Tag: face masks

CDC Finally Admits Cloth Masks Were Always Political Theater

For two years now, to walk into a grocery store barefaced has been to risk soliciting dirty stares, at least in some parts of the country. But walk in with your face covered by a thin piece of fabric, preferably with some vaguely woke slogan, that you got overpriced on Etsy? You’re golden.

Masks have been obvious political theater from the start, back when Anthony Fauci et al. promised we didn’t need them and then flip-flopped and promised we did. But when sensible observers tried to point that out, the Big Tech-media cabal gleefully slapped them with “fact” “checks.”

When The Federalist ran the headline “Many Studies Find That Cloth Masks Do Not Stop Viruses Like COVID” in November 2020, Lead Stories attempted to “fact-check” the piece, slapping a red “masks work” label over a screenshot of the original article.

The “fact-check” even cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the effectiveness of masks against COVID-19, where the CDC insisted, “Cloth masks not only effectively block most large droplets (i.e., 20-30 microns and larger), but they can also block the exhalation of fine droplets and particles,” and “cloth mask materials can also reduce wearers’ exposure to infectious droplets through filtration.”

Yet the same CDC quietly admitted on Friday that the thin cloth masks the agency and its corporate media allies spent the last two years cheering actually “provide the least protection” against COVID-19. It was “the first time the C.D.C. has explicitly addressed” the relative ineffectiveness of cloth masks, according to The New York Times.

The agency’s concession comes on the heels of admissions from people like CNN’s Leana Wen that “cloth masks are not appropriate for this pandemic.”

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They’re Finally Getting Honest About Those Masks They Forced You to Wear

It’s funny how often “the science” has to catch up with common sense and it would appear that after months of being told that wearing a mask was necessary to save humanity from the ravages of a virus with a 99-plus percent survival rate, they’re finally admitting that the cloth masks we’ve been putting over our faces haven’t exactly been effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

According to CBS7 in New York, a recently released study by researchers in a number of universities including Yale found that masks of a certain grade do very little to stop the spread:

A study released in November by researchers at Yale University, Stanford University and others found that villages in Bangladesh where surgical masks were worn had 11% fewer cases of COVID than in villages where no masks were worn. In villages that wore cloth masks, infections were reduced by only 5%.

The Mayo Clinic is now asking all of its patients and visitors to wear a surgical mask or other medical grade mask.

“There is emerging evidence that a surgical mask or a hospital or a medical grade mask does a better job of preventing respiratory droplets carrying the virus to other people around you,” said Dr. Adi Shah with the Mayo Clinic.

Shah said evidence from smaller studies is also suggesting that a surgical mask offers better protection than a cloth mask. Shah reminded people that a mask is not meant to protect the person wearing the mask, but other people.

While the surgical mask may be better, it still has only an 11 percent success rate in terms of stopping the spread, which isn’t really much of a success rate at all. Research showed that the only mask that delivered real results are the N95 masks:

The N95 or KN95 mask has always been and is still considered the gold standard for protection. Those masks are tested and certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that they can filter up to 95% of particles in the air.

Meaning that a lot of the mask-wearing we’re doing is mostly theater and the only real protection comes in the form of N95 masks which aren’t exactly required to be worn. While it’s true that 11 percent is better than zero, it’s definitely in the “extremely low” range of effectiveness, effectively making it a facial decoration.

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CNN Goes to Bizarre Lengths to Defend AOC’s Maskless Florida Romp

The left’s sweetheart and hard-left squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is like many leftists in that she’ll demand you act unselfishly and do something massively inconvenient to you because it’s for the greater good, then she’ll go and do the opposite of the thing she demanded of you because she thinks the rules don’t apply to her.

Case in point, AOC was seen partying it up in Miami, Florida with drag queens, and nary a mask was seen. An odd thing considering she’s one of those people who are for some of the toughest restrictions when it comes to COVID-19, including requiring vaccine papers to sit and eat at a restaurant in her district. As my colleague Nick Arama pointed out, this is the same AOC who wanted to vote by proxy on multiple occasions due to fears about the virus.

And like any typical leftist, AOC did what leftists do when called out in public for obvious hypocrisy and attempt to distract from it all by making it about something completely different. In this case, it was about how Republicans are sexually frustrated and that they’re taking their frustrations out on her.

It’s pretty by the book when it comes to AOC, but what about the media?

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Students made to ‘fake play’ instruments for Covid ‘safety’

Grade school students in Wilmington, Mass. will “NOT permitted to play/blow into their instruments” due to the omicron variant. Instead, students will “…move their fingers through exercises and songs” while “…being fully masked.”

According to an email from the district posted by parent group Bring Kids Back MA, “Students who play woodwind or brass instruments (Flute/Clarinet/Alto Saxophone/Trumpet/Trombone will NOT be permitted to play/blow their instruments in lessons in school.”

Under the district’s new approach, “…students will assemble their instruments (without the mouthpiece) and move their fingers through exercises and songs, as well as participate in music and rhythm reading lessons while being fully masked for the entire lesson.” Despite the complete lack of constructive work for the students, the district still expects the children to “…attend band lessons during this time.” Nothing was mentioned with regard to concerts or performances.

The email added that “Percussion (drums) students will continue to have their lessons as usual since those instruments do not involve blowing aerosols into the classroom.”

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CNN Medical Analyst Admits Cloth Masks Don’t Work Against COVID

Slowly, the establishment media is beginning to admit that COVID is here to stay and has started to question some cherished pandemic policies.

On Wednesday, National Public Radio published a piece that admitted cloth face masks don’t work against COVID.  It blames Omicron for being the magical variant that can bypass all mask protection.

“Cloth masks are not going to cut it with omicron,” says Linsey Marr, a researcher at Virginia Tech who studies how viruses transmit in the air.

Omicron is so much more transmissible than coronavirus variants that have come before it. It spreads at least three times faster than delta. One person is infecting at least three others at a time on average, based on data from other countries.

“It’s very contagious,” says Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “And the kind of encounter that you could have had with prior versions of the virus that would have left you uninfected, there’s now a good chance you will get infected from it.”

I want to point out that there was plenty of evidence that cloth masks were not working in 2020. I used my experience as an environmental health and safety professional to describe all the reasons mask mandates would fail:

The hands are one of the most efficient highways for germs into the body, but how many of us wash our hands (or even put sanitizer) when donning masks? And I can’t tell you how many times I see people with masks that are not covering the nose or chin. And, if you follow the California Office of Governor Guidance, you will be smearing contaminants onto the mask through your meal.

There are numerous other rules for good mask-wearing, including laundering after use. However, how many people actually grab a clean, fresh mask every time they use one? How many people properly launder (i.e., use bleach if washing by hand).

CNN’s medical analyst also admitted masks weren’t working. She and other “experts” are pointing to N95-respiratory protection as the way to go.

“Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron,” [CNN medical analyst Dr. Leanna] Wen told CNN on Monday. “Wear a high-quality mask, at least a three-ply surgical mask.”

While cloth masks may have seemed like a good idea in 2020, they’re not particularly useful in areas of high viral transmission, studies have found. A September 2020 review found that cloth masks may be beneficial for preventing transmission in low-risk public settings but that they offered limited protection in healthcare settings.

However, relying on N95 masking to reduce numbers is doomed to fail like cloth masks…for many of the same reasons. N95 respiratory protection is meant for an occupational setting, with fit-testing done to ensure a good seal.

Additionally, the long-term wearing of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators (FFR) and similar protections can cause health effects, as reported in a study involving healthcare workers (HCWs) published on a CDC blog.

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Outrage as COVID Fearmonger Maxine Waters Gets Special Treatment on Commercial Cross-Country Flight

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters is the latest liberal poster child for the left’s “rules-for-thee-but-not-for-me” approach to oppressive coronavirus restrictions.

The California congresswoman — a vocal proponent of mask mandates — was caught not wearing her mask on a cross-country United Airlines flight from Virginia to Los Angeles last week.

The passenger who snapped the damning photo told the Daily Wire she was outraged that flight attendants repeatedly hounded her and other passengers to keep their masks on while ignoring Waters’ blatant violation of the Federal Aviation Administration’s mask mandate.

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Grandmother Who Violated Mask Mandate to Spend Christmas Behind Bars

An Irish grandmother who violated the nation’s mask mandate is to spend Christmas behind bars after being sentenced to a year in prison.

Margaret Buttimer, a 66-year-old grandmother, will spend this Christmas behind bars after being sentenced to one year in prison for violating Ireland’s mask mandate, with six months of the sentence being suspended.

The grandmother was initially imprisoned last week after breaching her bail terms by going Christmas shopping, having been ordered to stay away from stores.

According to a report by the Irish Examiner, Buttimer was sentenced after being found guilty of not wearing a mask in a restaurant.

The judge presiding over the case made reference to what he called the grandmother’s “absurd selfishness” and “willful disregard of others”.

He also refused to hand down community service to the woman, claiming that it would be contradictory to do so as she was engaging in “persistent community disservice”.

The 66-year-old now has multiple convictions for breaching public health guidelines, having been jailed twice for her actions.

Buttimer had no previous convictions prior to the pandemic, according to the Irish Independent.

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Now The Public Health Dictators Want You Masked in Your Own Home — And Other Tyrannical Weekly News

Now that another COVID variant has emerged with a scary new name, governments are excited to flex their dictatorial COVID powers once again.

Santa Cruz County, California is back with an indoor mask mandate, but this time with a twist.

The public health order states that in addition to public places like restaurants and gyms:

“Masks must be worn in private settings, including your home, when non-household members are present.”

And yes, this applies to the fully vaccinated.

It’s hard to imagine that this order is legal or how local authorities will be able to enforce the rule.

The sheer insanity is that these bureaucrats think they have this kind of power to begin with.

Click here to read the health order.

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