- Politics — Not Science or Health — Behind Return of Mask Mandates, Critics Say
- RCT: Those who were assigned to wear a mask were 1.33 X more likely to get COVID - Dec 2023
- Masks either neutral or INCREASED COVID infections in Europe - April 2022
- VitaminDWiki - Face masks INCREASED COVID death rate in Kansas by 1.5X (re-inhalation) – Feb 2022
- Removing masks made no difference in infection Rate - April 2023
- Cochrane Review - Wearing any kind of mask made no difference - Jan 2023
- Revisiting the rationale of mandatory masking - Aug 2023
- Hold Strong Against Forced Masking, Lockdowns, and More Boosters - McCullough video Aug 2023
Politics — Not Science or Health — Behind Return of Mask Mandates, Critics Say
The Defender
“Masks are not effective against the spread of viruses like COVID-19,” said Brian Hooker, Ph.D., senior director of science and research for Children’s Health Defense (CHD). “The virus is much too small to be blocked by a cloth/paper mask and even N95 masks have very limited effectiveness in reducing transmission.”
RCT: Those who were assigned to wear a mask were 1.33 X more likely to get COVID - Dec 2023
Association between face mask use and risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection: Cross-sectional study
Epidemiology and Infection151, e194, 1-5 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268823001826
Ingeborg Hess Elgersma1, Atle Fretheim1,2 , Petter Elstrom1 and Preben Aavitsland3,4
1Centre for Epidemic Intervention Research, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; 2Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway; 3Division of Infection Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway and 4Pandemic Centre, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University ofBergen, Bergen, Norway
We examined the association between face masks and risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 using cross-sectional data from 3,209 participants in a randomized trial exploring the effectiveness of glasses in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Face mask use was based on participants’ response to the end-of-follow-up survey. We found that the incidence of self-reported COVID-19 was 33% (aRR 1.33; 95% CI 1.03-1.72) higher in those wearing face masks often or sometimes, and 40% (aRR 1.40; 95% CI 1.08-1.82) higher in those wearing face masks almost always or always, compared to participants who reported wearing face masks never or almost never. We believe the observed increase in the incidence of infection associated with wearing a face mask is likely due to unobservable and hence nonadjustable differences between those wearing and not wearing a mask. Observational studies reporting on the relationship between face mask use and risk ofrespiratory infections should be interpreted cautiously, and more randomized trials are needed.
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1 possible reason: Felt protected by the mask, so got into potentially more riskier situations
Masks either neutral or INCREASED COVID infections in Europe - April 2022
Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe PDF
VitaminDWiki - Face masks INCREASED COVID death rate in Kansas by 1.5X (re-inhalation) – Feb 2022
Removing masks made no difference in infection Rate - April 2023
No Mask, No Difference? - Infectious Disease Special Edition
"In June 2022, during a general community surge in SARS-CoV-2 infections, the researchers found the mask removal policy did not correlate with a statistically significant change in the rate of hospital-acquired COVID-19 in the study group (incidence rate ratio [RR], 1.11; 95% CI, 0.52-2.33)."
Cochrane Review - Wearing any kind of mask made no difference - Jan 2023
Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses
Cochrane update results inconclusive - March 2023
- "It would be accurate to say that the review examined whether interventions to promote mask wearing help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses, and that the results were inconclusive. Given the limitations in the primary evidence, the review is not able to address the question of whether mask-wearing itself reduces people's risk of contracting or spreading respiratory viruses. "
Revisiting the rationale of mandatory masking - Aug 2023
Table of Contents
In this perspective, we review the evidence for the efficacy of face masks to reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses, specifically severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and consider the value of mandating universal mask-wearing against the widespread negative impacts that have been associated with such measures.
Before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, it was considered that there was little to no benefit in healthy people wearing masks as prophylaxis against becoming infected or as unwitting vectors of viral transmission.
This accepted policy was hastily reversed early on in the pandemic, when districts and countries throughout the world imposed stringent masking mandates.
Now, more than three years since the start of the pandemic, the amassed studies that have investigated the use of masks to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (or other pathogens) have led to conclusions that are largely inconsistent and contradictory.
There is no statistically significant or unambiguous scientific evidence to justify mandatory masking for general, healthy populations with the intention of lessening the viral spread. Even if mask-wearing could potentially reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in individual cases, this needs to be balanced against the physical, psychological and social harms associated with forced mask-wearing, not to mention the negative impact of innumerable disposed masks entering our fragile environment.__ Given the lack of unequivocal scientific proof that masks have any effect on reducing transmission, together with the evident harms to people and the environment through the use of masks, it is our opinion that the mandatory use of face masks in the general population is unjustifiable and must be abandoned in future pandemic countermeasures policies.
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