Response to a friend sending along mask studies
49 is a really big number
A friend passed along this mainstream propaganda piece below on masks from an NBC affiliate, a list of 49 studies totally showing masks work so stop asking about it because 49 is a really big number and they all — like every single one — say that masks totally work and it’s science and did I mention there are almost 50?
Here is my response…
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None of the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are included in their list. The studies in their list all appear to be observational studies and models, and some concern a mask’s ability to stop droplets, whereas respiratory viruses are spread via smoke-like aerosols which only N95s can possibly slow (and only if worn without any gaps, at which point breathing is impaired and it can be at most for short term).
A few important RCT and other links…
~ Cochrane Library review of 44 RCTs:
Masks “make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu‐like illness (9 studies; 3507 people); & probably makes no difference in how many people have flu confirmed by a lab test (6 studies; 3005 people).”
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub5/full
UPDATED 2023
https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses
~ Emerging Infectious Disease:
“14 RCTs did not support a substantial effect on transmission”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7181938/
~ See attached list of RCTs from the WHO (at end).
~ COVID “Danish” RCT:
“the difference observed was not statistically significant”
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817
~
~ Lack of effect on community transmission:
“Our main finding is that mask mandates and use are not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among US states.”
~ A general article on many facets of masks
https://swprs.org/face-masks-and-covid-the-evidence/
~ One of many papers on cardiovascular harms.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC8072811/pdf/ijerph-18-04344.pdf#page37
~ It’s useful to remember that surgeons have never worn surgical masks in order to protect the patient from respiratory viruses. Instead, they protect the surgeon from material in the field, and secondarily to prevent always-bacterial-ridden spittle from landing in the theater. But even today the average person believes surgeons wear them so I should too.
~ I have a video series that covers, among many other issues, the more subtle psycho-societal issues in and around face masks.
~ There’s also a strong bias against studies criticizing masks getting published, and even getting peer reviewed at all. I have been suspended from Twitter once, and from Facebook once, for citing published papers critical of face masks. My own published paper covering the many harms of lockdowns and masks was turned down without review from a dozen journals, as was the Danish study above. In science publishing that’s not a thing. But it’s now common for ideas going against the mainstream narrative (i.e., the narrative that Covid is a disproportionately dangerous virus that can only be fought with super effective, totally scientific lockdowns, masks, and mandatory vaccines). Once we finally got it reviewed, one reviewer said it could not possibly be published because it is highlighting potential harms from masks, and “masks are one of society’s most important ways to combat the virus.” Needless to say, if you’ve decided the matter ahead of time, you’ll reject out of hand any evidence against it. One of my co-authors (a grad student) was explicitly told by his department that he is not to publish anything against the narrative or he would be kicked out of the program. He went anonymous (although before publication his department status had changed to elsewhere and he could go non-anonymous). Most scientists know not to even THINK about researching in that direction lest they be painted as evil, Trump-lovin, anti-vax, denier, etc. Science has become completely politicized… into The Science.
~ A piece by me on the topic
“When our freedoms were under the greatest threat—freedom of movement, freedom of dress, freedom to keep our businesses and livelihoods, etc.—our ability to even speak against the threat was choked off.”
~ A piece by John Ioannidis, one of the world’s premier epidemiologists making the same point, as are tens of thousands of other scientists worldwide.
“There was a clash between two schools of thought, authoritarian public health versus science—and science lost.”
— John Ioannidis, Stanford Professor, Epidemiology
https://www.tabletmag.com/contributors/john-ioannidis
This is fantastic, thank you. I see the masks - beyond the gross physical harms - as a spiritual symbol of dehumanizing people and turning us into isolated automatons, who no longer exchange pleasant social connections & smiles at a grocery store. They are a small ever-present symbol of "danger" (a lie) to everyone to hold them in fear & control - like the over-reported MSM "case" numbers.
How do you debate with someone who insists that the earth is flat?
A person who willfully ignores the evidence before their eyes.
They have proven to you that facts, logic and science don't matter to them.
You can't use facts, logic and science against them.
Even some so called technical people seem to have limited their vision.
If it wasn't so tragic, I would invite them to keep going until they get to the end of the earth .