Posted on 11/20/2020 7:05:59 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Well, we have a new study on mask-wearing in the time of COVID, and it once again shows that the so-called experts have been peddling information that might not be true. Of course, on a commonsense scale, wearing a mask to prevent spreading the virus makes sense. It does not make you immune. And with the back-and-forth on masks, the credibility of this recommendation has been shot up like a piece of swiss cheese. The best part is that the study undermines the mask regime the COVID Nazis want us to abide by on a daily basis. Look, I won’t lie, folks, I can’t shop for groceries without a mask, so I have been wearing one. Also, I don’t want to waste time being mobbed by the "COVID Karens," but the headline in The New York Times piece says it all about the media and when their narrative gets blown up.
"A New Study Questions Whether Masks Protect Wearers. You Need to Wear Them Anyway." That’s the headline. So, now what? We shouldn’t trust the experts? (via NYT) [emphasis mine]:
Researchers in Denmark reported on Wednesday that surgical masks did not protect the wearers against infection with the coronavirus in a large randomized clinical trial. But the findings conflict with those from a number of other studies, experts said, and is not likely to alter public health recommendations in the United States.
The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, did not contradict growing evidence that masks can prevent transmission of the virus from wearer to others. But the conclusion is at odds with the view that masks also protect the wearers — a position endorsed just last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Critics were quick to note the study’s limitations, among them that the design depended heavily on participants reporting their own test results and behavior, at a time when both mask-wearing and infection were rare in Denmark.
[…]
From early April to early June, researchers at the University of Copenhagen recruited 6,024 participants who had been tested beforehand to be sure they were not infected with the coronavirus.
Half were given surgical masks and told to wear them when leaving their homes; the others were told not to wear masks in public.
At that time, 2 percent of the Danish population was infected — a rate lower than that in many places in the United States and Europe today. Social distancing and frequent hand-washing were common, but masks were not.
About 4,860 participants completed the study. The researchers had hoped that masks would cut the infection rate by half among wearers. Instead, 42 people in the mask group, or 1.8 percent, got infected, compared with 53 in the unmasked group, or 2.1 percent. The difference was not statistically significant.
[…]
Dr. Mette Kalager, a researcher at Telemark Hospital in Norway and the Harvard School of Public Health, was persuaded. The study showed that “although there might be a symbolic effect,” she wrote in an email, “the effect of wearing a mask does not substantially reduce risk” for wearers.
[…]
Dr. Christine Laine, editor in chief of the Annals of Internal Medicine, described the previous evidence that masks protect wearers as weak. “These studies cannot differentiate between source control and personal protection of the mask wearer,” she said.
Dr. Laine said the new study underscored the need for adherence to other precautions, like social distancing. Masks “are not a magic bullet,” she said. “There are people who say, ‘I’m fine, I’m wearing a mask.’ They need to realize they are not invulnerable to infection.”
Of course, continue to practice social distancing and wash your hands for 20-seconds as often as possible, but this mask stuff has again taken a hit. With that, I don’t know who to trust. It changes, almost like the number of glasses of water one should drink a day. First, they said eight glasses, and then they said that’s too much; we’re pissing away proper nutrients. All I know is that when you don’t know, you can’t issue mask mandates, nor can you issue lockdowns. This is an era where information abounds. People are going to find out over 180-degree reversals like this—and when they do, they are bound not to listen to these people anymore. Any credibility is shattered. It’s already been shattered. You cannot protest or, in the case of Notre Dame, storm a football field when your team beats a #1-ranked opponent in Clemson, but celebrating in the streets and sharing bottles of champagne post-Election Day is okay in the cities. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom was forced to eat crap when he issued his "you have to stay inside" order, only to abscond to Napa Valley for a dinner with multiple friends. The lawmakers from this state also backed lockdowns before going to Maui. Yeah, and people wonder why there’s so much opposition to lockdowns. The experts don’t know anything. The Democrats are getting off on the lockdown authority harder than Jeffrey Toobin on a Zoom call. A lockdown that’s not based on solid scientific evidence, or at the very least evidence where the jury is indeed still out, like masks, isn’t a public safety measure—it’s a power grab. And the American people have caught on to it.
Cowardice is contagious. But so is courage. When I don’t wear one, I see others doing it, too. Secret grins exchange. The New Resistance. I’m in.
I think I stated I didn’t want to catch “anything”. I have not had the flu in 25 or 30 years but upper respiratory fairly frequently. We take D3, K2, Quercitin, Tumeric, Super B, and C everyday.
I think the masks and staying 6 ft away from people in stores is helpful.
“I can’t figure out why they would push something that disabled facial recognition.”
So crime can increase, at a time when coos get defunded. “Destabilization” is Step 2 towards a Communist takeover of a country. After Demoralization.
“The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, did not contradict growing evidence that masks can prevent transmission of the virus from wearer to others. “
This has always been the point of wearing a mask. It’s why surgeons wear one while operating. Why is that so hard for people to understand?”
Surgeons wear one to prevent mouth bacteria from falling into an open wound. Nothing else. And studies show this doesn’t reduce infections in patients post-surgery anyway. Plenty no longer do it unless pushed to by patients or fear of lawsuits.
Google it.
⢠There are ZERO clinical trials that show that masks can prevent transmission of the virus from wearer to others.
⢠This is the first and only randomized clinical trial we have on mask against COVID-19 in community settings, but its findings of ineffectiveness are fully expected in light of all the other RCTs we have on other respiratory viruses.
⢠No matter what this or any study concludes, it will mean nothing to the mask cultists who are in a full-blown, hair-on-fire, dig my beliefs frenzy. Likley explained by the “Sunk cost fallacy”. They are possessed religious fanatics and nothing will shake them from their desperation to control something about this virus. If these are the findings from a covering such as a surgical mask, imagine how inept cotton masks are.
⢠Nothing short of a hazmat suit or N95 will protect them from their greatest fear....getting a virus that has a 99.7% survival rate.
⢠Can anyone answer this question: how do masks reduce transmission one way, but not the other? Is there some sort of one-way valve stitched into the fabric?
This is an argument that neither side can win. If a true believer gets sick wearing a mask, they will blame all the people who aren’t as careful as them. If a sceptic gets sick wearing a mask at a mandated store or workplace, they will claim that the mask did not make any difference. Because I work in the semiconductor industry where we always wear masks in the cleanroom, I know this for a fact- masks work to prevent the spit of ordinary conversation from penetrating to your mouth. However, no mask will prevent something as small as a virus from being inhaled and still allow you to breathe.
I just bought an iPhone 12, my first with facial recognition. It never dawned on my moving away from an old iPhone 6 with fingerprint recognition to facial recognition would be a disaster in this mask era. Now I’m having to enter my PIN code all the time!
Ah, the small annoyances of modern life.
What a novel concept.......
Same here.
Just to the store and it goes on at the last possible minute and comes off the second I step outside the door.
I don’t even pull it out of my pocket until I’m at least 20 feet inside the store and it’s off before I get to the door.
If required I wear it going to the restaurant table but never when leaving. The worst they can do is kick me out.
I know right? Too bad our mothers did not know this and teach us as children to cover our mouths when we cough.
Do you disagree with this?
“The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, did not contradict growing evidence that masks can prevent transmission of the virus from wearer to others. “
If you’re susceptible to upper respiratory infections, do you really think it’s a good idea to wear a petri dish right over your face and nose?
Do you disagree with this?
“The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, did not contradict growing evidence that masks can prevent transmission of the virus from wearer to others. “
Additional information could have been gathered by the Copenhagen study. 1) To what degree was social distancing being practiced. 2) While slightly fewer (but not statistically significant) people wearing masks got sick, how severe was the degree of illness reached by the people in each group. If one was inhaling fewer viruses, then the body’s zinc would have a better chance to fight the virus and the body would not progress to severe symptoms. Since seafood is probably a common food in Sweden, I wonder what the body zinc levels are in that population. Elsewhere I have seen that one third of the Earth’s population is zinc deficient. Null and void, please be sure you are getting a lot of zinc, and if not HCQ, then Quercetin which you can get at health food stores. Also, perhaps Resviratrol.
I’ve got quercitin, zinc, vitamins C & D, NAC and beta carotene.
“Do you disagree with this?”
“The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, did not contradict growing evidence that masks can prevent transmission of the virus from wearer to others. “
_________
The study did not examine whether a mask would prevent a sick person from transmitting the virus to healthy people. It did not address it at all. So in that sense, it did not contradict, yes.
But that is 100% Straw Man Argument. “The study of bird migration did not contradict other studies showing alligators eat dogs.” Similar logic.
Or, as Rumsfield was fond of saying, “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Do you disagree with that statement?
My point is, you are nitpicking my illustration. My original post was to poo-poo the entire study because the point of wearing a mask has always been to protect others, not yourself.
i disagree with part of it. There is not growing evidence the masks prevent transmission to others. the rest is correct as the results did not reach statistical significance it did not prove or contradict anything although it is one more piece of evidence that masks fail to make a statistically significant difference in anything
That little wire in the masks is an RFID “chip”!!!
Just kidding, I think.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.