASON? Clearly, it was not public health. Also, the politics came after the panic. So who incited the panic around masking and why? I would argue it was a key part of the quarantine-until-vaccine plan of the biosecurity-industrial complex. They had to drum up hysteria in the population, including the insane idea of universal masking, so people would agree to lockdowns and vaccines.
The importance of masks has always only been their ability to induce panic.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/none-of-the-experts-really-believed?utm_source=substack
I distinctly remember watching the news where experts discussed why masks don’t work early on in the COVID break out. Then every thing changed, basically for political purposes. Now when the next pandemic happens who will we to trust other than people on Substack who report reality. Other than power and fear why would the CDC be so driven to distort facts about the masks?
Much better to improve air quality using venting, scrubbing, conditioning/purification. Simply opening windows greatly reduces indoor particulate. Or go outside. Remember police fining/arresting persons for going outside to exercise?
Great reminder there is no problem K-Street lobbyists can't invert and monetize!
Nobody holds more disdain for liberal elites than myself, or hates being told to do nonsensical things. Still, nothing has perplexed me more than how someone wearing a mask to protect themselves or those around them could enrage people so... or why requiring masks in hospitals or around vulnerable people (like children, old folks and the "immuno-compromised") makes people feel victimized or oppressed.
Why do healthcare workers wear them in surgery?
Why do the Chinese wear them, is it cuz they're commies? Same with Japanese?
I absolutely get that the corporate capture of our governments, public agencies, universities and the media has destroyed any credibility they might have had and are now working with those companies to enslave or kill us all. Does that mean there should be zero-public health laws or guidance? Is being a decent community member really oppression?
In my mind it seems to be a distraction from the issue of who/what is responsible for Covid. Who is benefiting from it and who is it harming.
Is there good evidence for source control? Masks could also have the opposite effect by allowing mucus to dry with exhaled air spreading the residue far and wide.
the Cochrane review reached similar conclusions and even in that case the authors were attacked by the Hygiene Ideological Stasi. They can't help it, their dogma is "science is what i say"...forget about data, results, RCTs
I have a progressive friend who I have had a few discussions with about the Covid, Fauci, and the government response. This was an excellent article with a substantial amount of data backing up your assertions, so I thought it would be a perfect article to send him to support many of my opinions. Unfortunately, it made no difference. He objected to the statement “Even Anthony Fauci, the Left’s patron Saint of Pandemics” saying this article was no more than another right-wing anti-Fauci, anti-government tirade. I continued to go over the hard data presented, unfortunately he felt that until the CDC stated masks don’t provide protection, he would continue to wear his during a pandemic. It appears for some; political science is more important than real science. I can understand just trying to do something in the first months of a unknown pandemic, but looking back at hard data and refusing to adjust policy accordingly is baffling.
I am most amused by Laurie Garrett's outrage at the cost of Paxlovid. Honey, if Pfizer couldn't get $1,600 for Paxlovid, you'd be treating your Covid with ivermectin.
Dumb question on my part - if the mask provides source control which reduces the risk of a sick person passing a virus to someone else, is that not an example of the mask working in a way? It doesn't make the case for a healthy person to wear a mask, but doesn't it make the case for a sick person to wear one? I'm envisioning a conversation with my friend who will say "see, they work!" when I tell her about this article.