One of the fun facts about the Left’s Bulls**t factory that is (too often) neglected; even if their wild-eyed imaginings were real, none of their solutions solve the problem advertised. From poverty to gun violence to global warming (health care – whether a right or not), and now COVID19.
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They are batting zero.
But it is a “zero” that has cost us trillions and now trillions more. This includes the as-yet-earned wages of generations not yet born sacrificed in a firey pit in Washington DC to a pantheon of false gods.
We’ve visited and revisited the failings of poverty, gun violence, and global warming solutions for years (even Michael Moore finally came around). They do nothing or more harm.
As for COVID19, that’s a Potemkin village we’ve been exposing all year. Why?
Because the longer this goes on, the more ridiculous the “solutions” look; the more real harm they cause in the pursuit of a public health agenda that harms public health.
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Look at this data plot comparison between COVID-19 deaths and the strictness of the political response for all 50 states and DC. Nothing politicians have demanded has done more or less than those who did more or less.
(a lot more data crunched and graphed here).
From Kansas, cases in mask-mandated and non-mandated counties.
Next, a grid of ten studies from a few years back that reviewed facemasks as a method of reducing viral transmission. The majority result is no significant reduction, or the results were not statistically significant. They don’t work for that, as we’ve said all year.
And one more from Swiss Policy Research. These studies affirm the ineffectiveness of masks – all from 2020 (you can read more here).
- A May 2020 meta-study on pandemic influenza published by the US CDC found that face masks had no effect, neither as personal protective equipment nor as a source control. (Source)
- A Danish randomized controlled trial with 6000 participants, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in November 2020, found no statistically significant effect of high-quality medical face masks against SARS-CoV-2 infection in a community setting. (Source)
- A July 2020 review by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine found that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of cloth masks against virus infection or transmission. (Source)
- A May 2020 cross-country study by the University of East Anglia (preprint) found that a mask requirement was of no benefit and could even increase the risk of infection. (Source)
- An April 2020 review by two US professors in respiratory and infectious disease from the University of Illinois concluded that face masks have no effect in everyday life, neither as self-protection nor to protect third parties (so-called source control). (Source)
- An article in the New England Journal of Medicine from May 2020 came to the conclusion that cloth face masks offer little to no protection in everyday life. (Source)
- An April 2020 Cochrane review (preprint) found that face masks didn’t reduce influenza-like illness (ILI) cases, neither in the general population nor in health care workers. (Source)
- An April 2020 review by the Norwich School of Medicine (preprint) found that “the evidence is not sufficiently strong to support widespread use of facemasks,” but supports the use of masks by “particularly vulnerable individuals when in transient higher risk situations.” (Source)
- A 2015 study in the British Medical Journal BMJ Open found that cloth masks were penetrated by 97% of particles and may increase infection risk by retaining moisture or repeated use. (Source)
- An August 2020 review by a German professor in virology, epidemiology and hygiene found that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of cloth face masks and that the improper daily use of masks by the public may in fact lead to an increase in infections. (Source)
This brings me back to my opening. It’s all a political play based on a false narrative of fear, whose solution…do nothing or make matters worse. A few of these studies note that mandates or long term mask-wearing increase the risk of infection.
Given that most of us have nothing to fear from COVID19, why would we do something to increase our risk of getting the flu (never fun if you get it good), or that increases the danger to those few who are at high risk? The answer is, politicians told you to do it.
They are yanking your chain. Isn’t it about time you yanked back?
H/T Tom Woods and @boriquagato on Twitter
