The mask cult just won’t quit.
Hot on the heels of the Cochrane Collaboration review that was unable to show that masks slowed the spread of respiratory viruses, the damage control efforts have begun. An opinion piece in the New York Times quoted Karla Soares-Weiser, Editor-in-Chief of the Cochrane Review:
Many commentators have claimed that a recently updated Cochrane review shows that “masks don’t work,” which is an inaccurate and misleading interpretation.
The review examined whether interventions to promote mask wearing help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses. Given the limitations in the primary evidence, the review is not able to address the question of whether mask wearing itself reduces people’s risk of contracting or spreading respiratory viruses.
Well, yeah. A basis principle of science, not to mention common sense, is that the burden of proof rests on anyone making a claim. We are now in the fourth year of this pandemic. Our rulers clearly want us to believe that masking “saves lives,” and they have had ample time and resources to demonstrate this, were it possible to do so.
The randomized controlled trial is the gold standard. After all this time, there have been exactly two randomized controlled trials on the effect of masking versus non-masking on the transmission of COVID-19. One in Korea claimed a one in three hundred reduction in transmission, and one in Bangladesh a one in fifteen hundred reduction.
If you think such a tiny reduction in risk can even be measured accurately, well, bully for you, but remember that infection is not a clinically relevant endpoint anyway. For the vast majority of people, covid is just a cold. The reported infection fatality rate for Bangladesh is 2.8 percent. Multiply that by one in fifteen hundred and you get a one in a hundred thousand reduction in the risk of dying. One in a hundred thousand. You couldn’t possibly measure such a tiny reduction in risk.
The NYT piece trotted out the usual excuses. Maybe the sample sizes were too small. Maybe the people in the studies didn’t wear their masks enough. The article cited some interrupted time series studies which supposedly produced positive results — without mentioning that this kind of study clearly is inappropriate for assessing measures to prevent the spread of a seasonal virus.
As if masks were a person entitled to the presumption of innocence. A person whose civil rights must be respected.
WRONG. It is actual human beings whose rights and dignity must be respected. The benefits of masks are hypothetical. The harms of muzzling children (who are virtually zero risk for serious complications from the covid anyway) are undeniable. Face masks impair face recognition and face identification, muffle speech, and block emotional signaling between teachers and students. A Brown University study found significantly reduced verbal, motor, and overall cognitive performance in children born since the pandemic began, and that children in the lower socioeconomic strata were most affected. And a Harvard study reported that forty percent of parents believe mask-wearing harmed their children’s school experience.
These kids might be brought up to speed, with extra help, but the one thing you can never get back is lost time. What if we hadn't muzzled the children AND gave them the extra help? Who know what we might have achieved then?
Anyway, you know most of these kids will never get that extra help. The authorities will make some perfunctory effort at doing so, and they will distract us with something more important, like a slap fight at the Oscars, or shooting down toy balloons with $400,000 Sidewinder missiles.
It’s time to move on. Those who wish to muzzle themselves are free to go on doing so. The rest of us are taking back our lives.
The Mask Cult Just Won't Quit
Hi Patrick, great, feisty, article on a topic that Brian Mowrey on Substack posted on just before you. Go here for the article and comments, including mine, some of which I have put here for you. Hope you join the conversation and that will bring others to be aware of your valuable efforts. I will post a link to your article there. Stay safe and free.
https://unglossed.substack.com/p/masks-dont-work-is-also-a-concession
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My comment today: After all these years (since Jan 2020, Covid1984), still the best, thanks Mark, you did make your mark with it, keep safe and free. Giving you out to others to slap them awake from the Nightmare of History.
“IT'S JUST A MASK - MY VERSION” ✅. Markksargent. 11:23
135,805 views Jul 22, 2020
“My videos are FREE to use by everyone. Edit and repost as you see fit. I've never thrown a strike and never will.
Contact Mark directly at msargent23@comcast.net
Mark Sargent phone number 303-494-6631
Send him real life objects at 2125 Myres Lane Langley WA 98260”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcOk1Au6xWA&t=148s
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CEREBRAL AND SYSTEMIC PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF WEARING FACE MASKS IN YOUNG ADULTS, Oct 4, 2021
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2109111118
SURGICAL MASKS AFFECT THE PERIPHERAL OXYGEN SATURATION AND RESPIRATORY RATE OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS April 14, 2022
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.844710/full
THE FOEGEN EFFECT Feb 18, 2022
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9282120/
RAPID RESPONSE: COVID-19: IMPORTANT POTENTIAL SIDE EFFECTS OF WEARING FACE MASKS THAT WE SHOULD BEAR IN MIND April 9, 2020
[Btw, this paper presciently flagged what subsequently, in my interpretation, came to be the “Foegen Effect”, see above.]
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1435/rr-40
ADVERSE EFFECTS OF PROLONGED MASK USE AMONG HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS DURING COVID-19. 2020
https://clinmedjournals.org/articles/jide/journal-of-infectious-diseases-and-epidemiology-jide-6-130.php
DOWNSIDES OF FACE MASKS AND POSSIBLE MITIGATION STRATEGIES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS Feb 4, 2021
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/2/e044364
“Conclusions There are insufficient data to quantify all of the adverse effects that might reduce the acceptability, adherence and effectiveness of face masks. New research on face masks should assess and report the harms and downsides. Urgent research is also needed on methods and designs to mitigate the downsides of face mask wearing, particularly the assessment of possible alternatives.”
[This one asks what should be the obvious question about doing research on the HARMS MASKS CAN DO…which very few studies have done compared to the others funded by the Powers That Should Not Be about how “effective” they (supposedly) are.]