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Do We Need Mask Mandates? The science suggests that more states should consider rescinding them.
City Journal ^ | March 22, 2021 | Connor Harris

Posted on 03/23/2021 6:07:41 AM PDT by karpov

Joe Biden has counted on face masks to control the Covid-19 pandemic. On his first day in office, the president issued an executive order requiring masks on federal property and called for their widespread use for 100 days. More recently, the Centers for Disease Control has mandated masks on airplanes and mass transit, though most airlines and transit systems already require them.

These recommendations mark the latest step in a thorough reversal of the pre-pandemic public-health consensus that masks are useless or counterproductive. Yet the evidence underlying this reversal turns out to be quite weak. Widespread use of masks throughout the United States and Europe has failed to stop massive pandemic waves in the fall and winter. Preliminary signs also suggest that mask mandates may be causing considerable harm. Several state governments have recently rescinded their mask mandates, and a look at the science suggests that more should consider following.

Researchers have investigated masks for disease protection since the discovery, in the late nineteenth century, that many respiratory pathogens spread in droplets of exhaled moisture that follow ballistic paths extending a few yards. It seemed logical that a device to block relatively large droplets could also block smaller pathogens, both protecting wearers and serving as “source control,” stopping them from infecting others.

Later research has shown, however, that respiratory droplets obey a more complicated set of physical laws. In particular, once exhaled, they shrink rapidly through evaporation. One widely cited model estimates that droplets with diameters smaller than about 100 microns (a micron is a thousandth of a millimeter) evaporate before reaching the ground, leaving their contents as long-lasting aerosols; particles smaller than about five microns can stay aloft indefinitely and travel beyond droplet range.

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: covid; maskmandate; masks
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1 posted on 03/23/2021 6:07:41 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

if masks worked why where “vaccines” needed?

if they worked (and they dont) why does the prevalence increase?

if they worked why are they not collected and burnt?


2 posted on 03/23/2021 6:12:03 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum)
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To: karpov

About 20 years ago there was a hit song called “There is No Arizona” about a woman coming to terms with the fact that her lover has run off and will not be sending for her to join him for a wonderful life off in distant Arizona.

Well, I think we need to come to terms that There is No Science.


3 posted on 03/23/2021 6:13:18 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("I see you did something -- why you so racist?")
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To: karpov

The analogy I’ve heard is that masks are like using a chain link fence to stop a sand storm. Even if that overstates it (and it might not), places without mask mandates seem to be doing okay. There should be data by now.


4 posted on 03/23/2021 6:14:06 AM PDT by cdcdawg (Biden is a potato)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Heh. I was in a country band in Seattle. My daughter was the singer and we did that song. It was actually one of my favorites. Great lyrics. And you’re right.


5 posted on 03/23/2021 6:15:17 AM PDT by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
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To: Diogenesis

This just as the Oregon Dept of Health decides to double down and make the mask mandate permanent:

https://osha.oregon.gov/OSHARules/proposed/2021/text-chngs-covid19-public-health-emergency.pdf


6 posted on 03/23/2021 6:15:46 AM PDT by poindexters brother
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To: cdcdawg

Well, Michigan and Sweden are fairly similar on most metrics. There’s a good one.


7 posted on 03/23/2021 6:18:31 AM PDT by ferret_airlift
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To: ClearCase_guy

> Well, I think we need to come to terms that There is No Science. <

Along those lines, I’ve come to hate the phrases “the science suggests” and “follow the science”. It doesn’t matter who uses it. Because as you noted, there no longer is science. It’s now just another political tool.


8 posted on 03/23/2021 6:20:37 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: karpov

The states may rescind, like Abbott did in Texas, but most businesses aren’t. Signs are still up about “MANDATORY” mask requirements for stores and restaurants.


9 posted on 03/23/2021 6:21:31 AM PDT by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021)
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To: karpov

To heck with the science!

It makes the sheep feel secure. It makes them feel like they are part of something. It reminds them that they are submissive to the State. They adore it.

The ruling class loves the power. And the smarter among them have financial investments in the continued mask display.

It’s not going away for a long time.


10 posted on 03/23/2021 6:22:07 AM PDT by brownsfan (Term limits! Without term limits, we are doomed.)
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To: Leaning Right

The sad reality is that politics infested science many moons ago.


11 posted on 03/23/2021 6:22:42 AM PDT by FamiliarFace
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To: karpov

They’re not letting go of the control any time soon. They have been able to shut down businesses, jail rebels, and destroy Trump’s economy. They are letting non-Americans come in to the country while we are busy counting Covid positivity rates. They are planning a massive transfer of money to undeserving people by taking money from productive people, and will soon provide the justification for that: a summer of rioting.


12 posted on 03/23/2021 6:29:01 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The nation is in the grips of incurable hysterical insanity, as usual.)
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To: karpov

I’d argue that the most important aspect is that there’s no data to suggest the masks work at all. If there was it’d be plastered everywhere. Since we’ve all been wearing them, regardless of the linear increase in testing, the cases went up exponentially.

The Michigan HHS claim (TV commercials) a 70% reduction of the virus being spread by wearing masks but provide zero sources of the claim. Even the boxes that contain masks state they don’t protect against COVID-19! This is all an exercise in COMPLIANCE TO THE COLLECTIVE. The masks don’t do sh*t except brainwash people into believing they’re ‘saving lives’ and to do what they’re told, regardless of the Constitution.

The fact that the virus is everywhere regardless of a mask policy is evidence enough, they do nothing. The suggestion of wearing two masks is pure comedy, you have to ask how far does the idiocy go? Apparently, the masses will do anything to gain the comfort of believing that they’re a little safer - and give up their Constitutional rights in the process.


13 posted on 03/23/2021 6:35:44 AM PDT by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing of poor moral choices among everybody)
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To: karpov
But mandates of cloth and surgical masks impose major inconveniences and potentially serious health risks on citizens, for no clear benefit either to themselves or to others. Leaders who pride themselves on following the science should consider ending them and letting citizens protect their health as they see fit.

Heaven forbid letting citizens do anything as they see fit. That would set a precedent that could be applied to all sorts of things. Imagine, letting citizens do anything they see fit with the money they earn. We can't have that. It is best government cranks down control on simple things like breathing so much worse does not occur.

The mask mandates and shutdowns have been about freedom and liberty from the very beginning. It has nothing to do with good public health policy or science.

14 posted on 03/23/2021 6:37:50 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA (“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” ― Thomas Jefferson)
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To: karpov

They were just to get you trained. We passed the test.


15 posted on 03/23/2021 6:52:22 AM PDT by dljordan (Slouching towards Woketopia)
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To: karpov

We don’t need data, studies, and experts to know that the masks leak around the edges, that the fabric is too coarse to filter viruses, and that they hinder breathing.


16 posted on 03/23/2021 7:28:54 AM PDT by Socon-Econ (adical Islam, )
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To: karpov
" The science suggests that more states should consider rescinding them.

Science is a process to learn the truth. The Science is a political term used to disguise liberal propaganda and lies.

17 posted on 03/23/2021 8:47:44 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.)
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To: Diogenesis

if masks worked why where “vaccines” needed?


I think masks and lockdowns were arguably worth trying, especially in the NYC/NJ area. I think it pretty clear that these measures used broadly were a failure and were demonstrated as such strongly by early May, and conclusively by the end of May. Tactically, locally, in certain situations, by certain people, I expect they are helpful. Broadly and generally, they clearly are not.

As for vaccines, they would always be of use for the ‘transition’ people, such as the aides at nursing homes, or at hospitals.


18 posted on 03/23/2021 8:52:24 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: fuzzylogic

The suggestion of wearing two masks is pure comedy


It is. That was just clueless, considering that most folks don’t even seal the one mask, and the 2nd mask just traps stuff for other bad stuff - and of course moves around to transfer contaminants under it. More layers in a single mask might help filter. Two masks is just silly.


19 posted on 03/23/2021 8:57:35 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: karpov

Half the people in the country died from the chinese virus after they opened up their states. Wait they did not?
The democrats took advantage and created a plandemic.


20 posted on 03/23/2021 12:34:19 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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