Before 2020, evidence for the efficacy of community masking – that is, asking ordinary members of the public to wear cloth or surgical masks when going about their business – was shaky at best.
This evidence was reviewed in detail by Jeffrey Anderson, a former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. He notes that:
of the 14 RCTs that have tested the effectiveness of masks in preventing the transmission of respiratory viruses, three suggest, but do not provide any statistically significant evidence in intention-to-treat analysis, that masks might be useful. The other eleven suggest that masks are either useless—whether compared with no masks or because they appear not to add to good hand hygiene alone—or actually counterproductive.
In another piece that’s well worth reading, Professor Steve Templeton provides a list of quotations from what he calls “the BP era” (Before Things Got Political). Each quotation, taken from one or other expert, testifies to the lack of evidence that community masking works against respiratory pathogens.
For example, in a systematic review published early last year, Jingyi Xiao and colleagues “did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons… or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility”.
This is presumably why, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, health authorities in both the U.K. and the U.S. advised against community masking.
For example, on 4th March 2020, Chris Whitty told Sky News that “wearing a mask if you don’t have an infection reduces the risk almost not at all”. And as late as 3rd April, Jonathan Van Tam said “there is no evidence that general wearing of face masks… affects the spread of the disease”.
Likewise, in a tweet sent on 27th February, the CDC said that it “does not currently recommend the use of facemasks”. And two days later, the U.S. Surgeon General urged people to “STOP BUYING MASKS” because they are “NOT effective” at preventing the general public from catching coronavirus.
In a video interview from May of 2019, Anthony Fauci actually laughed at the notion of wearing a face mask. The interviewer asks him, “The best way for me to prevent getting an infectious disease… is what? Wearing a mask?” To which Fauci replies, “No, no no… you avoid all the paranoid aspects.”
Yet by the summer of 2020, the health authorities in both countries had done an about-face, and were now recommending face masks to the public. These recommendations subsequently became mandates.
‘The Science,’ in other words, had changed. But what prompted this change? The charitable answer is that new evidence emerged suggesting that community masking does work against SARS-CoV-2. However, this new evidence looks just as shaky – if not shakier – than the pre-Covid evidence.
I suspect that something else happened. Back in the spring of 2020, all Western countries were on the same upward trajectory, with cases doubling every few days. Meanwhile, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore had all manged to ‘flatten the curve’, despite eschewing draconian lockdowns.
Commentators were searching around for an explanation, and ‘masks’ seemed like a good one. After all, Western health authorities had advised against masks. Yet many East Asians had been wearing them for years.
If you were on social media at that time, you probably remember seeing a version of this chart, which went viral numerous times:
Putting ‘correlation doesn’t equal causation’ aside, it appears to suggest that masks are the crucial factor for bringing COVID under control. Of course, the subsequent imposition of mask mandates in Western countries didn’t forestall large winter outbreaks, which rather undermines the mask theory.
Nonetheless, it seemed plausible enough at the time. And articles began appearing in major news outlets that questioned the West’s reluctance to wear face masks. On social media, commentators asked why we shouldn’t follow the East Asian countries, given their far greater success in handling the pandemic.
I suspect this pressure had more to do with the health authorities’ about-face than any fundamental change in the quality of evidence. It was another case of ‘politician’s logic’. ‘Something must be done; mask-wearing is something; therefore we must do it.’
In a matter of weeks, ‘The science’ went from ‘don’t do X’ to ‘do X’. And yet it took another whole year for the first RCT of community masking to be published. The theory I’ve outlined is speculative, of course. But I don’t see what else can account for such a sudden shift in public health advice.
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Masks: the uniform of the Johnson school of fear, compliance and obedience.
the symbol of serfdom.
Nowadays by me it seems to be 3 types of people still persisting.
Totally agree, Court, especially the elderly (Mrs FP and yours truly are almost 73.)
A lot of elderly mask wearers look like they are about “to peg out” in the near future.
I would like to think that I have at least 10 years of active life and I’m bloody sure I’m not going to spend any of that precious time wearing face nappies, social distancing and locking myself away from the world.
GET OFF YOUR FEET, ODE UNS, THE ONLY THINGS YOU HAVE TO LOSE ARE YOUR MASKS, YOU HAVE THE REMAINDER OF YOUR LIVES TO REGAIN.
APOLOGIES TO KARL MARX.
Exactly. I see so many elderly stooped over, wheezing with naps on, barely able to function and I do want to go up to them and say “take that bloody thing off and live your life again. You’ve only got the one!” They’ve all got this far, living I hope, reasonable lives, and now they are living their last years in abject fear, fearing fear. Kudos to you and Mrs FP.
Appreciated as always, HH.
One of the best posts I’ve seen lately. I’m a tad older than you and since March 2020 have taken the stance to totally ignore the panic and fear then being instituted by “Them”. We fairly successfully managed to maintain all family activities and accepted any possible “Criminal” charges as a risk worth taking, although several situations could have been mitigated by “Bubbles” etc. My chief concern was that my immune system and health could be damaged by the forced social isolation being promoted. The all too often visits to the Supermarket appeared to me as an essential chore to make sure my immune systems security software was regularly updated and so did regular contact with our Grandchildren. So far seems to have worked!
And YES, I expect to be able to spend the rest of my allotted lifespan to the full unhindered by stupid / corrupt politicians or so called professionals who appear to be afraid of their own shadows. To all people Old & Young for F’s sake get a life.
Well said, No 6.
We are both in our 70s and have never subscribed to this wicked nonsense. I have never worn a face nappy despite arguments with much younger pharmaceutical and clinical receptionists. Once, I had a medical procedure carried out on the pavement outside because I wouldn’t don a mask. Our family are around 80% with us, both younger and older than us. Only two members of my family have had the vaccine: my brother suffered three seizures during the three weeks after the jab, after a very long time without them.
I am sick of being demonised and being accused of slavishly following this Devil’s doctrine because I’m old; I would in no sense put my welfare before that of younger generations in any case, and I live in a state of fear for my young grandchildren’s health, terrified that social workers will try to take them because they’re unjabbed, including the one not yet born.
It never once occured to me when I had my children that they would one day be in danger from a British government. Our parents’ generation suffered terribly during the bitter war for our national freedom; how ironic that the biggest threats in our history should now be led by our own people, here in our own homeland. When half the world seems to claim asylum here, where do we British go to claim it?
And youngsters. Many have been totally traumatised. On recent local action events, masked teenagers have approached us, wishing us dead, because they believe we are trying to stop them being vaccinated!
UNBELIEVABLE!!
We’ve all been teenagers at some point, many of us looking for a cause at which to throw our excess energy.
They’ll grow out of it.
Some of them won’t
I’d wager a bet that some teacher ‘taught’ them this.
Indeed. The autistic community appear to be lapping up the chance to hide. Something which will set a great many of the youngsters chances of getting on in life back. Learning to deal with those uncomfortable feelings is essential if you are going to be gainfully employed.
Make that 4, although I have not come up with a category.
remoaners
You forgot surgeons in theatre performing opertions whats that all about
You’ve omitted the category of kids for whom it’s become either a fashion statement, a signal of virtue or a comfy blanket, this I find very odd & probably very enduring
Let’s call them what they are: muzzles.
What changed is that governments all over the world saw how gullible and how easily manipulated their citizens were.
If these leaders weren’t already in on the Davos/Big Tech/Big Pharma take over of the west, they were soon brought up to speed.
Masks are also an excellent way to sow division and set people against each other, and thereby take the heat off the government. That was clearly their intention – there can be no other explanation for the way they approached it: on the one hand, saying that no proof of exemption was required, but on the other deliberately stirrung up hatred against anyone not wearing a mask.
This reached its pinnacle early this year, with the disgusting advertising campaign – e.g. hoardings outside supermarkets showing a muzzled person with the caption ‘every covered face makes a difference’, and PHE / NHS logos. It was clearly intended to stir up hatred, and is a blatant lie – there’s no evidence that they make any difference, and even if they did that would only apply if someone capable of spreading the virus was present, which would not be the case most of the time.
Yes – masking is one of the clearest examples of proof that this is no health crisis – it’s a political one, with performative actions of submission playing an important role in the psy-ops.
Formally civilised nations around the world have been prepped for many years for this. People were not so gullible before the deliberate dumbing down of society. We’ve become a degenerate nation by design.
In the uk, I suspect SPI-B played a very large role in propagating the lie that masks are necessary in reducing the spread of covid (and that they protect you not me – genius!) and getting them mandated by the government. All part of making sure the population are sufficiently afraid and hence compliant.
The mask is a psychological construct. When someone chooses to wear a mask on their face, it is only because they are already wearing a mask on the inside. The inner mask is a response to fear by the uninformed. It is a sign of powerlessness, of being overwhelmed by the world. So it is then projected outwards, and becomes a flimsy piece of useless disgusting cloth strapped to the face, where God designed air to flow freely in and out of the body. In other words, it’s a muzzle for stupid people. And that is why they mandated it: to be able to see at a glance who the stupid people are, and by extension, to be able to also see at a glance who refuses to succumb to fear and ignorance.
Glad to see that we all get it. Muzzles are what they are, and muzzles is what they should be called.
Davos saw how the Mandarin Empire subjugates its serfs, through ritual humiliation, dehumanisation, isolation, and social credit scores, and said “That’s the New Normal, crack on.”
Vaxxports start in the Celtic Fringe this week, and the English imposition has merely been delayed to sync them up with the EU.
And you’ll hear today that “key workers” are to be given first pickings of fuel and goods during our manufactured shortages.
Can you think of a way that such a scheme could be administered? Some sort of app that already exists, identifies you, and discloses information on your… community value?
This will be a conspiracy theory until it’s a great idea whose time has come.
Isn’t it about time that DS stopped coverage of lockdowns, masks etc. etc. and concentrated on the current aspects of dystopia in the UK? Surely all genuine readers/contributers knew long ago that lockdowns have only negative effects, masks are pathetic comfort blankets for the uneducated/terrified. Time to move on.
Well, yes, but there may be newbies coming to the site. I certainly hope so.
I’d like to see the basic case reiterated an nauseam. That approach has worked for the enemy.
This is one of the better articles from DS, which despite its name doesn’t do hard scepticism. Deckchair arranging on the holed Titanic, is perhaps a not too unfair comparison.
Great summary. Thanks Noah. A very logical and plausible hypothesis.
No it’s not.
Indeed, utterly implausible. There’s no way Whitty and Vallance didn’t know masks were a waste of time. The WHO admitted it was political and so did the UK government – I think it was the PM who said it was about providing reassurance (that was a lie too, of course).
Well – you five downvoters have a crying need to get learning about visual representation of data, correlation, causation and probability.
It’s a mickey-mouse theory … or evidence of deliberate distortion – if true.
I know its early days but just from am almost casual observation i see less masks than a month agao even on buses where they were mandatory .No one wants to tell anybody about masks because they all consciously or otherwise know they are useless and proove nothing to anyone
If the wearing of masks, made properly for the purpose, actually worked, you’d (kind of) understand. But they mandated, actually forced people, to suddenly cover their airways and identity with “face coverings” which meant any old bit of filthy rag would do, as long as only your eyes were showing, to go about your business, otherwise yon were bullied and harangued by any little general in any business, who were put into a new exciting positions of power by their employer. Don’t be fooled that this was ANYTHING to do with health. Like the lockdown they tried their luck to see if they could away with it (and they did!), by imposing a powerful new control mechanism, a stressor tool, to maintain the fear and gauge obedience to the rules, and as a marker of how deep and effective the brainwashing had been, That’s why they allowed exemptions, to see who was sharp enough to read and understand the so-called law, that they did not have to actually wear them!
Face knickers are the mark of the complaisant zombie. As such, they work a treat.
This is a good review of the fallacy of masks
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/researcher-definitively-dismantles-every-falsehood-underlying-covid-mask-policies/
Where did the ‘science’ come from? Presumably from the same source that recommended 2 metres as a social distancing measure.
We could do with seeing more refutation of the 2m bollocks as well!
It came from the same source: “The Science is settled, experts say” by Greta Thunberg.
The WHO recommendation was for 1 metre. It was our government that thought the British to stupid to understand what 1 metre was so insisted on two to be on the safe side.
That was due to a 14 year old girl’s high school trial in New Mexico. No kidding.
another measure which is about nothing more than control – if you have to stand 2m apart from your fellow man it reduces the chances you might have a whispered conversation and actually talk about what really might be going on – question the narrative etc. Same reason they closed pubs restaurants clubs etc
But note in a No 10 news conference in August 2020 Deputy CMO Jenny Harries said “Evidence on face coverings is is (sic) not very strong in either direction”. Three days later – without further explanation – except that they made people feel more secure – they were made compulsory.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/uknews/video-2239200/Video-Dr-Jenny-Harries-Evidence-face-coverings-isnt-strong.html
I seem to remember that retail organisations pressurised the Government to introduce masks to encourage high street shopping.
Yep, my MP said much the same. They’re “to make “others” feel safer”! Riiight? So we have to pander to the psychosis of others? Pure communitarianism…and I’m willing to bet that when the mask mandate was lifted, sales went up!
It may or may not be true – it gave MPs an excuse to blame someone else, but it’s at least as likely (probably more likely) that they were going to do it anyway as the muzzles are an excellent way to spread fear and set people against each other – and to have a scapegoat (the unmuzzled have since been replaced by the unvaxxed as the favourite scapegoat).
No, I don’t believe it was the retailers.
One reason so many stopped going into shops that are now permanently closed.
“Evidence on face coverings is is (sic) not very strong in either direction”.
But, of course, in medical/scientific terms, this is bollocks. You need strong evidence in one direction only : that they are effective and safe. Such does not exist, and thus cannot be recommended as a prophylactic ‘treatment’.
This is so ABC that it shouldn’t need any repetition, otherwise we’d be prescribing every hick ‘remedy’ under the sun that didn’t relate to people dropping dead.
Hey now, my anti-tiger body spray has been working wonders!
I agree: she should have simply said “the evidence is not strong”. The “either direction” is to keep the option open of something which scientifically has no point.
“And articles began appearing in major news outlets that questioned the West’s reluctance to wear face masks. On social media, commentators asked why we shouldn’t follow the East Asian countries, given their far greater success in handling the pandemic.
I suspect this pressure had more to do with the health authorities’ about-face than any fundamental change in the quality of evidence. It was another case of ‘politician’s logic’. ‘Something must be done; mask-wearing is something; therefore we must do it.’”
Clearly there was a push to claim masks actually had some effect, but was that push cause or means? The context in the UK was that it was early July and covid had almost disappeared, and things were opening up again. People weren’t scared enough (apart from the chronic bedwetters, both genuine and professional), and other than in occasional “hotspots” covid just wasn’t evident enough to sustain the useful fear.
Clearly the usual suspects were pushing the ideas that covid should be an all consuming panic and that masks might help. See, for instance, the BMA scumbags celebrating the totalitarian health fascism of mask mandating, and declaring they’d been pushing for it all along:
“The Government’s announcement comes on the same day a major survey by the BMA reveals thousands of doctors overwhelmingly support the move to require mandatory face coverings for all settings where social distancing is not possible.
More than 5,000 doctors in England and Wales took part in the survey and 86 per cent said it should be mandatory to wear face masks in settings where the public either cannot or will not social distance.
Life saver
Since the early days of the pandemic, the BMA, analysing developing evidence, has said the wearing of nose and mouth coverings helps control the spread of infection and so saves lives.
BMA council chair Chaand Nagpaul said: ‘For months doctors at the BMA have called on the Government to stop equivocating and to ask people to wear face coverings over their mouths and noses in public places where they cannot safely socially distance.”
Government makes wearing face masks mandatory
But this is the kind of stuff that government ignores or follows at its own whim, and when it chooses to follow it there are usually ulterior motives for doing so. In this case I have no doubt part of that reason was someone somewhere within the regime noting that this measure would help to sustain and spread the feeling of fear and emergency that we know they saw as helpful in encouraging compliance generally.
Certainly imo that was the main effect of mask mandates, globally.
Indeed. It was so obviously political. The WHO admitted this to Deborah Cohen, the UK based science journalist.
“The charitable answer is that new evidence emerged suggesting that community masking does work against SARS-CoV-2.”
Why on earth would we be charitable?
Indeed – and it stretches belief beyong breaking point to think that if they had this alleged ‘evidence’ they wouldn’t have been putting it out there – the lack of any evidence provided is a pretty clear demonstration that there isn’t any evidence.
this is the kind of stuff that government ignores or follows at its own whim
and that is a basic problem with the idea that individual rights should be subordinated to the common good in time of emergency. In practice the “common good” is whatever politicians can get away with persuading a majority of terrified citizens using rhetoric alone. No cost benefit analysis, no proper science, maybe the trappings of science if you’re lucky. Because of the way the “common good” is arrived at, it’s usually in reality a “common bad”.
It’s not like they haven’t tried their hardest to backfill on evidence as well. The latest from the ONS
https://mobile.twitter.com/john_actuary/status/1442422389179027456
Those who do not wear a mask are more likely to get infected. And so off they go, “look, masks work”. And yet, these studies just serve to reaffirm my my view that masks don’t work for community level intervention. First, the error bars are huge. However, the main thing is the whole collection of confounding factors.
Are mask wearers outright fearful covidians? I suggest yes. More so now than ever before. The masks only remind them to be fearful. Less likely to engage in society at all.
If masks work, it’s because they are psychological prompts for people to adjust behaviour. That’s it. They do not have ANY impact in and of themselves. Straight out of the SPI-B playbook. Anyone with half a brain seen them for what they were when mandates came in.
Biden and Johnson this week was a sure sign of this. Masks on for cameras during pandemic discussions, off for other matters.
Bang on. I saw this on UK Column. It’s funny though, I’ve never worn a mask, I’ve been sociable and undistanced throughout, hugging
and I haven’t been ill once! Neither has any of my family! What an anomaly we are!
loads of people, I’m apparently “clinically, extremely vulnerable”
No. My entire family, in laws and all, are the same. Together we number 50 or so being Irish. For contrast, a work colleague couldn’t come into the office today because his own in laws cancelled on baby sitting his child. All because he was in the office yesterday and it was too dangerous. They won’t see him or the child now for 7 days apparently.
It’s extreme stuff.
I’m starting to feel left out by the coof, it doesn’t seem to like me, despite never wearing a muzzle, barely washing my hands and engaging in as much social contact as I can legally get away with!
Here as well.
Perhaps such as us should stand up and be counted. I think the number could be fairly high!
I believe someone is attempting to get a register of the Un-Vaxed? Perhaps they could add the Non-Compliant?
Another example here proving that we are being led a merry dance….
https://twitter.com/Chrissy_2697/status/1437915961651310594
If human beings needed to wear masks, we would have evolved with a mouth under one armpit, and a nose under the other.
Actually – an important point. If they were beneficial, in evolutionary terms, we would have developed such a nominal filter.
The anthropophagai, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.
WS always has some words for it.
Actually the nasal cavities do a pretty good job plus they have resident “Bouncers” that don’t play nicely with unwanted guests like bacteria & viruses.
Answer this question, and I think we’ll get close to working out what the whole thing has really been about.
Psychology and incompetence explain most of the world’s social ills. There are people acting as if the last drop of petrol will soon pour just as they did the last loo roll. I’m told we are smarter than sheep, but my kids watch this documentary about one named Shaun and, pretty sure he tops Chris Whitty.
We now know that the best way to make an indoor environment “safe from Covid” is ventilation. Which is why wearing masks on airplanes in flight is the worst form of kabuki.
The entire notion of masks is psychosocial. The government admitted as much when it instituted the mandate in July 2020 (we know it won’t impact infections but it will raise confidence…say what?). But it signals we are still in a pandemic and you need to be serious about…everything. Of course giving us badges that say that would serve the same purpose.
It still amazes me that people of science believe masking stops infection. Dear friend, he’s a scientist in the vaccine world, is mad we aren’t all wearing masks at church for the sake of the vulnerable. When I explain the simple engineering reality why an open pore 10-100x larger than the virus can’t no more stop transmission or inhalation of the virus than a chain link fence stop snow, he just blinks at me. Is it really that simple that people don’t understand engineering? Why do some clothes keep you from getting wet better than others? Same rule. I’m worried that we have become medieval in our thinking.
“here is this magical amulet to protect you sire.”
“what does it do?”
“it’s stops viruses?”
“aren’t they small?”
“yes, but look at the shiny amulet, it does everything. Why, since I started to wear one I haven’t been eaten by an alligator, killed from a volcano or had a dinosaur trample me. This is the best magic amulet ever.”
it all makes me sad. But it created a $350b business (masks manufacturing) almost overnight. And guess which nation manufactures most of them?
They’re about as effective as the vaccine at stopping transmission “but you don’t wear a mask or take the jib for YOURSELF, you do it for OTHERS! And remember to ACT like you’ve got it…because you probably have, and even though you feel absolutely well and fine, you NEED to take a test to confirm this!” All this absolute nonsense has in one way or another, fallen out of the mouths of those pertaining to be in power…and people are STILL listening to them!
… and, of course, you don’t even have to go as far as explaining about the size of viruses : it’s absolutely obvious that people would suffocate if cloth masks were effective! Just look at all the observable gaps.
Any doctor who thinks community masks can make a positive difference with regard to respiratory virus infections and who disregards masks many serious negative medical effects simply cannot and should not be taken serious or be trusted anymore.
Simple.
With a so-called infection rate of about 6 in 10,000 people, chances are that increasing airflow will increase the probability to get into contact with virus-containing aerosols: While masks don’t stop these, glass windows certainly will.
For me I saw mask wearing as a combination of political theatre and public manipulation – politicians could virtue signal to their hearts content by wearing one and visually it kept the fear alive in the publics imagination at all times – it was a powerful symbol to remind everyone that they were in danger at all times (I knew of someone who actually wore one to bed at night) and secondly compliance – it was the perfect tool with which to get an already frightened public to comply with any government order they may give – if the government had said that you must wear a hard hat with your mask I think most would have worn a hard hat too and not questioned it – it was also a useful way of putting social pressure onto non-mask wearers who were savvy to what was going on here and force them to get with the program however ridiculous it may seem and regardless of the evidence.
The intent was malicious as it was evil – this was a government that used the methods of abuse to control people and in my books that was criminal … they should all stand trial for their crimes.
Excellent analysis. Good point about hard hats. I have seen twerps in suits wearing hard hats in the middle of a field of grass – because it is going to become a building site at some date in the future! A perfectly pointless accompaniment to a pointless face mask.
they are still doing it
I suspect the very vast majority of readers of DS already know all this and have read similar many times before. Unfortunately, it has cut no ice. Also, the pressure from transport and shop worker unions should not be overlooked, either. The best pro-mask studies have ever come up with is ‘may, in certain circumstances, prevent or reduce infection’. It is nowhere near strong enough to instigate mandatory usage but nevertheless it has been enough for governments, aided by MSM, to push through with it.
What, to me, demonstrates pretty conclusively that they DON’T work is looking at infection graphs across the world and adding the date of mask mandates. There is absolutely no visible impact – the lines continue on the trajectory they are on, and it is impossible to tell from the graph when the mask mandate was imposed, or even whether there was one at all. Likewise, there is no trend of countries / states without mask mandates having overall lower rates than those with.
In the absence of any evidence that they work, the only reasonable conclusion is that they don’t work – as indeed was the general medical opinion up until politicians decided that they had to ‘Do Something’.
“Putting ‘correlation doesn’t equal causation’ aside, it appears to suggest that masks are the crucial factor for bringing COVID under control.” [Referring to the scattergram]
It doesn’t ‘suggest’ any such thing – except to the visually impaired and terminally thick (including the low bar of politicians). Those countries are simply a handful of outliers that, even in prospect, can seen to have much more in common than masking.
So that theory for the adoption of masks doesn’t work. It doesn’t get anywhere near a significant correlation – let alone a possible causation. Only those total unfamiliarity with statistical processes would be able to hold onto this as a rationale.
It was Deborah Cohen – one decent reporter working for the BBC – who uncovered the real issue : political pressure at the top level of the WHO. We can only speculate at the rationale put forward – but, obviously, it is a significant story in nailing the WHO.
As readers commenting BTL on a Telegraph article stated, the latest ‘NHS survey’ which ‘shows’ that mask wearing ‘cuts transmission by half’ (though from 1.8% to 0.9% of patients with COVID who ‘say’ they do/don’t wear a mask regularly), the survey notably does not take into account all factors such as what people do – mask wearers are likely to be far more cautious anyway – including working from home, not seeing realtives/friends, doing social activities, thus the difference may not be due to masks.
Especially as the above report shows that every pre-pandemic study on the use of (cloth) face masks and those by the General Public outside of the tightly-controlled medical setting are essentially useless at controlling the spread of viruses.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/27/two-per-cent-people-dont-wear-face-masks-tested-positive-covid/
Note also that the government is, once again, trying to bring in vaccine passports and to extend their reach, plus removing ‘negative tests’ AND being a previously COVID infected person (i.e. natural immunity):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/27/vaccine-passports-indoor-outdoor-venues-could-mandatory-winter/
For what it’s worth, below is the link to the ‘government survey of opinion’ (not that the last one did much to deter them), due by 11th October:
https://consultations.dhsc.gov.uk/61497f68de8e5f098521be3a
Odd how they are removing negative test results AND especially naturally immune people, given the latter is now shown to be more effective and longer lasting than those who have been vaccinated. Where’s ‘The Science’, ministers?
Some years ago, I – along with about another two dozen farmers – was summoned to an HSE day. (I say ‘summoned’, but what actually happened was that we got letters saying that the chances of a top-to-tail inspection would be reduced if we attended. So we dutifully attended.) It was an interesting day, although there were lively disagreements about the ‘right’ way to get out of a tractor, and what young families with toddlers should do with them when farm work has to be done. Blimey, that one did get heated.
The most interesting talk – with hindsight – was the section on masks. Every one of of us with any facial hair (including my carefully sculpted designer stubble) was rendering expensive dust masks useless. Even if you’d coughed up (geddit?) for FFP2 or FFP3 kit – the gap between filter and face would be enough to nullify any benefit against grain dust particles.
I often think of this when seeing flimsy pieces of fabric draped across the now-ubiquitous full beards – and supposedly providing safely against a miniscule virus.
You’d then imagine any study on mask efficacy should be reporting a big difference in response between females and males with no facial hair on one hand and males with facial hair on the other hand.
I’ll just add to the already splendid observations and comments here that masks were once found to increase vaccination rates against the flu in one hospital.
As the sole real goal of the plandemic was and is the introduction of vaxxports, they might have found that study belatedly and jumped upon it then.
I was vehemently opposed against masks from day 1, as after having read the readily available research on them and some logical self-thinking, it was obvious that they would be medically at best useless, more likely counterproductive with regard to other illnesses AND Covid.
Therefore, I immediately recognized what they are and there for: Gessler’s hats, like the Hitler salute was one, and above all the initial assault on ones inalienable individual right of bodily autonomy.
If the people had seen that and refused them then, the further assaults on them and it, like repeated Lockdowns and the coerced vaccinations and vaxx passports, wouldn’t have stood a chance.
They were our litmus test, and we failed it completely.
“Gessler’s hat” is a term I have favoured myself as it succinctly sums up what is being done to us. I hope it’s not wasted on those too young to have watched William Tell on black and white TV.
Too many people are still not understanding what is going on, and try to judge politicians and their lackeys actions and words by ‘normal’ vallues. That is the worst mistake to make.
Politicians are venal psychopathic liars. If you start from that Sine qua non, then it is a lot easier to understand
“If you were on social media at that time, you probably remember seeing a version of this chart, which went viral numerous times:“
But surely all the “fact checkers” would have been straight onto it, shouting that “correlation is not causation”, about “confounding factors”, etc and declaring it “misinformation”? And then the tech corps would have suppressed it, labelling it as misinformation, shadow banning and suspending accounts that repeatedly pushed it, etc?
Because that kind of intentionally misrepresented non-evidence driving policy into erroneous areas is exactly what they are opposed to, right?
Mid-Feb 20 my instincts went on alert – there seemed an aroma of tyrant or rat. By end March 20 I was wondering if it was going to be blue overalls or brown uniforms next; it turned out to be masks.
Good comments so far here but few have mentioned health risks of wearing masks.
Those risks are not widely enough published but I’ve posted comments detailing them so many times already I can’t be bothered to do so again.
Best comment I’ve ever seen about masks was of ‘many a true word spoken in jest’ variety. It pointed out that the now despised British tradition of carrying a clean handkerchief was a far more effective way of reducing spread than wearing a mask.
The Oxford study was particularly disingenuous with the President of the Royal Society of London – the RS sponsored the study – quoted as saying mask refuseniks should be treated like drunk-drivers. Frankly, with the RS promoting advocacy research and policy being driven by the guesstimates of the modellers, science is in a very bad place. Tea leaf readers and rigged research outcomes embedded in the country’s most prestigious scientific institutions.The ‘climate emergency’ is going to use this ‘Science’ in a quasi religious crusade – heaven help the unbelievers….
.
Err? Yes — I have a err??? a close relative that’s employed by the RS. They are some of the biggest Bedwetters out there. RIP to real Science.
It’s very simple.
Don’t comply. Don’t play their game.
I haven’t worn a mask for 18 months and won’t go anywhere that requires one.
I have always assumed that the reason we did not jump on the ‘something must be seen to be done, other countries are using masks, let’s use masks’ bandwagon immediately is because at the time hospitals and medics were desperately short of PPE. The government were under the media cosh for PPE shortages so SAGE were told to avoid encouraging the public to make matters even worse by buying up all the available masks.
That aside, there still seems to be no evidence that mask wearing reduces infectiOn rates; if it did we should see an alteration in infection rates when masks are mandated. This effect has not been observed anywhere in the world as far as I am aware.
Let’s remember that in Scotland, mask wearing indoors is still law.
And kids still need to wear them in high schools.
Well, the stats show that didn’t work very well. Scotland has been leading the way in infections and hospitalisations these last few weeks.
Cases have never been doubling every few days except for very short periods when the numbers were so small that they’d unexponentially double every few days: Counting from 1 to 20 will lead to four occurences of doubling. Counting from 21 to 100 will add two more. And it becomes less after that.
The science (synonymous to loads of number in a table, a very Chinese idea of science) came from the PR departments of companies selling masks. In Germany, mask mandates have been much more intrusive than in the UK. And there were numerous halfway surfacing scandals of elected representatives with good business connections to China getting handy commissions etc for helping with mask imports. All in the name of public health, obviously, honi soit qui mal y pense …
Masks are beyond idiotic.
People are already questioning them.
Soon, politicians and media will start questioning them more loudly.
Then, questioning them will become the mainstream position.
Eventually, nobody will be able to find anyone who ever believed they worked.
A bit like Nazis in Germany. From not being able to swing a cat without hitting one in 1939 to not being able to find a single one in 1946.
I once knew a man whose wife worked with a woman whose nephew lived in the same street as someone who used to be a mask wearer.
I am pleased to report that very few parents are now wearing masks at the gates of my grandchildren’s school. Last term it was almost universal even after the mandate was lifted.
Shops are still stoking the fear. Sainsburys has signs saying it’s a choice… but… please keep us safe by wearing one: and lots of muppets are complying. Lidl seems more sensible.
But how can this bullshit still persist anywhere? Confirmation that it is purely political can be seen in the Commons with all the Labour sheep masking and the Tories not. Presumably we can expect to see a surge of infections in one party and not the other!
I was in sainsburys on saturday and there were more people masked than last week – are we going backwards?
unfortunately masks very much in vogue in Northern Ireland where there are a lot of restriction still which may never get lifted
It makes me so angry every time I see Whitty’s face.
The case for a full face mask is strong in that one.
A face for farting in, with the fart coming from an elephant, if ever there was one.
“Yet many East Asians had been wearing them for years” because of pollution, not viruses!
Until about 50 – 70 years ago, everybody in Europe wore a hat or some other kind of head-covering. This was done because of because, ie, because it was a fashion. I’ve actually bought a reusable cloth mask of the type seemingly most popular in England (or maybe just in Reading) and the label said (roughly) Fashion mask. Not a medical mask. Wear for fashion or dust or sun protection.
For a while I requested that people I was engaging with remove their mask as I couldnt understand what they were saying, to their credit nobody ever refused. Unfortunately now I’m just so pissed off with them all, in the street, shops etc that I smile and give a friendly greeting to which almost all respond likewise and engage in conversation, I then inform them that unfortunately I couldn’t understand a word they have just said because of their mask, unkind of me but very satisfying, particularly as the majority have the decency to look sheepish about it.
I always compliment shop workers and restaurant staff if they aren’t wearing a mask, telling them how nice it is to see a smiling face.
Last spring deaths ‘attributed’ to Covid-19 peaked in the second week of April. By late May it was effectively over, yet mask-wearing was mandated on public transport from 15 June and in indoor settings from 23 July – two months and three-and-a-half months respectively after the peak. These measures were transparently only introduced to maintain unnecessary public anxiety.
I was lunching in a restaurant today and watched as a woman at a neighbouring table sat down and unmasked. At that moment I realised that there is some point to some people hiding their faces.
The mask theatre has always baffled me. If you’re not too bright and don’t realise viruses are really very small and the holes in masks are huge, it’s plausible that wearing a mask will help you and others. But to go from that to sitting in a cafe full of unmasked people, unmasked yourself, and then putting one on to go to the loo or to walk out, that takes a special kind of doublethink.
Pretty much the same kind of doublethink that allowed the government to say that it was ok to spend all Christmas day with relatives, but it wasn’t ok to stay over night!
If you’re not too bright and don’t realise viruses are really very small and the holes in masks are huge,
Or you might be bright enough to realise that viruses don’t travel through the air by themselves. They travel on water droplets which vary in size, as do the size of the holes in masks. There is ample evidence that many types of mask reduce transmission of a wide range of droplet sizes. Even droplets that are much smaller than the holes in masks get caught because the masks slows down the air they are in and Brownian motion causes them to take a zig-zag route which causes them to get caught in mask fibres.
https://eurjmedres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40001-020-00475-6
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7301882/
https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/face-masks-can-filter-small-airborne-particles-including-respiratory-droplets-and-are-effective-at-reducing-the-spread-of-covid-19/
So we should see this benefit played out in far lower infection spread in nations and states with mask mandates than in those without. Please show us the evidence.
There is a big gap between a mask mandate and a significant number of people wearing masks correctly in the right context. And masks are only one, possibly quite small, factor in determining infection. So it is unlikely to show up in a crude correlation between mask mandates and infection rates. Despite that there is some evidence linking mask mandates to better outcomes e.g.
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818
https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/face-masks-and-gdp.html
Yes, we know, the Chinese entrepreneurs behind this have commissioned all kinds of fancy air disperal papers because that’s something which can be measured. That’s a horeshoe theory of sorts, namely, the claim that counting the number of horseshoes in a country and dividing that by four communicates something about the number of horses. But it doesn’t.
In order to demonstrate that masks affect viral transmissions, one has to track viruses travelling from person A to person B and demonstrate that these viruses moving in the indicated way actually caused a symptomatic infection while viruses moving in some other way prevented it.
Has it been established how covid is transmitted, beyond a reasonable doubt? I thought the jury was still out on that one.
Do you know how quickly moisture droplets evaporate?
Except they’re predominantly carried on aerosols (very small, carried long range) rather than water droplets (very large, short range). If the virus is carried as you claim, and masks works as you claim, why did the infection rate reduction not increase after the mask mandate was introduced, and stay down? Demonstrable cause and effect is the most basic of scientific criteria.
but those are “the rules” and you have to be seen to comply with them and lots of people just do for the sake of a quiet life and ‘because everyone else is doing it”
A butter face girl?
The nonsense of mask mandates comes from the fairly obvious point that the advice is the wrong way around.
If you are to protect yourself from the nasty, then you need an inbound mask that will filter the nasty – because seals improve under suction. Then you have no need to concern yourself with what anybody else is doing. You are protected whatever others do – to the extent that the mask does what it says on the tin.
Having masks under pressure makes no sense because elastic stretches and the mask leaks. Therefore the air will come out the side – along with everything carried in that moist air.
It follows that mask wearing is about subservience, because it makes no logical sense to require everybody to filter outbound to keep the inbound flow clear. As soon as one person doesn’t follow the ‘rules’, or the masks leak as they will do then the whole process falls apart.
It’s this failure in logic that I find most disturbing. Apparently what applies to asbestos fibres in the air doesn’t apply to viruses in the air.
Fauci has said many times that the reason his guidance and that of the CDC changed was that it became apparent that there was a significant amount of asymptomatic transmission. I see no reason to doubt this.
Templeton writes: Now we know that asymptomatic transmission is not a major mode of spread, as discussed here and here. But these two references are from last year and are marginal evidence at best. This article from March this year refers to four metanalyses and concludes: All of these studies agree that AIC transmit SARS-COV2 to contacts, although to a somewhat lesser extent than SIC. (AIC stands for asymptomatic index cases, SIC for symptomatic index cases).
There is a general lack of quality RCTs on masks because it is very hard thing to do well. People wear different types of mask, in different ways, in different contexts. So it is not surprising that metanalyses of RCTs are inconclusive. However, this survey of a broad range of evidence in addition to RCTs concludes there is evidence they are effective.
“Fauci has said many times“
The direct equivalent of quoting statements by Blair or Bush II as supposed evidence that we invaded Iraq “because of WMD”.
There is no parallel. I wasn’t using Fauci’s statement as evidence that there is asymptomatic transmission. That evidence is in the following paragraph. I was just suggesting there is no reason to reject Fauci’s explanation as to why he changed his mind.
Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus
“I was just suggesting there is no reason to reject Fauci’s explanation as to why he changed his mind.”
There is every reason to suspect his motives and his honesty. Him and every other major actor in this monstrous nonsense.
Asymptomatic spread of a fake infection. Keep it up we need a good laugh, but remember you can’t finesse skulduggery, no matter how hard you try.
There are lies, damned lies and oracular pronouncements by Anthony Fauci.
Has Fauci talked about his Lying to Congress yet?
In effect you are representing a review of evidence suggesting that there is evidence that masks work. You quote a paper from an obscure publication which is a narrative review and not a scientific paper, Sadly you have attempted to use inappropriate publications to promote a view that masks work.
Lord Moynihan many years ago described any patient as being their own unique experiment as infection is so multi factorial; sadly we have seen Covid19 generate 160000+ publications by scientists who often are more interested in getting publications, which are the lifeblood of their career progression than serving the interests of mankind.
Masks as worn by the general public have never been shown to affect the outcome of infection transmission or mortality. The only effect of face coverings is to “Mask the Truth”.
The face mask is basically the white flag of surrender, particularly when worn by so-called adults.
I’ve always assumed the sudden U-turn on mask-efficacy was due to input from psychologists. Seemingly, it’s been found that when people feel powerless in the face of a threat, many will give up and become deeply depressed.
I vaguely recall experiments on rats being electrocuted while sitting on a metal plate in a cage. After a while the rats gave up and no longer even bothered to jump when electrocuted.
And if you look at people putting masks on, say, before walking into a supermarket, they do look like they genuinely believe they’re massively reducing their risk of catching Covid.
In those dark winter days at the beginning of the pandemic, I assume officials believed that masks would be used like talismans.
“And if you look at people putting masks on, say, before walking into a supermarket, they do look like they genuinely believe they’re massively reducing their risk of catching Covid.”
What I see now is simply a kind of reflexive action “oh, going into shop so, mask on then” and out of pocket it comes and on it goes. It is now an engrained habit. Soon people won’t remember what it is like to NOT wear one – what normal life was like, which is ultimately what TPTB are aiming for.
this bs again. The only time east asians wore masks for illness is when they should have been staying at home in the first place because they were already coughing up a lung.
used to see them all the time in airport transit lounges – couldn’t for the life of me work out why they were all masked up like that
As I recall, either Austria or Switzerland had mandated them maybe as early as april. Just as you say the growing numbers spooked the politicians, who then had to appear to be doing ‘something’. And although I believe transmission was always thought to be mostly aerosolised, there was uncertainty about fomites and whether you had to be personally coughed on. And then there was a subtle flip – the presence of masks would give consumers ‘confidence’ to re-enter society. So even if they hardly worked, or even didnt work, they had some ‘benefit’. However there has been a steadfast refusal to address the dangers -epidemiological, mental – mask-wearing presents, and i believe because sick people are the lifeblood of the NHS and the covid panic, anything likely to make them sicker is being actively supported. And this is the real reason for masks.
The last two paras sum it up well. It always was BS, and I never complied with it – although I suppose I took trade away from some places.
In Wales we have the highest infection rate but have stricter mask mandate than in England. “MASKING THE TRUTH” is the reality be it masks,lockdowns or vaccination in children.
See HSE report 2008 as preparation for influenza pandemic work was being done.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr619.htm
“This study focussed on the effectiveness of surgical masks against a range of airborne particles. Using separate tests to measure levels of inert particles and live aerosolised influenza virus, our findings show that surgical masks provide around a 6-fold reduction in exposure. Live viruses could be detected in the air behind all surgical masks tested.”
And this was for surgical masks!!
I live in a small town which has a high number of elderly people. Shops are not demanding mask wearing but many people put them on even just to buy something like a newspaper which takes about 30 seconds. In the street about 50%, but getting less weekly, wear masks. On the other hand the really elderly and also many teenagers wear masks in the street and there are car drivers who wear them while driving. I and my wife have not worn a mask since “freedom day”. We are both well over 80.
Why are masks still worn? Fear and ignorance.
No one seems to mention the fact that masks still have to be worn in any health environment
Recently I went to the dentist for an extraction and they insisted that I wear a mask until I arrived at the dentist chair and then immediately after the extraction.
Even more ridiculous my wife went to a podiatrist and she insisted on my wife wearing one.
Last week we both went for our booster jab (over 70 by quite a bit) and they insisted that we wear masks throughout.
Why are NHS continuing this pointless charade?
I don’t think it has anything to do with FACTS. How insane is that? I’d say we’re dealing with insanity. And insanity is ruling everything.
From OUR HEALTH POV(point of view), breathing is ONE way we excrete gaseous waste. One person(maybe you can find the paper) measured and found 315 trace elements in exhaled breath.
We all (used to) know how throwing open windows for FRESH air got rid of ‘stale air’, ie. air we’ve used again and again.
More studies are needed.
One high school girl, an oft winner of races in running
was mandated for a mask and COLLAPSED toward the end..
when she’d be going ‘all out’. She had to be rushed to emergency. I submit she could have DIED or suffered brain damage. They needed to be SUED.
Wearing a mask BLOCKS fresh air flow, is criminal to health and the authorities should be SUED.
Some cultures, like Asians tolerate the face covering but
I wonder about their pale skin which suggests less iron,
hemoglobin, I’ve forgotten how that works.
But I think the rest of us need that clean exchange.
A short time likely doesn’t matter too much.