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Whether masks actually prevent the spread of respiratory infection remains a subject of debate. As recently as March, the US Surgeon General was saying face coverings could actually increase one’s risk of infection.
by Jon Miltimore from HumansAreFree.com:
There’s a famous scene in the movie Fight Club where Tyler Durden is on an airplane thumbing through one of those safety manuals in emergency exit rows.
“An exit door procedure at 30,000 feet,” says Durden (Brad Pitt). “The illusion of safety.”
It’s a memorable scene because it touches on the strange things humans do to make ourselves feel secure in frightening situations. Which brings me to America’s latest fad: wearing masks in public.
Polls show that more than half of Americans are now choosing to wear masks when they go out, presumably to prevent catching or spreading the COVID-19 virus. What one chooses to wear is up to them, of course, but the trend is a bit surprising considering government officials spent months telling Americans not to wear protective face coverings.
“We don’t routinely recommend the use of face masks by the public to prevent respiratory illness,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said on January 31. “And we certainly are not recommending that at this time for this new virus.”
Throughout February and into March, similar statements were made by numerous other top government officials and agencies.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said “the average American does not need a N95 mask. These are really more for health care providers.”
He was echoed by Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that there “is no role for these masks in the community.” In February, the US Surgeon General chimed in on Twitter, “STOP BUYING MASKS.”
Despite these warnings, the popularity of masks grew. “Maskies” — selfies of people wearing masks — are the latest trend on Instagram, Fast Company reports. They’ve become a symbol and form of expression, a way to show social solidarity and empowerment.
“When everyone is wearing masks, I feel respected,” one woman recently told National Geographic. “The message is: I’m protecting you, you’re protecting me, I can feel safe.”
Feel safe. That’s the key word. Whether masks actually prevent the spread of respiratory infection remains a subject of debate.
There’s a reason public officials made the statements above.
An abundance of research shows masks offer little or no protection against infection from respiratory viruses, and some masks can actually increase one’s risk of infection.
A 2009 randomized clinical trial found that surgical masks offered no protection at all. A 2015 study concluded rates of infection were especially high in cloth masks, finding particle penetration in nearly 97 percent of them.
A 2016 paper that analyzed six clinical studies found that N95 respirator masks fared no better than medical masks in preventing respiratory infection.
As recently as April 7, a paper analyzing data from 15 randomized trials concluded that “compared to no masks there was no reduction of influenza-like illness cases for influenza for masks in the general population, nor in healthcare workers.”
Despite the lack of hard empirical evidence, however, the study recommended the use of masks based on “observational evidence from the previous SARS epidemic.” [Editor’s Note: The authors also found that most clinical trials had “poor design,” thus there was insufficient evidence to provide recommendations.]
Perhaps similar reasoning guided the CDC’s about-face in April when it issued guidance recommending the use of cloth face coverings for healthy individuals (though the World Health Organization still advises against them).
Recommended is the key word here. We’re now in May, a mere two months after federal authorities were imploring Americans to not wear or buy masks, and many people are finding themselves forced to wear masks to do their shopping or even go for a walk.
This month the megastore Costco began demanding that customers wear masks to do their shopping. As a private company, Costco has such a right. But many states in mid April began taking things further, demanding that citizens wear masks to leave their homes.
The latest state to join the bandwagon is Massachusetts. The new order requires anyone over the age of two to wear a mask or face covering in public places, even if they are outdoors.
In the span of just two months, we’ve gone from urging people to not buy or wear masks (and warning face coverings could increase the risk of infection) to threatening to fine and jail those who don’t wear them. Americans, understandably, are confused. And it’s not helping.
This week in Michigan, a Family Dollar security guard was killed after refusing to allow a woman’s daughter into the store because she wasn’t wearing a mask. The guard was enforcing an executive order Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed two weeks earlier.
While only those people directly involved in the guard’s death are responsible, such confrontations could be avoided if state governors exercised a little humility and acknowledged that CDC recommendations are not gospel and the department’s conclusions (clearly) are not infallible.
Good ideas generally don’t require force. And the truth is, based on an abundance of medical research and the federal government’s own statements and reports, it’s unclear how effective masks are as a preventive measure against COVID-19 transmission.
Public health aside, there’s no disputing the psychological impact masks have.
“The coronavirus is coming, and we feel rather helpless,” Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University, told CNN in March. “By getting masks and wearing them, we move the locus of control somewhat to ourselves.”
In a sense, the mask craze is largely about managing our fears. As my colleague Sean Malone recently observed, when people are afraid they’re much more willing to accept anything they believe might make them a little safer. Even really bad policies and ideas.
The illusion of safety. It’s a powerful thing. For both humans and governments, it would seem.
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Bully is a very mild term for what America has become in the world.
I find it extremely sad, as an ex Democrat, American expatriate, still living here because of poverty caused by government targeting over the past 35 years or so. I was a Yankee Doodle Dandy patriot with great aspirations. But targeting caused lack of employment which gave me a lot of time to look into matters. I have learned there are more actual conspiracies than conspiracy theorists, and both ladies who commented above are correct about 911, which took me a while to accept. The US has truly become the Nazis since WWII. We took them over, took their scientists and their attitudes toward the rest of the world. Now which country is it that controls almost all the other countries and takes over the countries that won’t do our bidding? It was the Nazis, but now, sadly, its US!
Government targeting became very apparent when they did the “Staged” Great Depression. Since you have opened your eyes, Author Wayne Jett published a book titled: Fruits Of Graft. He goes into ‘The Great Depression’ & how it was Staged to Rape the Farmers Off their Land. He also goes into how Germany was Set Up because they Expelled ‘The Bankers’ So anything you think you know about “the nazi’s” is Mythical.
P.S. Magdala, ‘HELLSTORM’ Documentary is a rude awakening for an American or Brit. Also keep in mind it was Franklin Roosevelt & Winston Churchill that was Always photographed with Communist Joseph Stalin. I don’t know why people have a hard time connecting that Dot.
The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly
-Robert Anton wilson
Here’s the 2nd interview with David Icke and Brian Rose at LondonReal platform.
This is the answer that David offers that we can use when we act in the 1000’s, preferably in 1000.000’s so that the Wizards of Oz deflate like balloons, dissolving in powerlessness.
My hands and feet itch to start civilian disobedience and sabotage to this attempt to establish a New World Order. Step by stealthy step.
We could organize demonstrations in the streets, lying down on the pavement, on bridges and crossings, on roundabouts, without a mouth-mask, in the style of Extinction Rebellion.
In this case, it’s not about extinct species, but about preventing ourselves from being extinct sooner or later. That’s much closer to our skin.
https://freedomplatform.tv/rose-icke-v-the-answer/
The best protest is just to take off the mask, even at work, because that way it sends a clear message “don’t shop, don’t move product” & “don’t work, who runs any place, surly not the boss”
This Mask wearing is the Same Psychological Warfare that FDR did to the Public when he made sure Pearl Harbor was Attacked. The Public then started doing all these Bombing exercises, whether at home & people buying into ‘Bomb Shelters’ or at School when they had the Children performing Bomb Raids & they would be under there desk. What we have here is an Out of Control Government & You as a Human being needs to take action & Take off those Stupid Mask. It’s that Simple. Stop being the Cowards You are, it’s unbecoming, ridiculous & your conditioning your children to be Sold to the Government. & Don’t forget how “They” had “The Patriot Act’ in place Before 911. Yes folks, Your Government was involved with 911.
LaVerne: Yes! You are right on! 9-11? The buildings imploded from explosives set in the bottom of the buildings We were set up and far too many people never questioned what was happening. (No plane can down a building that size so they set the explosives in the basements.)
Did any ever ask, ‘if our government is so powerful, with all our war machines, etc. why were we being allowed to be invaded?’ By whom and for what? TO GET US IN A WAR THAT HAS LASTED 20 YEARS. A war that has wounded, raped, killed thousands of people. Why? To create fear and make a very few very rich. That evil war and the ones prior, have made America a BULLY in the world, The wars forced women (wives, etc.) to become victimized by the returning soldiers with his toxins, anger, shame, dark energies and disincarnated spirits who died on the battlefield, who attached themselves to the back of their necks of the soldier, in search of revenge via manipulation. Energies that contaminate the bodies of women who provide future bodies for the same men who went to war for the excitement of it and ego trip The dark forces have been using war to destroy humanity for centuries. Today it is their bio-weapons – vaccines, etc. Never assume the dark forces are stupid. They have practiced on us for centuries and know our vulnerability and gullibility. Have we learned from it? No many. Most don’t understand that just because we, as Spirit Sparks of God/dess would never do what the dark forces do, doesn’t mean the dark forces would never do the evil things they do. It is time to wake-up and say no to their agendas.
Dhara, Did you ever see Christopher Bollyn book ‘Solving 911’? I’m not sure it is him on a 2 hour documentary I watched, it was said there were explosives in the elevators as well. That too makes sense from some scenes on video. As for why, rumor for Israel expansion called ‘The Israel Project.’ Again makes sense considering the map keeps getting larger, Syria was a big deal for them & became a disappointment so far. Good. & Yes we are the “Bully” quite pitiful considering we make a big deal when someone muscles a kid up for his lunch money.