Do Masks Even Work? Follow the Science

The View from the Middle

 

In early 2020, America’s Doctor, Tony Fauci, said this about masks. “The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out (this) virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.  It might provide some slight benefit in keeping out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you.”  Notice that he used the words “might” and “slight”.  These are not scientific terms.  In fact, they are the opposite.  At best, they are speculative.  If he had ANY actual data to support those vague suggestions, he would have provided it.  But he didn’t.

In early 2021, Dr. Fauci added, “There’s no reason for people to be walking around wearing masks…It might make people feel a little bit better.  It might even block a droplet, buts it is not providing the perfect protection that people think it is.”  Despite this powerful criticism of mask wearing, we have entire states and municipalities mandating the wearing of masks, even outdoors.  Those governors and mayors are saying that they are going to put people in jail for refusing to wear something that even Tony Fauci admits doesn’t work.

Since the beginning of this pandemic, I have been searching for data that would support or repudiate the concept of mask-wearing.  The other day I found a comprehensive, scientifically supported article that looked at the 14 Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT’s) done around the world on the benefits of mask wearing.  Despite the fact that these RTC’s are uniformly regarded as the gold standard in medical research, the CDC has depended on “observational studies” that are not only of lower quality but, “also are more likely to be politicized, as they can inject the researchers’ judgement more prominently into the inquiry and lend themselves, far more than RTC’s, to finding what one wants to find.”

These 14 RTC’s provide the most reliable scientific data because they isolated mitigation techniques like mask-wearing and hand washing, but also included a control group that always did nothing.  THAT is how scientific study is supposed to work.  These 14 RTC’s were completed from 2008 to 2020 all around the world on multiple respiratory viruses.  The largest study, done in 2020 in Denmark with 4,862 participants, was done on Covid-19 and found no statistically significant difference between the results of its mask-wearing group and its control group which did not wear masks.

Here is the overall conclusion drawn from these 14 RCT’s.  “In sum, of the 14 RCT’s that have tested the effectiveness of masks in preventing the transmission of respiratory viruses, three suggest, but do not provide any statistically significant evidence…that masks might be useful. The other 11 RTC’s suggest that masks are either useless or are actually counterproductive.  Of the three studies that provided statistically significance evidence…one found that the combination of surgical masks and hand hygiene was less effective than hand hygiene alone, one found that the combination of surgical masks and hand hygiene was less effective than nothing, and one found that cloth masks were less effective than surgical masks.”

Finally, since I have noticed so many people wearing cloth masks (I estimate that 50% of the masks I see are cloth) I felt I should specifically give the results of one study that tested cloth masks against surgical masks.  That study was done in 2015 in Hanoi, Vietnam.  This RCT “found that those in cloth masks were 13 times more likely to develop an influenza-like illness than those in the surgical mask group – a statistically significant difference…The authors write that wearing a cloth mask may potentially increase the infection risk.”  And the lion-share of our children (I estimate 80%) are wearing camo or superhero or outfit coordinated cloth masks.  The data (the science) would suggest that they would be better off wearing nothing!!  

To all parents of students and school administrators and teachers, I would suggest you do what you constantly say you do – Follow the Science.  The data confirms that children under the age of 18 are far less vulnerable to this virus and its Delta variant than  older adults.  Out of the 633,000 people in the US who have died from this virus, only 361 were children under 18.  That’s only .06% (six hundredths of one percent) despite the fact that this group represents almost 25% of the US population.  And most of those mortalities were accompanied by some sort of co-morbidity.  Follow the science.  Children under 18 are at almost no risk of this virus.  Let these children and their parents make the choice to wear or not wear masks, which these studies suggest are “useless” or even “counterproductive”.  If teachers are concerned for their health, they can wear masks (which don’t work for them either) or get vaccinated.  But let our children go.

Below is a link to the entire article.  Just copy and paste it into your browser.  You’ll be more informed than 99.9% of the general public and 100% of our politicians!

https://www.city-journal.org/do-masks-work-a-review-of-the-evidence?wallit_nosession=1#.YRSMsaJRXXk.twitter

Biden, Presidency on Crutches

The View from the Middle

 

From 1933 to 1945 the United States had a President with many physical issues.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved around with the help of wheelchairs, braces, canes and crutches for his entire Presidency. With the help of the press at the time, most of America was not even aware of his disabilities.  But despite his many physical problems, FDR is consistently ranked by historians as one of the top three Presidents in our country’s history.  He led the country out of the deepest financial depression in our history and guided us successfully through WWII.  This was because, in spite his physical limitations, he was mentally sharp to the very end when he was taken from the earth by a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63.  

FDR’s story demonstrates how physical issues can be overcome, even in the most challenging job in the world (arguably), as long as that person is mentally tough and capable. Joe Biden is at the opposite end of the Presidential competency spectrum from FDR.  In three months, Joe Biden will be 79 years old.  He will be 82 at the end of his first term, and would be 86 at the end of his second term if he should choose to run and win (heaven forbid).  

The one common thread between FDR and Joe Biden is that the media has protected Joe Biden throughout the campaign and has continued to do so even today.  The Presidential campaign every four years is meant to be rigorous in order to test the physical and mental toughness of the candidates.  In the 2020 Presidential campaign, Joe Biden was allowed to hide in his basement and avoid the tough questions, and that protection continues today.

In regards to the withdrawal from Afghanistan, we can debate whether we should have left Afghanistan in 2002 or if we should continue with a light military footprint for years to come.  The question that must be answered today and most likely in 2022 and 2024 is, “How well has this withdrawal been managed.”  While the chaos at the Kabul airport is getting all of the attention, there are other issues that so far are being pretty much ignored.  Why did we pull out our military before we pulled out our American citizens and Afghan friendlies?  Why did we abandon the Bagram air base without even informing the Afghan military that we were leaving?  Why did we leave $85 billion of weapons and equipment that will now be used by the Taliban to brutalize their own people and spread terrorism throughout the world?

Our lamestream media continues to cover for this President as he lies (misstates), bumbles and vacations his way through this crisis.  After taking the first week off, he has made a few prepared speeches (created by someone else) which he struggles through with one teleprompter, because he can’t handle multiple teleprompters anymore.  He then turns and hightails it out of the room without answering a single question.  Yesterday, he finally answered three pre-selected questions.  He even had to look down at prepared notes to see who he was supposed to call on and then to his notes again for the answer (because he and his staff obviously already knew what the question was).

This “chaos” in Afghanistan could not have been avoided, says the man who is now presiding over the disastrous, chaotic withdrawal.  That is a meaningless statement that neither he nor anyone else can prove and which I sincerely doubt.  And now the State Department and the Pentagon are focusing on the number of people being evacuated, and patting themselves on their backs using words like “we’re making tremendous progress” or “we’ve successfully improved (whatever)”.  This is like an arsonist taking credit for pouring some water on a fire they started.  It is also amazing that of all the people that they have evacuated, they still have no idea how many Americans have been removed or even how many Americans are in the country.  Is it because they don’t know?  My guess is that they know, but we Americans wouldn’t like the answer.  

For the good of the country, the mainstream media needs to stop covering for this President.  This is not like covering up for FDR or JFK for their physical or moral shortcomings.  This is concealing incompetence that America will suffer from for years to come.  The media must share the blame for hiding the lack of cognitive ability of this President.  He’s only seven months into his four-year term and we have crises in Afghanistan, on our southern border, with violence in our major cities and in an economy that is on the brink of collapse because our new authoritarian government cannot get out of its way.  I don’t think we can take three and a half more years of this leadership.  Of course, that may have been the plan all along.

Botched

 The View from the Middle

 

While I disagree with almost all of Joe Biden’s policies, there are three critically important areas where he has made, “unforced errors”, and that is according to senior Obama administration officials.  I disagree, for example with President Biden’s decision to abandon the Keystone Pipeline, while allowing Russia to complete its Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany.  I disagree with his decision to reengage with Iran, the world’s largest sponsor of terror, which included financial support and reengagement in the impotent nuclear deal.  I also disagree with rejoining the Paris Global Warming Accord, and I have published pieces that explain my positions on all of these policy decisions.  We can debate all of these strategic choices, but there are three layups (a basketball term for an easy shot) that Joe has blown that even his most sycophantic followers are beginning to question.

First, there is President Biden’s handling of our southern border.  While he can claim that he inherited this problem, the facts on the ground do not support that assertion.  In Trump’s final year we averaged about 35,000 border apprehensions per month and for all four of the Trump administration years we averaged about 40,000 per month.  This was because of policies like “Stay in Mexico”, the elimination of catch and release and Title 42 expulsions which allowed Border Control to return illegal immigrants due to exposure to covid-19.  Joe Biden decided to reverse all of those effective policies and since we have been averaging almost 200,000 apprehensions per month and we are headed for a two million apprehension year for 2021.  Plus, who knows how many people are not being apprehended.  These are called “got-aways”, and are the most dangerous illegal entries for obvious reasons.  Border Patrol is projecting that we will experience 500,000 of these “got-aways” this year.  Joe Biden could have and should have just done nothing which is what makes his handling of the border a total botch.

Next, we have the Biden Administration’s handling of the Coronavirus vaccine implementation.  Despite the fact that President Biden tried to suggest that the vaccine didn’t exist before he became President, the truth is that it was developed in record time by the Trump administration and Joe received his first shot in December of 2020.  Joe’s job was simply to get the vaccine shots into the arms of the American people.  

Joe and Kamala, in their thirst to be elected, began to sow the seeds of distrust of the vaccine way back during the Democrat primary when they both indicated that they wouldn’t trust or take a vaccine developed under the Trump administration.  Then, when they took office, they obviously had no idea what was going on.  Joe promised that he was going to get “a million shots per day” into American arms.  Then, someone on his staff reminded him that the Trump administration was already ahead of that pace before they left office.  This lack of awareness did not inspire confidence in the American people and resulted in an immediate drop in that daily vaccination rate. 

Finally, Joe could have gone on a campaign to build trust in the vaccine and thus convince the American people to get vaccinated.  He and his administration, unfortunately, chose to shame and demonize the American people who were hesitant to get vaccinated.  There has been a big miss with black Americans who, for good reason, harbor a mistrust of big government. Only about 30% of US blacks have gotten the shots compared to a 60% level for all of our citizens.  He could have given the previous administration some due credit and pursued a positive message, but he didn’t.  This could have been easy, but he blew it and dramatically missed his goal.

And now we have our withdrawal from Afghanistan.  To be fair, I’m not going to blame Joe for getting us into Afghanistan, although he was part of a unanimous vote in the Senate to fund our actions there.  I won’t even blame him for staying there beyond accomplishing our initial mission, which probably happened in 2002, even though he was Vice President for eight of the last 20 years.  There are plenty of people, Democrat and Republican alike, who can take credit for all of those mistakes.  But Joe must take full responsibility for botching the very tactical withdrawal.

Most of us are not politicians or diplomats or four-star generals, but we do have brains and some common sense.  Common sense would suggest that you should not give your enemy a firm timetable of your withdrawal with no connection to conditions on the ground.  Common sense would tell you NOT to execute that withdrawal during the peak “fighting season” of your enemy.  Common sense would suggest that you have over half of your withdrawal of equipment and personnel completed before you tell your enemy anything.  Common sense would tell you not to remove the military before you remove American citizens and Afghan collaborators.  President Biden decided to ignore all of that common-sense advice and now must own the carnage that is about to ensue.

The Taliban is going door-to-door right now to find the Afghan men who cooperated with us and they are looking for women to become their sex slaves.  The next month will be brutal in Afghanistan.  There will be blood in streets, and that will be just the beginning of the suffering and dehumanization for the women there.  The good news for Joe Biden is that the Taliban are not the most transparent people so the world will probably not see much of the savagery.

And finally, this will impact our foreign policy for years to come.  What ally will trust us in the future (think South Korea, Taiwan and Israel) and our enemies will not fear us and will see this as an opportunity to take advantage.  How many terrorists can cross our southern border over the next few months, and how much damage can they do here.

All of these were unforced errors.  That’s three layups missed in just six months.  Joe, if I were your coach, you would be benched.  

Can Government Deliver a Risk-Free Utopia?

The View from the Middle

 

Three years ago, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said, and I am quoting here, “The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change (now).”  I’m sure she is using that exact same quote today, but I’m going to help Ms. AOC with some fundamental math facts, because I know she’s not particularly strong academically in that area (or any other that I am aware of).  Twelve minus three is nine.  The clock is ticking, and I plan to be here in nine years to call her a liar, a fearmonger and a complete idiot.  And I don’t say that with any misogynistic venom.  I believe women can say and do stupid things just as often as men can and AOC is simply proving my point.

AOC also demonstrates a new political technique that I am calling “The Convenient Argument”.  A Convenient Argument is one that cannot be proven wrong or right and allows politicians to take credit or place blame no matter what actually happens.  I am a climate change agnostic as was the late, great Charles Krauthammer.  Is the world’s climate getting warmer?  Possibly, however given how the scientists gather that information, I actually don’t know, and I’m fairly certain that none of you do either.  Has the earth been through this kind of warming before when man’s activities could not possibly have been a contributing factor?  Absolutely, and there is plenty of scientific evidence to prove that.  

Have 100% of Al Gore’s predictions been proven wrong?  Yes.  Has 99% of climate panic drivers’ (scientists) predictions been proven wrong? Again, absolutely.  The polar bears are still here and so are the polar ice caps.  New York City is not under water nor are the Maldives (islands who are and have been only six feet above sea level).  The fact is, we should all be very skeptical of the Henny Penny, “the sky is falling” doomsdayers who are trying to take away our money and our rights TODAY by threatening global cataclysm in the distant future.  As I have said before, anyone who tells you that they know for certain what is going to happen in 100 years (the new goalpost for climate fearmongers) is lying.  And I won’t even get into the claim that “global” warming can be corrected by the United States alone.  

I’m NOT saying that we should be living irresponsible lives, trashing the environment as we prance through life.  I’m NOT saying that we shouldn’t be trying to harness renewable energy sources, particularly the sun.  But we shouldn’t be doing this in a panic, destroying entire industries and collapsing the economy of the most environmentally conscious country in the world, which is the US.  We also should not be burdening our children and grandchildren with a national debt that will crush their opportunities and severely limit their choices in the future.

Few people, if any, actually understand climate.  Even Al Gore’s chief climatologist admitted that “Climate” is so complex that it is impossible to predict.  But our politicians in Washington really don’t care about any of that.  They only care about power and their next election.  That is why climate change (or global warming, or whatever they will call it tomorrow) is such a great centerpiece for their campaigns.  If the climate cools, as it has done throughout the history of this planet, the politicians will take credit.  If it does not, they will simply blame their political enemies saying that they didn’t do enough.  No one will be able to prove any of this because it is unprovable, and I believe it’s because this is God’s plan and He has been in control all along.

The Covid-19 debate is very similar.  Few if any actually understand this virus, where it came from and how to mitigate it.  Do masks work?  Fauci said “no” before he said yes, and there is no actual data (evidence) that they do.  There is, however, evidence that they make no difference, especially in children.  Florida has done a study that compared infection rates in schools that mandated masks to schools that did not, and they found no difference.  And a study in Massachusetts found that cloth masks actually increase the likelihood of being infected.  Did shutting down the world’s economies work?  Actually, no!  Our highest infection rates and deaths have come during the world’s most stringent lockdowns and highest mask usage.

I align with the many doctors and virologists, including Dr. Dan Stock from Indiana, who believe that Dr. Fauci, the CDC and the NIH are NOT in control as they suggest.  This virus is in control.  It is doing what viruses have done since the beginning of time.  It infected everyone it could until the beginning of herd immunity challenged its existence and then it mutated in an effort to survive.  But politicians will quickly take credit for naturally occurring declines in infections and will be quick to blame naturally occurring surges on their opponents or you.  Since none of the connections between these actions and results can be proven, it is a perfect and convenient political argument.

And if you won’t march to their demands, they will try to shame you into it.  They will say that if you don’t wear a mask, etc, you want people to die, particularly children.  This is a lazy, despicable, divisive claim.  First, it suggests that infection with Covid-19 is a death sentence when we all know that 99.8% of people who contract this disease will survive.  And the survival rate is even higher for children.  While children aged 17 and under represent approximately 25% of the US population, they represent only .06% of our deaths (that's only 354 out of 610,000 total Covid deaths).  In fact, the seasonal flu is usually deadlier for children than Covid-19, but I don’t remember mask mandates in our schools for that.  The shame offensive is a shame in and of itself.  Life is full of risks.  We could bubble-wrap our kids and put them in padded rooms from birth, but even that wouldn’t guarantee this virus would not find its way into their bodies.  We need to allow people to manage life’s risks as they see fit, not as our bloated, inept, corrupt government suggests.

We need to ignore the political fearmongers.  They are no more in control of this virus than they are in control of the sun, although they will try to convince you that they are.  We need to be independent, responsible adults who can do their own risk assessments and live our lives without the heavy hand of a power-hungry government that will force its will upon us.  You certainly should wash your hands frequently and stay home from work if you have symptoms.  If you want to wear a mask, go ahead, although I personally think that most masks don’t work.  I encourage all to get the vaccine, but that is a personal decision.  If you have already had Covid-19 and recovered there is little evidence that the shots will improve your resistance.  All of this, however, is really just tinkering around the edges of this virus.  It has already proven that IT will have its way despite our best efforts, and we certainly shouldn’t be creating new ones in labs with less safety protocols than your local Subway sandwich shop.

Remember the famous despotic, autocratic, Marxist motto, “don’t let a good crisis go to waste”.  In other words, power-hungry politicians will take advantage of this and every challenge we face to take away our freedom and money with a promise of utopia, which will never come.  Resist the urge to give up your liberty at all costs.  That freedom is what has made this country the best in the world and without it we will experience a descent into poverty, chaos and strife like all of the promised utopias of the past – Russia, Cuba, China, Venezuela, and so on.