the Science is hardly "settled"...These "scientists" seem to differ...
Mask Madness
And what "the science" actually really says.
I tried explaining that world renowned scientists?as opposed to career bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci?have demonstrated repeatedly that masks, particularly the kinds of cloth and surgical masks that have become a daily feature of the general public, are ineffective in preventing people from getting infected with COVID-19. Masks can even be dangerous, both vis-?-vis COVID, as well as with respect to the exacerbation of other health issues.
In fact, even some of these bureaucrats have, at one time, conceded the truth of the science behind COVID and masks.
My friend, without missing a beat, dismissed these studies as ?outliers,? ?biased,? and ?right-wing.?
Let the evidence speak for itself. If anyone, with a straight face, can accuse the following researchers, studies, and organizations of the charges that my friend leveled, let them try:
New England Journal of Medicine?one of the most prestigious of medical journals and one within the pages of which Anthony Fauci and CDC head Robert Redfield themselves published this past spring?said this:
?We know that wearing a mask outside of health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures?.?
It continued:
?The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic?fear and anxiety are better countered with data and education than with a marginally beneficial mask, particularly in light of the worldwide mask shortage, but it is difficult to get clinicians to hear this message in the heat of the current crisis.?
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared:
?[The] widespread use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidence and there are potential benefits and harms to consider?the use of a mask alone is insufficient to provide an adequate level of protection.?
And this:
?Medical masks like this one [a surgical mask] cannot protect against the new coronavirus when used alone. WHO only recommends the use of masks in specific cases. If you have [a] cough, fever, and difficulty breathing, you should wear a mask and seek medical care. If you do not have these symptoms, you do not have to wear masks, because there is no evidence that they protect people who are not sick.?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the following in Emerging Infectious Diseases, its distinguished peer-reviewed journal. Using a whopping 14 randomized controlled trials (which scientists recognize as the ?highest quality of evidence?), Jingyi Xiao and her esteemed colleagues at the University of Hong Kong determined that the utilization of face masks do not significantly reduce the spread of COVID.
?We found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks. There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure.?
To conclude: ?Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory confirmed influenza.? (Even more frightening for the already terrified, Dr. Xiao and her team discovered that neither are ?improved hygiene and environmental cleaning? effective at preventing transmission!)
Anthony Fauci himself remarked in March, on the eve of the peak of The Virus:
?There?s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you?re in the middle of an outbreak wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet, but it?s not providing the perfect protection people think that it is.?
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, located at the University of Minnesota, declared that there was no data available to support recommendations for mask use by the general public:
?We do not recommend requiring the general public who do not have COVID-19-like illness to routinely wear cloth or surgical masks because:
There is no scientific evidence they are effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.?
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) agrees:
?Face masks should not be worn by healthy individuals to protect themselves from acquiring respiratory infection because there is no evidence to suggest that face masks worn by healthy individuals are effective in preventing people from becoming ill.?
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/mask-madness-jack-kerwick/