Masking - good or bad

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BROWNSTONE » BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE ARTICLES » MORE THAN 150 COMPARATIVE STUDIES AND ARTICLES ON MASK INEFFECTIVENESS AND HARMS

More than 150 Comparative Studies and Articles on Mask Ineffectiveness and Harms
BY PAUL ELIAS ALEXANDER DECEMBER 20, 2021 MASKS, POLICY, PSYCHOLOGY 69 MINUTE READ
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It is not unreasonable to conclude that surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are being used (without other forms of PPE protection), have no impact on controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus. Current evidence implies that face masks can be actually harmful. The body of evidence indicates that face masks are largely ineffective.

My focus is on COVID face masks and the prevailing science that we have had for nearly 20 months. Yet I wish to address this mask topic at a 50,000-foot level on the lockdown restrictive policies in general. I build on the backs of the fine work done by Gupta, Kulldorff, and Bhattacharya on the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) and similar impetus by Dr. Scott Atlas (advisor to POTUS Trump) who, like myself, was a strong proponent for a focused type of protection that was based on an age-risk stratified approach.

Because we saw very early on that the lockdowns were the single greatest mistake in public health history. We knew the history and knew they would not work. We also knew very early of COVID’s risk stratification. Sadly, our children will bear the catastrophic consequences and not just educationally, of the deeply flawed school closure policy for decades to come (particularly our minority children who were least able to afford this). Many are still pressured to wear masks and punished for not doing so.

I present the masking ‘body of evidence’ below (n=167 studies and pieces of evidence), comprised of comparative effectiveness research as well as related evidence and high-level reporting. To date, the evidence has been stable and clear that masks do not work to control the virus and they can be harmful and especially to children.

Table 1: The evidence on COVID-19 face masks and mask mandates and harms

MASK-INEFFECTIVENESS
1) Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers, Bundgaard, 2021 “Infection with SARS-CoV-2 occurred in 42 participants recommended masks (1.8%) and 53 control participants (2.1%). The between-group difference was −0.3 percentage point (95% CI, −1.2 to 0.4 percentage point; P = 0.38) (odds ratio, 0.82 [CI, 0.54 to 1.23]; P = 0.33). Multiple imputation accounting for loss to follow-up yielded similar results…the recommendation to wear surgical masks to supplement other public health measures did not reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among wearers by more than 50% in a community with modest infection rates, some degree of social distancing, and uncommon general mask use.”
2) SARS-CoV-2 Transmission among Marine Recruits during Quarantine, Letizia, 2020 “Our study showed that in a group of predominantly young male military recruits, approximately 2% became positive for SARS-CoV-2, as determined by qPCR assay, during a 2-week, strictly enforced quarantine. Multiple, independent virus strain transmission clusters were identified…all recruits wore double-layered cloth masks at all times indoors and outdoors.”
3) Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses, Jefferson, 2020 “There is low certainty evidence from nine trials (3507 participants) that wearing a mask may make little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI) compared to not wearing a mask (risk ratio (RR) 0.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82 to 1.18. There is moderate certainty evidence that wearing a mask probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza compared to not wearing a mask (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.26; 6 trials; 3005 participants)…the pooled results of randomised trials did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks during seasonal influenza.”
4) The Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh, Abaluck, 2021
Heneghan et al. A cluster-randomized trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh from November 2020 to April 2021 (N=600 villages, N=342,126 adults. Heneghan writes: “In a Bangladesh study, surgical masks reduced symptomatic COVID infections by between 0 and 22 percent, while the efficacy of cloth masks led to somewhere between an 11 percent increase to a 21 percent decrease. Hence, based on these randomized studies, adult masks appear to have either no or limited efficacy.”
5) Evidence for Community Cloth Face Masking to Limit the Spread of SARS-CoV-2: A Critical Review, Liu/CATO, 2021 “The available clinical evidence of facemask efficacy is of low quality and the best available clinical evidence has mostly failed to show efficacy, with fourteen of sixteen identified randomized controlled trials comparing face masks to no mask controls failing to find statistically significant benefit in the intent-to-treat populations. Of sixteen quantitative meta-analyses, eight were equivocal or critical as to whether evidence supports a public recommendation of masks, and the remaining eight supported a public mask intervention on limited evidence primarily on the basis of the precautionary principle.”
6) Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures, CDC/Xiao, 2020 “Evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza…none of the household studies reported a significant reduction in secondary laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the face mask group…the overall reduction in ILI or laboratory-confirmed influenza cases in the face mask group was not significant in either studies.”
7) CIDRAP: Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data, Brosseau, 2020 “We agree that the data supporting the effectiveness of a cloth mask or face covering are very limited. We do, however, have data from laboratory studies that indicate cloth masks or face coverings offer very low filter collection efficiency for the smaller inhalable particles we believe are largely responsible for transmission, particularly from pre- or asymptomatic individuals who are not coughing or sneezing…though we support mask wearing by the general public, we continue to conclude that cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission, because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles, offer limited personal protection with respect to small particle inhalation, and should not be recommended as a replacement for physical distancing or reducing time in enclosed spaces with many potentially infectious people.”
8) Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era, Klompas/NEJM, 2020 “We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic…The calculus may be different, however, in health care settings. First and foremost, a mask is a core component of the personal protective equipment (PPE) clinicians need when caring for symptomatic patients with respiratory viral infections, in conjunction with gown, gloves, and eye protection…universal masking alone is not a panacea. A mask will not protect providers caring for a patient with active Covid-19 if it’s not accompanied by meticulous hand hygiene, eye protection, gloves, and a gown. A mask alone will not prevent health care workers with early Covid-19 from contaminating their hands and spreading the virus to patients and colleagues. Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures.”
9) Masks for prevention of viral respiratory infections among health care workers and the public: PEER umbrella systematic review, Dugré, 2020 “This systematic review found limited evidence that the use of masks might reduce the risk of viral respiratory infections. In the community setting, a possible reduced risk of influenza-like illness was found among mask users. In health care workers, the results show no difference between N95 masks and surgical masks on the risk of confirmed influenza or other confirmed viral respiratory infections, although possible benefits from N95 masks were found for preventing influenza-like illness or other clinical respiratory infections. Surgical masks might be superior to cloth masks but data are limited to 1 trial.”
10) Effectiveness of personal protective measures in reducing pandemic influenza transmission: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Saunders-Hastings, 2017 “Facemask use provided a non-significant protective effect (OR = 0.53; 95% CI 0.16–1.71; I2 = 48%) against 2009 pandemic influenza infection.”
11) Experimental investigation of indoor aerosol dispersion and accumulation in the context of COVID-19: Effects of masks and ventilation, Shah, 2021 “Nevertheless, high-efficiency masks, such as the KN95, still offer substantially higher apparent filtration efficiencies (60% and 46% for R95 and KN95 masks, respectively) than the more commonly used cloth (10%) and surgical masks (12%), and therefore are still the recommended choice in mitigating airborne disease transmission indoors.”
12) Exercise with facemask; Are we handling a devil’s sword?- A physiological hypothesis, Chandrasekaran, 2020 “Exercising with facemasks may reduce available Oxygen and increase air trapping preventing substantial carbon dioxide exchange. The hypercapnic hypoxia may potentially increase acidic environment, cardiac overload, anaerobic metabolism and renal overload, which may substantially aggravate the underlying pathology of established chronic diseases. Further contrary to the earlier thought, no evidence exists to claim the facemasks during exercise offer additional protection from the droplet transfer of the virus.”
13) Surgical face masks in modern operating rooms–a costly and unnecessary ritual?, Mitchell, 1991 “Following the commissioning of a new suite of operating rooms air movement studies showed a flow of air away from the operating table towards the periphery of the room. Oral microbial flora dispersed by unmasked male and female volunteers standing one metre from the table failed to contaminate exposed settle plates placed on the table. The wearing of face masks by non-scrubbed staff working in an operating room with forced ventilation seems to be unnecessary.”
14) Facemask against viral respiratory infections among Hajj pilgrims: A challenging cluster-randomized trial, Alfelali, 2020 “By intention-to-treat analysis, facemask use did not seem to be effective against laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections (odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.9 to 2.1, p = 0.18) nor against clinical respiratory infection (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.9 to 1.4, p = 0.40).”
15) Simple respiratory protection–evaluation of the filtration performance of cloth masks and common fabric materials against 20-1000 nm size particles, Rengasamy, 2010 “Results obtained in the study show that common fabric materials may provide marginal protection against nanoparticles including those in the size ranges of virus-containing particles in exhaled breath.”
16) Respiratory performance offered by N95 respirators and surgical masks: human subject evaluation with NaCl aerosol representing bacterial and viral particle size range, Lee, 2008 “The study indicates that N95 filtering facepiece respirators may not achieve the expected protection level against bacteria and viruses. An exhalation valve on the N95 respirator does not affect the respiratory protection; it appears to be an appropriate alternative to reduce the breathing resistance.”
17) Aerosol penetration and leakage characteristics of masks used in the health care industry, Weber, 1993 “We conclude that the protection provided by surgical masks may be insufficient in environments containing potentially hazardous sub-micrometer-sized aerosols.”
18) Disposable surgical face masks for preventing surgical wound infection in clean surgery, Vincent, 2016 “We included three trials, involving a total of 2106 participants. There was no statistically significant difference in infection rates between the masked and unmasked group in any of the trials…from the limited results it is unclear whether the wearing of surgical face masks by members of the surgical team has any impact on surgical wound infection rates for patients undergoing clean surgery.”
19) Disposable surgical face masks: a systematic review, Lipp, 2005 “From the limited results it is unclear whether wearing surgical face masks results in any harm or benefit to the patient undergoing clean surgery.”
20) Comparison of the Filter Efficiency of Medical Nonwoven Fabrics against Three Different Microbe Aerosols, Shimasaki , 2018 “We conclude that the filter efficiency test using the phi-X174 phage aerosol may overestimate the protective performance of nonwoven fabrics with filter structure compared to that against real pathogens such as the influenza virus.”
21) The use of masks and respirators to preventtransmission of inﬂuenza: a systematic review of thescientiﬁc evidence21) The use of masks and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza: a systematic review of the scientific evidence, Bin-Reza, 2012 The use of masks and respirators to preventtransmission of inﬂuenza: a systematic review of thescientiﬁc evidence“None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask/respirator use and protection against influenza infection. Some evidence suggests that mask use is best undertaken as part of a package of personal protection especially hand hygiene.”
22) Facial protection for healthcare workers during pandemics: a scoping review, Godoy, 2020 “Compared with surgical masks, N95 respirators perform better in laboratory testing, may provide superior protection in inpatient settings and perform equivalently in outpatient settings. Surgical mask and N95 respirator conservation strategies include extended use, reuse or decontamination, but these strategies may result in inferior protection. Limited evidence suggests that reused and improvised masks should be used when medical-grade protection is unavailable.”
23) Assessment of Proficiency of N95 Mask Donning Among the General Public in Singapore, Yeung, 2020 “These findings support ongoing recommendations against the use of N95 masks by the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic.5 N95 mask use by the general public may not translate into effective protection but instead provide false reassurance. Beyond N95 masks, proficiency among the general public in donning surgical masks needs to be assessed.”
24) Evaluating the efficacy of cloth facemasks in reducing particulate matter exposure, Shakya, 2017 “Standard N95 mask performance was used as a control to compare the results with cloth masks, and our results suggest that cloth masks are only marginally beneficial in protecting individuals from particles<2.5 μm.”
25) Use of surgical face masks to reduce the incidence of the common cold among health care workers in Japan: a randomized controlled trial, Jacobs, 2009 “Face mask use in health care workers has not been demonstrated to provide benefit in terms of cold symptoms or getting colds.”
26) N95 Respirators vs Medical Masks for Preventing Influenza Among Health Care Personnel, Radonovich, 2019 “Among outpatient health care personnel, N95 respirators vs medical masks as worn by participants in this trial resulted in no significant difference in the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
27) Does Universal Mask Wearing Decrease or Increase the Spread of COVID-19?, Watts up with that? 2020 “A survey of peer-reviewed studies shows that universal mask wearing (as opposed to wearing masks in specific settings) does not decrease the transmission of respiratory viruses from people wearing masks to people who are not wearing masks.”
28) Masking: A Careful Review of the Evidence, Alexander, 2021 “In fact, it is not unreasonable at this time to conclude that surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are, have absolutely no impact on controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus, and current evidence implies that face masks can be actually harmful.”
29) Community and Close Contact Exposures Associated with COVID-19 Among Symptomatic Adults ≥18 Years in 11 Outpatient Health Care Facilities — United States, July 2020, Fisher, 2020 Reported characteristics of symptomatic adults ≥18 years who were outpatients in 11 US academic health care facilities and who received positive and negative SARS-CoV-2 test results (N = 314)* — United States, July 1–29, 2020, revealed that 80% of infected persons wore face masks almost all or most of the time.
30) Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19 in Europe: a quasi-experimental study, Hunter, 2020 Face masks in public was not associated with reduced incidence.
31) Masking lack of evidence with politics, CEBM, Heneghan, 2020 “It would appear that despite two decades of pandemic preparedness, there is considerable uncertainty as to the value of wearing masks. For instance, high rates of infection with cloth masks could be due to harms caused by cloth masks, or benefits of medical masks. The numerous systematic reviews that have been recently published all include the same evidence base so unsurprisingly broadly reach the same conclusions.”
32) Transmission of COVID-19 in 282 clusters in Catalonia, Spain: a cohort study, Marks, 2021 “We observed no association of risk of transmission with reported mask usage by contacts, with the age or relations of the index case, or with the presence of respiratory symptoms in the index case at the initial study visit.”
33) Non-pharmaceutical public health measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza, WHO, 2020 “Ten RCTs were included in the meta-analysis, and there was no evidence that face masks are effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
34) The Strangely Unscientific Masking of America, Younes, 2020 “One report reached its conclusion based on observations of a “dummy head attached to a breathing simulator.” Another analyzed use of surgical masks on people experiencing at least two symptoms of acute respiratory illness. Incidentally, not one of these studies involved cloth masks or accounted for real-world mask usage (or misusage) among lay people, and none established efficacy of widespread mask-wearing by people not exhibiting symptoms. There was simply no evidence whatsoever that healthy people ought to wear masks when going about their lives, especially outdoors.”
35) Facemasks and similar barriers to prevent respiratory illness such as COVID-19: A rapid systematic review, Brainard, 2020 “31 eligible studies (including 12 RCTs). Narrative synthesis and random-effects meta-analysis of attack rates for primary and secondary prevention in 28 studies were performed. Based on the RCTs we would conclude that wearing facemasks can be very slightly protective against primary infection from casual community contact, and modestly protective against household infections when both infected and uninfected members wear facemasks. However, the RCTs often suffered from poor compliance and controls using facemasks.”
36) The Year of Disguises, Koops, 2020 “The healthy people in our society should not be punished for being healthy, which is exactly what lockdowns, distancing, mask mandates, etc. do…Children should not be wearing face coverings. We all need constant interaction with our environments and that is especially true for children. This is how their immune system develops. They are the lowest of the low-risk groups. Let them be kids and let them develop their immune systems… The “Mask Mandate” idea is a truly ridiculous, knee-jerk reaction and needs to be withdrawn and thrown in the waste bin of disastrous policy, along with lockdowns and school closures. You can vote for a person without blindly supporting all of their proposals!”
37) Open Schools, Covid-19, and Child and Teacher Morbidity in Sweden, Ludvigsson, 2020 “1,951,905 children in Sweden (as of December 31, 2019) who were 1 to 16 years of age, were examined…social distancing was encouraged in Sweden, but wearing face masks was not…No child with Covid-19 died.”
38) Double-Masking Benefits Are Limited, Japan Supercomputer Finds, Reidy, 2021 “Wearing two masks offers limited benefits in preventing the spread of droplets that could carry the coronavirus compared to one well-fitted disposable mask, according to a Japanese study that modeled the dispersal of droplets on a supercomputer.”
39) Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Part 1 – Face masks, eye protection and person distancing: systematic review and meta-analysis, Jefferson, 2020 “There was insufficient evidence to provide a recommendation on the use of facial barriers without other measures. We found insufficient evidence for a difference between surgical masks and N95 respirators and limited evidence to support effectiveness of quarantine.”
40) Should individuals in the community without respiratory symptoms wear facemasks to reduce the spread of COVID-19?, NIPH, 2020 “Non-medical facemasks include a variety of products. There is no reliable evidence of the effectiveness of non-medical facemasks in community settings. There is likely to be substantial variation in effectiveness between products. However, there is only limited evidence from laboratory studies of potential differences in effectiveness when different products are used in the community.”
41) Is a mask necessary in the operating theatre?, Orr, 1981 “It would appear that minimum contamination can best be achieved by not wearing a mask at all but operating in silence. Whatever its relation to contamination, bacterial counts, or the dissemination of squames, there is no direct evidence that the wearing of masks reduces wound infection.”
42) The surgical mask is a bad fit for risk reduction, Neilson, 2016 “As recently as 2010, the US National Academy of Sciences declared that, in the community setting, “face masks are not designed or certified to protect the wearer from exposure to respiratory hazards.” A number of studies have shown the inefficacy of the surgical mask in household settings to prevent transmission of the influenza virus.”
43) Facemask versus No Facemask in Preventing Viral Respiratory Infections During Hajj: A Cluster Randomised Open Label Trial, Alfelali, 2019 “Facemask use does not prevent clinical or laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections among Hajj pilgrims.”
44) Facemasks in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis, Vainshelboim, 2021 “The existing scientific evidences challenge the safety and efficacy of wearing facemask as preventive intervention for COVID-19. The data suggest that both medical and non-medical facemasks are ineffective to block human-to-human transmission of viral and infectious disease such SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, supporting against the usage of facemasks. Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects. These include hypoxia, hypercapnia, shortness of breath, increased acidity and toxicity, activation of fear and stress response, rise in stress hormones, immunosuppression, fatigue, headaches, decline in cognitive performance, predisposition for viral and infectious illnesses, chronic stress, anxiety and depression.”
45) The use of masks and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza: a systematic review of the scientific evidence, Bin-Reza, 2011 “None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask/respirator use and protection against influenza infection. Some evidence suggests that mask use is best undertaken as part of a package of personal protection especially hand hygiene.”
46) Are Face Masks Effective? The Evidence., Swiss Policy Research, 2021 “Most studies found little to no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks in the general population, neither as personal protective equipment nor as a source control.”
47) Postoperative wound infections and surgical face masks: A controlled study, Tunevall, 1991 “These results indicate that the use of face masks might be reconsidered. Masks may be used to protect the operating team from drops of infected blood and from airborne infections, but have not been proven to protect the patient operated by a healthy operating team.”
48) Mask mandate and use efficacy in state-level COVID-19 containment, Guerra, 2021 “Mask mandates and use are not associated with slower state-level COVID-19 spread during COVID-19 growth surges.”
49) Twenty Reasons Mandatory Face Masks are Unsafe, Ineffective and Immoral, Manley, 2021 “A CDC-funded review on masking in May 2020 came to the conclusion: “Although mechanistic studies support the potential effect of hand hygiene or face masks, evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza… None of the household studies reported a significant reduction in secondary laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the face mask group.” If masks can’t stop the regular flu, how can they stop SAR-CoV-2?”
50) A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers, MacIntyre, 2015 “First RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection…the rates of all infection outcomes were highest in the cloth mask arm, with the rate of ILI statistically significantly higher in the cloth mask arm (relative risk (RR)=13.00, 95% CI 1.69 to 100.07) compared with the medical mask arm. Cloth masks also had significantly higher rates of ILI compared with the control arm. An analysis by mask use showed ILI (RR=6.64, 95% CI 1.45 to 28.65) and laboratory-confirmed virus (RR=1.72, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.94) were significantly higher in the cloth masks group compared with the medical masks group. Penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% and medical masks 44%.”
51) Horowitz: Data from India continues to blow up the ‘Delta’ fear narrative, Blazemedia, 2021 “Rather than proving the need to sow more panic, fear, and control over people, the story from India — the source of the “Delta” variant — continues to refute every current premise of COVID fascism…Masks failed to stop the spread there.”
52) An outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) in a secondary care hospital in Finland, May 2021, Hetemäki, 2021 Reporting on a nosocomial hospital outbreak in Finland, Hetemäli et al. observed that “both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections were found among vaccinated health care workers, and secondary transmission occurred from those with symptomatic infections despite use of personal protective equipment.”
53) Nosocomial outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in a highly vaccinated population, Israel, July 2021, Shitrit, 2021 In a hospital outbreak investigation in Israel, Shitrit et al. observed “high transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant among twice vaccinated and masked individuals.” They added that “this suggests some waning of immunity, albeit still providing protection for individuals without comorbidities.” Again, despite use of personal protective equipment.
54) 47 studies confirm ineffectiveness of masks for COVID and 32 more confirm their negative health effects, Lifesite news staff, 2021 “No studies were needed to justify this practice since most understood viruses were far too small to be stopped by the wearing of most masks, other than sophisticated ones designed for that task and which were too costly and complicated for the general public to properly wear and keep changing or cleaning. It was also understood that long mask wearing was unhealthy for wearers for common sense and basic science reasons.”
55) Are EUA Face Masks Effective in Slowing the Spread of a Viral Infection?, Dopp, 2021 The vast evidence shows that masks are ineffective.
56) CDC Study finds overwhelming majority of people getting coronavirus wore masks, Boyd/Federalist, 2021 “A Centers for Disease Control report released in September shows that masks and face coverings are not effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19, even for those people who consistently wear them.”
57) Most Mask Studies Are Garbage, Eugyppius, 2021 “The other kind of study, the proper kind, would be a randomised controlled trial. You compare the rates of infection in a masked cohort against rates of infection in an unmasked cohort. Here things have gone much, much worse for mask brigade. They spent months trying to prevent the publication of the Danish randomised controlled trial, which found that masks do zero. When that paper finally squeaked into print, they spent more months trying desperately to poke holes in it. You could feel their boundless relief when the Bangladesh study finally appeared to save them in early September. Every last Twitter blue-check could now proclaim that Science Shows Masks Work. Such was their hunger for any scrap of evidence to prop up their prior convictions, that none of them noticed the sad nature of the Science in question. The study found a mere 10% reduction in seroprevalence among the masked cohort, an effect so small that it fell within the confidence interval. Even the study authors couldn’t exclude the possibility that masks in fact do zero.”
58) Using face masks in the community: first update, ECDC, 2021 “No high-quality evidence in favor of face masks and recommended their use only based on the ‘precautionary principle.”
59) Do physical measures such as hand-washing or wearing masks stop or slow down the spread of respiratory viruses?, Cochrane, 2020 “Seven studies took place in the community, and two studies in healthcare workers. Compared with wearing no mask, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness (9 studies; 3507 people); and probably makes no difference in how many people have flu confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 3005 people). Unwanted effects were rarely reported, but included discomfort.”
60) Mouth-nose protection in public: No evidence of effectiveness, Thieme/ Kappstein, 2020 “The use of masks in public spaces is questionable simply because of the lack of scientific data. If one also considers the necessary precautions, masks must even be considered a risk of infection in public spaces according to the rules known from hospitals… If masks are worn by the population, the risk of infection is potentially increased, regardless of whether they are medical masks or whether they are so-called community masks designed in any way. If one considers the precautionary measures that the RKI as well as the international health authorities have pronounced, all authorities would even have to inform the population that masks should not be worn in public spaces at all. Because no matter whether it is a duty for all citizens or voluntarily borne by the citizens who want it for whatever reason, it remains a fact that masks can do more harm than good in public.”
61) US mask guidance for kids is the strictest across the world, Skelding, 2021 “Kids need to see faces,” Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, told The Post. Youngsters watch people’s mouths to learn to speak, read and understand emotions, he said.“We have this idea that this disease is so bad that we must adopt any means necessary to stop it from spreading,” he said. “It’s not that masks in schools have no costs. They actually do have substantial costs.”
62) Masking young children in school harms language acquisition, Walsh, 2021 “This is important because children and/or students do not have the speech or language ability that adults have — they are not equally able and the ability to see the face and especially the mouth is critical to language acquisition which children and/or students are engaged in at all times. Furthermore, the ability to see the mouth is not only essential to communication but also essential to brain development.”
63) The Case Against Masks for Children, Makary, 2021 “It’s abusive to force kids who struggle with them to sacrifice for the sake of unvaccinated adults… Do masks reduce Covid transmission in children? Believe it or not, we could find only a single retrospective study on the question, and its results were inconclusive. Yet two weeks ago the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sternly decreed that 56 million U.S. children and adolescents, vaccinated or not, should cover their faces regardless of the prevalence of infection in their community. Authorities in many places took the cue to impose mandates in schools and elsewhere, on the theory that masks can’t do any harm. That isn’t true. Some children are fine wearing a mask, but others struggle. Those who have myopia can have difficulty seeing because the mask fogs their glasses. (This has long been a problem for medical students in the operating room.) Masks can cause severe acne and other skin problems. The discomfort of a mask distracts some children from learning. By increasing airway resistance during exhalation, masks can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. And masks can be vectors for pathogens if they become moist or are used for too long.”
64) Face Covering Mandates, Peavey, 2021 “Face Covering Mandates And Why They AREN’T Effective.”
65) Do masks work? A Review of the evidence, Anderson, 2021 “In truth, the CDC’s, U.K.’s, and WHO’s earlier guidance was much more consistent with the best medical research on masks’ effectiveness in preventing the spread of viruses. That research suggests that Americans’ many months of mask-wearing has likely provided little to no health benefit and might even have been counterproductive in preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
66) Most face masks won’t stop COVID-19 indoors, study warns, Anderer, 2021 “New research reveals that cloth masks filter just 10% of exhaled aerosols, with many people not wearing coverings that fit their face properly.”
67) How face masks and lockdowns failed/the face mask folly in retrospect, Swiss Policy Research, 2021 “Mask mandates and lockdowns have had no discernible impact.”
68) CDC Releases School COVID Transmission Study But Buries One of the Most Damning Parts, Davis, 2021 “The 21% lower incidence in schools that required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional… With tens of millions of American kids headed back to school in the fall, their parents and political leaders owe it to them to have a clear-sighted, scientifically rigorous discussion about which anti-COVID measures actually work and which might put an extra burden on vulnerable young people without meaningfully or demonstrably slowing the spread of the virus…that a masking requirement of students failed to show independent benefit is a finding of consequence and great interest.”
69) World Health Organization internal meeting, COVID-19 – virtual press conference – 30 March 2020, 2020 “This is a question on Austria. The Austrian Government has a desire to make everyone wear a mask who’s going into the shops. I understood from our previous briefings with you that the general public should not wear masks because they are in short supply. What do you say about the new Austrian measures?… I’m not specifically aware of that measure in Austria. I would assume that it’s aimed at people who potentially have the disease not passing it to others. In general WHO recommends that the wearing of a mask by a member of the public is to prevent that individual giving the disease to somebody else. We don’t generally recommend the wearing to masks in public by otherwise well individuals because it has not been up to now associated with any particular benefit.”
70) Face masks to prevent transmission of influenza virus: a systematic review, Cowling, 2010 “Review highlights the limited evidence base supporting the efficacy or effectiveness of face masks to reduce influenza virus transmission.”“None of the studies reviewed showed a benefit from wearing a mask, in either HCW or community members in households (H).”
71) Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks in protecting health care workers from acute respiratory infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Smith, 2016 “Although N95 respirators appeared to have a protective advantage over surgical masks in laboratory settings, our meta-analysis showed that there were insufficient data to determine definitively whether N95 respirators are superior to surgical masks in protecting health care workers against transmissible acute respiratory infections in clinical settings.”
72) Effectiveness of Masks and Respirators Against Respiratory Infections in Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Offeddu, 2017 “We found evidence to support universal medical mask use in hospital settings as part of infection control measures to reduce the risk of CRI and ILI among HCWs. Overall, N95 respirators may convey greater protection, but universal use throughout a work shift is likely to be less acceptable due to greater discomfort…Our analysis confirms the effectiveness of medical masks and respirators against SARS. Disposable, cotton, or paper masks are not recommended. The confirmed effectiveness of medical masks is crucially important for lower-resource and emergency settings lacking access to N95 respirators. In such cases, single-use medical masks are preferable to cloth masks, for which there is no evidence of protection and which might facilitate transmission of pathogens when used repeatedly without adequate sterilization…We found no clear benefit of either medical masks or N95 respirators against pH1N1…Overall, the evidence to inform policies on mask use in HCWs is poor, with a small number of studies that is prone to reporting biases and lack of statistical power.”
73) N95 Respirators vs Medical Masks for Preventing Influenza Among Health Care Personnel, Radonovich, 2019 “Use of N95 respirators, compared with medical masks, in the outpatient setting resulted in no significant difference in the rates of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks againstinfluenza: A systematic review and meta-analysis74) Masks Don’t Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy, Rancourt, 2020 The use of N95 respirators compared with surgical masks is not associated with alower risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza. It suggests that N95 respirators should not be rec-ommended for general public and nonhigh-risk medical staff those are not in close contact withinfluenza patients or suspected patients. “No RCT study with verified outcome shows a benefit for HCW or community members in households to wearing a mask or respirator. There is no such study. There are no exceptions. Likewise, no study exists that shows a benefit from a broad policy to wear masks in public (more on this below). Furthermore, if there were any benefit to wearing a mask, because of the blocking power against droplets and aerosol particles, then there should be more benefit from wearing a respirator (N95) compared to a surgical mask, yet several large meta-analyses, and all the RCT, prove that there is no such relative benefit.”
75) More Than a Dozen Credible Medical Studies Prove Face Masks Do Not Work Even In Hospitals!, Firstenberg, 2020 “Mandating masks has not kept death rates down anywhere. The 20 U.S. states that have never ordered people to wear face masks indoors and out have dramatically lower COVID-19 death rates than the 30 states that have mandated masks. Most of the no-mask states have COVID-19 death rates below 20 per 100,000 population, and none have a death rate higher than 55. All 13 states that have death rates higher 55 are states that have required the wearing of masks in all public places. It has not protected them.”
76) Does evidence based medicine support the effectiveness of surgical facemasks in preventing postoperative wound infections in elective surgery?, Bahli, 2009 “From the limited randomized trials it is still not clear that whether wearing surgical face masks harms or benefit the patients undergoing elective surgery.”
77) Peritonitis prevention in CAPD: to mask or not?, Figueiredo, 2000 “The current study suggests that routine use of face masks during CAPD bag exchanges may be unnecessary and could be discontinued.”
78) The operating room environment as affected by people and the surgical face mask, Ritter, 1975 “The wearing of a surgical face mask had no effect upon the overall operating room environmental contamination and probably work only to redirect the projectile effect of talking and breathing. People are the major source of environmental contamination in the operating room.”
79) The efficacy of standard surgical face masks: an investigation using “tracer particles, Ha’eri, 1980 “Particle contamination of the wound was demonstrated in all experiments. Since the microspheres were not identified on the exterior of these face masks, they must have escaped around the mask edges and found their way into the wound.”
80) Wearing of caps and masks not necessary during cardiac catheterization, Laslett, 1989 “Prospectively evaluated the experience of 504 patients undergoing percutaneous left heart catheterization, seeking evidence of a relationship between whether caps and/or masks were worn by the operators and the incidence of infection. No infections were found in any patient, regardless of whether a cap or mask was used. Thus, we found no evidence that caps or masks need to be worn during percutaneous cardiac catheterization.”
81) Do anaesthetists need to wear surgical masks in the operating theatre? A literature review with evidence-based recommendations, Skinner, 2001 “A questionnaire-based survey, undertaken by Leyland’ in 1993 to assess attitudes to the use of masks, showed that 20% of surgeons discarded surgical masks for endoscopic work. Less than 50% did not wear the mask as recommended by the Medical Research Council. Equal numbers of surgeons wore the mask in the belief they were protecting themselves and the patient, with 20% of these admitting that tradition was the only reason for wearing them.”
82) Mask mandates for children are not backed by data, Faria, 2021 “Even if you want to use the 2018-19 flu season to avoid overlap with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC paints a similar picture: It estimated 480 flu deaths among children during that period, with 46,000 hospitalizations. COVID-19, mercifully, is simply not as deadly for children. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, preliminary data from 45 states show that between 0.00%-0.03% of child COVID-19 cases resulted in death. When you combine these numbers with the CDC study that found mask mandates for students — along with hybrid models, social distancing, and classroom barriers — did not have a statistically significant benefit in preventing the spread of COVID-19 in schools, the insistence that we force students to jump through these hoops for their own protection makes no sense.”
83) The Downsides of Masking Young Students Are Real, Prasad, 2021 “The benefits of mask requirements in schools might seem self-evident—they have to help contain the coronavirus, right?—but that may not be so. In Spain, masks are used in kids ages 6 and older. The authors of one study there examined the risk of viral spread at all ages. If masks provided a large benefit, then the transmission rate among 5-year-olds would be far higher than the rate among 6-year-olds. The results don’t show that. Instead, they show that transmission rates, which were low among the youngest kids, steadily increased with age—rather than dropping sharply for older children subject to the face-covering requirement. This suggests that masking kids in school does not provide a major benefit and might provide none at all. And yet many officials prefer to double down on masking mandates, as if the fundamental policy were sound and only the people have failed.”
84) Masks In Schools: Scientific American Fumbles Report On Childhood COVID Transmission, English/ACSH, 2021 “Masking is a low-risk, inexpensive intervention. If we want to recommend it as a precautionary measure, especially in situations where vaccination isn’t an option, great. But that’s not what the public has been told. “Florida governor Ron DeSantis and politicians in Texas say research does not support mask mandates,” SciAm’s sub-headline bellowed. “Many studies show they are wrong.”If that’s the case, demonstrate that the intervention works before you mandate its use in schools. If you can’t, acknowledged what UC San Francisco hematologist-oncologist and Associate Professor of Epidemiology Vinay Prasad wrote over at the Atlantic:”No scientific consensus exists about the wisdom of mandatory-masking rules for schoolchildren … In mid-March 2020, few could argue against erring on the side of caution. But nearly 18 months later, we owe it to children and their parents to answer the question properly: Do the benefits of masking kids in school outweigh the downsides? The honest answer in 2021 remains that we don’t know for sure.”
85) Masks ‘don’t work,’ are damaging health and are being used to control population: Doctors panel, Haynes, 2021 “The only randomized control studies that have ever been done on masks show that they don’t work,” began Dr. Nepute. He referred to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s “noble lie,” in which Fauci “changed his tune,” from his March 2020 comments, where he downplayed the need and efficacy of mask wearing, before urging Americans to use masks later in the year. “Well, he lied to us. So if he lied about that, what else has he lied to you about?” questioned Nepute.Masks have become commonplace in almost every setting, whether indoors or outdoors, but Dr. Popper mentioned how there have been “no studies” which actually examine the “effect of wearing a mask during all your waking hours.”“There’s no science to back any of this and particularly no science to back the fact that wearing a mask twenty four-seven or every waking minute, is health promoting,” added Popper.”
86) Aerosol penetration through surgical masks, Chen, 1992 “The mask that has the highest collection efficiency is not necessarily the best mask from the perspective of the filter-quality factor, which considers not only the capture efficiency but also the air resistance. Although surgical mask media may be adequate to remove bacteria exhaled or expelled by health care workers, they may not be sufficient to remove the sub-micrometer-sized aerosols containing pathogens to which these health care workers are potentially exposed.”
87) CDC: Schools With Mask Mandates Didn’t See Statistically Significant Different Rates of COVID Transmission From Schools With Optional Policies, Miltimore, 2021 “The CDC did not include its finding that “required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional” in the summary of its report.”
88) Horowitz: Data from India continues to blow up the ‘Delta’ fear narrative, Howorwitz, 2021 “Rather than proving the need to sow more panic, fear, and control over people, the story from India — the source of the “Delta” variant — continues to refute every current premise of COVID fascism…Unless we do that, we must return to the very effective lockdowns and masks. In reality, India’s experience proves the opposite true; namely:1) Delta is largely an attenuated version, with a much lower fatality rate, that for most people is akin to a cold.2) Masks failed to stop the spread there.3) The country has come close to the herd immunity threshold with just 3% vaccinated.
89) Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Among Vaccinated Healthcare Workers, Vietnam, Chau, 2021 While not definitive in the LANCET publication, it can be inferred that the nurses were all masked up and had PPE etc. as was the case in Finland and Israel nosocomial outbreaks, indicating the failure of PPE and masks to constrain Delta spread.
90) Aerosol penetration through surgical masks, Willeke, 1992 “The mask that has the highest collection efficiency is not necessarily the best mask from the perspective of the filter-quality factor, which considers not only the capture efficiency but also the air resistance. Although surgical mask media may be adequate to remove bacteria exhaled or expelled by health care workers, they may not be sufficient to remove the submicrometer-size aerosols containing pathogens to which these health care workers are potentially exposed.”
91) The efficacy of standard surgical face masks: an investigation using “tracer particles”, Wiley, 1980 “Particle contamination of the wound was demonstrated in all aexperiments. Since the microspheres were not identified on the exterior of these face masks, they must have escped around the mask edges and found their way into the wound. The wearing of the mask beneath the headgear curtails this route of contamination.”
92) An Evidence Based Scientific Analysis of Why Masks are Ineffective, Unnecessary, and Harmful, Meehan, 2020 “Decades of the highest-level scientific evidence (meta-analyses of multiple randomized controlled trials) overwhelmingly conclude that medical masks are ineffective at preventing the transmission of respiratory viruses, including SAR-CoV-2…those arguing for masks are relying on low-level evidence (observational retrospective trials and mechanistic theories), none of which are powered to counter the evidence, arguments, and risks of mask mandates.”
93) Open Letter from Medical Doctors and Health Professionals to All Belgian Authorities and All Belgian Media, AIER, 2020 “Oral masks in healthy individuals are ineffective against the spread of viral infections.”
94) Effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks against influenza: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Long, 2020 “The use of N95 respirators compared with surgical masks is not associated with a lower risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza. It suggests that N95 respirators should not be recommended for general public and nonhigh-risk medical staff those are not in close contact with influenza patients or suspected patients.”
95) Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19, WHO, 2020 “However, the use of a mask alone is insufficient to provide an adequate level of protection or source control, and other personal and community level measures should also be adopted to suppress transmission of respiratory viruses.”
96) Farce mask: it’s safe for only 20 minutes, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2003 “Health authorities have warned that surgical masks may not be an effective protection against the virus.”Those masks are only effective so long as they are dry,” said Professor Yvonne Cossart of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Sydney.”As soon as they become saturated with the moisture in your breath they stop doing their job and pass on the droplets.”Professor Cossart said that could take as little as 15 or 20 minutes, after which the mask would need to be changed. But those warnings haven’t stopped people snapping up the masks, with retailers reporting they are having trouble keeping up with demand.”
97) Study: Wearing A Used Mask Is Potentially Riskier Than No Mask At All, Boyd, 2020

Effects of mask-wearing on the inhalability and deposition of airborne SARS-CoV-2 aerosols in human upper airway “According to researchers from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and California Baptist University, a three-layer surgical mask is 65 percent efficient in filtering particles in the air. That effectiveness, however, falls to 25 percent once it is used.“It is natural to think that wearing a mask, no matter new or old, should always be better than nothing,” said author Jinxiang Xi.“Our results show that this belief is only true for particles larger than 5 micrometers, but not for fine particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers,” he continued.”
98) Unravelling the Role of the Mandatory Use of Face Covering Masks for the Control of SARS-CoV-2 in Schools: A Quasi-Experimental Study Nested in a Population-Based Cohort in Catalonia (Spain), Coma, 2022 “A recent study (Catalonia, Spain) done on face masks and their effectiveness was a retrospective population-based study among near 600,000 children aged 3 to 11 years attending preschool (3-5 years, without facial covering mandate) and primary education (6-11 years, with facial covering mandate); to assess the incidence of SARS-CoV-2, secondary attack rates (SAR) and the effective reproductive number (R*) for each grade during the first trimester of the 2021-2022 academic year, including an analysis of the differences between 5-year-old, without facial covering mandate, and 6 year-old children, with mandate.
Researchers found that “the SARS-CoV-2 incidence was significantly lower in preschool than in primary education, and an age-dependent trend was observed. Children aged 3 and 4 showed lower outcomes for all the analyzed epidemiological variables, while children aged 11 had the higher values. Six-year-old children showed higher incidence than 5 year-olds (3·54% vs 3·1%; OR: 1·15 [95%CI: 1·08-1·22]) and slightly lower but not statistically significant SAR and R*: SAR were 4·36% in 6 year-old children, and 4·59% in 5 year-old (IRR: 0·96 [95%CI: 0·82-1·11]); and R* was 0·9 and 0·93 (OR: 0·96 [95%CI: 0·87-1·09]), respectively.” Overall, facial covering mandates (face masks) in examined schools were not linked to lower SARS-CoV-2 incidence or spread, implying that these masks were not effective.”
99) Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe, Spira, 2022

“The aim of this short study was to analyse the correlation between mask usage against morbidity and mortality rates in the 2020-2021 winter in Europe. Data from 35 European countries on morbidity, mortality, and mask usage during a six-month period were analysed and crossed. Mask usage was more homogeneous in Eastern Europe than in Western European countries. Spearman’s correlation coefficients between mask usage and COVID-19 outcomes were either null or positive, depending on the subgroup of countries and type of outcome (cases or deaths). Positive correlations were stronger in Western than in Eastern European countries. These findings indicate that countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage.”
100)The Foegen effect
A mechanism by which facemasks contribute to the COVID-19 case fatality rate, Fögen, 2022 “The most important finding from this study is that contrary to the accepted thought that fewer people are dying because infection rates are reduced by masks, this was not the case. Results from this study strongly suggest that mask mandates actually caused about 1.5 times the number of deaths or ∼50% more deaths compared to no mask mandates. This means that the risk for the individual wearing the mask should even be higher, because there is an unknown number of people in MMC who either do not obey mask mandates, are exempted for medical reasons or do not go to public places where mask mandates are in effect. These people do not have an increased risk and thus the risk on the other people under a mask mandate is actually higher.”
MASK MANDATES
1) Mask mandate and use efficacy for COVID-19 containment in US States, Guerra, 2021 “Calculated total COVID-19 case growth and mask use for the continental United States with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. We estimated post-mask mandate case growth in non-mandate states using median issuance dates of neighboring states with mandates…did not observe association between mask mandates or use and reduced COVID-19 spread in US states.”
2) These 12 Graphs Show Mask Mandates Do Nothing To Stop COVID, Weiss, 2020 “Masks can work well when they’re fully sealed, properly fitted, changed often, and have a filter designed for virus-sized particles. This represents none of the common masks available on the consumer market, making universal masking much more of a confidence trick than a medical solution…Our universal use of unscientific face coverings is therefore closer to medieval superstition than it is to science, but many powerful institutions have too much political capital invested in the mask narrative at this point, so the dogma is perpetuated. The narrative says that if cases go down it’s because masks succeeded. It says that if cases go up it’s because masks succeeded in preventing more cases. The narrative simply assumes rather than proves that masks work, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.”
3) Mask Mandates Seem to Make CCP Virus Infection Rates Climb, Study Says, Vadum, 2020 “Protective-mask mandates aimed at combating the spread of the CCP virus that causes the disease COVID-19 appear to promote its spread, according to a report from RationalGround.com, a clearinghouse of COVID-19 data trends that’s run by a grassroots group of data analysts, computer scientists, and actuaries.”
4) Horowitz: Comprehensive analysis of 50 states shows greater spread with mask mandates, Howorwitz, 2020
Justin Hart “How long do our politicians get to ignore the results?… The results: When comparing states with mandates vs. those without, or periods of times within a state with a mandate vs. without, there is absolutely no evidence the mask mandate worked to slow the spread one iota. In total, in the states that had a mandate in effect, there were 9,605,256 confirmed COVID cases over 5,907 total days, an average of 27 cases per 100,000 per day. When states did not have a statewide order (which includes the states that never had them and the period of time masking states did not have the mandate in place) there were 5,781,716 cases over 5,772 total days, averaging 17 cases per 100,000 people per day.”
5) The CDC’s Mask Mandate Study: Debunked, Alexander, 2021 “Thus, it is not surprising that the CDC’s own recent conclusion on the use of nonpharmaceutical measures such as face masks in pandemic influenza, warned that scientific “evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission…” Moreover, in the WHO’s 2019 guidance document on nonpharmaceutical public health measures in a pandemic, they reported as to face masks that “there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing transmission…” Similarly, in the fine print to a recent double-blind, double-masking simulation the CDC stated that “The findings of these simulations [supporting mask usage] should neither be generalized to the effectiveness …nor interpreted as being representative of the effectiveness of these masks when worn in real-world settings.”
6) Phil Kerpin, tweet, 2021
The Spectator “The first ecological study of state mask mandates and use to include winter data: “Case growth was independent of mandates at low and high rates of community spread, and mask use did not predict case growth during the Summer or Fall-Winter waves.”
7) How face masks and lockdowns failed, SPR, 2021 “Infections have been driven primarily by seasonal and endemic factors, whereas mask mandates and lockdowns have had no discernible impact”
8) Analysis of the Effects of COVID-19 Mask Mandates on Hospital Resource Consumption and Mortality at the County Level, Schauer, 2021 “There was no reduction in per-population daily mortality, hospital bed, ICU bed, or ventilator occupancy of COVID-19-positive patients attributable to the implementation of a mask-wearing mandate.”
9) Do we need mask mandates, Harris, 2021 “But masks proved far less useful in the subsequent 1918 Spanish flu, a viral disease spread by pathogens smaller than bacteria. California’s Department of Health, for instance, reported that the cities of Stockton, which required masks, and Boston, which did not, had scarcely different death rates, and so advised against mask mandates except for a few high-risk professions such as barbers….Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on mask use, generally more reliable than observational studies, though not infallible, typically show that cloth and surgical masks offer little protection. A few RCTs suggest that perfect adherence to an exacting mask protocol may guard against influenza, but meta-analyses find little on the whole to suggest that masks offer meaningful protection. WHO guidelines from 2019 on influenza say that despite “mechanistic plausibility for the potential effectiveness” of masks, studies showed a benefit too small to be established with any certainty. Another literature review by researchers from the University of Hong Kong agrees. Its best estimate for the protective effect of surgical masks against influenza, based on ten RCTs published through 2018, was just 22 percent, and it could not rule out zero effect.”
MASK HARMS
1) Corona children studies: Co-Ki: First results of a German-wide registry on mouth and nose covering (mask) in children, Schwarz, 2021 “The average wearing time of the mask was 270 minutes per day. Impairments caused by wearing the mask were reported by 68% of the parents. These included irritability (60%), headache (53%), difficulty concentrating (50%), less happiness (49%), reluctance to go to school/kindergarten (44%), malaise (42%) impaired learning (38%) and drowsiness or fatigue (37%).”
2) Dangerous pathogens found on children’s face masks, Cabrera, 2021 “Masks were contaminated with bacteria, parasites, and fungi, including three with dangerous pathogenic and pneumonia-causing bacteria.”
3) Masks, false safety and real dangers, Part 2: Microbial challenges from masks, Borovoy, 2020/2021 “Laboratory testing of used masks from 20 train commuters revealed that 11 of the 20 masks tested contained over 100,000 bacterial colonies. Molds and yeasts were also found. Three of the masks contained more than one million bacterial colonies… The outside surfaces of surgical masks were found to have high levels of the following microbes, even in hospitals, more concentrated on the outside of masks than in the environment. Staphylococcus species (57%) and Pseudomonas spp (38%) were predominant among bacteria, and Penicillium spp (39%) and Aspergillus spp. (31%) were the predominant fungi.”
4) Preliminary report on surgical mask induced deoxygenation during major surgery, Beder, 2008 “Considering our findings, pulse rates of the surgeon’s increase and SpO2 decrease after the first hour. This early change in SpO2 may be either due to the facial mask or the operational stress. Since a very small decrease in saturation at this level, reflects a large decrease in PaO2, our findings may have a clinical value for the health workers and the surgeons.”
5) Mask mandates may affect a child’s emotional, intellectual development, Gillis, 2020 “The thing is we really don’t know for sure what the effect may or may not be. But what we do know is that children, especially in early childhood, they use the mouth as part of the entire face to get a sense of what’s going on around them in terms of adults and other people in their environment as far a

ChossidMom

Wed, Jun 22 2022, 6:25 am

ChossidMom

Wed, Jun 22 2022, 8:43 am

Not a scientific article

https://brownstone.org/article.....ence/
Facemasks Are Not a Mere “Inconvenience”
BY AARON HERTZBERG DECEMBER 27, 2021 MASKS 17 MINUTE READ

One of the most trenchant arguments made by proponents of forced masking is some variation of “it’s just an inconvenience”, so/and/or “why do you have to make such a big deal about it”. (To be clear, this is not a legitimate scientific or factual argument for the adoption of any policy, but that is not what this article is about.) I am largely going to avoid the issues unique to masking children – what is plainly institutionalized child abuse – and for people with disabilities or past trauma, as many of the harms inflicted by masks are readily apparent and easily articulable.

On the surface, this contention seems like a morally and factually compelling argument. After all, if masks had any meaningful efficacy, wouldn’t it be a worthwhile tradeoff to endure a little discomfort to reduce the far worse suffering and death that would otherwise be inflicted by covid?

Yet this argument – “what’s the big deal” – does not square with how many people experience masks and mask mandates, including practically everyone who disagrees with masking as a policy. It is undeniable that millions of people are considerably more tormented by facemasks than what we would expect is reasonable or even possible for something that is indeed merely an “inconvenience”. People generally do not profoundly suffer from trivialities.

In other words, clearly facemasks are a considerably greater burden for many people than how they superficially appear; and yet few people are able to work out for themselves what about them is so abusive or terrible. The goal of this article is to enumerate some of the myriad harms and emotional abuses inflicted by forced masking, specifically those that are difficult to articulate or identify the connection to masking.

So what exactly is the big deal about wearing masks?
In a nutshell – as was just stated – mask wearing is to many people something that is enormously stressful, and something that evokes inordinately powerful negative emotions. This is simply the reality, irrespective of whether such feelings “make sense”.

Now, as a general rule, if someone feels powerfully about something, there’s a reason; or in other words, there is something that is provoking the strong emotions. And the source of these feelings does not have to be the thing that the feelings attach to. The only thing that matters is that the feelings exist, however misguided they may be.

This is not to say that the reality of feelings should be the dominant consideration above everything else. The current radical ‘social justice’ movement that has elevated one’s subjective “identity” as the defining characteristic of a person is the Reductio ad Absurdum of enshrining subjective feelings in place of objective reality itself.

What is true however is that the emotional distress and suffering of people is quite real. So even if you happen to be in favor of mask mandates and not at all bothered by mask wearing, that does not make the profoundly distressing experience of someone else any less real of an experience.

The following list is not exhaustive, just a collection of some of the factors that make mask wearing, especially forced masking, so distressing to many people.

A few important things to keep in mind:

Not every listed issue is true for every person who finds masks distressing.
Each issue amplifies the other ones, so that the cumulative distress is far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s like the difference between 1+2+3+…10 and 1x2x3x…10 (55 vs 3,628,800).
This list is not exhaustive.
The short explanations are intended to give a bit more insight into how people might typically experience that particular stress. They are not intended to comprehensively define the issue.
Emotional Stresses of Mask Mandates
Deprivation of Personal Autonomy
Depriving someone of their personal autonomy is stressful and demeaning. This is amplified when it is about something that is emotionally fraught, subject to strong opinions and feelings, relates to morality/values, and/or is something that has an implication that you lack the capacity to look out for your own interest. Free will is a defining trait of being human, and the abrogation thereof is experienced as an assault on ones individuality.

A Sense of Helplessness
Being at the mercy of the arbitrary and capricious whims of others makes you feel a sense of helplessness, which is extremely stressful and grueling, and can eventually break a person mentally and emotionally, and is therefore a favored tactic used by tyrants to break the will of the population so that they are too broken to revolt (see Stalin’s reign of terror).

Invalidating Your Personal Identity
Masking is now – regardless of the factual merits – a political symbol in society. Being forced to mask is by definition being forced to yield in ones own actions – and worse, in ones public appearance – to your ideological and/or political opposition. Imagine if the government decided to make wearing a religious skullcap mandatory for everyone – you can make the same argument that is being made for masking – what’s the big deal, you barely notice it, etc – I am quite confident that atheists for instance would would feel very keenly the assault on their personal identity.

Assaulting Your Sense of Morality / Making You Feel Like You’re Immoral and Selfish
Mask mandates force people opposed to internalize that they are acting immorally and selfishly for two reasons. The first is that society is enshrining into law that how you act is immoral and selfish, which is a public declaration to the world that you are immoral and selfish. The second is that how you act outwardly always exerts influence in how you fell and identify internally, so constantly wearing a mask eats away at your internal convictions – even if you can withstand this, it creates some degree of cognitive dissonance internally. No one likes to feel like they are evil or selfish.

Deprives / Ruins Human Interactions
The quality and nature of social interactions is greatly reduced. Every interaction behind masks is fundamentally different. Interacting in this way can feel sad, despondent, isolating, cold, and/or cruel, among other things.

Over Time Changes Your Personality
Facemasks are a radical and unnatural impingement on normal mental and emotional functioning. Over time, this can change your personality – such as making you less social, less outgoing, more suspicious, decreased tendency or desire to be kind and so on.

Turns Other People Into Abusive Tyrants
This is meant to capture the phenomenon of a subset of people who have turned into cruel and vicious individuals, and abuse people whom they have power over.

A General Feeling of Being Trapped in a Nightmare
Many people feel a clear and distinct sense of being trapped in some sort of perverse nightmare as a result of covid policies, which is an extremely distressing experience, especially when there feels like there is no end in sight.

Elementary Lack of Fairness
People are very sensitive to fairness, and can feel enormous stress and distress when treated unfairly, especially when the unfair treatment is egregious. Mask policies are literally imposing on some people so other people can feel safer – a grotesquely unequal treatment, that in order to help the emotional health of the scared-to-death-of-covid pro-maskers, everyone else’s mental & emotional health will be trampled on by forced masking. Moreover, mask mandates preferentially enshrines the political, moral, and ideological views and sensibilities of one segment of society without any justification.

Repeated Experience of “Losing” in Public Policy Decisions
The experience of losing again, and again, and again in substantial, significant public policy decisions is itself very distressing. This happens to be one of the more prominent animating forces that drove Trump’s voter base – that they felt they always lost again and again and again and again. Covid policy for a substantial portion of the population has been a series of devastating losses as practically every policy choice cuts against them.

Feeling That Other People Matter While I Don’t
This is a distinct distress in addition to the lack of fairness – that “I don’t matter”; this is amplified considerably when “other people matter”. This is what people who are systematically disregarded tend to feel, and it is very painful.

And this is especially pronounced in racial minorities who already feel this way from previous history — mostly white liberal elites are forcing their preferences on blacks and other minorities.

The Stress of Difficulty Communicating
The frustration that comes from difficulty communicating is underappreciated, and tends to leave people feeling annoyed, frustrated and stressed.

The Damage From Failed Communication
This particular harm also has another, more tangible dimension – often, people having a hard time communicating simply give up, and giving up is itself an added stress factor that leaves people frazzled. If you’re talking to your doctor and you “give up” instead of making sure you understood what he was trying to tell you – especially older people who psychologically tend to both give up faster and have more innate difficulty physically hearing to begin with – that could be a big problem.

The Distress of Constant Harassment
Mask mandates are a constant intrusion into people’s personal lives that leaves people feeling exasperated – “just leave me alone already” / “just let me live in peace”. It is a basic human need to not be constantly harassed by others.

Living In Constant State of Worry, Fear, and Anger
Knowing that you have to submit to the mask mandates in many places where you need to go leaves you always feeling a variety of negative and unhealthy emotions about it.

Saps the Joy From Many Different Activities
Take shopping, for instance. For many people, shopping is a leisure activity that can be an effective emotional detox from life stresses… but not when you have to wear a mask to do it.

Living In Perpetual Stress From Social Enforcers
Inevitably, people opposed to mask mandates will not be particularly zealous about following them to a “T”, whether it be letting the mask slide down your face, taking it off for a few minutes here and there, or just munching on a bag of peanuts for 3 hours. There is always a baseline stress of constantly having to be alert for the “mask police” (whether they are actual police or just really annoying Karens).

Public Humiliation
The aforementioned “mask police” are often extremely zealous – unhinged, really – a non-masking-compliant person getting dressed down in public is a common occurrence. Public humiliation can be a traumatic experience.

Emotional Abuse
Mask mandates leave many people feeling emotionally abused. This is both from the masking being forced upon people despite all the mental and emotional distress it causes – in other words, abuse – and from the constant manipulation that is characteristic of abusers that is part and parcel of mask mandates.

Bullying Plain and Simple
Mask mandates are forced coercion jammed down the throats of those who strongly resent them. This is vicious bullying. No one enjoys feeling bullied, or having someone else’s will imposed on them against their own will.

The Distress of Being Under the Control of Someone You Loathe
Think of it this way: Imagine two ppl vying for the same promotion who hate each others guts, and then the winner is made the boss of the loser. This is an added, separate affront to the loser. Same idea here – the anti- mask people are being specifically dictated to by the very opponents they despise, and on the very issue that they’re fighting over. This isn’t just at a national level – this is more true about local county or school board fights, and this is a reliable recipe for bad blood and lasting enmity to boot.

The “Tax” of Buying Masks that are Less Unpleasant
Many people choose to buy fancier masks than the nasty surgical masks widely available everywhere, because they are far less unpleasant (and far more sanitary and subject to manufacturing standards and quality control). This itself is a further indignity – if the government wants to impose a draconian mandate on us, the least the government can do is to make comfortable masks available, especially considering the government is throwing cash everywhere because of covid – it’s an added insult and disrespecting of the people being imposed upon, in the sense that it’s just plain coldhearted to act this way to someone else, at least have a little sensitivity and try to make your own mandates as tolerable as possible on the people you’re imposing on.

Irrational Government Actions Breed A Sense of Fear and Instability
Watching the government act in such a factually irrational manner is itself very stressful to many people, as is living under an irrational regime. One’s sense of stability and trust in the world is rooted by necessity in the belief that rationality is a limiting principle at some point upon what government and people/institutions with power in society are able and willing to do.

Makes People Doubt Their Sense of Reality
The very fact of making a crazy policy is itself deeply destructive to people’s sense of reality. In other words, there is tremendous cognitive dissonance of on the one hand knowing that masking is nuts, but on the other hand, watching the government make mask mandates – it is very hard to have a genuine emotional conviction that essentially the entire medical community and all of society’s institutions have gone stark raving mad. Such cognitive dissonance is very damaging psychologically to your sense of self and your sense of reality, and is also mentally and emotionally exhausting.

Destroys People’s Sense of Trust & Stability
Being forced to do irrational and insane things erodes a person’s sense of confidence that there is a baseline rationality in society — something that provides people with a sense of stability and security in life generally. It is distressing to feel like there is absolutely no rational limiting principle on government actions or policies, since this by definition means that there is nothing that you can trust is sacred and beyond government (or someone else) coming and destroying. (This also actively erodes the social fabric that relies upon people being rational.)

Destructive of People’s Humanity and Dignity
Being forced to act irrationally causes you to lose your sense of dignity as a human being with an intellectual faculty that distinguishes man from animals. In other words, the more you are suppressed from acting in accordance with intelligence, the less you feel the unique transcendence of being a human being – treating people like animals makes them feel like animals.

Dehumanization Through Forced Anonymity
The face is the most visibly manifest characteristic that sets you apart as a unique individual. Masks, by covering your face, strip you to some degree of your sense of being a unique individual and instead makes you feel more like a number than a person. It also distorts your sense of the humanity of others, as you inevitably become trained to perceive other people as lacking human-ness.

They’re so Darn Uncomfortable
Masks can be extremely uncomfortable to wear, especially for long stretches at a time. They can also be quite gross to wear – if you sneeze into the mask, well……

Pragmatic Harms of Mask Mandates
Promotes Authoritarianism and Fascism
This is true as written – the ascendance of authoritarian and tyrannical governance has been as shocking as it was swift. Mask mandates – which are objectively draconian and authoritarian regardless of whether they are scientifically warranted – internalize in people that authoritarian governance is normal, acceptable, and not evil. This is a problem. Every genocidal regime started this way. This by itself is sufficient justification to fight mask mandates “to the death”.

On a more relatable level, mask mandates accustom government officials to acting like tyrants, and enjoying their newfound dictatorial powers, a ‘perk’ they are very unlikely to part with willingly.

Promotes Religious Cultism
Masks have become a religious symbol of virtuosity of a fanatical cult of irrational beliefs that has completely forsaken thinking for the cult members (like lone drivers wearing masks in their cars). Cults have committed some of the most horrific and bizarre atrocities over the past century.

Socially Conditions the Citizenry to Be Docile and Unthinking
Authoritarian mandates that are based only upon the word of people (the “experts”), especially in stark contradiction to facts and common sense, conditions people to be docile, and to not think about anything (as their intellects and opinions are scorned and said to be of too poor quality to be legitimate sources of knowledge for anyone, including themselves). This destroys the vibrancy and energy of the society, and conditions people to not think of themselves as individually capable beings who have the potential to achieve greatness, a critical driving force necessary to impel people to make something of themselves.

Balkanizes Society
Mask mandates help to further sow division and enmity between the factions of society by oppressing one faction while also giving the other faction the moral grounds to claim that the anti-mask faction by not going along with the mandate policies are in violation of the law, and are acting immorally as defined by societal approbation of mask mandates as a crucial health measure.

All-Encompassing Harms of Mask Mandates
Stress
The most obvious general harm of mask mandates is stress. Stress is known to be aggressively destructive to your health, and something that significantly exacerbates every known medical condition. Everything listed above causes the people afflicted to be stressed.

Breach of the Social Compact
When part of society is so wantonly destructive towards another part of society, the society loses its legitimacy in the eyes of the oppressed, and the rule of law is incorrigibly eroded, since one side simply inflicts their will upon the other side regardless of the laws, conventions, and norms of society; and without any limiting principle. “Rule of law for thee but not for me” is not rule of law, and has no moral legitimacy for the “thee” to respect or comply.

Indefinite Nature of the Suffering
The indefinite-ness of the situation is itself a source of considerable suffering, or a powerful amplification of the suffering one is already experiencing. It is infinitely easier and more bearable to handle suffering that you can see its end, when it will pass, versus suffering that seems inescapable and endless. (The feeling that the suffering is inescapable is a ubiquitous factor that leads people to commit suicide.)

C’mon, most of these are silly?
The ultimate refuge of someone trapped by the facts is scorn and mockery. Human nature drives a person to feel and act derisive about something that requires depth to grasp. Human nature also strongly tends towards not just denying but mocking anything that challenges the morality and prudence of your opinions and actions. Thus people are told that their experiences and suffering from mask mandates is not real and makes no sense – one of the most insidious and abhorrent forms of abusive manipulation.

It is very difficult to gain an appreciation and understanding of most of the things on this list. On the other hand, it is far easier to destroy any sense of comprehension and emotional awareness of these – all that is necessary is one pithy line scorning this whole notion as delusional. Such is the power of mockery, that one witty zinger can completely vanquish the awareness gained from many hours of thoughtfulness and introspection.

So no, these are not silly, and feeling these does not make you a baby. This accusation is nothing more than the panicked derision that is the last defense of someone who can’t debate the actual facts.

The Manipulative Nature of an Abusive Relationship
One of the textbook tactics utilized by abusers to maintain control in an abusive relationship is to define the context and facts of anything related to the relationship so as to get in the victim’s head so to speak and distort their sense of reality so that they are unable to articulate – even to themselves – the fact of their abuse and victimization.

As we all can see, the constant claims of “facemasks are not a big deal”, “there’s no conceivable reason for anyone to think that masks can be harmful”, etc, accomplished this quite effectively. The goal of this article was to unwind this pernicious and abusive lie in order to re-empower victims of forced masking against the proponents of mask policies who are abusive and manipulative. (Sometimes mask policies are reluctantly put in place in order to accommodate political or legal realities where masking is the least destructive option.)

This can be summed up as one more type of emotional distress inflicted by mask mandate proponents:

The contention that “facemasks are just an inconvenience” amounts to abusive manipulation that steals the ability of the victims of forced masking to identify and articulate the suffering and harm they experience from forced mask wearing.
To conclude, the quote at the top of this article from DA Henderson – widely credited with the eradication of smallpox – is very revealing:

“Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted”

It is hard to imagine a greater disruption to normal living than the highly visible and symbolic masks ubiquitously worn everywhere.

Republished from the author’s substack.

Author

Aaron Hertzberg
Aaron Hertzberg manages his own Substack and writes on all aspects of the pandemic response.