Masks the Enduring Lie.

I have previously posted about the strength of lies.  One of the most persistent lies during this farce has been masks.  Masks have been tested and studied to death.  The data is very clear masks are ineffective against airborne respiratory viruses yet somehow they have become the primary tool during the pandemic.  I am posting about masks again because recently I have had several conversations about masks with people who were adamant that we need to use them.

These are the reasons I have been given in the last 3 weeks as to why people should be wearing masks.

1. Omicron is spreading so quickly.
2. I need to wear a mask to make other people more comfortable.
3. If masks don’t work why do doctors wear them during surgery?
4. For every study that says masks don’t work there is one that says they do. Since we don’t know for sure everyone should wear a mask.

I want to take the time to address each of the pro-mask arguments separately.

1. Omicron is spreading so quickly.

This point would only be pertinent if omicron was spreading less quickly where masks are being used.  That is not the case.  Direct comparison of neighboring counties with different mask rules shows no difference in the rate of spread between mask and non-mask wearing counties.  Even if Omicron was more deadly than Ebola we still have no reason to believe masks would make any difference.

2. I need to wear a mask to make other people more comfortable.

This sounds like a compassionate argument for wearing a mask.  What is wrong with putting people at ease?  I would argue that from a psychological perspective putting people at ease by wearing a mask is very harmful to their long term health.  Feeding their irrational paranoia is not a good thing.

The government knows that masks do not work.  That is not why they want us to wear them.  The primary purpose of masks is to keep fear levels high by constantly reminded us that we are in an emergency.  Governments want you to believe your life is at risk anytime you are around another person.  Fear causes a flight of fight reaction.  People in a heightened state of fear are not thinking they are just reacting.  This allows Government to do the thinking for them and lead them anywhere the government wishes.

Public paranoia and fear is very advantageous for government but it not good for the individual.  Constant elevated stress levels from fear is detrimental to long term health.  The countries that imposed the harshest restrictions saw the highest excess deaths.  People died from the stress caused by the lockdowns and the accompanying fear.  You are not being kind by wearing a mask and feeding this paranoia.  You are literally killing people.

3. If masks don’t work why do doctors wear them during surgery?

The most common post-operative infections are bacterial.  Bacterial are more than 10 times larger than viruses.  They are less likely to be airborne and more likely to transmit by droplets.  Surgical masks can stop droplets from falling in to an open wound as long as they are changed hourly.  During surgery nurses are paid to help the surgeons regularly change their masks.

So surgical masks were designed to stop bacteria laden droplets.  They can do so as long as they are changed hourly.  They are not designed to stop viruses so what makes us think that we can use them for that?  Worse yet what makes us think a cloth mask with a weave opening far larger than the surgical mask can stop a virus?

4. For every study that says masks don’t work there is one that says they do. Since we don’t know for sure everyone should wear a mask.

This statement is partially true there are studies that show masks work.  The problem is that their findings have either been taken out of context or are completely fraudulent.

I posted a study months ago that showed a clean surgical mask can reduce viral load in exhaled breath by 50%.  Governments seized this study and used it for propaganda.  They claimed that masks, any mask, could reduce transmission by 50%.  Notice that was not what the study said.  The study was specific to surgical masks and it did not conclude that transmission would be reduced by 50%.  The study did not look at whether reducing viral load in exhaled breath would have any effect on transmission.  There is no reason to believe that it would especially when you consider the mask is only effective for about an hour.  The study showed that after 2 hours the mask was saturated and made absolutely no difference after that.

Then there is this fraudulent study on the effectiveness of forcing masks on school children.  In the US the CDC used this study to recommend masks in schools.  The study compared infection rates in schools with and without masks.  They concluded that makes made a significant difference.  Unfortunately a closer look at their methodology shows they were comparing apples to oranges.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/mask-guidelines-cdc-walensky/621035/

This study was intentionally flawed.  They started from the answer they wanted and worked backwards.  The unmasked schools were in school for a longer period and had stricter testing policies.  They found more cases because they had more time and looked harder for them.  The only science practiced by these researchers is political science.

Politics has bastardized science.  It is 100% true that 97% of scientist agree with whoever is funding them.  Often the conclusions drawn cannot be supported by the data gathered in the study.  This is something that Dr. Byram Bridle laments about during his presentation.

As Dr. Bridle points out it is no longer wise to only read the conclusions.  You need to check the data for yourself to verify that it actually supports the conclusions.  Often it is the direct opposite.  The conclusions were just to produce a sound bite for the evening news.  Unfortunately in our post COVID world many scientists have become nothing more than professional wrestlers.  They are told the outcome in advance and paid to make it believable.

Thankfully there are still a few scientist like Dr. Bridle that cling to integrity rather than a paycheck.  The following article has a summary of, and links to, a lot of good science on masks.

https://www.justfacts.com/news_face_masks_deadly_falsehoods

If, after reading that lengthy and detailed article, you are still not convinced that masks are useless stop for a minute to consider this simple piece of logic.  Let’s assume for a minute that masks do work.  That means they effectively block viruses from either coming in or going out.  So at the end of the day your mask would be saturated with a lethal pathogen.  It would be a hazardous waste.  You would need to place it in a sealed container and take it to an approved facility for incineration.

How many of you seal up and deliver your masks to a hazardous waste station at the end of each day?  If your mask actually worked, it would not be safe to put it in to your pocket and re-use the next time you go to the store.  It wouldn’t even be safe to touch without gloves after wearing it for an hour.  Can we finally get past the notion that cloth has magically properties that make it an impenetrable virus barrier?

Give yourself a late Christmas present.  Stop wearing your damn mask. It will be the best gift you can give yourself and the rest of society.  The sooner the irrational paranoia disappears the sooner we get finished with this farce.