Posted on 12/21/2020 4:42:29 AM PST by Kaslin
Obviously, no amount of evidence, data, trends, facts, studies, or science will ever convince most ‘public health officials’ that masks aren’t doing squat to stop the spread of COVID-19. Cases and deaths continue to spike (yes, many of these are super-sensitive PCR test-driven numbers, but still) despite the fact that well over 90% of the country are complying with their absurd mandates. Yet, predictably, the virus keeps going right on virusing, as highly contagious respiratory viruses, unfortunately, tend to do, especially once cold weather hits.
Nevertheless, those of us who are mask skeptics have a difficult chore in front of us. Given that most of the country is under a mask mandate of some form or another, we can point to spikes all day AFTER these mandates were put in place only to have our opponents simply say, “Look how bad it would have been WITHOUT masks!”
It’s a tough argument to counter given the fact that our overlords have sold masking as a low-cost, easy “solution” that’s totally worth it even if they “save one life,” or something (nevermind the health risks - let’s censor docs who talk about those!). So, how DO we prove that things wouldn’t have been worse without masks? One way is to look at data from the few free states remaining.
In Florida, for example, most counties have so far bravely refused to implement mask mandates while others, usually in high population centers, have done so. Justin Hart and the team at Rational Ground (follow them on Twitter here - it’s worth it) just released a comprehensive data analysis of masked vs non-masked counties in the state. A total of 22 of 67 counties in the state have implemented a mask order at some point during the period of May 1 through December 15. It may not sound like many, but these include almost all of Florida’s largest metro areas. To be more than fair, if an area added a mask order at some point during the outbreak, the study’s authors gave a 14 day period to allow time for cases to begin subsiding. “Cases were summed for both mandate and non-mandate jurisdictions and adjusted per 100,000 people for days the mandates were or were not in effect,” wrote the authors, describing the methodology used.
If masks did even close to as advertised, one would expect to see the counties that went maskless to be absolute dumpster fires next to the counties that implemented mandates, right? At the very least, the numbers should favor the masked areas by more than a percentage point or two. So, how did it go? Yep, it was the Mask Cult’s worse nightmare:
“When counties DID have a mandate in effect, there were 667,239 cases over 3,137 days with an average of 23 cases per 100,000 per day. When counties DID NOT have a countywide order, there were 438,687 cases over 12,139 days with an average of 22 cases per 100,000 per day.”
In other words, counties with mask-mandates in place actually did WORSE than those that refused to implement them. (Yeah, color me shocked.) The authors even accounted for population density in their analysis, suggesting that it didn’t have an impact on the numbers because four of the 12 most populous counties in Florida never had a countywide order. “When the eight DID have an order in effect, there were 64 cases per 1,000. In periods 11 of 12 DID NOT have one, there were 40,” they wrote.
“But that’s just Florida,” you say. “They’re weirdos anyway. Surely masks have worked in the rest of the country.” Well, I’m glad you asked! The good folks at Rational Ground went on to compare national numbers, pitting the states that resisted the urge to impose a statewide mask mandate against those that masked up. How did those compare?
“When states DID have a mandate in effect, there were 9,605,256 cases over 5,907 total days and averaged 27 cases per 100,000 per day. When states DID NOT have a statewide order there were 5,781,716 cases over 5,772 total days averaging 17 cases per 100,000 people per day.”
So there you have it, incontrovertible data evidence that mask mandates do little to nothing to stop or even slightly curb the spread of COVID-19. If masks were the answer, wouldn’t you expect to see a drop in cases not long after mask mandates are implemented? At the very least, wouldn’t you expect to see cases level off and STAY leveled off? What you would NOT expect would be what has actually happened, for cases to spike as they have done since November seemingly all across the country, regardless of whether or not a mandatory masking policy was in place.
Further, wouldn’t you also expect states and areas that MASKED HARRDERRR than anyone else, states like California that have the ‘bold leadership’ to insist the plebes under their control mask up outside on hiking trails and sitting alone in parks, to have the lowest case counts of all? Just look at the latest per capita numbers there compared to Florida and tell me with a straight face that mask mandates ‘work.’ As Dave Rubin adeptly pointed out earlier this month, Florida’s numbers “should be ten times higher” than California’s. I mean, nobody is asking for masks to work perfectly, but hell, shouldn’t we expect SOME performance?
Numbers and data like this get down to the brass tacks. We can pit our doctors, scientists, and epidemiologists against their doctors, scientists, and epidemiologists on the actual science behind whether forcing people to put a moist, bacteria & virus-laden piece of cloth over the holes through which they breathe actually works to contain a virus that’s infinitesimally smaller than its threads (and yes, there are plenty of doctors, scientists, and epidemiologists on Team Reality too, and a bunch of them are on this must-follow Twitter list!), but if mask-mandates aren’t actually WORKING to curb the spread, why do we have them in place?
It’s complete and utter nonsense, of course. You know it, I know it, and the powers-that-be likely know it too. So why do they insist on continuing the charade? Whatever it is, it has NOTHING to do with either public health or real science.
What does total population have to do with density? Is every county in FL the same size?
I talk when required, I’m not really a yeller and I can’t sing to save my life.
We all get together, we hug, we visit, we live. Fear is for the weak.
masks and lockdowns are worthless. Covid is NOT a lie. I am not intellectually lazy fearful or gutless and can show you hospital wards and and ICUs full of covid patients. The illness is real
Yesterday here in South Carolina it was reported the CDC stated “Mask use and social distancing have made flu almost nonexistent. Covid is surging because people are not wearing masks and practicing social distancing.”
MOST of the time when masks are in use is when a person is having short random public encounters during the day with mostly uninfected or asymptomatic persons, and then mostly on the sidewalks, in largely open shopping venues, outdoor or limited-seating-indoor cafes, or as employees in such places, or at their other regular places of work.
But where do MOST new infections arise?
Most new infections arise with contact with (a) a person who is beginning to have symptoms, (B) in closed and close quarters, (c) with sustained contact for some period of time.
Masks do not do as suggested because they are not worn the one time when they are most necessary - small indoor close-quartered meeting with a close friend, associate or family member who is infected and who is starting to have symptoms (in other words, when their guard is down, and THAT, more than all other times is when the guard may have worked).
In a study of New York state virus-positive cases, looking for where most infectious contact occurred, involving many thousands of traced contacts over many months, 74% occurred in the home and the next largest percentage (8%) was in health-care related institutions including nursing homes.
In other words a bare 18% of infectious contacts occurred out where the regulations say people should be masked all the time.
100% public masking, out in the public has as much science to it as does quarantining the healthy instead of isolating the sick and vulnerable.
Instead of telling the mildly ill they should take their meds, go home and self-quarentine, they should be putting them up in dormitory style self-quarantine centers, away from their families and the general public - isolate the sick. Sending mildly ill persons home, to continue to mingle with their family and other house mates is likely part of the “surges”.
I know in one of our own families it was our nephew who got the bug, was sent home with medications, and within days his wife and two kids had it, even though he was self-isolating in one part of the house. Remember (a) close contact in closed quarters, (b) with an infected person with symptoms, C) over some sustained period of time - NOT random short term man-in-the-street public contact.
An early NY City study of the Covid-hospitalized found 66% were NOT among the “essential workers” allowed out in the public every day. That 66% was with folks who were just staying at home. Those out in the streets wearing masks against each other were NOT the biggest source of infections that hospitalized someone. No. Those told to mask 100% of the time out in public had mostly contact that is/was fleeting and usually not close contact and not closed quarters and not for a sustained time frame.
agreed
But not because I think the corona virus is not real health danger or a risk. But as a former hospital administrator, charged with purchasing masks for the hospital medical personnel, I know that the masks people are wearing are to stop germs and bacteria from spreading, not viruses.
Doctors and nurses wear masks to stop the spread of germs and bacteria, living organisms that are large enough to be seen under a microscope. Big bugs, in other words.
But the masks are not and never were intended to prevent the spread of viruses, which are inert (dead) particles that are submicroscopic in size, much smaller than bacterial germs. So small, they require an electron microscope to see them.
The wearing of masks is simply cosmetic in nature and to give the public a sense of safety, when in fact this corona virus is so small that it can pass freely through the weave of the mask material easily. So the masks are more for placating the public than to protect them from the virus.
People have been convinced by so-called government medical "experts", that wearing the mask will protect them and others. Other people wear masks as a fashion statement but their utility is zero in stopping the virus. Many people wear masks to assuage their guilt for not following what the government tells them to do.
The CDC's own reporting reveals that 89% of all Covid-19 patients wore a mask all of the time or most of the time before being diagnosed. That means the masks are not protective against contracting the virus. Less people (11%) were diagnosed after not wearing the masks or wearing them very little, than those who wore them all or most of the time.
With a survivability rate of 99.9% for those under 70 year of age, not wearing a mask doesn't present much of a risk. The rate is still good at 94.6% for those over age 70, the highest risk age group.
So wearing masks is not a real solution. It is just a visual symbol that you are part of a group who believe the government propaganda.
CDC Admits: No Conclusive Evidence Cloth Masks Work Against COVID 10/29/20
Or this?
Or this?
The CDC Accidentally Admits Cloth Masks Are Not Effective 9/10/20
That last one is of particular note. The CDC admits the virus is too small to be stopped by a cloth mask. Like using a chain link fence to stop mosquitoes.
Really? Where? Show us. Tell us. But while you're at it, show us and tell us what is the NORMAL/AVERAGE number of patients in ICU's, what is the NORMAL/AVERAGE number of people that die every day/month/year, and how does 2020 compare to that? What is the NORMAL/AVERAGE age of death in the US? What is the average age of people supposedly dying of COVID?
Maybe, COVID itself isn't a lie - that is, some flu-like respiratory virus is out there, along with hundreds, if not thousands, of others, but everything about it is a lie. The big LIE we are being told is that this virus is so unique, so deadly, so incredibly clever, that it can do all sorts of things that no other virus has ever done before. And we are being told that, in order to combat this incredibly dangerous and deadly disease, we must surrender all notions of freedom, individual responsibility, and common sense. We must do things and live in a way that we have NEVER done before, and we are told to just shut up and accept it. And we are told, after 9 months of this bullsh*t, that we just need to do more of the same things that clearly haven't helped (by their own admission, the "experts" have been completely wrong in their approach to this alleged pandemic).
Sorry, but no. If COVID was truly as dangerous and contagious and unprecedentedly deadly as the "experts" and government tyrants claim, they wouldn't need to constantly try to convince everyone of it. "15 days to flatten the curve"... Remember that? Remember when COVID "deaths" were all they talked about, and at some point (early summer, I think), it suddenly became an obsessive focus on "cases", and that became the new metric that had to be eliminated before any return to some twisted version of "normal" life?
You claim to see hospital wards and ICUs "full" of COVID patients? Then show us, tell us. But if you do, give some CONTEXT to the numbers.
Recently, Andrew Cuomo said that NY won't end COVID restrictions until ICU's in the state have at least 15% availability. What is the NORMAL/AVERAGE ICU bed availability in NY? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is less than 15%. That is an example of the CONTEXT that is missing from all of the COVID propaganda.
‘Denying the reality of the total ineffectiveness of widespread masking of America’s population is a sickness unto itself ...’
it is worse than sick; it is diabolical...the reason useless mask mandates have been continued and even strengthened is because they do the work the governmental collectivists who will be seizing power wish to have done, but are too clever to do themselves; turning the populace in on itsef, pitting the people walking the streets and shopping in stores against each other...
look at some of the threads on this forum, supposedly strongly anti collectivist, and what jumps out...? the venom that inevitably hits around the third post or so, the rancor between the posters; now, triple that anger in the general population that doesn’t have political systems in mind, and watch the rage boiling over when maskers confront a non-masker, read the epithets those who wish to breathe freely are called in the one sided media...we hate each other now, exactly what the political elites who are going to be weilding power for the foreseeable future needed to have to begin operations in earnest...
The CCP LOVES submission.
They’re not worth the expense either - the elastic wears out and they fit loosely. I went with the cheap ones after that.
Not quite what I meant but a good find. Mask Labeling was a topic early in March that seemed to have disappeared. I’m referring to a specific claim on the packaging that the mask prevents the spread or infection of viruses. For example Tylenol packaging claims it reduces fevers. They can legally do this because there are approved studies supporting this claim. To the best of my knowledge there are no approved studies that a particular companies masked prevent the transmission of COVID.
People who actually believe covering their face with a cloth will stop an airborn transmitted respiratory virus are morons, plain and simple. But they are also “true believers,” so arguing with them is a waste of time.
People who think they are probably useless but still wear them, to “go along,” are flat out cowards, and don’t deserve the limited freedoms we still have. They are worse than the morons. They are Mitt Romneys. I despise them.
Me, I don’t wear one, period. If they “insist” to get into a place, I put one on, take 10 steps, back turned, and pull it off. Rinse, repeat. I don’t argue, make faces, just passive agressive resistance. They get sick of it and leave me alone, no mask.
Everyone else should do the same, until it becomes obvious we will not comply.
This doctor said this was a ridiculous statement especially as it was made by a medical professional, and it is similar to how masking has been sustained for so long even though it doesn't work. Masking started out as a form of self-protection, but was soon re-packaged as a duty to protect others. The availability of an effective vaccine was promoted for months as a way to get us out of this ... but now it's following the same marketing path as masking.
The doctor concluded that the idea that we take preventive steps (masking; a vaccine) against a virus in order to "protect others" isn't medicine, it's socialism ... pure and simple! (A crushing analysis, brilliantly presented in a single short sentence by my reckoning!)
Mask 1 reads: "F*ck you, Gavin Newsom" in black cursive on a white background
Mask 2 is the infamous rebus picture puzzle consisting of an eye, a heart, a photo of Gavin Newsom then a tree, and finally a couple of musical notes, spelling out "I love country music" ... the picture of Newsom, appropriately I think, representing the first syllable of the word "country".
May as well have a little fun with the bullies and the busybodies, though no one has commented yet ....
One of the county Mayors here in East TN who imposed a mask mandate on his citizens just contracted COVID...
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.