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The Daily Sceptic
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The Face Mask Cult

by Hector Drummond
13 April 2022 2:00 PM

There follows a guest post by Hector Drummond, a former academic who worked in risk, who says when he came to research his new book The Face Mask Cult on the effectiveness of masks against COVID-19 the evidence was threadbare.

In 2021 I decided to write an FAQ on all aspects of Covid, lockdowns and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). I started with face masks, as they seemed to be the easiest issue to deal with, thinking that the whole mask situation could be summed up in five to six pages. After a few days work I had twenty pages of text, and another twenty pages of reminder notes on further aspects of face masks that I needed to consider and research. Those notes ballooned out in the next few weeks, and I realised that the use of face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was a far bigger topic than I had appreciated, and would require substantial amounts of writing, and months of research and literature-reading.

It took until the next year before I decided I’d written enough on the topic. I had read an enormous number of scientific papers and other articles on masks, and gone through some of them with a fine-tooth comb (see Part 3 of the book, for instance). I had spent considerable time analysing, synthesising and rewriting, and my short FAQ article had become a comprehensive 400-page book that tackled all aspects of the issue, as well as a unique resource with its extensive scientific literature review section.

In all my researches I failed to come across very much in the way of convincing evidence that masks work. The papers that were supposed to show that they did all turned out to be poor pieces of science. None were randomly-controlled peer-reviewed trials. Some were observational studies, with inadequate controls for dealing with the possibility of faulty or biased recollection. Some were ‘modelling’ studies, in which a computer program was used to ‘model’ the effect of face masks on disease spread. Modelling studies are generally hopeless at providing any confirming evidence for the effectiveness of face masks as they require the modellers to make assumptions about how effective the masks are when writing their programs. Some were mannequin studies, in which a dummy in a lab with artificial breathing functions, rather than a real person in the real world, was used. Some were simply tests of the porosity of various materials in regard to salt aerosols.

Most studies ignored the issue of face mask gaps, despite it being well-known in the field that gaps around the sides of masks will let such large amounts of virions in and out that any effect that the masks do have will be completely negated. (This is why medical institutions require ‘fit tests’ for masks – not that fit tests are very reliable, as I explain in the book.)

Even these dubious studies that claimed to show an effect for masks didn’t show much of an effect. The less wild ones would typically claim that the cloth masks would stop 5% to 15% of virions, but they never presented any reason to believe the further claim that was often made that this would cause a 5% to 15% reduction in cases, or a 5% to 15% reduction in deaths. The closest such studies got to doing so was when an author would occasionally speculate, in an airy fashion, that if the disease in question’s R0 rate happened to be close to 1.0, then maybe widespread mask use (assuming masks had some small effect) would be enough to push the R0 rate below 1.0, in which case the disease would die out, although of course even if all their assumptions were true and masks did push the disease’s R0 rate below 1.0 it doesn’t follow that the disease would die out anytime soon. It could well be that the disease’s R0 rate would quickly come back over 1.0 again as soon as we stop masking, and so in order to stop the disease spreading again we would have to wear masks for years on end, or even indefinitely.

But what about all those government reports written by distinguished scientists assuring us that there were now truckloads of research proving that masks work? This is perhaps the most shocking part of the whole face mask con. The 2020 DELVE report and its updates, the 2020 Royal Society report, and the 2022 Department for Education’s Evidence Summary were disgraceful pieces of misinformation, as I show in detail in the book. Even more shocking, perhaps, is the fact that there have been so many acts of wrongdoing in the last two years that the scientific butchery committed in these reports is completely unknown to the general public. The fact, for instance, that the Royal Society’s report relied heavily upon a low-grade Chinese study, written in Chinese only, and published in an obscure Chinese journal, which reported fantastically unrealistic results, is never even going to briefly flit through the mind of the average person, because the average person will never come across any reference to this shameful affair in the mainstream media.

I felt vindicated as I put the finishing touches to the book when several prominent advocates of masks, such as Trish Greenhalgh, Jeremy Howard and many others, started to admit that cloth masks were useless. Not that they wanted to us to stop wearing masks – they now wanted us to move onto medical-grade respirator masks, like N95s and FFP2s, as Germany required. Needless to say, these mask fanatics didn’t bother to mention that Germany’s stringent mask policy has been a complete failure.

The book I finished up with is a serious corrective to the endless propaganda we have been fed about masks. It lays out the case against masks in detail, considers the harms done by mask-wearing (harms which are usually ignored by scientists and governments), closely examines many claims made about masks by both sides, and backs it all up with an enormous number of references to the scientific literature. Whenever anyone who wants you to wear a mask says, “Follow the Science”, just show them this book and say, “I already did”.

You can buy the book here in paperback and on Kindle.

Tags: EvidenceFace MasksMask MandatesThe Science

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124 Comments
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Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago

No evidence for masks has ever been presented, as far as I know.

I remember, in March 2020, you were specifically told not to wear a mask and then, in July 2020, you were not only told to wear one, it was mandatory despite there being no evidence given for this volte face.

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Dave Bollocks
Dave Bollocks
3 years ago
Reply to  Moist Von Lipwig

The face masks were never mandatory. The so called ‘face mask law’ allowed for an open ended list of exemptions without proof.

Everyone has an inalienable human right to breathe without any form of obstruction.

Yes, most people wore them, but that’s their problem, not mine!

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TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

IIRR I think they were never even termed masks, just cloth face coverings

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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  TheyLiveAndWeLockdown

There’s a sign in my area, can’t remember where, which reads:

FACE PROTECTION IS MANDATORY

😅

Last edited 3 years ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
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Annie
Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

I’ve protected my face throughout, from their poisonous nonsense.

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JohnK
JohnK
3 years ago
Reply to  TheyLiveAndWeLockdown

In all the official bumf, the term “mask” was not used, because almost all the devices on sale to the general public would not be compliant with various standards for them to be called “masks” at all. They always used the term “face covering”, or similar. Also, most of the junk on sale had tiny small text wording to that effect, to avoid being done under trading standards.

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maggie may
maggie may
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

Yes, and it was pretty clear that the government knew perfectly well that they were a waste of time as they made it very easy to exempt yourself. It was a crying shame that more people didn’t do so.

I read a very interesting article recently suggestring that masking has now being a form of addiction and to wear a mask ‘to make others feel comfortable’ was not unlike buying a drink for an alcoholic or taking an addicted gambler to the betting shop.

Last edited 3 years ago by maggie may
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HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
3 years ago
Reply to  maggie may

The government knew damn well they couldn’t “force” the public to wear face coverings. They did NO medical risk assessment beforehand but using the power of words as spells they threatened and frightened the less initiated into compliance. Only those with at least half a brain cell on active duty could see it was was all utter bollox when the list of exemptions reached far and wide and could be interpreted any way you wished. This was another test of obedience, to see how far they could keep “nudging” us!

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Alter Ego
Alter Ego
3 years ago
Reply to  HelenaHancart

This was another test of obedience, to see how far they could keep “nudging” us!

With very unfortunate results. In parts of Australia, you must wear a mask indoors, unless you have an exemption certified by a doctor. This was not the case in 2020.

Mask-wearing is a classic example of abusive governmental practice against their own citizens. The rules (here at least) change so often that people are left in a state of bewilderment, wondering what they are allowed to do now and what they are not allowed to do.

I find the sight of them unbearable, because of what they signify: bullying and submission.

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crisisgarden
crisisgarden
3 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

I find the sight of them unbearable, because of what they signify: bullying and submission.

Well said. That’s exactly how I feel when I see one. Although masks are mercifully becoming a rarity in the UK, I still see elderly people doddering along with them on, struggling to breathe. What a terrible, terrible trick to play on unsuspecting people.

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RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  crisisgarden

Particularly bizarre story: Today, I encountered a pubescent (judging from look/ behaviour) girl with a her younger brother in the local shopping mall. The girl (about my height, I’m a small person for a man 🙂 ) made a bit of a show of running past me and down the escalator, the boy remaining behind me. At the bottom, the both joined again and ran towards the exit door. Beforing going out, she put a N95 mask on.

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Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

Still required when entering a shop, or using public transport in WA. And at the office.
Eateries in the Perth CBD are dying for lack of customers. Where are they? Working from home, where they can toil mask free.

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Dave Angel Eco Warrior
Dave Angel Eco Warrior
3 years ago
Reply to  HelenaHancart

True. I wrote to my MP to complain about the mandate in July 2020 and I was informed that ‘new evidence has come to light’. I asked what this new evidence actually was but receive no further reply. As we have always known, there wasn’t any evidence and there never has been.

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JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  maggie may

I am pretty sure they would have lived not to make it that easy.
All hail natural or common law, or what’s temporarily still left of it.

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JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

In the UK maybe, but not in some other Countries, France for example, with on the spot fines.

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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  JXB

I’ve spent five weeks in France, on total, since July 2020.

I went everywhere, bare-faced and fancy-free.

I was accosted only twice, once by a security guard in a SuperU, and once by the owner of a small outdoor equipment shop.

On both occasions, they stressed quite forcefully that I would be fined if spotted by the police. They were not worried about The Virus.

But on the contrary, border guards, police just ignored me.

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JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

True, but quite different outside of the UK.
A book can surely be written about what that alone then tells you about Brits.

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DoctorCOxford
DoctorCOxford
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Bollocks

And that is why, for all my anger at Boris, I was glad he was in charge because Gove or Starmer or anyone else wouldn’t have allowed us to claim
exemption and be done with it.

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unmaskthetruth
unmaskthetruth
3 years ago
Reply to  Moist Von Lipwig

It took Klaus 3 months to get hold of Boris and remind him that without the obedience training from masks, vax passports could not be implemented. A little stint in ICU made him see clearer…

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Catee
Catee
3 years ago
Reply to  unmaskthetruth

I suspect you are closer to the truth than any of us will ever be allowed to know.

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Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago
Reply to  unmaskthetruth

Yes, it was a conspiracy, not the putting into practice of what had been taught for at least a century beforehand.

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J4mes
J4mes
3 years ago
Reply to  Moist Von Lipwig

The onus should always have been on the government and its chosen bent advisers to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the public needed to wear masks.

They did the opposite and told us masks are useless… until they got the memo from the higher-ups (via communist Susie Michie) that they’re f*cking up the narrative.

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olaffreya
olaffreya
3 years ago
Reply to  Moist Von Lipwig

All irrelevant – it never was anything other than about creating fear and compliance. Behavioural science induced programming paid for by the victims. Choice and evil.

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Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago
Reply to  olaffreya

As I said at the time, it was about getting people to eat shite and say it’s delicious.

It worked.

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Aleajactaest
Aleajactaest
3 years ago

it was never supposed to be scientific.

it was all about conforming

brain washing

and 85% of the world succumbed

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Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

To their cost – plastic fibres some of which are as long as 2mm have been found deep in lung tissue a study by a team at Hull Medical school has found

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JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

Along with dust and all sorts of other stuff. Plastic is inert.

So what?

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milesahead
milesahead
3 years ago
Reply to  JXB

Inert or not, do you believe lots of 2mm-long plastic fibres in the lungs aid ease of breathing?

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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  JXB

‘Here, put this plastic bag over your head. Don’t worry – it’s inert!’

Last edited 3 years ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
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paul parmenter
paul parmenter
3 years ago
Reply to  JXB

Lots of things are inert, but I don’t want any of them in my lungs, thankyou. How many inert things do you deliberately introduce into your body when they are completely unnecessary?

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ozdocabroad
ozdocabroad
3 years ago
Reply to  JXB

Asbestos is inert. Leave it there long enough and it will cause a mesothelioma.
I believe over the next few years, the medical profession is going to have to deal with a large number of cases of granulomatous lung disease, caused by “inert” fibres. There are also known carcinogens, such as titanium, used in masks.
Serves them right for rolling over and allowing themselves to be conned by the politicians. I for one will enjoy saying ‘I told you so” to my colleagues. Even the young doctors, at minimal risk from covid, are wearing masks all the time, even though there is now no mask mandate outdoors in Queensland

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oblong
oblong
3 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

My cousin who lives in Paris messaged me today to say that even though his son is fully jabbed he still got COVID. He was informing me that the 4th jab is available. I haven’t said I am not jabbed at all and enjoying pissing off macron. He is a bright lad and worked in the French petroleum industry for years but completely brain washed by this shite

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John Dee
John Dee
3 years ago
Reply to  oblong

He is a bright lad and worked in the French petroleum industry for years

One hopes as a forecourt pump attendant and not an engineer?

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oblong
oblong
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dee

Chemical engineering degree from Imperial

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milesahead
milesahead
3 years ago
Reply to  oblong

Ah, he’d struggle to work the forecourt pump, then! 😉

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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  oblong

Imperial. That explains that, then.

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jingleballix
jingleballix
3 years ago

Masks also have to be worn completely properly, and changed regularly.

How many sheep have kept the same mask in their coat pocket all winter?

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beornwulf
beornwulf
3 years ago

Thanks for this site I was put on to exemption lanyards right at the start of this psychotic episode. I’ve only ever worn a face covering when entering NHS property, just to avoid being thrown out. I now keep the well worn lanyard in reserve, just in case of you-know-what. However, since one of my front teeth has broken off recently I’ve been sorely tempted to use a covering to hide my embarrassment. Perhaps they do have a use after all.

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jingleballix
jingleballix
3 years ago
Reply to  beornwulf

I didn’t wear one in my GP’s surgery last summer when I went in to make an appointment – nobody said a thing.

When I turned up for the appointment without one, the receptionist asked me to put one on. I pointed out that neither she nor or colleague were wearing one…….she replied that that was because they were behind a perspex screen…….

……..you can guess the rest.

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Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago
Reply to  jingleballix

I attended an appointment unmasked and unchallenged. The old(er) lad behind me apologised for forgetting his muzzle and asked to “borrow” one.

He was given a piece of soon-to-be-litter, and obediently strapped it on… under his chin.

I wish, I really do wish, that this was a “Things that never happened” tale.

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HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
3 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Reminds of my last visit to the GP for a blood test. I was unmasked, there were actually people in the waiting area, all women and kids, all unmasked, the receptionist was unmasked. She then wearily asked me to put one on! I refused and she didn’t pursue it. Next to me, being attended to by another receptionist was a big, burly bearded guy being asked to wear a mask which he did! He was given one of those blue things. The weird thing was he had to ask which way he had to put it on, like he didn’t wear them normally! The mind bloody boggles….

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paul parmenter
paul parmenter
3 years ago
Reply to  jingleballix

Presumably an airtight screen? Otherwise, what was the point?

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John Dee
John Dee
3 years ago
Reply to  paul parmenter

And how was it that the two colleagues behind the screen could not infect each other?

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tom171uk
tom171uk
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dee

Probably because they had had four jabs apiece. Or garlic round their necks.

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trevorpee
trevorpee
3 years ago
Reply to  jingleballix

I called in to my GP’s surgery the other day to collect a blood request form the doctor had left for me. I was being dealt with by the receptionist (masked, sitting behind a perspex screen) when another member of staff appeared and thrust a box of muzzles under the screen, barking at me to put one on. When I firmly replied “No, I won’t” all hell broke loose and I was harangued by several harpies – the main instigator being maskless herself. I told them they were stupid and left without the needed form. I’ve since had an impertinent barely literate letter from the practice manager admonishing me for being ‘rude’. I loather these people.

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DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago

Interesting. It was always a strange thing that one day we were told no face coverings in banks, next you were shut out without one. Peop!e really are stupid and sheep, the picture sums them.up

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Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Oh, halcyon days, when you’d get yelled at for entering a filling station with a helmet on. Will we ever see a return to such common sense?

Joking aside, this was also an example of magical thinking. Petrol station robbers do not obey “Remove your helmet” signs. If someone enters wearing one with the intent to say “Empty the till”, the only difference the sign can possibly make is to allow staff to hit the panic button before they’ve taken the three steps to the window.

Since this never happened, anywhere, ever, the policy achieved nothing.

And yet it was screeched about by petty little Stasi everywhere, for ritual purposes.

Plus ca change.

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Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Remember when a Muslim teaching assistant whose job was to teach pupils how to pronounce words was sacked for wearing a burka?

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John Dee
John Dee
3 years ago
Reply to  Moist Von Lipwig

It can’t have been a N95-compliant burka.

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TheEngineer
TheEngineer
3 years ago
Reply to  Moist Von Lipwig

If only we had a universal ban on them…

1
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John Dee
John Dee
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

In Scotland, Nicola’s making them mask up indoors until April 18, after which the virus has promised to behave itself.
My friends up there are all fully onboard with this nonsense and harrumph impatiently when I ask them why it is that what will still kill them on the 17th will have become benign overnight.

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watersider
watersider
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dee

Now now John Dee, how dare you disparage our glorious benign leader Saint Nicola de Mask Us. She assures us that at midnight on 17th she will banish the WuFlu dragon and we can all breath fresh air once again. She is sharpening a pointy stake to plunge through its heart.
They we can all concentrate on that other monster in Loch Ness.

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watersider
watersider
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Ah but they are not British sheep – the ears tell me they are from the Medeterranian region.

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Drew63
Drew63
3 years ago

All true, nothing I find surprising, and good to know.

But I’m still finding myself slightly shocked to see how prevalent mask wearing seems to be in certain subsets of the public.

I had my hair cut yesterday. While both stylists were faithfully wearing masks, they didn’t say anything about me choosing not to. One older gentleman sat down in the chair next to me and seemed surprised to learn it was OK if he didn’t wear one. The people in a shop where I get my pictures framed all dutifully wear masks. And I regularly still see teenagers and young people wearing the wretched things.

For what its worth, in my small market town Sainsburys grocery shoppers were almost universally masked, while Waitrose only a small minority muzzled up. If there is a lesson there, I’d be on dangerous ground if I speculated what it might be.

But one thing I can be sure of: the misinformation spread by governments and public health people surrounding masks has left a lasting, and damaging scar on public life in our country. One that I fear may take years to fully heal.

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Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Drew63

Sainsburys is known to go after blacks/wokes with its self-righteous campaigns and it is they (as well as the poor/stupid) who are most likely to follow such absurd rituals

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paul parmenter
paul parmenter
3 years ago
Reply to  Drew63

How did the hairdressers cut the hair of people wearing masks? Surely any snip around the ear area would run the risk of accidentally cutting the strap, causing the mask to fall off and the poor customer to (presumably) drop dead.

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milesahead
milesahead
3 years ago
Reply to  paul parmenter

You’re forgetting (as seen in pubs and restaurants) that the virus is harmless to people who are sitting down!

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RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  milesahead

Not on California or New York. There, you must always quickly put your mask back on after taking a sip of a drink or a bite of something to eat lessen the chances of Coronas slipping past it.

Last edited 3 years ago by RW
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paul parmenter
paul parmenter
3 years ago
Reply to  milesahead

Then they were never needed on buses and trains (at least for anyone able to get a seat), and certainly not on planes.

8
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Mogwai
Mogwai
3 years ago
Reply to  milesahead

That means wheelchair uses should have been exempt, surely? lol And your hypothesis totally goes to pot when looking at the sheep politicians in parliament ( esp the Canadian one up until recently ) whereby everyone sat had to wear one but when you got up to speak you could ditch it.

So whichever way you look at it, it was a great big PsyOp of gobbledegook and nothing more than ‘brain-training’ to see how many individuals made it to the “Best Pavlov’s Dog” final. That’ll be the losers we’re all seeing today then.

13
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Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago
Reply to  Drew63

My hairdresser keeps her mask on, but the customers are allowed to choose for themselves.

2
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peyrole
peyrole
3 years ago

Good man Hector, you helped keep me going in the early days of 2020 with your blog which I know was hard work. Some of your contributors then were invaluable and from day one showed the malign intent on display with their statistical analysis.
I will read your book with interest.

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Star
Star
3 years ago

N95s? N99s? FFP2s? FFP3s? Pah!

I’ve got a 3M 7500 with spare 6035 filters, for when the REALdemic hits.

10
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JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  Star

As Steve Kirsch said, only P100s make sense and they protect you, not anyone else.
If a REALdemic hits, noone needs a mask law, as people will kill for them, including us sceptics here.

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tom171uk
tom171uk
3 years ago
Reply to  JayBee

Correct. Nobody needs a law to make them keep themselves safe. Or if they do, it’s fair enough for them to remove themselves from the gene pool.

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A Heretic
A Heretic
3 years ago

Common sense will tell you that something with holes size 100x will not block particles of x.
And the nonsense about it being like pissing your pants vs pissing on someone totally ignores the fact that it’s airborne and people and the air are moving around.

Last edited 3 years ago by A Heretic
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dearieme
dearieme
3 years ago

I had happened to look into facemarks before the pandemic came along. As yer man says they are NBG. You’d be as well off with a Venetian plague doctor’s conk.

As either Robert Conquest or Kingsley Amis said “I told you so you fickung fools”.

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Annie
Annie
3 years ago

The President if the Royal Society (yet another immigrant from an alien culture, btw) assured us that Masks and encouraged the use of bullying and coercion so as to delete every human face.

The Royal Society.

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Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
3 years ago
Reply to  Annie

The challenge is to find even one British institution that has not been captured, if you don’t count the Nether Dropping Amateur Dramatic Club.

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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

My family and I are the only British institution I care about, and it hasn’t been captured.

17
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tom171uk
tom171uk
3 years ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

You took the words out of my mouth!

8
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TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
3 years ago
Reply to  Annie

The royal family are one of Britain’s biggest rent-seekers and are getting a huge kickback from offshore wind, so why not believe they’re in on this scam?

9
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PCNoMore
PCNoMore
3 years ago

In my youth, I (and thousands of others) learned about protective facemasks courtesy of the British Army. When I say facemasks, I mean a whacking great lump of moulded rubber with a filter the size of a camping gas cylinder called an S6 (later S10) respirator. This is what it took to keep microscopic particles out of your airway, provided that it was correctly fitted (i.e. no leaks) and the filter was changed every few hours. When TPTB tried to kid us that we could do the same with a bit of old t-shirt strapped to our mouths, I knew it was all bollocks.

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BJs Brain is Missing
BJs Brain is Missing
3 years ago
Reply to  PCNoMore

9 second rule…

And felt like the face-hugger in Alien.

Last edited 3 years ago by BJs Brain is Missing
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oblong
oblong
3 years ago
Reply to  PCNoMore

March 2000 I flew from Nice to Manchester just as all this shite was gearing up. Chap in front if me was wearing one of these masks and sounded like Darth Vader.

13
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  oblong

Before COVID I would have joked and said, “Perhaps he WAS Darth Vader!”

The last two years have taught me that he probably was.

Last edited 3 years ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
8
0
crazypaving17
crazypaving17
3 years ago
Reply to  PCNoMore

THIS! I started the training to be a CBRN responder when I was in the police. The only mask that kept out biological particles was a full face respirator with filters that was fit tested and then we were sealed into a bio suit. So when tossers on twitter try telling me I should wear a mask I point this out and not one has been able to come back at me with any evidence that a bit of cloth makes any difference. If it has the police and army could have saved thousands by just issuing an extra T-shirt to stick over your mouth.

23
0
Doom Slayer
Doom Slayer
3 years ago

Any mask with a good enough fit and suitable level of filtration requires a unfiltered valve to enable you to breathe out easily. So you can never protect someone else by wearing a mask, only yourself if you are that way inclined. If someone was coughing and sputtering would a mask in theory stop some larger droplets, yes. But people are forever touching their masks and then touching something else. Ive yet to come across one person coughing and sputtering in 2 years. Asymptomatic people have a tiny chance of infecting someone else, the main reason why masks are pointless. But they knew that.

21
-1
cornubian
cornubian
3 years ago

This is a special ‘I Stand With Ukraine’ appeal. Can you help poor Aleksandr? He was merely serving his country but now has to flee because of evil Putin. Do you have a spare room for him?

Nazi.jpg
34
-4
Francis64
Francis64
3 years ago

I still see some people wearing masks – putting one on before going into a shop is the main one I see – I simply don’t understand it? It reminds me of people crossing themselves before entering a church. Well, I’ve never worn a mask, I’ve never social-distanced and I’ve never been jabbed – I caught a bad cold recently most probably a covid variant for all I know but I’m not going to test myself thats for sure – I was over it within a few days. Now based on the fear that seems to be driving these fully-jabbed-up mask wearers by their estimation I should be brown-bread by now – I’ve now had ‘the virus‘ three times including the main one over the past two years and yet I’m still here alive and well (touch wood).

33
0
JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  Francis64

They also do the ritual dabbing of hands with hand sanitiser.

20
0
Smelly Melly
Smelly Melly
3 years ago

In these times of global warming, sorry climate change, as they cannot decide if the earth is warming or cooling. But how many billions of these useless masks and LFTs have been dumped into the sea?

31
0
Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

The world would be a better place had their owners been dumped with them

18
0
JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Yes… and if the midwife had kept the afterbirth and slung what was attached down the bog instead.

7
-1
JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

To understand environmentalism/conservationism you have to understand when we pollute or alter habitats that’s OK because reasons, when you do it it is a disaster.

So wind turbines can mince up endangered species, long absent predators can be reintroduced to habitats, the sea can be polluted with masks – because.

12
0
paul parmenter
paul parmenter
3 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

It’s not climate change any more either. It’s now full blown climate crisis, and getting worse by the minute. Do try to keep up.

25
0
Alter Ego
Alter Ego
3 years ago
Reply to  paul parmenter

We are being persuaded, pushed and bullied into being afraid of life.

The slightest sniffle might kill us. We might be fatally infected, even though we have no symptoms. We should take tests to find out if we have been infected, despite the fact that we feel well.

We should keep our distance from other human beings. Touching a human being is dangerous.

The sun could kill us; changing weather patterns could destroy the entire planet!

This is driving good and reasonable people out of their minds. They have been placed in a constant state of anxiety, looking for what is wrong or bad or dangerous – whether it is there or not.

26
0
milesahead
milesahead
3 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

It’s worth watching this again – incredibly prescient!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29lF43mUlo

3
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  paul parmenter

Aye. Two minutes to midnight and all that shite. Clock must have got stuck about twenty years ago.

10
0
watersider
watersider
3 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

Interesting Smelly you should mention Global Warming as our author gives a good example of computer modeling by ‘them’ to try and justify wearing dog muzzles.
The whole global warming fraud is based on computer models which as any grown up knows are derived from GIGO – garbage in garbage out.
This is particularly interesting as the global warming cultists are forever on about carbon dioxide levels having to be cut back to where all plant life would cease, less than 280ppm.
The other irony is these same fanatics tell us we must become lettuce eaters to ‘save the planet’
The final irony is that every living human exhales 40,000 ppm carbon dioxide with every breath.
So logically every poor soul who wears a face rag, is hastening global warming and at the same time poisoning themselves.
Funny old world Greavsie.

10
0
BJs Brain is Missing
BJs Brain is Missing
3 years ago

And yet you still see gimps faithfully wearing their muzzles, even when walking along an empty beach or in the car, on their own…

Last edited 3 years ago by BJs Brain is Missing
24
0
JXB
JXB
3 years ago

Look at a soldier kitted for battlefield biological warfare, look at emergency response personnel dealing with possible biological hazards – the one thing you won’t see is a medical/surgical mask. What you will see is a skin-tight, air-tight respirator mask of non-porous material which also covers the eyes and with changeable hepafilters. These masks are very expensive, if hospital masks were effective they would wear those.

Hospital masks are intended to catch water droplets possibly containing strep & staph bacteria which colonise the nasopharynx of most people, exhaled by OT staff, and which might fall directly into open wounds causing wound infection.

Because they are supposedly effective in that application (although a number of trials do not show any significant benefit) it does not mean they are effective in other uses.

Respiratory viruses are much smaller than bacteria – not even visible under a microscope – and spread in aerosols (what fogs a mirror if you breath on it) which can penetrate mask fabrics and escape around them, and which disperse and circulate by Brownian motion in enclosed spaces – think air freshener, fly-spray, dust. The virus does not transmit direct from person A to person B except in circumstance of very close contact – infectious A blowing up B’s nose for example. The risk is near zero in open spaces.

It is time dependent. How long are people shedding in the closed area, how long are the non-infectious in that area? Even if masks stop ‘some’ it’s the accumulative effect of the ‘some’ that are not stopped.

We wash our hands after using the lavatory, why? We wash off fæcal particles and bacteria, not apparent, but which have migrated through the fabric of the lavatory paper – even a number of layers – because that’s what small particles and pathogens do particularly when the fabric gets moist. So why would anyone expect paper or cloth mask to work. Who would reuse lavatory paper and keep it in their pocket or handbag until next needed? Yet this is in effect what the Maskdroids do.

I blame the schools.

40
0
WM
WM
3 years ago
Reply to  JXB

Good summary. I have a couple additions. Proper medical masks have an electrostatic layer that might keep viruses from passing through the mask. That is assuming any of the exhaled air actually passes through the filter. That might make medical masks useful if fitted properly.

but masks will also increase the shear forces on exhaled air which theoretically could increase the aerosolization, dispersion, and suspension time of the virus. I haven’t seen any studies on this, but it is basic physics.

8
-1
JXB
JXB
3 years ago

A bin liner over the head and tied tightly round the neck is 100% effective.

23
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago

A bit like vaccine effectiveness, definitive evidence for mask effectiveness is simply not there no matter how hard you look. Case not proven.

24
0
Star
Star
3 years ago

Just some context, that’s all…

The advice could be compared (and contrasted) with the “Duck and Cover” advice as given in this film produced by US civil defence in 1951 (which in the right context [*] is thoroughly sensible advice, but so is wearing proper masks – in the right context).

Might be bit similar to the famous tinfoil hats too. (But electromagnetic radiation really does endanger people’s health. Great news for smartphone pushers that protection from it has become a joking matter.)

…

  • face-masks – anti-infectious bugs – were recommended for 2 years, and in many places either were literally compulsory or else widely viewed as compulsory; aren’t so recommended now; still in wide use;
  • tinfoil hats – anti-EMR – never caught on; most people are totally unaware that mobile phones communicate using microwave radiation, and if they’re told they immediately “forget” (they obviously think their “superiors” would have told them if there was any risk); as for 5G, most stick their fingers in their ears as soon as health implications are mentioned; there is absolutely no official advice to try and keep your exposure down, and for example many mobile phone towers are built in highly populated areas;
  • duck and cover – anti-explosions – everyone in warzones knows to keep away from windows and find cover; many also know that nuclear explosions burn skins off

Note
*) A schoolteacher in Chelyabinsk reportedly saved many children from injury by getting them to duck and cover at the time of the 2013 meteor explosion.

Last edited 3 years ago by Star
5
0
crisisgarden
crisisgarden
3 years ago

Literally have never put one on. This was Question 1 of the intelligence test followed up of course by the {safe and effective and soon to be a universal requirement so you may as well get one now without asking any questions} so-called vaccine.
We passed! 🤓🤓🤓

25
0
JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago

Face masks are Gessler hats.
Everything else is just noise.

9
0
Free Lemming
Free Lemming
3 years ago

“The Face Mask Cult”. Just a single letter change and that would be a perfect description of pretty much every single mask fanatic I know.

20
0
Woodburner
Woodburner
3 years ago

It’s so easy to lie, and bully, and be virtuous, behind a mask. The torture, the licenced sadism, is when those people who depend on lip-reading have to confront the facial barrier, and the transparent booming screen.

14
0
Nicholas Britton
Nicholas Britton
3 years ago

In Wales, face mask requirements were introduced months later than England. The reason? The chief medical officer in Wales stated there was no evidence they helped. The complete absence of medical / scientific justification for their use did not stop Drakeford and his cronies making them mandatory. Following the science? – My @rse

23
0
Annie
Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  Nicholas Britton

Dungford said at one point that forcing muzzles on people was an abuse of their civic rights, the lousy stinking hypocrite.

21
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago

I don’t believe the muzzled actually know why they wear them now. I see them chatting close up with unmasked and considering we were told they were not to protect you but other people, it all seems very odd, why are they still trying to protect people who don’t want the protection. Says a lot about their state of mind

Last edited 3 years ago by DanClarke
19
0
loopDloop
loopDloop
3 years ago

Masks work brilliantly if the purpose is to identify at a glance the stupid people. I would say close to 100% efficient.

33
0
MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

For me the most interesting revelation was that no sars-cov-2 virus was isolated. It turns out that virologists just have a computer analyses a ‘dirty’ sample containing lots of genetic material from a non specific source and then when the computer churns out thousands of theoretically possible gentic sequences the virologist pick one and claim it as their new virus.
Virology really is the most shoddy faux science imaginable.

Further study reveals that this ridiculous methodology is standard virology, it wasn’t just a special con job served up for the covid fraud.

13
0
watersider
watersider
3 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

Have you looked at “climate science” for comparison?

7
0
MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

I was convinced after someone pointed out that if you can smell a fart through pants and trousers and fart size pieces of shit are massive compared to a virus then it couldn’t possibly work.

12
0
pjar
pjar
3 years ago

Masks appeal to some people because ‘it stands to reason’ that anything that you put between a respiratory virus, which by its nature is breathed out, and the rest of us, must be a good thing. Then they’ll reference the fact that everyone wears them on Casualty, so they must work. It’s pointless trying to argue with this but we should direct our ire instead at the BIT people like Michie who have used their dark arts to manipulate people.

16
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
3 years ago
Reply to  pjar

As a wise person with a functioning nose and brain once said, “If 2 layers of clothes can’t stop a fart then a mask ain’t never gonna stop a virus!”

15
-1
Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Like expecting a 5 bar gate in a field to be able to trap a golf ball is the best analogy I ever heard.

Have tried to explain it to some maskoids but, you know the rest, got nowhere. Got the “glazed” look in response.

10
0
watersider
watersider
3 years ago
Reply to  Milo

Well Milo you are truly a genius.
This very morning on a very short par 3, I hit the mother of a shank the ball cannoned off a wire mesh fence, bounced on to the green, and would you believe I missed the putt?

3
0
pjar
pjar
3 years ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Well, it’s a nice line but, perhaps not that wise. Smell is the result of very simple molecules acting on receptors in the nose… a virus is many times larger than such a molecule. The mosquito and chain link fence is probably a better analogy?

2
0
The old bat
The old bat
3 years ago

I was at my hairdressers this morning. Me unmasked, 2 hairdressers masked. As I often do, I asked why they were STILL wearing masks (and there is still a sign on the door saying masks must be worn). I had a new excuse this morning…It’s to stop them from being sued if someone catches covid on their premises. I mean, honestly! I actually spluttered with disbelief. I asked how someone would prove to a court that they caught Covid at these particular premises, but I didn’t get an answer (That was my first thought, but there were many others. However, my hairdresser is a sweet girl and she is doing what she’s told to keep her job. I shut up because I didn’t want to upset her). It’s not these girls, it’s their employer saying this/calling the shots. Some employers really are this stupid, aren’t they?

23
0
Old Maid
Old Maid
3 years ago
Reply to  The old bat

It appears it’s the insurers, who are insisting that hairdressers must follow the guidelines set down by their professional bodies if they want to be covered. So I’m told.

6
0
Jo
Jo
3 years ago

I must admit, among all the scientific papers I read in 2020 and the first half of 2021, none of them was about masks (although I did read a couple of summaries). This was because the issue was already settled for me: a few weeks before lockdowns and the politicisation of the mask, I listened to a really good programme on the World Service (which did produce some good listening before this) – an hour long, all about the research over the last 40 years on efficacy of masks. The conclusion was they didn’t work in preventing spread of respiratory illness. That was enough for me.

18
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago

Baa. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

(PS 100th! 🙂 )

5
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
3 years ago

The masking ( and all the rest of the bollocks really ) thing reminds me of these experiments, two of which I’m sure we’re all familiar. I think at this stage “compliance” and “conformity” are two of my most hated words! Never again. But it’s when you familiarize yourself with these famous experiments that you realise how disgustingly malleable many people are. https://odysee.com/@ComputingForever:9/3-experiments-Broadband-High:1

9
0
BeBopRockSteady
BeBopRockSteady
3 years ago

Just a thank you to Hector D for his early writing on Covid-19 and hsi excellent blog. It was a daily source of sanity for me.

On masks the standout moment of madness for me was this. One of the BBCs highest paid on the trail of people in petrol stations not wearing masks.

https://youtu.be/N1sVJYw7ipA

His prime time show in Northern Ireland followed it up by brining on Professor Power of Queens University to defend the masks. And, as predictable as a windy day in Belfast, he rolled out the DELVE report from the Royal Society and talked about the study of hamsters in cages. Not suprised Hector picks this up as the start of the scientific fraud being foisted on the public. All in the name of fear driven compliance and a pandering to most flaky elements of society.

I can’t count how many times I’ve pointed people towards this timeline of events when discussing masks. And they never budged. They didn’t want to question it.

I did. In fact I wrote an FOI to the NI Infrastructure Minister in September last year asking for the scientific evidence to back her claim masks on public transport were effective. They returned with a link to, you guessed if, the Royal Society report and an acknowledgement that no actual study showed their effectiveness specifically in relation to public transport.

I even showed this to people to make they point the authorities themselves admitted that no actual evidence existed. Still, they wouldn’t wake up.

Hector is right. It’s a total cult. Every inch of it.

Last edited 3 years ago by BeBopRockSteady
17
0
Dodgy Geezer
Dodgy Geezer
3 years ago

To have any chance of proving that face masks work, you will need to do two things:

1 – find out just how virions spread in typical environments and how they get into a body in sufficient quantity to cause disease.

2 – find out how a typical mask affects Input and output of virions as we breathe.

As far as I know, no one has ever done this.

8
0
Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago

Send a copy to the White House, if you think Foggy Groper can read.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/04/13/biden-administration-extends-federal-transportation-mask-mandate-again/

3
0
FrankFisher
FrankFisher
3 years ago

This article is an advert, but I don’t mind.

0
0
DoctorCOxford
DoctorCOxford
3 years ago

It really is remarkable how masks became a cult like object. Or perhaps more like a magic amulet bought from a witch doctor. There was never any proof. In fact, there was negative proof prior to 2020. But China forced their people to wear them (still do, how’s that working out) and Asia had a lower initial problem and some genius said “Asians wear masks, that is why.” Not prior interaction with Coronaviruses.

I suspect in 2-3 years it will be quietly admitted that masks don’t work, and all those banging on about masks will try and tell us they never thought they did anything but the government failed anyways. I always ask people the same question as regards pore size “does a chain link fence stop any significant amount of snow?” It’s the same issue. They can’t work because the virus was too strong. But since we still hear about washing hands after handling at object to stop Covid, it will take time for their to be quietly acknowledged.

4
0
wantok87
wantok87
3 years ago

The only thing that mask were successful in was “Masking the truth” – It is a sad reflection that papers were produced, not for scientific advancement, but for publishing sake. They do not and have never controlled viral spread. Wearing a mask should be tested with derision and mocked unless theses scientifically illiterate politicians will use them again as a badge of control

4
0
SimCS
SimCS
3 years ago

Hector, thank you for your hard work exposing the lie of face masks. I have bought the book (Kindle version).

4
0

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