Here in Colorado, on Friday, 9 October, Governor Jared Polis – who bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Potatohead – announced that he’s extending the current masking mandate for an additional 30 days.
Well, of course he’s extending it. I can think of very few – if any, actually – examples in history of dictators who have willingly stepped away from power. Further, that conveniently pushed the possible end date beyond Election Day.
How convenient.
Riddle me this: if masks are so effective, why is it that I can nowhere find data on what percentage of people hit with COVID were mask-wearers? If the vast majority of victims were people who didn’t wear masks you’d think that information would be trumpeted from the rooftops because it would be very strong evidence – not actual proof, but evidence – that masking actually works to help stop the spread of the disease.
On the other hand, if a significant percentage of those victims were regular mask wearers yet were still hit with COVID that would be a pretty clear indication that wearing masks is ineffective, and I would expect that data to be suppressed as it would conflict with the entire political dynamic and dogma that’s been imposed on the populace, which has been based so far on speculation and unproven hypotheses.
So, which is it? Is no one even collecting such data? If not, why not? I find that idea hard to swallow, as it seems to fly in the face of normal medical practice and epidemiology. Or is the data being collected, but also being suppressed?
Let’s see the stats.
©Brian Baker 2020
The View from the Island 
Masks don’t protect the person wearing them. They protect others from the exhalations of the person wearing the mask, who could have the virus and not know it.
That doesn’t make any sense. It either effectively filters the virus or it doesn’t, regardless of who’s wearing it.
It filters the droplets of the exhalations, thus preventing any virus that the wearer has from getting into the air around other folks.
The virus isn’t so much received through the mouth and nose as it is in the skin or eyes.
I understand that theory, but as an engineer I can tell you that it doesn’t hold water. Unless one wears a mask that hermetically seals around the borders, much of that vapor and the viruses it contains blow right out around the edges. That’s one of the reasons that there’s been published advice about cleaning one’s glasses if they fog up from that vapor. If masks worked, glasses would NEVER fog up.
However, that’s all tangential to what I asked: where are the stats indicating that masks have had any positive effect whatsoever in mitigation?
The whole mask thing is bullshit. The only thing that would protect anyone from absorbing a virus is a full hazmat suit with replaceable filters.
LOL
Yep. I couldn’t agree more. Total bullshit with a capital B and a capital S.
The first column I wrote about this crap way back in May (https://theviewfromtheisland.com/2020/05/21/the-rape-of-the-constitution-are-panic-and-hysteria-going-to-be-the-new-normal/) called this out as a political stunt completely divorced from actual science. Using a mask to stop a virus is like using a chicken wire fence to stop a mosquito. All it does is make the person wearing the mask look like a moron.
I’ve refused to play this stupid game. I haven’t worn a mask once since this WuHysteria started. Don’t intend to, either.
Yup. I have never worn a mask. Won’t either.
The virus particles are a 1000 times smaller than the holes in a N95 mask.
Btw, if the virus is so deadly, where are the hazmat bins for all the wipes, masks, and such?
Yeah. Good question.
Good topic, Brian – one that I’ve grinched about repeatedly. The only reason I wear one is because I don’t want the death stares from other shoppers.
If masks were truly effective, there wouldn’t be so many ‘medical experts’ waffling on the use of them, including the doctor with the brownest nose of all, Dr. Fauci. They’re merely political tools mandated by tyrants and enforced by wimpy governors who are too afraid to say no, except for one Governor Kristi Noem.
There’s no point in wearing a mask to go into a grocery story and pick out fruit and veggies that have been touched by numerous other hands that may have been infected. That box of crackers you just bought was handled by more people than you ever trace, and that’s just one item.
Thanks, Kathy.
I’ll lead with saying I despise Fauci. I think he’s a pompous pencil-necked little dweeb still trying to compensate for the fact that he was never able to get a date in high school. The most dangerous place to be, other than between Michael Moore and a free buffet, is between Fauci and a camera.
Fortunately for me, I’m a pretty big guy who can have a pretty intimidating presence (so I’m told) when I want to, so I just put on my “don’t f*** with me” face when I go somewhere, and people just leave me alone. Most of the time, I’m one of the few people, if not the only person, in the store maskless. Which is fine with me. I don’t care about the “death stares”… LOL.
But I never hold someone else’s decision to wear a mask against them, as long as they’re making that decision for themselves. It’s the fact that the government is MANDATING the damned things that I despise.
When I was growing up I spent 4 years in the Far East, in addition to my year in Vietnam, and masks are as common as dirt there. I grew up with some people wearing masks as normal. I didn’t care as long as no one was forcing me to wear one. That really hasn’t changed.
Gee Brian, I hate to see you hold back – go ahead and tell us how you really feel about Fauci. I couldn’t stand listening to him – I kept constantly clearing my throat for him, lol. Plus he’s been the government’s go-to guy way too long to be trusted – he’ll drag it out as long as possible to hang on to the spotlight and keep his gig alive.
I’ll work on my ‘don’t f*** with me face’ so the death stares don’t bother me, but there are some people out there that should wear a mask whether there’s a mandate or not. Just sayin’…
HAHAHA!
Yep…
On Laura Ingraham’s show the other day Alex Berenson cited a study which found that something like 70% of COVID-positive cases in the study were regular mask-wearers and another 14%-ish sometimes wore masks. He also talked about a big study that was being done on mask-effectiveness that suddenly seems to have disappeared before the results were published, which he inferred to mean that the study suggested the absence of proof of mask effectiveness. I couldn’t find a clip from that show anywhere, unfortunately.
My husband shares your view on masks, Brian, but IMHO it makes sense that if EVERYONE is PROPERLY wearing a DECENT mask AND maintaining a reasonably safe distance from each other that this would tend to reduce the prospect of transmission on the simple basis that the more obstacles the particles have to bypass to successfully transmit the virus the lower the odds of transmission, though I don’t claim to have any special expertise or insight on the subject. This is just what makes sense to me. I used caps to emphasize the ideal and to highlight that the reality of mask-wearing is a far cry from what I just stipulated. I’ve seen every kind of ridiculous rendition of wearing a “mask,” including a man in the grocery store the other day who had a mask on but removed it several times so that he could cough more comfortably, lol. I understand the desire for public safety, but mandating masks without enforcement of the type of mask and precisely how it is worn and handled (not possible, I understand) feels like an exercise in absurdity. I am far more in favor of the idea of simply keeping a safe distance from people and, if you’re in the vulnerable population, avoiding places where that safe distance cannot be maintained.
I chuckle (actually it’s more of a derisive sneer) at the leftists who cry about “following the science” when their own position is literally dictated by their political party: “You say you’re a democrat? Ok, then you will be hysterically in favor of mask-wearing – for everyone ELSE!” The obtuseness of being unable to see how destructive this is, or the evil of seeing it and not caring, is why the Left simply must be defeated.
Interesting info on Berenson (whose novels I really like, BTW). And not surprising.
One of the big problems, as I’ve mentioned before, is that the ONLY masks that have any chance of being effective are full-containment closed systems, such as are used in lab clean rooms, and which incorporate filtration systems, typically Class 1000 or better. Then throw in the way people actually use them, and the whole thing’s a farce. How can that possibly be “policed”? Does everyone get a dedicated “mask monitor” who follows them around 24/7 and whacks their knuckles with a ruler or gives them a ticket every time they misuse their mask?
The only thing that would have a prayer of working would be to require that everyone wear a MOPP suit every time they leave their home. A MOPP suit is what the military uses in chem/bio warfare environments. It’s a full enclosure head-to-toe “space suit” with a closed respiratory system. I doubt that’s going to happen.
As to Dems and “science”….. their policies are more “religion” than “science”.
“Does everyone get a dedicated “mask monitor” who follows them around 24/7 and whacks their knuckles with a ruler or gives them a ticket every time they misuse their mask?”
Don’t give them any ideas, Brian!
LOL!
FYI:
https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/new-cdc-study-finds-majority-of-those-infected-with-covid-19-always-wore-masks/
Well, well, well…
Thank you very much, CW. And I have to say that the results of that study don’t surprise me in the least. In fact they support my contention that news like that is being at least ignored, if not actually suppressed. It certainly doesn’t fit the prevailing agenda of the totalitarians pushing this “mask or kill Granny” BS.
My fervent wish is that Trump is re-elected, and that immediately following his re-election he fire that dinky twerp asshat Fauci.
I am late to this party! Fauci is a tool. He has even authored studies about mask effectiveness, FFS. I have been work everyday for the last 9 months along with 4 other people. We have not worn masks until the governor mandated it. Now, nobody comes in because of the mask wearing. I have taken my temperature every day and I go out as normal. My kids have traveled in and out of state, as have I. Nothing. I traveled on a United flight where a kid younger than five was forced to wear a mask held to his face by his parents and he screamed bloody murder the whole time. I think he thought he was going to die. It was not a tantrum kind of cry. Insane. In a few years, the “truth” is going to be published…wait for it!!
I think of that too, Nee… How history is going to judge this insanity.
Not kindly I suspect… and hope.