Scientists
writing in the NEJM said there is little protection with masks and
little chance of catching COVID-19 from passing interaction
In a later
contradictory statement, three of the authors called for the public to
use masks, but said the chance of transmission is nearly eight times
higher at home than in passing encounters
The CDC is
promoting cloth masks for preventing COVID-19 and flu, although a paper
in their journal found no significant effect of face masks on
transmission of flu
Despite a lack
of evidence, the WHO lists potential advantages that have little to do
with personal health and more to do with learning about peoples’ levels
of submission
Whether or not to wear a mask has become
one of the most hotly contested debates of the COVID-19 pandemic. While
the question of whether or not school children should wear them is
causing divisions among parents and within neighborhoods, potentially
sparking legal challenges, it's become an added layer of stress on the children.1
As most public health officials are pushing face masks, social
distancing and a potential vaccine, by and large they are ignoring the
role a healthy lifestyle plays in reducing the severity of COVID-19 illness.
In fact, this disquieting pandemic has presented a unique opportunity
for public health officials to create better awareness about healthy
lifestyle choices that improve overall health, reduce the risk of
infection and lessen the severity of any infectious disease.
Unfortunately, it appears as if their focus is not on health and
wellness of the people they serve, but rather on creating an environment
in which pharmaceutical agendas can be pushed as better options. For
example, Reuters writes that the public can expect an “overwhelming” vaccine campaign in November, and includes comments from an unnamed senior administration official:2
“The fine line we are walking is getting the American people very
excited about vaccines and missing expectations versus having a bunch
of vaccines in the warehouse and not as many people want to get it. You
may not hear a lot about promoting vaccines over the airwaves in August
and September but you’ll be overwhelmed by it come November."
As time marches forward, and pharmaceutical companies scramble to
release the first vaccination for public distribution, it’s important
that members of the public are suitably groomed to accept and even
welcome a vaccine that may well come with a high price tag. So far,
keeping the mask debate front and center has worked to the advantage of
Big Pharma.
NEJM Reverses Opinion and Sends Mixed Messages
In May 2020, five authors published an article in the New England
Journal of Medicine in which they explored the need for personal
protective equipment in a public setting. By the second paragraph they
had acknowledged several facts:3
“We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities
offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health
authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face
contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is
sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes
or even 30 minutes).
The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a
public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for
widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the
pandemic.”
They concluded by saying:
“It is also clear that masks serve symbolic roles. Masks are not
only tools, they are also talismans that may help increase health care
workers’ perceived sense of safety, well-being, and trust in their
hospitals.
Although such reactions may not be strictly logical, we are all
subject to fear and anxiety, especially during times of crisis. One
might argue that fear and anxiety are better countered with data and
education than with a marginally beneficial mask …”
Within months, three of the authors began to backpedal. In a
subsequent letter to the editor it appears as if they are calling for
universal masking at home rather in a public place, such as the grocery
store or department store. They wrote:4
“A growing body of research shows that the risk of SARS-CoV-2
transmission is strongly correlated with the duration and intensity of
contact: the risk of transmission among household members can be as high
as 40%, whereas the risk of transmission from less intense and less
sustained encounters is below 5%.”
The newest letter highlights the mixed messages the public is being
fed and appears to contradict their newest call for universal public
masking since they underscore the knowledge there is a higher
transmission in households.
What Does the Evidence Show?
The debate about the effectiveness of masks had been going on long
before COVID-19. Nearly a century ago, surgical masks were introduced to
help protect patients during surgery. Yet, the question remains as to
whether this established routine is necessary.5
In one study published in 2016, scientists found no difference in the
infection rates of patients who were undergoing clean surgery, whether
the surgical team was masked or unmasked.6 A clean surgery was defined as one in which the lungs, gut, genitals and bladder were not involved.
The authors of another study sought to determine whether wearing a
mask during the cold season could help reduce the number of health care
professionals who got sick.7
They recruited workers in a tertiary care hospital where it’s likely
they had greater-than-passing interactions with patients and coworkers.
Data were collected for 77 consecutive days during cold season. In
the group who wore a mask at work, there were significantly more
headaches and no evidence the masks had a benefit in protecting the
participants against getting a cold.
Another team also compared the effectiveness of cloth masks in protecting health care workers.8
They used 1,607 participants at 14 secondary- and tertiary-level
hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam. The outcome measurement was a clinical
demonstration of respiratory illness, flu-like illness or
laboratory-confirmed respiratory infection.
The team found that those who wore cloth masks had a higher rate of
flu-like illness and all measured infections as compared to those who
used medical masks. They believed moisture retention in a cloth mask,
along with reuse and poor filtration were potential reasons for higher
rates of infection among mask wearers.
CDC Is Promoting Cloth Masks
As I've written before, the size of the virus matters. SARS-CoV-2 is a beta coronavirus that has a diameter between 0.06 microns and 0.14 microns.9 This is about half the size of most other viruses that tend to measure between 0.02 microns to 0.3 microns,10 and much smaller than bacteria that average 0.5 microns to 2.0 microns, against which masks are effective.11
Lab testing has shown that 3M surgical masks can block up to 75% of particles that measure between 0.02 and 1 micron.12
Cloth masks block between 30% and 60% of respiratory droplets,
depending upon the material used. However, the virus is not restricted
to staying within respiratory droplets and can be aerosolized to
particles far smaller, which cannot be caught by any mask.
The CDC is currently promoting the use of masks by the public as “a
simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into
the air and onto other people when the person wearing the mask coughs,
sneezes, talks, or raises their voice.”13
The study on cloth masks the CDC included in their list of recent
studies, notes that while cotton is the most commonly used material, it
is the weave density that makes a difference in filtration efficiency,
and gaps that occur around the face can reduce the effectiveness of
filtration by more than 60%.14
In a press release from July 14, 2020, the CDC affirmed that cloth
coverings are a “critical tool in the fight against COVID-19. There is
increasing evidence that cloth face coverings help prevent people who
have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others.” Dr. Robert R.
Redfield, Director of the CDC, was adamant about the power of cloth face
masks, saying:15
“We are not defenseless against COVID-19. Cloth face coverings
are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread
of the virus — particularly when used universally within a community
setting. All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves,
their families, and their communities.”
Yet Masks Are Not Effective Against Viruses
With the push to wear cloth masks, the CDC found that after people in
the U.S. were advised to wear “cloth face coverings when leaving home,
the proportion of U.S. adults who chose to do so increased, with 3 in 4
reporting in a national internet survey they had adopted the
recommendation.”16
And yet, a policy review paper published in the CDC’s own journal,
Emerging Infectious Diseases, did not support Redfield’s statement. The
paper measured the effectiveness of masks against influenza (0.08
microns to .12 microns), which measures very close to the size of
COVID-19.17
In it, the researchers reviewed "the evidence base on the
effectiveness of nonpharmaceutical personal protective measures … in
non-health care settings," and found no evidence of benefit:18
"Although mechanistic studies support the potential effect of
hand hygiene or face masks, evidence from 14 randomized controlled
trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on
transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.
Evidence from RCTs of hand hygiene or face masks did not support a
substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza,
and limited evidence was available on other environmental measures."
Although masks are “not usually recommended in non-health care
settings,” they are not making a recommendation for mask use by people
who are asymptomatic in the community.19
Universal Masks Remind People To Be Compliant
Without strong scientific evidence to back up recommendations for using cloth masks or surgical masks during flu season
or during the COVID-19 outbreak, governmental agencies around the world
seem to be using the recommendations to prod the public into compliance
with their mostly unsubstantiated and often conflicting demands.20 This may have a far deeper and long-term meaning, as Patrick Wood suggests in this video after years of investigation.
But, in either case, the use of fear and the requirement for mask wearing
are the first steps in pushing people into submitting to an agenda.
Despite the lack of evidence, the World Health Organization continues to
make a case for universal mask wearing.
In a June 5, 2020, report, after listing the health-related reasons
for wearing masks and discussing concerns about the practice, they
include a list of “potential benefits/advantages” that have little to do
with personal health, and more to do with learning submission, likely
in preparation for future “recommendations.” These include:21
• "Reduced potential stigmatization of
individuals wearing masks to prevent infecting others or of people
caring for COVID-19 patients in nonclinical settings" — In other words,
we should all wear masks to make people caring for COVID-19 patients
feel more accepted, as if that's a significant problem. • "Making people feel they can play a
role in contributing to stopping spread of the virus" — i.e., masks,
while providing a false sense of security, make people feel like they're
"doing something" to help. Put another way, it makes people feel
virtuous and "good." • "Reminding people to be compliant with
other measures" — In other words, people are expected to go along with
what they’re told to do. • "Potential social and economic benefits" — This is perhaps the most ludicrously strained reason of all. According to the WHO:
"Encouraging the public to create their own fabric masks may
promote individual enterprise and community integration … The production
of non-medical masks may offer a source of income for those able to
manufacture masks within their communities. Fabric masks can also be a
form of cultural expression, encouraging public acceptance of protection
measures in general."
Your Mask Is Useless Without These Guidelines
If you do choose to wear a face mask, then it’s important to strictly
follow these guidelines. As this short video demonstrates, just one
slip of your hand and you are depositing bacteria on your face, making
the mask ineffective against even the bacteria it can filter.
This shouldn’t be scary since you’ve likely been walking around
without a mask for years before this, including during cold and flu
season. While the symptoms of these two viruses are not the same, they
are respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2. They measure about the same
size and are transmitted the same way. These are the strategies the WHO
recommends for reducing the potential of infecting yourself:22
Before putting on a mask, clean your hands with soap and water.
Cover your mouth and nose with the mask and make sure there are no gaps between your face and the mask.
Avoid touching the mask while using it; if you have to, try to clean your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water first.
Replace the mask with a new one as soon as it is damp. Do not reuse single-use masks.
To take off the mask, remove it from behind (do not touch the front
of the mask); discard it immediately in a closed bin; and clean your
hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.
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