A Lockdown Sceptics reader who is a paramedic of four years’ experience has written to tell us about how through her job she encounters hundreds of sick people and hardly ever gets ill, despite never wearing a face mask before the pandemic.
When I began in the ambulance service several years ago and would attend patients with a wide variety of contagious illnesses, I found myself experiencing near-constant cold-like symptoms. These did not necessarily develop into anything worth taking more than a couple of paracetamol for, but it was enough to be noticeably waking up with a sore throat or stuffed nose every morning. On speaking to many of my colleagues, they all recall similar experiences.
As time went on and I continued exposing myself to a plethora of pathogens, I began to find that illness became an unfamiliar state. I’d attend patients and be so convinced I’d catch whatever bug they had that I’d spend the following job with pseudo-nausea. And yet despite being in close proximity and often in the confined space that is the back of an ambulance, with no mask or PPE and with coughs, sneezes, diarrhoea and vomiting, surprisingly I would very rarely contract anything. In five years I can recall a handful of colds, two bouts of vomiting for a few hours, and one case of the flu which still wasn’t as severe as many people experience.
Whilst the use of masks may have little demonstrated impact on the overall spread of Covid, I have often wondered to what extent PPE may be “protecting” us from other contagious particles. If so, what harm is this doing in the long term by not allowing our immune system to continually develop its innate defences? It’s illogical to expect to gain muscular strength being sedentary, yet it seems an alien concept to many to apply the same principle to our immunity.
Should a time ever come when we are no longer advised to wear masks and people no longer scrub their shopping to within an inch of its life, will we potentially see an influx of people becoming more frequently or severely ill from what would have ordinarily been relatively harmless germs?
I’ve certainly noticed a recurrence of prolonged sniffles since I stopped being so ‘contaminated’ all the time.
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Does this not imply that they work though?
Perhaps, in the short term. But I think the point is that we have to be exposed to germs in order to train our immune systems, in the long term which is far more important for our survival.
No, because they don’t work. Next.
My Mum and I are convinced that at some undefined point in the future, but unfortunately, probably after my Mum is no longer here, it will be ‘discovered’ that masks are a key part of spreading viruses, not preventing them.
As has been said so many times on this site, we have effectively replaced the handkerchief or tissue, which you throw away, with a piece of material that is permanently on your face. Go figure, as they say!
I’ve said that from the start. If they hold up any virus particles, a big IF, you also breathe in the virus particles again which you exhaled and were trapped, increasing your viral load and only turning you into an infectious person.
And in addition and IF not, the prevalent incorrect use of them takes care of it spreading and of other infections- it is well established that one needs to wash ones hands 3x per use, replace it immediately when moist, aka having spoken, and replace once worn under the chin or dropped into the bag- but noone does anything of that!
And that’s before their many other dangers and harms to the wearer, in particular children.
Germans are currently finding out that the mandated FFP2 masks are particularly harmful and counterproductive.
Knickers in pocket, pause outside shop, put knickers on, go round shop, fiddle with knickers, push down from nose, push up over nose, leave shop, take off knickers, stuff back in pocket.
As 1960s schoolboys we all carried pocket handkerchiefs that were known as ‘snotrags’ for good reason; on reaching home these were immediately confiscated by mum for the laundry but were probably binned if not burned.
Mums knew a thing or two about pathogens in those days.
If I had a cold, I would take to school three men’s hankies plus a bag for the wet ones.
The soggy snotrags were soaked overnight in a salt solution and then boiled on the hob. We had a tatty old pan dedicated to that purpose.
Oh blimey, you’ve just brought memories of my mum doing the same! She had an old galvanised bucket thing and wooden tongs to boil up all our handkerchiefs. Remember the days of handkerchiefs and tissues, when as adults (and children) you could be trusted to catch your sniffles and sneezes as they occurred? Now we’re treated like incontinent babies where a face nappy must be worn as much as possible because we are now suddenly, unable to contain our emmisions?
Mine too! We used to call it the soup pan.
I was relieved when tissues came in, especially the big three ply ones which could be used many times before being binned. Strangely they went off the shelves at the start of this and have never yet returned
I had to laugh when I read about your ‘tatty old pan’ – we had just such a pan but unfortunately, it wasn’t dedicated but was also our stew pot. Huge thing, it was. It was inherited by my nan from her mum, so is now venerable. I still have it hidden away somewhere.
Hope I didn’t put you off your Weetibangs!
We still call paper ones “snotrags”! At least nowadays you can “bin ’em”
Not permanently on mine…
No, me neither, but unfortunately, I see more people wearing them than not.
It rhymes with what Prof. Gupta said from the start: we only managed post 1918 flu seasons relatively well because our ancestors were exposed to the Spanish flu.
Or with kids growing up in a sterile, overprotected environment becoming chronically sick and allergic, in contrast to properly brought up ones.
Two anecdotal observations.
1. I have likewise been in a public facing occupation often at close quarters in confined spaces for some thirty years. I cannot recall ever having so much as a sniff or sniffle despite the less than salubrious habits of some people.
The only times I have been to hospital in that time were once when a damaged sash window fell on my figures and again when I collapsed, coincidentally, outside Maternity with what transpired to be blood poisoning from an ill advised early morning kebab.
2. Just over a month ago I called 999 for an ambulance for the first time in my life as the result of severe chest and abdominal pains.
The Ambulance crew arrived promptly and brushed aside my apologies for not having a mask.
As they went along with their ambulatory procedures my sole concern was to stop the pain but by the time we set off for the hospital some thirty minutes later (with oral morphine pain relief) they had both discarded their own masks despite not knowing whether my problem was infectious or not.
I did manage to thank at least one of them by name as I was transferred to ITU.
I hope you’re feeling much better. That was a scary experience.
Dirty filthy habit (mask wearing).
Never mind the face nappies. Merely avoiding being close to other people must play merry hell with immune systems. And those who are really idiotic enough to stay at home for months on end are like skittles screaming ‘Bowl me over’.
I’m convinced I had coronavirus (covid19) shortly before the lockdown in March 2020 – it was around mid-late February that I developed flu like symptoms. I caught it off my brother and his wife who had symptoms when I visited them one day. I have had the flu before but never this severe – it really hit me for six and very quickly however I treated it as the flu because that is exactly what it felt like – I stayed at home for a few days and although I lost my apetite for a day or so I tried to drink plenty of fluids and took paracetamol to ease the bodyaches and the occasional bouts of high temperature – one of the most annoying thing about this flu-like illness was the endless coughing which kept me awake for a few nights I can tell you. Anyway, after a week or so I was practically back to normal – I’m a keen cyclist so I was back on my bike again after a week of convalecsing. About three weeks later we went into national lockdown and during the following twelve months I have been out almost every single day, I have never worn a mask, never bothered following the social distancing rules although I respected those that wanted to keep their distance, and I didn’t keep sanitizing my hands every five minutes – basically I carried on as normal a life as possible.
To date I have not come down with so much as a sniffle. I’m convinced that masks, social distancing etc have actually caused more harm than good – we have interfered with our bodies natural defences that grows stronger when it engages with these viruses – after a year of avoiding normal daily interactions with other people and our natural environment we could have inadvertently weakened our immune systems that may not be able to cope with future viruses such as the common cold or seasonal influenza that would have been usually harmless viruses in the past.
watch this video – please share!
https://thephaser.com/2021/03/terrifying-video-moving-black-strands-on-face-masks/
Two minutes of yuk!
The human immune system is a thing of wonder. Developed over thousands of years, its what has kept the species alive.
Now if you are Big Pharma and want to make $billions each year from treating people, never actually making or keeping them well and healthy, then the last thing you want is this pesky natural thing that everyone has that stops them getting ill.
So all the NPIs over the last 12 months and now the injections that are not really vaccines as logic dictates ( ie they neither give immunity or diminish transmission), are designed with one thing in mind. Weaken the human immune system, make everyone more and more dependant on continual pharma interventions.
If we need a counter example of how important continual exercise of or challenge to the immune system is, look at how carefully astronauts are monitored on return to earth.
They have spent months isolated in space from any new pathogens/ viruses or bacteria, so they are carefully monitored by medics as their bodies are reintroduced to earth.
These are people at the peak of fitness, already medically monitored to an unbelievable degree.
We then expect unfit pensioners to have the same length of isolation from other people, then we don’t sodding monitor them after an injection or other medical procedure!!
I concur with this thinking.
I’m a management trainer who has trained over 25,000 people over the last 20 years, shaking hands with most of them.
I’ve rarely been ill, and only missed one course over that period due to the flu.
I dont wear a mask, I dont want the vaccine (never had a flu jab), and am 100% against this CCP lockdown.
Im over 60 with a major heart issue, but as an acknowledged expert in the managment of risk, Ill take my chances.
As another old codger, NeilofWatford, I’m also decidedly unmuzzled.
Having spent half my life travelling on London Transport and amongst crowds in the capital I’ve lived with snotty noses and coughs all my life, so I don’t know if I’ve built up any immunity as such but it’s never been the terror the Government has managed to instill in so many – just one of the prices you pay for living in a big city. It’s never stopped me getting on with things and I’d smile empathetically at a complete stranger sitting nearby on the tube when they sneezed. Staring blankly over a bloody facemask at another masked drone is not a social life.
Fresh, unpolluted air on top of a mountain might indeed be healthier but not everyone wants to be a hermit.
Worth looking at this study suggesting that rhinovirus infections protect against severe Covid infections.
https://academic.oup.com/jid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/infdis/jiab147/6179975?searchresult=1#
The abstract concludes:
“We show that human rhinovirus triggers an interferon response that blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication. Mathematical simulations show that this virus-virus interaction is likely to have a population-wide effect as an increasing prevalence of rhinovirus will reduce the number of new COVID-19 cases.”
Are all our hygiene measures protecting us so much from other respiratory viruses that we have become more susceptible to Covid?
yes our immune systems need exercise too and they are preventing that , trying to keep people indoors away from others and the idiotic masks and antibacterial goop
either this is on purpose or they are really dumb or both
it s the same thing as GMOS gates is behind both the ‘vaccines ‘ and GMOS monsanto
thinking they know better than nature .same with antibiotic resistance becuase of daily antibiotics fed to animlas in factory farms .
he’s like a bond villain .wheres james bond when you need him
Don’t worry, you should still get plenty of immunity as masks don’t work. A 2016 report on dentists found that they appeared to have very robust immune systems from close contact with patients despite wearing masks.
We need to “exercise” our wonderful immune systems. Of course “experts” like Vallence and Whitty would probably say we need vaccines from big pharma to keep us alive. I think Pfizer has been around for tens of thousands of years – how else could we have survived.