Masketeers in the news

[Geeko Sportivo]

There is no one else that hates wearing those confounded masks any more than I. In fact, I was probably one of the most insensitive persons on the planet, as before the pandemic hit, I would have been one of the first ones to ridicule anyone wearing a face mask out in public by saying to myself something like, "WTF is this Weird Wally up to?".

However, I am an OLD FART now, and I do not need this virus, as I was a smoker for the last 100 years or so, and I would be the first one to croak should I catch it.

And of course, I want to follow the rules, the law, and be allowed to enter buildings etc. So I wear the mask as I should out in public when I am around others or entering stores, restaurants etc.

I am not here to buck the system or ignore doctor's warnings-or be insensitive and careless of others. So, I still wear the mask, and I will continue wearing it out in public, as a personal responsibility towards others, and comply with laws, rules etc., until MY LOCAL AUTHORITIES SAYS IT'S OK TO NOT WEAR IT ANY LONGER!

I would certainly not try to wear it- or not wear the mask as a political statement- but just a statement of compliance and safety for myself and out of respect for others!

Thanks! I hope you all understand!

[Jerome]

That's been the public policy, regard.

Since when do you right-wing fucking cunts give two shits about masks?

[The Anonymous]

I wish masks worked.

It's true that masks are used for source control when patients are admitted to medical treatment facilities with various types of infectious respiratory diseases.

Your home and car probably don't have patients with various types of infectious respiratory diseases lounging around in them.

Doctors and nurses wear N95 masks, gowns and gloves - when they see a patient known to have the Wu Flu.

Your home and car probably don't have patients known to have the Wu Flu in them.

Doctors and nurses are trained in the proper use of PPE.

You aren't, very probably.

Doctors and nurses know the correct protocols.

You don't, most likely.

In public, many laypeople wear a cheap permeable cloth mask or an inexpensive disposable surgical mask.

Why?

• It may be to conform to peer pressure.
• It may be to comply with "executive orders" dictates by officious politicians.
• It may be to obey company policies.
• It may be a voluntary courtesy intended to soothe the fears of others who have been frightened by months of scary-sounding media reports.

I doubt that many of these amateur epidemiologists wear their masks correctly, or refrain from cross-contamination.

I doubt that many of them wash their cloth masks.

I doubt that many of them dispose of their Chinese single-use surgical masks as often as they should.

I suspect that many people stick their mask into a pocket or purse when it's not obscuring their face.

I presume that quite a substantial number of people pull a crumpled, previously-worn mask out of their unsanitary glove compartment (or off the floorboard) of their car when they need to wear it somewhere.

I doubt that I'm much mistaken.

I wish masks worked.

If they did, it would be a cheap and easy way to mitigate the spread of the Chinese disease.

I wish masks worked, because the idea that they protect the wearer and people around them seems noble.

I wish masks worked, because we're spending billions of dollars on them (and ironically enriching the Communist Chinese in the process).

I wish masks worked, because they have become a status symbol that marks the wearer as a visibly virtuous proud paragon of social responsibility.

I wish masks worked, because many telling people it's unnecessary does not make them happy. People who dare to doubt the efficacy of the magic mask are often attacked (sometimes even physically). They are usually told they aren't "following the science". They are sometimes told that they must think "the virus is a hoax", or that they "don’t care" about those who die from it.

I wish masks worked.

But they don’t.

At least, not the cloth and disposable masks you probably wear.

It's like this:

There have been many randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses of previous studies that suggest that masks do not work to prevent influenza- like illnesses like the Chinese disease.

Respiratory illnesses transmitted by droplets and aerosol particles have not been proven to be controllable or preventable by untrained people wearing the cloth and disposable masks you see on many American faces these days.

This scientific knowledge was the reason why the WHO and CDC recommended against wearing masks in the spring of 2020. These sensible recommendations were repeated by numerous authorities and experts who correctly cited the available evidence, compiled over many years of scientific study.

Dr. Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General, told you, “Seriously people – STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching coronavirus.”

Dr. Fauci told 60 minutes, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask”.

Last April, the New England Journal of Medicine stated (correctly): “We know that wearing a mask outside of health care facilities offers little, if any protection from infection”.

What changed?

Well, it wasn’t science.

But is there "new" science, based on "new" studies?

Yes, and no.

All scientific studies are not equal.

The gold standard of medical evidence comes from randomly controlled studies. The best studies are outcome-based and measure “patient-oriented evidence.”

It's true that recent observational studies that were used to support mask mandates were touted by the masketeers.

Upon examination, the curious will find (as I did) that they were poorly-designed for confounding factors, carried out in medical environments which don't translate to everyday situations, and then, impressions were extrapolated to the general public as definitive.

For example, one study that purported to evaluate the viral exposure of mice in a cage covered with cloth mask material vs. caged mice without a cover did not appear to apply to a world of humans who wear face masks and use their hands to put them on, adjust them, and take them off.

No drug, medical product, or procedure would ever gain approved based on this type of "evidence". Yet the masketeers cited it.

Science and logic argue against the effectiveness of consumer-grade masks.

The size differential between viral particles or droplet sizes expelled from a human respiratory tract compared to the filtration capabilities of paper/composite and cloth masks is substantial.

If you ever troubled read the fine print on the box of Chinese masks, you ordered from Amazon, you probably saw a disclaimer, like this: “Not intended for medical purposes and has not been tested to reduce the transmission of disease”.

If masks work, why didn’t they work?

Last August, Pew Research breathlessly reported that "85% of Americans" said they wore masks in public all or most of the time.

If this is so (and I doubt that it is), and if masks are effective, why has the incidence of SARS-Cov-2 increased so rapidly in locales with mask mandates?

Why is there not a favorable correlation between mask usage and disease transmission in countries and states with different mask policies?

But, wearing a mask is so easy to do. some say. "Can’t you just shut up and wear the damn mask"?

No.

Not without a valid medical reason, because empirical evidence should matter - especially to people who say they are "following the science".

One of the casualties in this pandemic has been the loss of credibility of the CDC, WHO and others that knew better but obscured the facts.

It is abundantly apparent that the basis for the mask mania is not medical, but political.

I wish masks worked.

But they don’t.

[The Anonymous]

Y so angry, doge?

[katzgar]

I wish masks worked.

It's true that masks are used for source control when patients are admitted to medical treatment facilities with various types of infectious respiratory diseases.

Your home and car probably don't have patients with various types of infectious respiratory diseases lounging around in them.

Doctors and nurses wear N95 masks, gowns and gloves - when they see a patient known to have the Wu Flu.

Your home and car probably don't have patients known to have the Wu Flu in them.

Doctors and nurses are trained in the proper use of PPE.

You aren't, very probably.

Doctors and nurses know the correct protocols.

You don't, most likely.

In public, many laypeople wear a cheap permeable cloth mask or an inexpensive disposable surgical mask.

Why?

• It may be to conform to peer pressure.
• It may be to comply with "executive orders" dictates by officious politicians.
• It may be to obey company policies.
• It may be a voluntary courtesy intended to soothe the fears of others who have been frightened by months of scary-sounding media reports.

I doubt that many of these amateur epidemiologists wear their masks correctly, or refrain from cross-contamination.

I doubt that many of them wash their cloth masks.

I doubt that many of them dispose of their Chinese single-use surgical masks as often as they should.

I suspect that many people stick their mask into a pocket or purse when it's not obscuring their face.

I presume that quite a substantial number of people pull a crumpled, previously-worn mask out of their unsanitary glove compartment (or off the floorboard) of their car when they need to wear it somewhere.

I doubt that I'm much mistaken.

I wish masks worked.

If they did, it would be a cheap and easy way to mitigate the spread of the Chinese disease.

I wish masks worked, because the idea that they protect the wearer and people around them seems noble.

I wish masks worked, because we're spending billions of dollars on them (and ironically enriching the Communist Chinese in the process).

I wish masks worked, because they have become a status symbol that marks the wearer as a visibly virtuous proud paragon of social responsibility.

I wish masks worked, because many telling people it's unnecessary does not make them happy. People who dare to doubt the efficacy of the magic mask are often attacked (sometimes even physically). They are usually told they aren't "following the science". They are sometimes told that they must think "the virus is a hoax", or that they "don’t care" about those who die from it.

I wish masks worked.

But they don’t.

At least, not the cloth and disposable masks you probably wear.

It's like this:

There have been many randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses of previous studies that suggest that masks do not work to prevent influenza- like illnesses like the Chinese disease.

Respiratory illnesses transmitted by droplets and aerosol particles have not been proven to be controllable or preventable by untrained people wearing the cloth and disposable masks you see on many American faces these days.

This scientific knowledge was the reason why the WHO and CDC recommended against wearing masks in the spring of 2020. These sensible recommendations were repeated by numerous authorities and experts who correctly cited the available evidence, compiled over many years of scientific study.

Dr. Jerome Adams, the Surgeon General, told you, “Seriously people – STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing the general public from catching coronavirus.”

Dr. Fauci told 60 minutes, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask”.

Last April, the New England Journal of Medicine stated (correctly): “We know that wearing a mask outside of health care facilities offers little, if any protection from infection”.

What changed?

Well, it wasn’t science.

But is there "new" science, based on "new" studies?

Yes, and no.

All scientific studies are not equal.

The gold standard of medical evidence comes from randomly controlled studies. The best studies are outcome-based and measure “patient-oriented evidence.”

It's true that recent observational studies that were used to support mask mandates were touted by the masketeers.

Upon examination, the curious will find (as I did) that they were poorly-designed for confounding factors, carried out in medical environments which don't translate to everyday situations, and then, impressions were extrapolated to the general public as definitive.

For example, one study that purported to evaluate the viral exposure of mice in a cage covered with cloth mask material vs. caged mice without a cover did not appear to apply to a world of humans who wear face masks and use their hands to put them on, adjust them, and take them off.

No drug, medical product, or procedure would ever gain approved based on this type of "evidence". Yet the masketeers cited it.

Science and logic argue against the effectiveness of consumer-grade masks.

The size differential between viral particles or droplet sizes expelled from a human respiratory tract compared to the filtration capabilities of paper/composite and cloth masks is substantial.

If you ever troubled read the fine print on the box of Chinese masks, you ordered from Amazon, you probably saw a disclaimer, like this: “Not intended for medical purposes and has not been tested to reduce the transmission of disease”.

If masks work, why didn’t they work?

Last August, Pew Research breathlessly reported that "85% of Americans" said they wore masks in public all or most of the time.

If this is so (and I doubt that it is), and if masks are effective, why has the incidence of SARS-Cov-2 increased so rapidly in locales with mask mandates?

Why is there not a favorable correlation between mask usage and disease transmission in countries and states with different mask policies?

But, wearing a mask is so easy to do. some say. "Can’t you just shut up and wear the damn mask"?

No.

Not without a valid medical reason, because empirical evidence should matter - especially to people who say they are "following the science".

One of the casualties in this pandemic has been the loss of credibility of the CDC, WHO and others that knew better but obscured the facts.

It is abundantly apparent that the basis for the mask mania is not medical, but political.

I wish masks worked.

But they don’t.

Your brain is diseased your brain has tapeworms eating it away which is why you're such an inbred moron

[The Anonymous]

Your brain is diseased your brain has tapeworms eating it away which is why you're such an inbred moron

Think so?

[Minister of Truth]

Since when do you right-wing fucking cunts give two shits about masks?

Pretty sure we're required to wear them, depending upon the circumstances. That would be one reason to care. Idiot.

[Legion]

Scholars, nonprofit leaders and regulators in the specialized field of occupational safety say relying on surgical masks—which are considerably less protective than N95 respirators—is almost certainly fueling illness among front-line health workers, who make up about 11% of all known COVID-19 cases.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that that’s one of the reasons that so many health care workers are getting sick and many are dying,” said Jonathan Rosen, a health and safety expert who advises unions, states and the federal government.

The CDC’s current advice contrasts with another CDC webpage that says a surgical mask does “NOT provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles and is not considered respiratory protection.”

Put simply, in worker safety, “a surgical mask is not PPE,” or personal protective equipment, said Amber Mitchell, president and executive director of the International Safety Center.



https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/widely-used-surgical-masks-are-putting-health-care-workers-at-serious-risk/