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Twenty years ago Australians were prosecuted for saying masks work against viruses. Now they get arrested for not wearing masks during viral outbreaks.

As Mencken said, our governments are dishonest, insane and intolerable.

Ugly people wear masks to hide their faces.

Masks Make ‘Little to No Difference’ against Infection, Peer-Reviewed Study Shows
Frank Bergman
February 2, 2023

A massive new international meta-study has blown the lid off the masking narrative by analyzing the true effectiveness of masks for tackling infection or illness rates.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed British medical journal Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on January 30.

The definitive conclusion from the team of 12 international researchers in the study is the strongest scientific evidence to date refuting the basis for mask mandates worldwide.

The research collaboration analyzed several dozen rigorous studies focusing on “physical interventions” against COVID-19 and influenza.

The researchers found that masks provide “little to no” protection against infection or illness rates of COVID-19 and the flu.

Yet, the CDC still recommends masking in areas with “high” rates of transmission along with indoor masking in areas with “medium” rates of transmission (27%).

Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing masks (risk ratio (RR) 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84 to 1.09; 9 trials, 276,917 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence. Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza/SARS‐CoV‐2 compared to not wearing masks (RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.42; 6 trials, 13,919 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence).

The masks were never about keeping you healthy

It was about seeing constant visual reminders to be afraid of the air

And to obey

That’s why we resisted

Even in California, covid restrictions have been lifted and life is back to the old normal in most respects. Public health agencies are no longer recommending masks or vaccines. Even the CDC has moved on. You can almost pretend that the pandemic never happened, unless you want to attend a live performance of classical music. Performing arts organizations just can’t let go of the toxic cult of masking.

el gato malo
7 hr ago
Author
masks are particularly effective not just because they evoke and remind of crisis but because they alienate by breaking non-verbal communication and humanization. you cannot smile at one another.

combined with lockdowns/social limits/stay at home etc it's a very powerful combo to keep humans from feeling community.

isolated humans fare poorly against fear and authority.

we need support and community to stand up to such things well.

and when we allow it to be taken, societies fall.

If masks are pointless, will I get an apology?

Ahh. It was "settled." Wearing a mask was "the right thing to do." Got it!

Well, here's The New York Times this week:

The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous.

"There is just no evidence that they" — masks — "make any difference," he told the journalist Maryanne Demasi. "Full stop."

But, wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks?

"Makes no difference — none of it," said Jefferson.

https://brownstone.org/articles/unmask-the-audiences-already/

Even in California, covid restrictions have been lifted and life is back to the old normal in most respects. Public health agencies are no longer recommending masks or vaccines. Even the CDC has moved on. You can almost pretend that the pandemic never happened, unless you want to attend a live performance of classical music. Performing arts organizations just can’t let go of the toxic cult of masking.

Despite 125 years of surgical masking, nobody has ever shown that the practice improves patient outcomes or prevents infections among hospital staff

Wearing diapers on your face serves no demonstrable health purpose in any context.

The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous.
“There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” he told the journalist Maryanne Demasi. “Full stop.”
But, wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks?
“Makes no difference — none of it,” said Jefferson.
What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates?
“They were convinced by nonrandomized studies, flawed observational studies.”
What about the utility of masks in conjunction with other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene, physical distancing or air filtration?
“There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference.”
These observations don’t come from just anywhere. Jefferson and 11 colleagues conducted the study for Cochrane, a British nonprofit that is widely considered the gold standard for its reviews of health care data. The conclusions were based on 78 randomized controlled trials, six of them during the Covid pandemic, with a total of 610,872 participants in multiple countries. And they track what has been widely observed in the United States: States with mask mandates fared no better against Covid than those without. ...

The last justification for masks is that, even if they proved to be ineffective, they seemed like a relatively low-cost, intuitively effective way of doing something against the virus in the early days of the pandemic. But “do something” is not science, and it shouldn’t have been public policy. And the people who had the courage to say as much deserved to be listened to, not treated with contempt. They may not ever get the apology they deserve, but vindication ought to be enough.

Face masks, once an essential Covid-19 protective measure, are now being worn by criminals to conceal their identities, according to New York police who are urging businesses to unmask customers before letting them in stores.

The recommendation is a 180-degree turn from mask-wearing norms at the onset of the pandemic. During peak periods of infection, federal agencies mandated mask-wearing in public places, while many businesses required customers to wear them on the premises.

Now, however, some businesses are banning customers from entering the premises with face masks on, saying the policy change is needed to identify thieves. And after numerous incidents, the New York Police Department is urging business owners to make shoppers remove their face masks and flash their features before being let in.

Nearly half of Stanford students report being in a class that requires masks. ...

One might ask, masks are just a piece of cloth and they’re not that uncomfortable, so why not just strap one on and go on with life? To put it simply, the mask mandates embraced by a considerable number of faculty and administrators are an embrace of falsehood and pointless fear—precisely what a university ought to stand against.

Forcing students to submit to pointless regulations saps the energy and creativity from the classroom. When kids can’t even see the facial expression of their friend sitting next to them in class, it should be no surprise that a general malaise has descended on Stanford. The mentality that leads to forced masking (extreme risk aversion) is identical to the one administrators embraced to destroy so much of what made Stanford unique and special. ...

Given the professors seemed very concerned about the Science™ (the only settled, unquestionable, or unchangeable discipline), I wanted to be sure to alert them of the recently released study that found “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness.” ...

The takeaway from all of this is that in February 2023, at one of the best universities in the world, the people tasked with educating the next generation of leaders would rather double down on their embrace of falsehood than reckon with basic facts. The coronavirus is not deadly and masks don’t do anything.

Discussion: Masks interfered with O2-uptake and CO2-release and compromised respiratory compensation. Though evaluated wearing durations are shorter than daily/prolonged use, outcomes independently validate mask-induced exhaustion-syndrome (MIES) and down-stream physio-metabolic disfunctions. MIES can have long-term clinical consequences, especially for vulnerable groups. So far, several mask related symptoms may have been misinterpreted as long COVID-19 symptoms. In any case, the possible MIES contrasts with the WHO definition of health.

Conclusion: Face mask side-effects must be assessed (risk-benefit) against the available evidence of their effectiveness against viral transmissions. In the absence of strong empirical evidence of effectiveness, mask wearing should not be mandated let alone enforced by law.

‘Long Covid’ Is Caused by Masks, New Study Finds
Frank Bergman
April 15, 2023

A group of renowned researchers is raising the alarm after a new study determined that so-called “long Covid” is actually caused by prolonged mask-wearing.

The new study, conducted by a German research team led by surgeon Kai Kisielinski, found that mask-wearing was associated with a 62 percent increase in various illnesses.

When combined, masking induced what the authors called Mask-Induced Exhaustion Syndrome (MIES).

The German researchers published a meta-analysis of 2,168 studies on adverse medical mask effects, the largest of its kind.

The findings across a diverse array of studies and surveys reveal a statistically significant decline in oxygen intake, an increase in carbon dioxide, an increased heart rate, an increase in shortness in breadth, and an array of discomforting symptoms.

The study set out to determine the “physio-metabolic and clinical consequences of wearing face masks.”

However, the researchers discovered that not only is masking responsible for various symptoms, it is actually the cause of widely reported cases of “long Covid.”

“Lond Covid” is “returning or ongoing symptoms that people experience more than four weeks after getting COVID-19,” according to Mayo Clinic.

“In some people, post-COVID-19 syndrome lasts months or years or causes disability.

According to Kisielinski’s study, nearly 40% of main long-COVID-19 symptoms overlap with mask-related MIES complaints and symptoms such as fatigue, dyspnea, confusion, anxiety, depression, tachycardia, dizziness, and headache.

The study found that several of the symptoms attributed to long-Covid are predominantly mask-related.

Further, the study found that CDC-recommended medical-grade N-95s are even worse.

Previous studies have already shown they do not offer better protection against respiratory viruses than surgical masks.

However, they definitely cause more side effects. ...