I’m not anti-mask, per se. There, I said it. If you’ve been reading my rants, er, columns on the topic these past few months, you might get another idea though, and I understand that. It certainly SEEMS like I’m anti-mask, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that was the case. That doesn’t mean that I like wearing them, of course. They’re uncomfortable and stifling and, frankly, disgusting. Even so, I WOULD wear them, when necessary, if the arguments the mask-proponents used to con almost the entire world into accepting and even mandating the practice were actually, well, true. Ah, but there’s the rub, right? In fact, precious little of what these idiots say is ever true.
Remember back in May and June when they said, “Hey, if everyone would just wear masks for a few weeks, it’ll all be over and we can go back to normal!” Remember that? Remember those three hairdressers using masks and COVID not spreading at all, or something, then blue state policymakers and national retailers and restaurants using that “evidence” along with a few model-based ‘studies’ to demand that every human from ages two and above wear a moist cloth diaper on his or her face, both indoors and outdoors, to “stop the spread” of a virus that poses very little harm to the vast majority of those who contract it? Remember them telling us it was only temporary, that masks had the power to stop COVID-19 right in its tracks and save grandma?
Except, neither the masks nor the lockdown measures every really stopped COVID-19 in its tracks, did they? Nope, the virus just kept right on virusing, as highly-contagious respiratory viruses are prone to do. You can lock down and delay the inevitable, but as soon as you peek your nose out the virus will be waiting. You can mask up ‘till the cows come home, but even the CDC now admits that, with or without masks, 15 minutes of close contact with an infected person will spread the virus. And given the fact that it has ALWAYS taken 15 minutes of close contact with an infected person to spread the virus, that means masks are generally useless.
But yes, if what they said was true, if COVID-19 could have been eliminated or even severely curbed with a few weeks of mask-wearing, even I would have happily put up with it. Because, indeed, they would have been right about mask-wearing being a “small inconvenience” if we had a foreseeable future endgame and could see actual results behind the practice.
No cheating though! Farr’s Law being what it is, the numbers were going to come down anyway when a certain threshold of infectivity was met. Thankfully, with coronavirus, that threshold seems to be somewhere between 15 and 25 percent. New York and New Jersey are prime examples. Anyone who thinks masks somehow did the trick in those places have clearly never heard of herd immunity. Even California’s cases (yes, I know this is a #casedemic, not a pandemic at this point) are on the way down, but the climb toward the July-August peak happened long after masks were mandated statewide in mid-June. If anything, early July should have been the virus’ swan-song in California, but it was just ramping up. Almost anywhere universal masking has been implemented, from Peru to Columbia to Greece to the UK, has been followed by significant case spikes. As a prime example, this graph that shows the trend since the U.K. made face masks mandatory indoors is nothing short of stunning.
Call me skeptical, but in order to put a face muzzle on me and have me at least mildly compliant about it, you’d have to show me some actual successes, where mask use was implemented and the virus almost immediately went down. In fact, if the “experts” who have suddenly, after years of science proving otherwise, deemed that forced public masking can indeed stop an airborne respiratory virus - if those “experts” could point to actual, timely successes, it’s hard to imagine most everyone not being on board for that ride. Frankly, if mask-wearing did stop the disease in its tracks, as we were promised months ago, you can bet your house the mask-loving media would have been shouting the examples from the rooftops. We’d be seeing red state vs blue state comparisons everywhere since red states have the most non-compliance and/or most lenient mask mandates. Instead, we’re simply told condescendingly that “masks work,” “science shows masks work,” and other unproven nonsense, as if they think if they say it enough times we’ll believe it.
Bottom line: If the powers-that-be were correct, the areas that took a softer approach to lockdowns and masks would all be suffering immensely, while those with hard lockdowns and mandatory masks would be done with this. Right? So, why is maskless, lockdownless Sweden almost back to normal while Peru, India, Brazil, California and Columbia still languish? Why does this epic Twitter thread, which shows country after country performing horribly after they implemented mask mandates, even exist?
Nah, I’m here to tell you the ‘emperor’ is just as stark-naked as almost everyone’s faces should be. It’s past time we ditched the masks, practiced some basic, common-sense social distancing, and lived our lives as free human beings.
I’ll leave you with three things. First of all, what Anders Tegnell managed to do in Sweden is nothing short of extraordinary. This Financial Times story is well worth the read. Second, this piece last week by Daniel Horowitz is by far the best anti-mask article I’ve run across. Few things out there have the power to actually change minds, but this one does. Be sure to check it out and share it far and wide. Finally, we all know Twitter can be a cesspit, but what if you could follow over 100 fantastic COVID truth-teller accounts all at once by simply following an already-created list? Please consider joining the over 1,400 people already following my brand-new COVID ‘Team Reality’ list. Getting and staying informed, then amplifying and interacting with these voices is a great first step in the long-haul fight against corona fascism.
Follow Scott on Twitter @SKMorefield and Parler @smorefield.
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