Before ‘The Science’ flipped in the spring of 2020, the consensus among Western epidemiologists was that community masking doesn’t affect the spread of respiratory pathogens like influenza. As Jonathan Van Tam said on April 3rd 2020, “there is no evidence” to support the general wearing of face masks.
Although masks might block large droplets in close-contact settings like hospitals, and thereby slightly lower the risk of transmission, they can’t block airborne particles – which simply go through/around them, and then remain aloft for minutes or even hours.
As a result, large indoor setting like supermarkets, transit stations or classrooms soon fill up with airborne particles – even if everyone’s wearing a mask.
A new Spanish study strongly supports the pre-Covid conventional wisdom that masks don’t stop transmission of respiratory pathogens. The study uses quite a powerful design, which makes its results all the more convincing.
Ermengol Coma and colleagues analysed data on a large cohort of Spanish children aged three to eleven, whom they followed for the first term of the school year from September to December of 2021. During this period, there was a mask mandate in place for children in primary school (aged six and up) but not for those in pre-school (aged three to five).
Hence the researchers compared outcomes between children aged five (who were not subject to the mandate) and those aged six (who were subject to the mandate).
This constitutes a relatively well-controlled comparison, given that the two groups differ by only one year in age. In other words, since six-year olds are only one year older than five-year olds, you wouldn’t expect the rate of transmission to differ much between them for reasons other than the mask mandate.
The researchers estimated the incidence of Covid, the secondary attack rate and the R number separately for the two groups. If mask mandates work, you’d expect all these quantities to be higher among the five-year olds. However, the researchers found no statistically significant differences between the two groups.
What’s more, they found a strong positive association between measures of transmission and age across all the age-groups in their sample. In other words, transmission was higher among older age-groups, despite the fact that these groups were subject to the mask mandate, whereas the younger ones weren’t.
Ermengol Coma and colleagues’ findings suggest that mask mandates do essentially nothing to reduce the spread of Covid. And given that masks plausibly impede both learning and social interaction, on top of being uncomfortable, there’s no good reason for children to wear them. Indeed, the fact that they were ever made to is a scandal.
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Wales has still got them!
And, to think, I have always been a great fan of Welsh Rabbits!
Rabbits in headlights
I prefer a Welsh Rarebit.
I like my Welsh well done.
Yes we have, though not now in the classrooms, only in the corridors and communal areas. The scary thing is though that even when I tell my (secondary age) pupils that they don’t need them in class, they are too scared to take them off. That TPTB have frightened children so completely over a cold, is unforgivable.
That TPTB have frightened children so completely over a cold, is unforgivable.
Yes – unforgivable – because that was their purpose. There has never been good evidence that masking would protect; there has been plentiful evidence of harms and risks.
These terrible people want children to be frightened, silenced and submissive objects.
They are not fools; though there are very many foolish parents who should be ashamed of themselves.
Surely everyone can see how illogical this is? Sit in close proximity for hours but then mask up in infrequently visited places with less contact?
As do some states and cities in the USA. And in NYC, perversely, in a world first, they now maintain the mask mandate ONLY for children UNDER the age of 5, because reasons. FEH.
Nation of sheep?
I have no doubt they no nothing, nothing good anyways – however wouldn’t it be likely that there’s a large difference between the comings and goings of pre vs school children? Unless they share the same school. Nurseries here are like a big class, schools are like, well schools (lots of classes).
In France at least the difference between the classes in “maternelle”, up to 6 yrs, and in “primaire” *from* 6 years is very small. They have very similar classrooms, class sizes, timetabling, mixing, etc.
Same for Spain
I’ve no idea what you think you are getting at.
Hi think what Paul is saying is also what I thought – are there other confounding factors that could affect results, as there are differences between a pre-school setting and primary school which may affect results?
I’m not saying it’s a non-sensible comparison – far from it, I welcome transparent science – but surely the feedback loop is part of any expected results from a published study and this would be one a point I would query: respectfully and transparently of course 🙂
If you read tte article above it answers your question about confounding factors.
Then that’s very sad for you, but it’s not a secret, or hard to parse.
Difference between age 4 and 5 would be large. Between 5 and 6, not so much.
There’s no clear evidence that ANY government sponsored interventions did any good, including the “vaccines”, except perhaps for countries that used ivermectin.
Again – why do we need Ivermectin for a pandemic that never was or is?
Just because there wasn’t a pandemic and covid has been overblown doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and that no-one was harmed by it. The evidence for a novel disease seems reasonably good to me, and there’s every reason to try and treat ill people with cheap, safe drugs if it can help them, as long as the response is proportionate to the threat. People get ill and die from respiratory viruses, sometimes people with good quality of life who may live many more good years. Why not treat them, if you can?
And we’ve known that for a very long time.
I have been saying exactly this for months. All NPI’s were intended to undermine public health.
Yep, every single one except basic common sense like hand washing.
Or HCQ, let’s not forget that one. In a world of Lysenkos, be a Zelenko.
Surely. “because” rather than “despite”.
I would bet that masks mess up your immune system, if for no other reason because of the anxiety and stress they cause and the constant reinforcement of the idea that you are in danger. And probably the physical effects are bad too.
Another random ‘study’ in a foreign country by some random unheard-of ‘scientist’.
And it doesn’t matter if 2,000 ‘studies’ show that face masks “don’t work” … as soon as Boris and his pet Javid say “Put them on again!” people will comply. That is a fact – as we saw exactly that happen before Christmas.
And the UK Government are sharpening the needles for the 5-11 year olds. Who will save them? No-one.
Indeed. Many knew full well that masks were useless but it wasn’t about that. It was all about ‘following the rules’.
Exactly. They now have even more evidence – from billions of people in the ‘real world” – that almost all of them will comply and obey with edicts handed down by government leaders and public health bureaucrats.
This might not be the case if the “watchdog” press had done its job and actually challenged the veracity of these edicts early on … before the “narrative” became iron-clad.
And control.
What do you suggest? What do you think should be done?
Yes Alter, I understand your point of view – sometimes comments are a cathartic rant to express frustration, anger, exasperation, etc ..
But I share Emerald’s sentiment: I’ve waged a (what feels like) single parent battle with my 12 year old’s school head and staff via email, letter and phone calls to get this ruddy, dangerous, anti-science nappie mandate removed, with little to no success.
This is despite careful and respectfully worded, correspondence quoting transparent RCTs, international peer-reviewed reports, qualified medical staff findings, global data and spouting plain old common sense …
No change. To answer your question Alter … At this stage, I don’t know, I just don’t know 🙁
At least you have established that in the eyes of heads and teaching staff, you as a parent have no say in how your child should be treated. Whereas people who do not know your child but deliver one-size-fits-all edicts – like politicians and unions – must be obeyed without question. This knowledge needs to be remembered.
Indeed Paul … I have a loooong, bitter memory soaked in vitriol bile – I will not forget those who have wronged my children out of cowardice, ignorance or willful spite. I have a list.
You might have also have shaken minds along the way, and even changed them. Most people don’t readily admit that they think differently as a result of someone else’s words.
John Whitehead – the great American patriot who has been warning about the eradication of civil liberties for decades – recently wrote a piece encouraging citizens to “think and act local.” He argues that maybe constituent sentiment CAN make a difference at the local level (it almost certainly won’t on the national level). He then opines that “grassroots” movements could expand upward and influence our state and national rulers. I think his thesis makes some sense. You are more likely to influence your local mayor or school board than the U.S. Congress and the Deep State. This said, as many examples such as yours’ show, the school boards, superintendents of education and City Councils are also often not responding to reasoned push-back and sound arguments.
It will all probably end in many secession movements. Now it’s debatable whether such movements will result in states or provinces actually seceding from corrupt and unconstitutional federal unions/governments. Personally, I think so many people have been captured (depend on) government subsidies and hand-outs, that most people will be afraid to “go it alone” and forego their social security, welfare and federal and state jobs.
Yes, I’ve often had similar sentiments regarding grassroot movements – but it’s frustrating that after 18 months of (fairly) public campaigning against the school mandates (which has soured my relations with some other parents) I’ve had no additional support. None. Nada.
Not sure how effective a grassroot movement of … one … will get me 🙂
And I suspect people snicker behind my back But hey, I’ve never been deterred: in fact, it’s hardened my resolve, and I have sites like this one, or Conservative Woman, Hart, UsForThem, JBH, etc … for providing me with not just the sound science backing, but also the moral support.
My logic is that if no one feeds back to the schools (insert Covid-oppressive institution here) then surely they’ll simply believe that their mandates are universally loved and supported. Fuck that.
At the very least, I can give that notion a slightly swollen eye.
Cheers
It’s a numbers game. Even with local efforts, you have to recruit enough people to make a difference at those school board meetings. I actually spoke at one local school board meeting when I was told several other people might be speaking to oppose the extension of the school mask mandates. I called, got on the itinerary and was given 3 minutes to make my comments. (They put me on the stop watch and the secretary called out warnings every 60 seconds of how much time I had left). As it turns out, I was the only parent who showed up so, no, I made no difference.
There is a P.S. to this story: Skip forward six months and my wife (who is a teacher in this school system) was recognized at a school board meeting as the “Teacher of the Year” at her high school. So the family showed up to support her as she got her framed certificate. Everyone was still wearing their masks at the school board meeting …. except they weren’t before the meeting in the little board room where everyone hung out before the meeting started. And then, when there was a group photo of all the honorees, everyone (school board members and superintendent included) took off their masks for the photo. The thing is most of them never put them back on after the photos.
Anyway, I guess the virus knew when to take a pause and not be a threat. I still don’t know how my wife could teach 7 hours a day in one of those masks.
No shame should be attached to people who struggle unsuccessfully.
I want all vaccine mandates everywhere removed and forever banned. I’m not ashamed that I haven’t succeeded, and have not given up hope that I will live to see it happen.
My questions to Emerald are not sarcastic at all. I might not agree with suggestions, but I welcome them. And I know that times change, and a suggestion that once seemed a bad idea can become a very good idea quite quickly!
But despair is never the answer.
Just ignore EF – trolling again.
Just like it has become accepted fact now that lockdowns don’t work and probably do more harm than good, and it has been a process to get there, so I hope the same will happen will masks.
And the process will hopefully be similar. The media start publishing these articles and studies, people start discussing it and soon it becomes accepted fact. That way they don’t come back, in the same way that lockdowns are unlikely to return.
And if eventually we have the same with the jabs, we may, just may, get back to some form of sanity.
What intrigues me is that clearly someone somewhere opens the door for that process to begin. I don’t believe for a second it happens by itself.
I shall write a strongly worded email to my local MP! …..wink wink
It’s becoming abundantly clear – if it wasn’t already – that any and all government interventions did nothing whatsoever to mitigate any aspect of the outbreak. Other than probably cause harm.
Vaccines, lockdowns, masks, contract tracing – all did nothing. Omicron and a change in the narrative is all that has happened, like every outbreak in history it simply followed its natural path unimpeded and unchecked and fizzled out. A some point, even the great unwashed (or should that be over-washed?) must come to realise this?
‘Vaccines, lockdowns, masks, contract tracing – all did nothing.’
If only that were true – I suspect they’ve all done a significant amount of harm! They did nothing to help, that we can all agree on!
Indeed
Hard-working British people are being crushed … and it has NOTHING to do with Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPmrns1LmQ
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I’d love to see someone research the top 30 or so U.S. newspapers and see how many run a story on this study. This study would be considered “science,” right? Only some “science” counts in our New Normal. Of all the definitions that have been changed, the definition of “science” needs to be the first entry in this revised dictionary.
it’s only “science” if it agrees with your pet theory (be that covid, climate apocalypse or whatever). Anything else is just evil, trumpian, mysoginistic, right-wing, anti-vaxxer, racist, denialist rubbish.
So “science” only allows/tolerates one view or conclusion. Let’s see if this “new science” improves the world.
The best “study” on the efficacy of masks is the “nation of Sweden,” where school was never cancelled for children under age 16 … and masks were never mandated and apparently almost no school children in Sweden wore them. So just tally cases, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID among non-mask wearing Swedish students and compare to students in any of the mask-wearing nations.
My family is taking a vacation to Disney World next week. My wife, who knows how I abhor mask mandates, tells me that Disney executives no longer require masks on rides, at restaurants, in hotel lobbies, waiting in lines, etc. However, she informs me they will still be required when we ride the busses that will shuttle us to the different parks in Disney.
For the life of me, I don’t know how we are “safe” from the virus on an indoor roller coaster, or inside a crowded restaurant, but the virus can “get us” as we sit in a bus for 10 minutes.
Reminds me of my visit to Thorpe Park, August 2020. We would queue literally for an hour in a hot, snaky line without distancing … shoulder-to-shoulder with different randoms for minutes on end throughout: no masks. But, step onto any ride, regardless of the distance between others, or flow of air about to assault you, and get aggressively yelled at without a face nappie.
I laughed at the naked absurdity of it at the time: surely this will all end very soon? How naïve …
After lockdown 1 we went with some friends and the kids to Legoland Windsor. They were spraying the rides between each go. It was like being in the film Contagion.
Had to wear masks in the queues and on the rides. I’d forgot a mask (and out of principle) decided to wear my underpants on my head. Literally never even got a funny look. That summed up 2020 to me. Wearing underpants on your head was considered ‘normal’.
I hope someone took a photo!
I went through an entire airport (even through security) with my head covered entirely, merely to poke fun at the absurdity of it all. Security only asked to see one of my eyes – to check I wasn’t under the influence with dilated pupils, I presumed.
I would say that masks in schools do less than nothing.
Masks anywhere do less than nothing – or rather they restrict your oxygen intake and harbour pathogens and bacteria – so they are bad for you!
And if I were a school teacher, I’d find the job of teaching a lot harder.
Oh, I forget, that’s not what schools are for.
Bien hecho España!
Well. They haven’t DONE anything yet. In fact, Spain is one of the places in the world where children are still being tortured by being forced to wear masks in school. Only in the last month have they allow the children to play OUTSIDE without masks.
Spain continues to be one of the most mask obsessed places on earth.
Along with Portugal.
We know.
We have had our Media ,our Government , their Health Officials and Medical Officers and pseudo scientist ‘experts’ telling us a pack of deliberate lies about mask wearing for two years. They are still at it!
The British People have been scammed by those they trusted!
Look at them now – thousands, frightened, still in their masks to “stay safe” and a generation of school children who think that mask wearing is the “new normal” and breathing fresh air is bad for you ( all as intended by those in power …just following their orders from the Gates run and owned WHO).
Gates says that wearing masks is just like wearing underpants and should be the ‘new normal’ ( see him say this, on video, on stage with others answering questions)
Gates is a cycle path
Are you typing with your speech by any chance 🤣
It’s more than just mask mandates at schools. For example, the schools also turned off the water fountain for two years. This meant that students and teachers had to bring bottled water to school ever day for two years. Who knows how much that cost? I just learned the other day that my fourth grade daughter actually ate lunch in her classroom for two years. They didn’t let the students go to the cafeteria.
The “social distancing” protocols were just as insane and criminal. And for the first few months of the pandemic, teachers like my wife spent 45 minutes every day wiping down every surface in their classroom. My wive also was a hallway proctor who had to take the temperature of students walking down the hallways.
The madness that our “educators” imposed on everyone.
it will be interesting to see if continual mask wearing in say the workplace leads to the potential for illnesses, as covering your face for hrs a day with potentially a re used mask cannot be healthy for the individual.
So, summing up …. Based on a story just posted by Will …
– 1) “natural immunity” is superior to vaccine immunity.
2) Masks don’t work (per this Spanish study and dozens of other studies).
3) The vaccines don’t stop or slow infection and indeed seem to leave the vaccinated more likely to become infected.
4) The virus doesn’t spread on physical surfaces.
5) It’s almost unheard of to become infecte while outside.
6) Testing everyone non-stop does nothing to slow or stop the spread.
7) Quarantining of healthy (non-positive) people did nothing to reduce spread.
8) According to VAERS and the Yellow Card system, adverse events from vaccines are leaving millions ill or even dead.
So, again, what did our trusted public health officials and our political leaders get RIGHT about Covid?
‘So, again, what did our trusted public health officials and our political leaders get RIGHT about Covid?’
They purchased shares in the right companies?
Well Bill, you’ll find this funny (or sick, or funny and sick in equal measure);
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/03/14/got-big-calls-right-covid/
Hancock (oh I miss him, so many puns, so little time) in the Telegraph: “We got the big calls right on Covid”
All is comments are based on the Lancet paper which showed England is a positive light, regarding the global excess death ladder. Here’s a paragraph from what the insidious little worm has to say:
“Until this point, most people have focused on the reported deaths figure when trying to compare international comparisons of Covid deaths. But this figure has always been flawed when trying to analyse the objective truth. As Chief Medical Officer, Sir Chris Whitty, explained to me throughout the pandemic, the excess deaths figure was the only true way to measure Covid deaths because the absolute figure could not accurately distinguish deaths of Covid and deaths of people with Covid. This is because the ability to measure the cause of death varies, and people tragically die in pandemics of other causes – like not being able to access cancer treatment.
In the UK, we took the most open approach, and published the data of those who died with Covid, so we could be as transparent as possible.”
Public transparency in reporting figures? Excess deaths as the only accurate figure? Covid deaths from vs. with? Collateral damage? Focused protection (“My view is that the shielding programme doesn’t get enough attention.“)
As far as I can remember, he publicly advocated none of the above during 2020+. His “Don’t kill granny” comment should go down as the most emotive, hysterical, snippet of evil ever mouthed. Yet he’s trying to come up smelling of petals when he’s covered himself in excrement for years.
Sigh, I was having a good Monday as well, until that popped up.
The cynical answer would be, considering Neil ‘No lockdown will keep my cock down!’ Ferguson’s well-known escapades, the Downing Street parties, COP26, the G7 summit etc, they rightly identified COVID-19 as sufficiently harmless that they could get away with all of this nonsense without causing an actual health catastrophe.
ABSOLUTELY THE SQUARE ROOT OF NOTHING AT ALL
And who said public health oficials were trusted? The article some time ago by Dr Alan Mordue showed that the vast majority of these officials are just brown nosing incompetents doing all they can to climb up their career ladders. And if this means shafting the general public on the altars of their greed then so be it. The head honcho in Devon has a BSc in sports science and a hypnotherapy ‘qualification’.
I have been to the local garden centre this afternoon. TBH most people are no longer wearing masks, but of the ones that are, a fair proportion are not wearing them properly. I really cannot understand this. I know masks are useless, but, if you think they have a useful function , then surely you wear it covering your mouth and nose, NOT across or under your chin or below your nose. What is going through the mind of these people? What they are doing is just wearing a piece of rag somewhere on their face! What’s the point? Are they that desperate to be seen to be conforming to something? Sadly, I suppose the answer to that is yes, and as for thinking – well, it ain’t happening.
Across much of Asia it has become integrated into their cultural milieu and wearing a mask in public is now just seen as a form of politeness. This is absolutely mad. It’s one thing to sneeze or cough into a handkerchief in acknowledgement of other people’s revulsion at fire-hosing mucus about the place. It’s entirely another to cover your face on the assumption that your normal breath is toxic!
The Asians – if they’re actually doing this – are welcome to keep doing it until the sun burns out for as long as they don’t except us to imitate them to make them feel more comfortable over here.
It’s been that way for years – typically on public transport that is very busy, such as the crush-loaded metro train service in Tokyo.
It begs the perennial question once again: Why do they still wear them religiously in all health care settings with no exceptions (if they don’t work)? And if they do work, then why is it only the past two years of the many centuries we’ve had hospitals, that have seen masks as a standard feature on an NHS uniform? They were never designed to be worn for long-periods of time, they’re an environmental and health hazard, and are causing a stressed-out and less healthy workforce within the NHS.
Eventually, a continued mask-mandate for hospital workers etc may actually discourage new recruits into the health industry (I’m sure I’m not alone in preferring a career that doesn’t require muzzle for the duration of your shifts). Now there’s a crisis in the making!
There was a UK study into this (effectiveness of facemasks in a school environment) in autumn 2020. It also found no significant protective effect.
For some reason this science was ignored and they doubled down on the masking requirements.
“Indeed, the fact that they were ever made to is a scandal.”
NO it’s CRIMINAL. And the perpetrators should be taken to The Hague for crimes against humanity not Putin (unless of course he was advocating that as well).
All of the NPIs were just place holders until the drugs finally were available. Keeping the fear up to encourage the maximum number to take experimental drugs like candy. It was always about the drugs (with other effects secondary).
What a surprise. They are evidently slow learners, but it certainly is one of many scandalous bureaucratic actions during the panic.
If masks ‘work’ why don’t hay-fever sufferers wear them? If they can keep out a microbe so small it is not visible to the naked eye or under a microscope, then it should keep out pollen particles which are large enough to be visible.
Ditto, nut-allergy cases who supposedly can react to airborne protein shed from peanuts. If they wore masks then the rest of us could have peanuts on planes with our G&T. Assuming we will still have planes for much longer.
Is Twitter blocking links to here? Tried pasting this link and nothing appears.
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/03/14/new-spanish-study-finds-that-masking-in-schools-does-nothing/