Tag: face masks

Nancy Pelosi seen twice not wearing a mask, only a day after Capitol Police institute mask mandate in the House

A day after the Captiol Police declared that face masks must be worn “at all times” on the House side of the Capitol complex, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was seen not wearing a face mask on two occasions.

The new mask mandate that went into effect on Thursday stated that everyone, including fully vaccinated individuals, must wear face masks on the House side of the Capitol building.

“Capitol Division shall enforce this mask policy on all staff and visitors” in the House side of the Capitol, according to the bulletin from Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger.

“If a visitor or staff member fails to wear a mask after a request is made to do so, the visitor or staff shall be denied entry to the House Office Buildings or House-side of the U.S. Capitol,” the Capitol Police order stated. “Any person who fails to either comply or leave the premises after being asked to do so would be subject to an arrest for Unlawful Entry.”

The letter stated that Capitol staff and visitors can be arrested for not wearing a mask; however, Congress members who fail to comply with the mask mandate will be “reported to the House Sergeant at Arms’ office.”

Despite the Capitol Police order mandating masks at the Capitol, Nancy Pelosi was seen not wearing a face mask on Friday. Pelosi, who is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives, flagrantly did not wear a mask on two occasions at the Capitol on Friday.

Texas Republican Jake Ellzey was sworn into the House on Friday morning, three days after winning a special election for Texas’s 6th Congressional District.

“Pelosi posed with Ellzey for photos as they reenacted the official swearing-in conducted moments earlier,” the Dallas News reported.

The swearing-in ceremony was held in the Rayburn Reception Room, located on the House side of the Capitol.

In the video, Pelosi is seen motioning to her face and asking someone off-camera, “Can we take off our masks?” The speaker of the House removed her mask, then Ellzey and his family followed suit.

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Nearly 1.6 billion disposable masks polluted oceans in 2020, will take 450 years to decompose

Nearly1.6 billion disposable face masks ended up in the earth’s oceans in 2020, out of the roughly 52 billion produced in response to the pandemic, according to a new study.

While governments around the world continue to support mask mandates in public spaces, the impact of disposable masks is only just emerging.

The report, by the Hong Kong-based marine conservation group OceansAsia, title “Masks on the Beach,” also estimated that roughly 5,500 tons of plastic pollution entered the ocean in 2020 from masks.

The figure is equal to 7% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic debris floating in the ocean that is twice the size of Texas.

While a cigarette butt or plastic bag takes 20 years or less to degrade in the ocean, according to Visual Capitalist, a plastic bottle, disposable diaper or a disposable mask takes nearly 450 years to fully break down. 

The majority of disposable masks – like N95 respirators and surgical masks – were produced in China factories, which were reportedly producing 450 million masks per day in April 2020. 

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Study Cited By CDC To Justify New Mask Guidance Rejected By Peer Review, Based On Vaccine Not Used In US

At least one of the studies that was cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to justify changing their guidance on masks was based on a vaccine that is not authorized for use in America and was rejected by a peer review.

The study in question from researchers in India analyzed vaccine breakthrough in over 100 healthcare workers and claims to show that a COVID-19 Delta variant infection generates a higher viral load in comparison to other variants.

Despite no mention in the study of viral loads from the variant against unvaccinated individuals, the CDC cited it in yesterday’s updated brief as evidence that the Delta variant is transmissible from a vaccinated individual with a breakthrough infection.

“Studies from India with vaccines not authorized for use in the United States have noted relatively high viral loads and larger cluster sizes associated with infections with Delta, regardless of vaccination status,” the CDC said.

“These early data suggest that breakthrough Delta infections are transmissible,” the CDC’s brief goes on to say, even though the India study was conducted with a non-approved U.S. vaccine.

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The Incoherence of the White House’s COVID Messaging Reaches Code Red Levels

To begin, we’ve known since at least last fall (because of real-world data gathered from schools being open largely across the South) that heavy mitigation in schools is pointless. Children are not serious vectors for spread and virtually all teachers have been vaccinated at this point. It is child abuse to still be demanding an eight-year-old wear a mask all day in a classroom while they have a vaccinated teacher. There is no science behind doing that, both because of the lack of spread from children and the fact that masks do not work to stop the spread of COVID.

Regardless, I really want to zero in on the last point Murthy makes because it’s a pathetic attempt by Biden and his administration to have their cake and eat it too.

If they put in place a mask mandate for those who are vaccinated, the White House is absolutely signaling that the vaccines aren’t effective. Now, we know that’s not true because the Delta variant is far less deadly in individuals with immunity, either via vaccination or by prior infection. Clearly, the vaccines and natural immunity are doing their job. Given that the vaccines work, masks are not necessary. It’s that simple, but by suggesting a mask mandate is needed again for those with immunity, the White House is inadvertently promoting the idea that the vaccines aren’t effective.

In short, while Joe Biden runs around trying to blame Facebook and Republicans for so-called “vaccine hesitancy,” his own administration is pushing a narrative that encourages people to not bother getting vaccinated. The White House can not have it both ways. Either the vaccine works (it does) or masks are necessary (they aren’t). Asserting that a mask mandate doesn’t undercut the messaging on the vaccine is nonsensical.

This is what you get when the country is being run by an incompetent old man who is surrounded by left-wing ideologues. Everything is political. That includes Biden’s inability to simply stand up and lead, accepting the risks that come with that. Instead, we are getting a cowardly, overly risk-averse approach that is only making matters worse.

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Government Advisor Admits Masks Are Just “Comfort Blankets” That Do Virtually Nothing

As the UK Government heralds “freedom day” today, which is anything but, a prominent government scientific advisor has admitted that face masks do very little to protect from coronavirus and are basically just “comfort blankets.”

Dr Colin Axon, a SAGE advisor for the government told the London Telegraph that medics have given people a “cartoonish” view of how how microscopic viruses travel through the air, and the masks have gaps in them that are up to 5000 times bigger than Covid particles.

“The small sizes are not easily understood but an imperfect analogy would be to imagine marbles fired at builders’ scaffolding, some might hit a pole and rebound, but obviously most will fly through,” Axon said.

“Once a particle is not on a biological surface it is no longer a biomedical issue, it is simply about physics. The public has only a partial view of the story if information only comes from one type of source,” Axon continued, adding “Medics have some of the answers but not a whole view.”

Noting that the “mask debate is about the particle journey,” Axon explained that “Masks can catch droplets and sputum from a cough but what is important is that SARS CoV-2 is predominantly distributed by tiny aerosols.”

“A Covid viral particle is around 100 nanometres, material gaps in blue surgical masks are up to 1,000 times that size, cloth mask gaps can be 500,000 times the size,” Axon urged.

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