But, see, there’s a little issue
The remarkable thing here is that the only way the most prestigious data review on community masks – which found no clear evidence of benefit – made it into the paper of record was in an opinion piece
The NYT Science desk did not deem it newsworthyhttps://t.co/7zeFP5CW5f
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) February 22, 2023
The opinion piece in question is by “”””Conservative”””” Brett Stephens (if you save the article to Pocket you can read it without worrying about the paywall)
The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous.
“There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” he told the journalist Maryanne Demasi. “Full stop.”
But, wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks?
“Makes no difference — none of it,” said Jefferson.
What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates?
“They were convinced by nonrandomized studies, flawed observational studies.”
We all knew they really made no difference early on in COVIDtime, and when all the mask mandates were being imposed. If they were so good, why was it that all the Elites and politicians were taking them off indoors to speak to people? Why did Biden take his off when he stood up at the podium to speak to the press? Same with Jen Psaki. And Democratic Party governors implementing mask mandates? And Elites at places like the Super Bowl? The examples just keep coming and coming
There’s a final lesson. The last justification for masks is that, even if they proved to be ineffective, they seemed like a relatively low-cost, intuitively effective way of doing something against the virus in the early days of the pandemic. But “do something” is not science, and it shouldn’t have been public policy. And the people who had the courage to say as much deserved to be listened to, not treated with contempt. They may not ever get the apology they deserve, but vindication ought to be enough.
No, it’s not enough. It’s definitely not enough. People need to pay a price for their COVID insanity. I understand the things in the first month or two, because the entire world was freaking out, particularly after the meltdown in Italy. But, we really started to know more quickly, yet, the Powers That Be still pushed their COVID tyranny. One Missouri Republican wants Jackson County to refund mask fines to businesses.
And some really want a reckoning, as Steve Deace points out on his radio show (I read an article on this via Real Clear Politics in the last week or 2, having trouble finding it again.) He and Daniel Horowitz have a book out entitled Rise of the Fourth Reich: Confronting COVID Fascism with a New Nuremberg Trial, So This Never Happens Again. It won’t happen, because too many really liked all the authority given to government, and the media, which should be exposing this stuff, are in bed with the Fascists. Seriously, how many in the Credentialed Media are giving real coverage to the mask study?
To me, it was always a point of interest where the various government agencies found the authority to issue orders in the first place. Some counties and states actually have statutes that grant governors emergency powers under very limited circumstances. Many other states do not and very few jurisdictions had the authority to regulate COVID 19 responses, but they did it anyway. Why they did it and why didn’t the media or professional jurists raise an alarm that they had no such authority is a mystery to me. Even the Federal government issuing mask mandates for air travel and vaccine mandates for border crossing depended on other vague authorities to accomplish their purpose and used brute force enforcement to gain cooperation. And no media, law school professors, civil tights organizations or judges mentioned it. It’s not as if the government couldn’t have used statute to push through the authorities needed. There were several COVID targeted bills that could have served as the vehicles. They just didn’t bother. Only Libertarians rejected the arguments while mostly complying anyway.
The initial thought process behind the fear-mongering of covid was that the death rate was going to be 3 percent.
3 percent of 7 billion or so is a whole lot of dead people lying around. In the end, the death rate turned out to be just a bit higher than that of the flu, the difference of course being nearly everyone has caught covid vs perhaps 10 percent of the world catching the flu each year.
Masks never worked. My Grand Daughter was a nurse during the height of Covid and everyone was dropping like flies, despite living all day in N-95 masks, gowns, face shields, and rubber gloves. She reported the main difference to how sick people seemed to get was vitamin D3 levels when they blood tested every person coming to the ER. Higher the D3 levels, the less likely they were to get bad sick.
That has been confirmed in study after study the last couple of years. The last study to come out was out of Italy.
The gist of it was that Masks dont work against covid but she said they were very effective in keeping them from catching the cold and flus.
A trade off she says will bite us in the ass as colds and flus will start hitting us harder as our immune system forgets about them to fight covid.
Wait-Johnny said they work but they don’t?
Shocking….
But it was all based on science, you know.
The science that said wear your masks while walking into a restaurant several ft apart, but then it was ok to take them off while you sat at the table 1 foot apart
Because masks were in short supply, Reichsstatthalter Andy Beshear (NSDAP-KY) had instructions placed on state websites on how to make your own, from a bandana.
Dear D&G:
“In the end, the death rate turned out to be just a bit higher than that of the flu, the difference of course being nearly everyone has caught covid vs perhaps 10 percent of the world catching the flu each year.”
Actually only 105,154,522 has caught the disease, 1,144,333 has died. How many in the total caught are more than once, I have had it twice, is not known. So it isn’t “everyone.” As for dying, the deaths are age and immune compromised centric. E.g. In Tn the death rate for those in the 70+ who catch the disease is around 30%.
Masks were never thought to be a “silver bullet,” just another weapon in the Social Distancing weapon series. Do they do some good? Well in Asian countries where mask wearing has historically been applied (Japan, et al) the deaths per million is 574 versus our 3418.
Let me hasten to add that I strongly oppose the government telling anyone what drug they can take to try and save their lives.
BTW – The worst modern flu year was 1968 when around 80,000 died.
https://www.tn.gov/content/tn/health/cedep/ncov/data.html
https://www.worldometers.com
Doesn’t matter if you wear a mask or not, if you get sick, there is nothing you can do about it.
It is 25 below zero out there tonight, sometimes I wear a mask to avoid breathing the super cold air that is a pita.
Thank God there is climate change, in three months, the temperatures will be much warmer.
If I were a Whooping Crane, I’d fly south for the winter just to avoid freezing to death way up north. Migrations occur for a reason.
All I can do is stay inside a warm house to avoid freezing the death.
SC 25 is a Maunder Minimum.
Time to drink beer, too cold to do anything else.
After 70 winters of seeing what does happen, you are a fool to believe in global warming. It is not there.