jimnyc
07-05-2021, 02:25 PM
I think perhaps medical masks have their places, especially in medical environments. And perhaps folks that are more susceptible to things or potentially have issues that along with a virus could be more deadly. And I know there are plenty out there claiming they work and are effective. But overall, just how much have they helped? If at all.
I'm not worried as much about the negative effects. I'm a short time wearer in very short amount of times. But are they "necessary"?
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Another Flip-Flop: Megalomaniac Fauci Now Says Vaccinated People Still Need to Wear Masks
When all is said and done and the waters settle on the COVID pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci will be remembered as one of the greatest mass killers of our time.
Dr. Anthony Fauci flip-flopped and lied for over a year to the American public about the seriousness of the China Virus and his background funding the Chinese virology lab and the origins of the virus.
Dr. Fauci also lied to the American public about the success of the safe drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in treating the virus.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans died when HCQ was available but banned by Fauci and the CDC from COVID patients.
This weekend Dr. Fauci flip-flopped again on wearing face masks.
Fauci now says that healthy, vaccinated people must continue to wear facemasks for some reason.
But in his emails, Fauci says masks don’t work.
Rest - https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/another-flip-flop-megalomaniac-fauci-now-says-vaccinated-people-still-need-wear-masks/
------------------------
The question on whether to wear a face mask or not during the Covid-19 pandemic remains emotional and contentious. Why? This question about the utility of face coverings (which has taken on a talisman-like life) is now overwrought with steep politicization regardless of political affiliation (e.g. republican or liberal/democrat).
Importantly, the evidence just is and was not there to support mask use for asymptomatic people to stop viral spread during a pandemic. While the evidence may seem conflicted, the evidence (including the peer-reviewed evidence) actually does not support its use and leans heavily toward masks having no significant impact in stopping spread of the Covid virus.
In fact, it is not unreasonable at this time to conclude that surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are, have absolutely no impact on controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus, and current evidence implies that face masks can be actually harmful. All this to say and as so comprehensively documented by Dr. Roger W. Koops in a recent American Institute of Economic Research (AIER) publication, there is no clear scientific evidence that masks (surgical or cloth) work to mitigate risk to the wearer or to those coming into contact with the wearer, as they are currently worn in everyday life and specifically as we refer to Covid-19.
We present the evidence in full below. We also state that should adequate evidence emerge that supports the effectiveness of surgical and cloth masks in this Covid pandemic (or any similar type masks), then we will change our position and conclude otherwise. Our focus is on face masks for Covid but we will touch gently on the issue of school closures and lockdowns, as these three issues remain the key public health policy catastrophes we have faced as global societies.
Back in August 2020, a survey by Pew indicated that 85% of Americans wore masks when in public all or most of the time. So, the public has been using masks extensively. We thus set the table in this review on the effectiveness of masking for Covid by asking, if these surgical and cloth masks are effective, why did incidence of the virus (or actual disease; and they’re not the same thing) escalate so rapidly despite widespread use? Why is there no evidence across US States and global nations showing that when use is mandated (or not mandated given the general uptake of masking by the public), this contributes to reduced viral transmission? Is there any such evidence?
Orofecal transmission?
Understanding the transmission of this respiratory SARS-CoV-2 pathogen is also evolving given evidence of orofecal spread as having a potentially larger contributor role in non-respiratory transmission of Covid. As an example, a recent open-evidence review brief by Oxford researchers (Jefferson, Brassey, Heneghan) and its publication in CEBM, reveals the growing recognition that SARS-CoV-2 can infect and be shed from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of humans. Orofecal spread demands urgent study and if orofecal spread is shown to be definitive and more consequential in Covid transmission, then this could impact mitigation strategies beyond those for respiratory transmission.
Where do we begin on masks? How about infection fatality rate/IFR?
Moreover, we are addressing here highly irrational, punitive, capricious, and groundless societal restrictions for a virus with an infection fatality rate (IFR), based on Stanford University John Ioannidis’s calculations, of 0.05% in persons under 70 years old (across different global nations). Ioannidis’s research was followed up recently by a reported non-institutionalized IFR in the state of Indiana (persons aged > 12 years) of 0.12% (95% CI 0.09 to 0.19) when age 40-59/60 years (reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine), and an IFR when < 40 years old of 0.01% (95% CI 0.01 to 0.02). Persons 60 or older had an IFR of 1.71% (overall IFR was 0.26%).
So why would we continue this way with these unsound and very punitive restrictive policies and for so long once the factual characteristics of this virus became evident and as alluded to above, we finally realized that its infection fatality rate (IFR) which is a more accurate and realistic reflection of mortality than CFR, was really no worse than annual influenza?
https://www.aier.org/article/masking-a-careful-review-of-the-evidence/
Masks Didn't Slow COVID Spread: New Study
New findings reported Tuesday in a University of Louisville study challenge what has been the prevailing belief that mask mandates are necessary to slow the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. The study notes that "80% of US states mandated masks during the COVID-19 pandemic" and while "mandates induced greater mask compliance, [they] did not predict lower growth rates when community spread was low (minima) or high (maxima)." Among other things, the study—conducted using data from the CDC covering multiple seasons—reports that "mask mandates and use are not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among US states."
https://i.imgur.com/i9z5rSv.png
"Our findings do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates decrease with greater public mask use," notes the U of L report. Researchers stated that "masks may promote social cohesion as rallying symbols during a pandemic, but risk compensation can also occur" before listing some observed risks that accompany mask wearing:
Prolonged mask use (>4 hours per day) promotes facial alkalinization and inadvertently encourages dehydration, which in turn can enhance barrier breakdown and bacterial infection risk. British clinicians have reported masks to increase headaches and sweating and decrease cognitive precision. Survey bias notwithstanding, these sequelae are associated with medical errors. By obscuring nonverbal communication, masks interfere with social learning in children. Likewise, masks can distort verbal speech and remove visual cues to the detriment of individuals with hearing loss; clear face-shields improve visual integration, but there is a corresponding loss of sound quality.
The study also noted that the mandates put in place by many states in line with CDC guidance at the time were "poor predictors of COVID-19 spread," according to the research:
In summary, mask mandates and use were poor predictors of COVID-19 spread in US states. Case growth was independent of mandates at low and high rates of community spread, and mask use did not predict case growth during the Summer or Fall-Winter waves. Strengths of our study include using two mask metrics to evaluate association with COVID-19 growth rates; measuring normalized case growth in mandate and non-mandate states at comparable times to quantify the likely effect of mandates; and deconvolving the effect of mask use by examining case growth in states with variable mask use.
Rest - https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/05/26/new-study-refutes-fauci-efficacy-of-mask-mandates-n2589990
I'm not worried as much about the negative effects. I'm a short time wearer in very short amount of times. But are they "necessary"?
---
Another Flip-Flop: Megalomaniac Fauci Now Says Vaccinated People Still Need to Wear Masks
When all is said and done and the waters settle on the COVID pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci will be remembered as one of the greatest mass killers of our time.
Dr. Anthony Fauci flip-flopped and lied for over a year to the American public about the seriousness of the China Virus and his background funding the Chinese virology lab and the origins of the virus.
Dr. Fauci also lied to the American public about the success of the safe drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in treating the virus.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans died when HCQ was available but banned by Fauci and the CDC from COVID patients.
This weekend Dr. Fauci flip-flopped again on wearing face masks.
Fauci now says that healthy, vaccinated people must continue to wear facemasks for some reason.
But in his emails, Fauci says masks don’t work.
Rest - https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/another-flip-flop-megalomaniac-fauci-now-says-vaccinated-people-still-need-wear-masks/
------------------------
The question on whether to wear a face mask or not during the Covid-19 pandemic remains emotional and contentious. Why? This question about the utility of face coverings (which has taken on a talisman-like life) is now overwrought with steep politicization regardless of political affiliation (e.g. republican or liberal/democrat).
Importantly, the evidence just is and was not there to support mask use for asymptomatic people to stop viral spread during a pandemic. While the evidence may seem conflicted, the evidence (including the peer-reviewed evidence) actually does not support its use and leans heavily toward masks having no significant impact in stopping spread of the Covid virus.
In fact, it is not unreasonable at this time to conclude that surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are, have absolutely no impact on controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus, and current evidence implies that face masks can be actually harmful. All this to say and as so comprehensively documented by Dr. Roger W. Koops in a recent American Institute of Economic Research (AIER) publication, there is no clear scientific evidence that masks (surgical or cloth) work to mitigate risk to the wearer or to those coming into contact with the wearer, as they are currently worn in everyday life and specifically as we refer to Covid-19.
We present the evidence in full below. We also state that should adequate evidence emerge that supports the effectiveness of surgical and cloth masks in this Covid pandemic (or any similar type masks), then we will change our position and conclude otherwise. Our focus is on face masks for Covid but we will touch gently on the issue of school closures and lockdowns, as these three issues remain the key public health policy catastrophes we have faced as global societies.
Back in August 2020, a survey by Pew indicated that 85% of Americans wore masks when in public all or most of the time. So, the public has been using masks extensively. We thus set the table in this review on the effectiveness of masking for Covid by asking, if these surgical and cloth masks are effective, why did incidence of the virus (or actual disease; and they’re not the same thing) escalate so rapidly despite widespread use? Why is there no evidence across US States and global nations showing that when use is mandated (or not mandated given the general uptake of masking by the public), this contributes to reduced viral transmission? Is there any such evidence?
Orofecal transmission?
Understanding the transmission of this respiratory SARS-CoV-2 pathogen is also evolving given evidence of orofecal spread as having a potentially larger contributor role in non-respiratory transmission of Covid. As an example, a recent open-evidence review brief by Oxford researchers (Jefferson, Brassey, Heneghan) and its publication in CEBM, reveals the growing recognition that SARS-CoV-2 can infect and be shed from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of humans. Orofecal spread demands urgent study and if orofecal spread is shown to be definitive and more consequential in Covid transmission, then this could impact mitigation strategies beyond those for respiratory transmission.
Where do we begin on masks? How about infection fatality rate/IFR?
Moreover, we are addressing here highly irrational, punitive, capricious, and groundless societal restrictions for a virus with an infection fatality rate (IFR), based on Stanford University John Ioannidis’s calculations, of 0.05% in persons under 70 years old (across different global nations). Ioannidis’s research was followed up recently by a reported non-institutionalized IFR in the state of Indiana (persons aged > 12 years) of 0.12% (95% CI 0.09 to 0.19) when age 40-59/60 years (reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine), and an IFR when < 40 years old of 0.01% (95% CI 0.01 to 0.02). Persons 60 or older had an IFR of 1.71% (overall IFR was 0.26%).
So why would we continue this way with these unsound and very punitive restrictive policies and for so long once the factual characteristics of this virus became evident and as alluded to above, we finally realized that its infection fatality rate (IFR) which is a more accurate and realistic reflection of mortality than CFR, was really no worse than annual influenza?
https://www.aier.org/article/masking-a-careful-review-of-the-evidence/
Masks Didn't Slow COVID Spread: New Study
New findings reported Tuesday in a University of Louisville study challenge what has been the prevailing belief that mask mandates are necessary to slow the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. The study notes that "80% of US states mandated masks during the COVID-19 pandemic" and while "mandates induced greater mask compliance, [they] did not predict lower growth rates when community spread was low (minima) or high (maxima)." Among other things, the study—conducted using data from the CDC covering multiple seasons—reports that "mask mandates and use are not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among US states."
https://i.imgur.com/i9z5rSv.png
"Our findings do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates decrease with greater public mask use," notes the U of L report. Researchers stated that "masks may promote social cohesion as rallying symbols during a pandemic, but risk compensation can also occur" before listing some observed risks that accompany mask wearing:
Prolonged mask use (>4 hours per day) promotes facial alkalinization and inadvertently encourages dehydration, which in turn can enhance barrier breakdown and bacterial infection risk. British clinicians have reported masks to increase headaches and sweating and decrease cognitive precision. Survey bias notwithstanding, these sequelae are associated with medical errors. By obscuring nonverbal communication, masks interfere with social learning in children. Likewise, masks can distort verbal speech and remove visual cues to the detriment of individuals with hearing loss; clear face-shields improve visual integration, but there is a corresponding loss of sound quality.
The study also noted that the mandates put in place by many states in line with CDC guidance at the time were "poor predictors of COVID-19 spread," according to the research:
In summary, mask mandates and use were poor predictors of COVID-19 spread in US states. Case growth was independent of mandates at low and high rates of community spread, and mask use did not predict case growth during the Summer or Fall-Winter waves. Strengths of our study include using two mask metrics to evaluate association with COVID-19 growth rates; measuring normalized case growth in mandate and non-mandate states at comparable times to quantify the likely effect of mandates; and deconvolving the effect of mask use by examining case growth in states with variable mask use.
Rest - https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/05/26/new-study-refutes-fauci-efficacy-of-mask-mandates-n2589990