As many people have noticed, the Left is once again trying to ramp up hysteria about masks and COVID. Several large cities, New York among them, is now recommending/mandating mask usage.
The U.S. is seeing a late-summer spike in COVID cases, prompting some schools, hospitals and businesses to encourage — or even require — people to start masking up again. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health “is requiring Lionsgate employees on the 3rd & 5th floors of our 2700 Colorado Avenue headquarters in Santa Monica to wear masks.” Morris Brown College, an historically Black college in Atlanta, reinstated its COVID-19 mask mandate and other restrictions for two weeks. There are more examples across the country.
The real question should be, do masks work?
Most of us who have followed the science involved know the answer to that. Masks make no difference in protecting a person or in preventing transmission.
Just the other day Anthony Fauci was subjected to a pretty convincing takedown of the usefulness of masks — on, of all places, CNN.
Host Michael Smerconish may be right of center, but all the same this is not where Fauci expected to be confronted. I am sure Fauci expected to be treated with hosannas for his work during the pandemic.
With masking making a return in some places and with Big Media jumping in to scare the public, the subject came up between the two men. Here’s how it went:
Smerconish: The data concludes that they didn’t work in the first go round. Respond to that on masks.
Fauci: Yeah, well, that’s not so. I mean, when you’re talking about at the population level, then the data are less strong than knowing that if you look on the situation as an individual protecting themselves or protecting them from spreading it, there’s no doubt that masks work. Different studies give different percentages of advantage of wearing it. But there’s no doubt that the weight of the studies, and there have been many studies, indicate the benefit of wearing masks.
Smerconish: I’m going to refer to one of them. You’ve heard about it before. I heard about it from a number of radio callers. Bret Stephens at the Times talked about Cochrane. Put that on the screen.
Bret Stephens, writing in the Times:
The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illness — including Covid-19 — was published last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is the lead author, were unambiguous.
“There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” he told journalist Maryanne Demasi. “Full stop.”
But wait, hold on. What about the N95 masks as opposed to the lower quality surgical or cloth masks?
“Makes no difference — none of it,” he said.
What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates?
“They were convinced by nonrandomized studies, flawed observational studies.”
Let’s remember this was in the NYTimes, not exactly a haven for far right extremists.
There was a pandemic of fear propagated by people who were perceived to be experts that resulted in widespread mask wearing. Tyrants saw an opportunity to see just how compliant the public would be. To see just how much freedom would the public relinquish to the fear mongering.
Mask wearing, based on fear and control, is the antithesis of science. Fauci helped the ruling class to make an end run around the Constitution to enact their agendas without regard for laws, inalienable rights, or the consent of the governed. And Fauci continues to pretend to be the savior of mankind.
Suppression of effective treatments was also part and parcel of this fear campaign. This was done so that Big Pharma could fill their pockets with cash from a mRNA therapy that did not stop the illness from being acquired and did not stop it from being transmitted.
Smerconish: How do we get beyond that finding of that particular review?
Fauci: Yeah, but there are other studies, Michael, that show at an individual level, when you’re talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong. But when you talk about as an individual basis of someone protecting themselves or protecting themselves from spreading it to others, there’s no doubt that there are many studies that show that there is an advantage. When you look at the broad population level, like the Cochrane study, the data are less firm with regard to the effect on the overall pandemic. But we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about an individual’s effect on their own safety. That’s a bit different than the broad population level.
Fauci’s answer is embarrassing gibberish. Fauci cannot deny that the Cochrane study has completely blown up the claim that masks accomplish anything. Fauci is reduced to saying that while masks may not be so effective on the population level, they are still effective on an individual level.
How does that statement make any sense at all? The Cochrane study showed masks have no effect. Zero. If they have no effect, then they likewise have no effect “on an individual level,” whatever that is supposed to mean.
Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who was the lead author of the Cochrane study, has fired back.
“It might be that Fauci is relying on trash studies. Many of them are observational, some are cross-sectional, and some actually use modeling. That is not strong evidence. Once we excluded such low-quality studies from the review, we concluded there was no evidence that masks reduced transmission.”
Boom.
Hard to imagine that just three years ago almost everyone assumed the public-health establishment was full of well-intentioned, competent people who were merely applying undisputed science to the noble cause of improving people’s health.
Now that the curtain has been pulled back and we’ve seen things we can never unsee, things are rather different. There’s a light shining in a place our so-called betters would have preferred to keep dark.
They’re actually on the defensive for a change.
Again, I am certain that Fauci expected to be treated like royalty, that he saved the known world with his terrific work during the pandemic. The fact that he got spanked on CNN must really hurt.