New Study Adds to Growing Body of Evidence Suggesting Mask Mandates Are Ineffective

epoch times ^ | 19 July A.D. 2022 | Jack Phillips

[lightman]

A new study published this month revealed that COVID-19 mask mandates in schools have little to no effect.

“Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature which suggests school-based mask mandates have limited to no impact on the case rates of COVID-19 among K-12 students,” researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of California–Davis said in a preprint study published on Research Square.

Researchers evaluated two school districts in Fargo, North Dakota, in which one had a mask mandate and the other did not during the 2021–2022 academic year.

“We observed no significant difference between student case rates while the districts had differing masking policies nor while they had the same mask policies,” they noted, adding that the “impact of school-based mask mandates on COVID-19 transmission in children is not fully established” amid mandates nationwide.

A number of other studies have found no link between mask mandates and a drop in COVID-19 cases.

In one study published in May, researchers found that COVID-19 mask and vaccine rules implemented by Cornell University had limited impact against the transmission of Omicron in late 2021 and 2022.

“Cornell’s experience shows that traditional public health interventions were not a match for Omicron. While vaccination protected against severe illness, it was not sufficient to prevent rapid spread, even when combined with other public health measures including widespread surveillance testing,” the paper said.

And researchers in Spain found that mask mandates for children in Spain weren’t linked to a lower rate of COVID-19 cases or transmission.

In an evaluation of schoolchildren, kids aged 6 and older in Catalonia were required to wear masks once school reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers said.

Researchers compared the incidence of COVID-19 in older children to younger children to try to determine whether the mandates had been effective in the aim of reducing transmission of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, in schools.

Their study identified a much lower case rate in preschool, where there were no mandates when compared to older groups who were required to wear masks. Five-year-olds, for instance, had an incidence of 3.1 percent, while 6-year-olds had an incidence of 3.5 percent.

Researchers in Toronto, Canada, and California replicated a 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of counties in Arizona, published in The Lancet in May, that expanded the number of data points and extended the time period. They discovered that cases quickly declined in the weeks after the CDC cut off its study and decreased more quickly in the counties that didn’t have mask mandates.

“School districts that choose to mandate masks are likely to be systematically different from those that do not in multiple, often unobserved, ways. We failed to establish a relationship between school masking and pediatric cases using the same methods but a larger, more nationally diverse population over a longer interval,” the researchers said.

“It was known long before COVID-19 that face masks don’t do anything,” Former Pfizer VP Michael Yeadon, a toxicologist and allergy research specialist, told The Epoch Times in May. “Many don’t know that blue medical masks aren’t filters. Your inspired and expired air moves in and out between the mask [and] your face. They are splashguards, that’s all.”

[lightman]

Submission signalling, nothing more, nothing less.

[AlaskaErik]

I still see the occasional fool wearing one.

[lightman]

Yesterday was the FIRST time since PA enacted a mandate in April 2020 (rescinded in June of 2021) that I saw NO masked patrons at the grocery store.

[alloysteel]

Splashguards. Like mud flaps on a gravel truck. Supposed to keep debris from spinning up off the rear tires of the truck into traffic behind, but only partial protection if any.

And the truck still gets muddy.

Transparent face splash shields could always provide at least as much protection as any masking system that does not provide complete head enclosure and a dedicated air supply through a respirator, and an exhaust burp valve for stale air.

[OHPatriot]

As long as it’s their choice, who cares. Just don’t choose for me. You may not like the response.

[max americana]

umm, let me ask my family doctor called Fauci because he adamantly says they are 1000% effective. Geez, what do I do here s/

[lightman]

It’s all about teaching COMPLIANCE….
...not “following the science”:

Masks are:

1) a sign of submission, subversion and subjugation
2) mandated in order to dehumanize
3) virtue signaling devices
4) meant to provide constant reinforcement of fear
5) used to destroy community, friends and family normal communication
6) implemented to create isolation, confusion, anxiety, destroy human connectivity, trust and interactions
7) mandated to exacerbate illness
8) intended to aid in the abandonment of the belief and reliance on our immune systems
9) intended to refute integrous science
10) signal to positions of power that you are willing to give up all of your rights and freedoms based on anything they say, even if it is a BIG FAT LIE!

[Cold Heart]

Foegen effect, you are 1.5x more likely to die of covid if you wear a mask.

[XRdsRev]

The blue surgical masks are worthless but that is what most kids end up wearing (because they are cheap). The decent N95 masks do provide some protection if worn properly. The last controlled study I saw on them indicated they provided about 15 minutes of protection when within 3’ of a non mask wearing person. If both persons were wearing N95’s correctly the protection went well above an hour. No standard mask eliminates the virus getting through entirely but what you are trying to do is decrease the viral load you are exposed to and for that purpose N95 masks can be effective for a bit of time.

In a school setting I really don’t know how effective even a good mask would be over a period of hours. Anecdotely a family friend who is a teacher did wear a mask diligently over the past year and avoided getting sick. In June she ditched the mask because of the heat at school and a low transmission rate. She got COVID and ended up in the hospital two days after school ended. She is ok now, just a little weak still. Can’t say if the mask would have fully protected her or not.

[Newtoidaho]

Most everyone, except for brain dead liberals and several mask fanatics who posted here, knew this a long time ago.

[Amendment10]

Thank you for referencing that article lightman. Please note that the following critique is directed at the article and not at you.

"“Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature which suggests school-based mask mandates have limited to no impact on the case rates of COVID-19 [??? emphasis added] among K-12 students,”"

---

FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

Emphasizing that I'm not medically trained, please consider the following.

Reporting masks strictly for CV19 blocking effectiveness is not real world contamination testing imo.

More specifically, we saw a thread from middle of 2021 that reported that Florida parents had their kid's masks smartly lab tested to see what "bugs" might be found and got a list of troubling pathogens hiding in fabric, including pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis.

A Group Of Parents Sent Their Kids' Face Masks to A Lab for Analysis. Here's What They Found (6.15.21)

One kid's t-shirt, and unused masks, were use as controls, no pathogens found.

Also consider this thread.

Bacterial and fungal isolation from face masks under the COVID-19 pandemic (6.22.18)

Corrections, insights welcome.

Also, patriots are once again reminded that they must vote twice this election year. Your first vote is to primary career RINO incumbents. Your second vote is to replace outgoing Democrats and RINOs with Trump-endorsed patriot candidates.

Again, insights welcome.

[Texan5]

Same here-but it is getting more rare-on the way from work on Monday, I stopped at the small-chain grocery store in the county seat-I was amazed to see a woman wearing a flower print cloth mask pushing a cart and staring at all of us unmasked people-1st time in a month or so that I’ve seen a masked person in there-this is the middle of a rural area-maybe only democrats are wearing them now...

[minnesota_bound]

In Los Angeles they are set to mandate masks again. San Diego has already forced summer school kids to wear them.

[Clemenza]

And anecdotally I can tell you that the two most militant maskers at my last job still got COVID twice. I have never worn a mask other than to go to theater or doctor and am in NYC several days a week - I have never gotten COVID.

Time for the blue state pansies (and germaphobes everywhere) to stop with the face diapers and get on with their lives. Anyone still wearing a cloth or disposable mask should be treated like the fools they are.

[XRdsRev]

Personally I don’t care if they wear masks or not. It is none of my business. I am not the mask police. If seeing someone harmlessly wearing a mask triggers you, you probably have some issues you need to work on yourself. I kind of crack up when I read people on this site advocating harassing people for wearing masks. I thought Conservatives were for personal freedom ?? What the hell business is it if yours if someone wears a mask ??? You don’t know anything about them, perhaps they are immune compromised and have been medically advised to mask up, maybe they have COVID and are masking up as a courtesy to others. Some anti mask zealots here ARE the definition of a “Karen” and are just as rabid and annoying as the “everybody must wear a mask” Karen’s on the other side.

[Clemenza]

Well, I’ve never seen an anti-masker use the power of the state to force others to embrace their fetish like the maskers do. Don’t get me started on the three times I was harassed in public by strangers to wear a mask (I told them to f-off, which is what anyone on any side of this issue should do when harassed by strangers).

People who wear disposable face diapers (not KN95s)are like the people who I used to see tape their windows down in Florida in advance of a hurricane - misinformed at best, totally stupid at worst. We as humans frequently do stupid things and I am no exception, but stupid is as stupid does.

Perfectly healthy people who wear any sort of mask basically show themselves as fearful sheep who follow Faucism and the idiocy of thinking that they are preventing a virus that will be with us forever means that they will mask forever.

Keep yourself healthy folks. Don’t travel if you are sick and don’t force your fetishes on others via fiat please. After all, I don’t make you folks wear the Indiana Jones hat that I always wear in the fall, nor argue that there are scientific reasons for wearing it. 😊

[glennaro]

Although I agree that mandates -- especially over such ineffective things as masks and the "vaccines" as protection against a respiratory virus -- conflict directly and completely with the principles of Liberty, widespread masking does significant harm to society and thus should be discouraged:

-- Widespread masking which has truly become nothing more -- nothing more -- than a dirty, nasty, particularly unhealthy bad habit serves as a powerful visual reminder that our society is sick ... that we're all just one cough or one sneeze or one spittal droplet away from serious illness or "certain death!"

-- Wearing a mask -- as is wearing a full burka -- dehumanizes people as it covers their most important feature and as it hides their identity. Historically, public masking has often been used to hide the faces of the disfigured or insane.

-- In addition to building and maintaining fear, widespread masking builds distrust, anger (even hatred) and a general sense of malaise among people as it tears at the very fabric of society. It causes some people to think that the normal rules of civil society no longer apply to them ... or to others.

-- Forced masking of children is especially damaging as it harms not only their health, it causes serious psychological damage to a child's personal and societal development.

Your point that "perhaps they are immune compromised and have been medically advised to mask up, maybe they have COVID and are masking up as a courtesy to others" reveals, unintentionally I presume, the vile, truly evil lie about masking: That is, trusted medical professionals who should truly know better telling such "compromised" and ill people that masking will "protect" them from a respiratory virus when, in fact, even a properly selected, properly applied, properly fit-tested, properly worn and properly maintained mask -- which nearly all are not -- provides no protection at all ... including the much-touted N95 or "surgical" mask worn by a person trained in their use. It is physically impossible for it to do so.

Any medical "professional" or "expert" who promotes masking as an effective, "safe" way to affect transmission of a respiratory is lying (or they're just ignorant of the reality of masking as a virus preventive); these people have no business dispensing medical advice and should be, in the interest of personal and societal health, ignored.

So you see, although you "don't care if [others] wear masks" and it's true that you're not the "mask police," you must at the very least acknowledge that widespread masking -- especially forced masking and especially considering its complete ineffectiveness in "preventing the spread" of a respiratory virus -- has profound negative impacts to people and to society.

People continue to fool themselves in their mistaken belief that masks (and the vaccines, for that matter) prevent catching, spreading and becoming sick with the Fauci Flu ... and that is sad indeed. The mask is truly nothing more than an adult pacifier against the widespread irrational fear, irretrievable ignorance and outright cowardice that continues even after more than two years to cause serious damage to our society.

[XRdsRev]

“ That is, trusted medical professionals who should truly know better telling such “compromised” and ill people that masking will “protect” them from a respiratory virus when, in fact, even a properly selected, properly applied, properly fit-tested, properly worn and properly maintained mask — which nearly all are not — provides no protection at all ... including the much-touted N95 or “surgical” mask worn by a person trained in their use. It is physically impossible for it to do so.”

I don’t agree with everything doctors say or do but let’s be honest. Given the choice of listening to my family physician or some anonymous person on Free Republic (or any site either pro or anti mask) who has an ideological agenda and may or may not know what they are talking about, I think most folks would go with their doctors advice.

I think our society has gone downhill dramatically wayyyyy before masking became common and we have much bigger problems. If anything universal masking and senseless lockdowns has made a lot people more distrustful of government competency. Look I don’t know if masks work or not but it should be personal choice whether someone wants to wear them or not. It frankly is none of my business and I don’t buy into universal masking being a government control conspiracy, if it was, it did not work very well.

[glennaro]

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

I know people follow their doctor's advice which is what makes the lie/uninformed advice so dangerous; so dreadfully vile. By advising compromised people who really do need to avoid catching a respiratory virus such as the Fauci Flu -- something doctors en masse have never done with the seasonal flu -- that if their compromised patient wears a mask they will be safe -- that if they just wear a mask they will be protected -- is literally putting their patient's health, if not their very life at stake. The patient is not safe by wearing a mask ... the patient is not protected by wearing a mask ... and a medical professional certainly must know this!

You don't have to listen to "some anonymous person on FreeRepublic" (btw, I am not anonymous which is why I am very careful with what I post publicly ... it is truly amazing how careful full disclosure makes a person!), even though this person has going on 57 years of experience as an environmental health and safety professional (an engineer) in heavy industry and big agriculture -- that is, a professional with more than a half century of direct, hands-on experience with the selection and use of personal protective equipment including masks. No, all you must do is look at 30 months of data and peer-reviewed studies on the effects of masking ... on the results of widespread masking to "protect" against the Fauci Flu. The reality is masking has minimal to no affect on transmission of a respiratory virus.[Ref.: The most recent study on classroom masking issued just today]

Dennis Prager just made a significant observation on this morning's radio program. Prager said that the question that is seldom asked is: "Will requiring children to wear a mask do more to harm to them than it will to protect them?" (Read that again and give it the consideration it deserves ... and consider that the question should be applied to most all of the responses to this most recent respiratory virus outbreak.)

Cheers!

[XRdsRev]

“I know people follow their doctor’s advice which is what makes the lie/uninformed advice so dangerous; so dreadfully vile. By advising compromised people who really do need to avoid catching a respiratory virus such as the Fauci Flu”

No disrespect is intended but this is part of what I am talking about. You are coming from an ideological standpoint and you believe based on your sources that masking does not work. I don’t pretend to know definitively if they do or not but I have read credible studies arguing pro and con and therefore it seems to me to be inconclusive at this point. As for the Fauci Flu comment, or calling COVID just a cold, totally let’s the Chinese off the hook for the suffering they caused worldwide. I don’t like Fauci who in my opinion is an over cited egotistical bigmouth but I don’t blame him, I lay the blame where it belongs at the foot of the Chinese Communist Party. COVID is not the flu nor it is a bad cold. Neither of those things cause your body to choke on blood clots or turn your immune system against itself. This was a bio weapon created to cause widespread sickness, debilitation and death. I know three people this garbage killed, horribly and only one of them was unhealthy to begin with.