Judge Terry A. Doughty in the U.S. District Court Western District of Louisiana ruled in favor of a request from Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to block an emergency regulation issued Nov. 4 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that required vaccines for nearly every full-time employee, part-time employee, volunteer, and contractor working at a wide range of healthcare facilities receiving Medicaid or Medicaid funding.
Louisiana was joined in the lawsuit by attorneys general in 13 other states.
The citations will include a $1,000 fine for a second violation, $2,000 fine for a third violation and a $5,000 fine for a fourth and subsequent violations.
National Center for Health Statistics indicate that there were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States during the 12-month period ending in April 2021, an increase of 28.5% from the 78,056 deaths during the same period the year before.
Since the pandemic began, the U.S. Congress has “pumped nearly $5 trillion taxpayer dollars into COVID-19 ‘relief’ spending.” These programs have offered very little relief to the economy and have instead conditioned people to expect “regular monthly payments that, when combined, are far more lucrative than work.” These exorbitantly expensive welfare initiatives have “infected several significant government programs and threaten to tank the American economy” entirely.
Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty ImagesWASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 29: U.S. first lady Jill Biden smiles after she read her book Don’t Forget, God Bless our Troops to a second-grade class from Malcolm Elementary School in Waldorf, Maryland, in the State Dining Room of the White House November 29, 2021 in Washington, DC. First lady Jill Biden unveiled the 2021 White House holiday décor today with the theme “Gifts from the Heart”. A variety of interactive viewing experiences will be launched on digital platforms, including Instagram, Google Maps Street View, Snapchat, and others that will allow the public to engage with the White House from home over the course of holidays. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 29: U.S. first lady Jill Biden reads her book Don’t Forget, God Bless our Troops to a second-grade class from Malcolm Elementary School in Waldorf, Maryland, in the State Dining Room of the White House November 29, 2021 in Washington, DC. First lady Jill Biden unveiled the 2021 White House holiday décor today with the theme “Gifts from the Heart”. A variety of interactive viewing experiences will be launched on digital platforms, including Instagram, Google Maps Street View, Snapchat, and others that will allow the public to engage with the White House from home over the course of holidays. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)Screengrab Via C-SPAN)
So now we want to vaccinate the entire world. Naturally one wonders why, because up until now the reasons have all been either wrong or misleading. Allow me to summarize:
At first, they said they only wanted to vaccinate the vulnerable groups. So, the people over 60.
Now they say, no, you have to start at the age of 18.
Then the second reason was, we need 70% [vaccinated] for herd immunity.
Now they say we need 100%. The peak of this absurdity is that the unvaccinated are a danger to the vaccinated. We haven’t heard that one before.
The third justification is that we had to be vaccinated out of solidarity.
Out of solidarity with vulnerable groups.
Now, it is said that the vaccinated have a particularly high viral load, which means that for vulnerable groups, it is obviously safest if they are visited by unvaccinated people.
And now, we have more and more vaccine breakthroughs, i.e. people who become severely ill with COVID, despite being vaccinated twice. The newest rationale to be heard here now is, since the first two vaccinations have thus totally failed, we should urgently be vaccinated a third time, with a vaccine that will probably fail just like the last two vaccines did the first time around. That’s really smart.
In Germany, we have 48 confirmed cases of deaths that occurred in connection with the vaccination. 48 cases, those are just the cases that were autopsied. Of course, we know that many people who died after a vaccination were not autopsied at all.
That means the unreported number is probably many times higher.
If any company, let’s say Nestlé or Pepsi or any other company were to put a product on the market and then 48 people were to die from it within a year, we wouldn’t talk about whether we should or should not distribute this product to the world.
We would talk about whether or not we should enforce liability on the management.
That’s what I would urgently suggest that this parliament do. We should be discussing the [lack of] efficacy of these vaccines and about liability issues for the management of the vaccine manufacturers.
I think that’s what this parliament should concentrate on, not on vaccinating the world. Thank you very much.
Translation: Miss Piggy
https://rairfoundation.com/mep-demand-answers-when-will-vaccine-deaths-be-counted-video/
The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a group of health care workers who sought exemptions from their Boston-based hospital’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.
The request was denied without comment by Justice Stephen Breyer, who handles emergency matters arising from the region.
A judge halted President Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in ten states on Monday, court documents show.
Missouri-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, issued the preliminary injunction for employees at Medicare and Medicare-certified medical facilities in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Alaska, and Arkansas. Under the Biden administration’s mandate, healthcare workers who work at hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare facilities that receive federal funding have been ordered to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 4, receive a medical or religious exemption, or face firing.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is reportedly telling federal agencies they can hold off suspending or firing federal workers for not complying with a vaccine mandate until after the holidays.
President Joe Biden urged Americans to wear masks indoors and in public places, as the administration braces for the new COVID-19 variant Omicron to appear in the country.
Every New Yorker regardless of vaccination status is encouraged to wear a mask in indoor public settings, according to a new mask advisory issued Monday by New York City’s health commissioner as concerns about the omicron COVID-19 variant spreads.
The study showed that there is “no significant differences were detected in duration of RT-PCR positivity among fully vaccinated participants (median: 13 days) versus those not fully vaccinated (median: 13 days; p=0.50), or in duration of culture positivity (medians: 5 days and 5 days; p=0.29)” among the 95 eligible participants out of 190, of whom 78 were fully vaccinated and 17 were not fully vaccinated.
In this investigation, we found no statistically significant difference in transmission potential between vaccinated persons and persons who were not fully vaccinated. Therefore, our findings indicate that prevention and mitigation measures should be applied without regard to vaccination status for persons in high-risk settings or those with significant exposures. In congregate settings, and correctional and detention facilities in particular, post-exposure testing and quarantine remain essential tools to limit transmission when cases are identified, in addition to other recommended prevention measures. Our data add to a growing body of evidence characterizing transmission potential from vaccinated persons. Future studies of transmission potential from vaccinated persons with infection, incorporating similar laboratory-based markers as well as evidence of transmission from secondary attack rates and network analysis, may help to further describe the contributions of vaccinated persons in chains of transmission as the pandemic evolves and new variants emerge.
A South African doctor who was one of the first to suspect a different coronavirus strain has said that symptoms of the Omicron variant appear to be mild and could be treated at home
Family sitting at the Christmas Thanksgiving table at home in the year of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Grandmother adjust the surgical mask to her grandson. New rules, Covid outbreak, lockdown. (Family sitting at the Christmas Thanksgiving table at home Basilico Studio Stock/Getty Images
A member of the ‘racial equity committee’ in Texas’s Fort Worth school district published addresses and phone numbers of parents who sued to stop a mask mandate, saying “Internet do your thing,” according to Fox News.
Newport News shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls reverses their position on the vaccine mandate and claims they misinterpreted the federal requirement. After further consultations with the federal government, the shipbuilder now says the vaccine mandate doesn’t apply. “This recent information is different from what we understood to be the government’s and the Navy’s intent,” the company said.
[Via Facebook] President and CEO Mike Petters issued a message to employees Nov. 16 indicating that the government’s Jan. 4, 2022, deadline for vaccination is suspended. The message also clarified that after considerable work with the Navy to meet the intent of the mandate, our Navy contracts with Newport News Shipbuilding do not include a vaccine mandate requirement at this time.This recent information is different from what we understood to be the government’s and the Navy’s intent. As a result of what we know today, some of the related mandate policies and processes will now change. Because employee safety continues to be our top priority, other COVID-related policies will not change.Here’s what is changing:• COVID-19 vaccination is not required as a condition of employment for current or leased employees.• Employees who applied for a religious or medical exemption will be contacted in writing with additional clarification.• Shipbuilders who opted to submit for retirement or to resign as a result of the federal mandate have the option to request reversal of their decision.– For those who have started the retirement process, please contact the HII Benefits Center for more information.– For employees who notified management or Human Resources of plans to resign, please talk with your immediate supervisor if your plans change. Supervisors should contact their Human Resources business partner for guidance.• Offsite employees will be required to follow the guidance provided by the work location.• Subcontractors do not need to be fully vaccinated. (read more)
COLE COUNTY, Mo. — A Missouri judge ruled Tuesday that local health orders imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state are illegal and should be lifted.
The Timescited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tuesday figures, which reported 386,233 coronavirus related fatalities in the U.S. for 2021.
In all of 2020, the U.S. recorded 385,343 fatalities. The former figure is only expected to rise, as there is still over one month left of the year.
In the USA and Germany, high-level officials have used the term pandemic of the unvaccinated, suggesting that people who have been vaccinated are not relevant in the epidemiology of COVID-19. Officials’ use of this phrase might have encouraged one scientist to claim that “the unvaccinated threaten the vaccinated for COVID-19”.<sup)1 But this view is far too simple.
There is increasing evidence that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission. In Massachusetts, USA, a total of 469 new COVID-19 cases were detected during various events in July, 2021, and 346 (74%) of these cases were in people who were fully or partly vaccinated, 274 (79%) of whom were symptomatic. Cycle threshold values were similarly low between people who were fully vaccinated (median 22·8) and people who were unvaccinated, not fully vaccinated, or whose vaccination status was unknown (median 21·5), indicating a high viral load even among people who were fully vaccinated.2
In the USA, a total of 10 262 COVID-19 cases were reported in vaccinated people by April 30, 2021, of whom 2725 (26·6%) were asymptomatic, 995 (9·7%) were hospitalised, and 160 (1·6%) died.3 In Germany, 55·4% of symptomatic COVID-19 cases in patients aged 60 years or older were in fully vaccinated individuals,4 and this proportion is increasing each week. In Münster, Germany, new cases of COVID-19 occurred in at least 85 (22%) of 380 people who were fully vaccinated or who had recovered from COVID-19 and who attended a club.5
People who are vaccinated have a lower risk of severe disease but are still a relevant part of the pandemic. It is therefore wrong and dangerous to speak of a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Historically, both the USA and Germany have engendered negative experiences by stigmatising parts of the population for their skin colour or religion. I call on high-level officials and scientists to stop the inappropriate stigmatisation of unvaccinated people, who include our patients, colleagues, and other fellow citizens, and to put extra effort into bringing society together.
“This attack on me, which clearly has political overtones to a nonpolitical scientist, I feel, is dangerous to the entire field of science and[shows] how people try to intimidate scientists,” he told the Post.
The agency said in a court filing Monday that in order to complete a Freedom of Information Act request for data and information on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, it will need to process 329,000 pages of documents and can only do so at a rate of 500 pages per month. At that rate, the information requested will not be fully released until the year 2076.
The FOIA request was submitted to the FDA in August by Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, a group of more than 30 international public health professionals, medical professionals, scientists, and journalists that “exist solely to obtain and disseminate the data relied upon by the FDA to license COVID-19 vaccines.” The group includes academics and medical experts from Yale, Harvard Medical School, and UCLA; alumni from the Trump administration; and prominent health experts from around the world.
PHMPT is being represented by Siri & Glimstad, a New York-based law firm that has performed millions of dollars of legal work on behalf of groups opposed to vaccine mandates.
On November 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to stay OSHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, published on November 5, 2021 (86 Fed. Reg. 61402) (“ETS”). The court ordered that OSHA “take no steps to implement or enforce” the ETS “until further court order.” While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation.
“On Friday, I was fired by the PGA Tour. I was in need of religious exemptions from their vaccine protocols of masking and testing,” Gregson explained in a Facebook video. “They would not accommodate me in such a way that I did not have to violate my religious beliefs.
Dr Rochelle Walensky from CDC is claiming in advertisements, without evidence, that wearing a mask could reduce the risk of infection by 80%. However, a Cochrane study by Jefferson et al. and a report of the European Center of Disease Control concluded there is no high-quality evidence in favor of facemasks. No association was observed between mask mandates or use and reduced Covid-19 spread in US states. Up to now there are no results available of randomized clinical trials that could demonstrate beyond any doubt that wearing masks prevent people from viral infection and could slow the spread of the virus.
Randomized controlled trials during this pandemic on the effects of wearing medical masks in Denmark by the general population could not alter the conclusions of previous trials with (medical) masks on the spread of influenza virus in a hospital setting or in non healthcare settings there is no substantial effect.
Look at the graph below, obtained from OpenVAERS mortality reports page.8 As you can see, reports of deaths following the COVID jab peaked right at the beginning of April 2021, then dropped down again during the month of April. Interestingly enough, the study notes that the daily vaccination rate has declined by 78% since April 13, 2021.
However, while the daily vaccination rate has plummeted since April, reported deaths have remained high and relatively steady. Could this be a hint that people are dying from shots they received earlier in the year?
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled in Austin the ban ordered by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott violated a federal law protecting disabled students’ access to public education. The nonprofit advocacy group Disabled Rights Texas argued Abbott’s ban prohibited accommodations for disabled children particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
Yeakel prohibited Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from suing school districts that require students to wear masks as a safety measure. Paxton already had sued 15 school districts to overturn those local mask mandates.
NOBODY TOLD CHILDREN THEY CANT FACE DIAPER IF THEY WANT TO IN A SCHOOL !
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel
501 West 5th Street, Suite 7300, Austin, TX 78701
Year Service Began: 2003
Appointed By: President George W. Bush
Education: University of Texas (JD) University of Virginia (Masters of Law)
Judicial Experience: Justice on the Texas Court of Appeals for the 3rd District of Texas
The effectiveness of all three coronavirus vaccines available in the United States has dropped substantially after six months, new research published in the journal Science reveals.
The most dramatic drop was from Johnson & Johnson’s shot, whose effectiveness plummeted to 13.1 percent in September from 86.4 percent in March.
During the same time period, Pfizer’s vaccine also fell below the 50 percent effective mark to 43.3 percent from 86.9 percent when it was first administered.
Moderna’s effectiveness declined the least, but was still significant at 58 percent from 89.2 percent.
“The evidence is clear,” Dr. Walensky insists. “Masks can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by reducing your chance of infection by more than 80 percent.” It doesn’t just apply to the Wuhan coronavirus though, but the flu and even the common cold. “In combination with other steps, like getting your vaccination, hand-washing, and keeping physical distance, wearing your mask is an important step you can take to keep us all healthy.”
London — The British Medical Journal, or The BMJ, released a report that suggests there is damning evidence that Pfizer’s clinical trials were poorly managed and data was falsified, according to a whistleblower, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) apparently turned a blind eye and ignored concerns addressed to them.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) are reportedly weighing whether to cancel government contracts rather than firing employees over President Biden’s vaccine mandate set to take effect in December.
(Headline USA) A New York judge on Wednesday allowed a COVID-19 vaccine mandate set to begin Friday to steamroll over the city’s municipal workforce, denying a police union’s request for a temporary restraining order.
Judge Lizette Colon said the mandate can take effect as scheduled while also ordering city officials to appear in court Nov. 12 to defend the requirement against a union lawsuit seeking to have it declared illegal.
Over the last seven days, Florida has had nine new cases of COVID-19 per day per 100,000 residents, according to The New York Times’ data dashboard.
Florida is tied with Hawaii for the lowest rate among the 50 U.S. states, and trails only American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands when including U.S. territories.
COVID-19 cases in Florida have declined by 90% since a peak of nearly 22,000 per day in August during the worst of the delta wave.
Southern states and their Republican governors, including Florida, were subject to media scrutiny during the delta surge as they faced higher rates of new cases and deaths than other parts of the country. Now, the south has the lowest rate of new cases per capita of the country’s four major regions, according to the NYT.
Westwood One radio host Dan Bongino is off the air this week after blasting the parent company for its vaccine mandate.
Cumulus Media, which owns the radio network, told employees that they were required to be vaccinated by the end of September so that they could return to the office Oct. 11.
I believe if we had fully implemented the mask mandates, the reduction in indoor dining, the getting friends and family to understand the risk of gathering in private homes, and we had increased testing, that we probably could have decreased fatalities into the 30 percent less to 40 percent less range.
President Donald Trump’s former coronavirus adviser, Dr. Deborah Birx, claims that 30 to 40 percent of the total coronavirus deaths could have been stopped had the White House been less focused on the 2020 election.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said people had “no reason” to be wearing masks.
An overview of the current evidence regarding the effectiveness of face masks.
Contents: A) Published studies ⇓B) Real-world evidence ⇓C) N95/FFP2 masks ⇓D) Additional aspects ⇓E) The aerosol issue ⇓F) Contrary evidence ⇓G) Mask-related risks ⇓H) Conclusion ⇓
A) Studies on the effectiveness of face masks
So far, most studies found little to no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks in the general population, neither as personal protective equipment nor as a source control.
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 large randomized controlled trial with close to 8000 participants, published in October 2020 in PLOS One, found that face masks “did not seem to be effective against laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections nor against clinical respiratory infection.” (Source)
A February 2021 review by the European CDC found no high-quality evidence in favor of face masks and recommended their use only based on the ‘precautionary principle’. (Source)
A July 2020 review by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine found that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks against virus infection or transmission. (Source)
A November 2020 Cochrane review found that face masks did not reduce influenza-like illness (ILI) cases, neither in the general population nor in health care workers. (Source)
An August 2021 study published in the Int. Research Journal of Public Health found “no association between mask mandates or use and reduced COVID-19 spread in US states.” (Source)
A July 2021 experimental study published by the American Institute of Physics found that face masks reduced indoor aerosols by at most 12%, not enough to prevent infections. (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 face masks offer little to no protection in everyday life. (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 face masks and that the improper daily use of masks by the public may in fact lead to an increase in infections. (Source)
For a review of studies claiming face masks are effective, see section F) below.
B) Development of cases after mask mandates
In many states, coronavirus infections strongly increased after mask mandates had been introduced. The following charts show the typical examples of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the UK, California and Hawaii. Furthermore, a direct comparison between US states with and without mask mandates indicates that mask mandates have made no difference. (Charts:Y. Weiss)
For an updated version of these charts, see the postscript below.
C) Effectiveness of N95/FFP2 mask mandates
In January 2021, the German state of Bavaria was one of the first places in the world to mandate N95/FFP2 masks in most public settings. A comparison with other German states, which required cloth or medical masks, indicates that even N95/FFP2 masks made no difference.
Covid cases in the German state of Bavaria (FFP2/N95 mandate since 01/21) vs. Germany overall (RKI/ISC)
D) Additional aspects
There is increasing evidence that the novel coronavirus is transmitted, at least in indoor settings, not only by droplets but primarily by smaller aerosols. However, due to their large pore size and poor fit, most face masks cannot filter out aerosols (see video analysis below): over 90% of aerosols penetrate or bypass the mask and fill a medium-sized room within minutes.
The WHO admitted to the BBC that its June 2020 mask policy update was due not to new evidence but “political lobbying”: “We had been told by various sources WHO committee reviewing the evidence had not backed masks but they recommended them due to political lobbying. This point was put to WHO who did not deny.” (D. Cohen, BBC Medical Corresponent).
To date, the only randomized controlled trial (RCT) on face masks against SARS-CoV-2 infection in a community setting found no statistically significant benefit (see above). However, three major journals refused to publish this study, delaying its publication by several months.
An analysis by the US CDC found that 85% of people infected with the new coronavirus reported wearing a mask “always” (70.6%) or “often” (14.4%). Compared to the control group of uninfected people, always wearing a mask did not reduce the risk of infection.
Researchers from the University of Minnesota found that the infectious dose of SARS-CoV-2 is just 300 virions (virus particles), whereas a single minute of normal speaking may generate more than 750,000 virions, making face masks unlikely to prevent infection.
Contrary to common belief, studies in hospitalsfound that the wearing of a medical mask by surgeons during operations didn’t reduce post-operative bacterial wound infections in patients.
Many health authorities claimed that face masks suppressed influenza; in reality, influenza was temporarily displaced by the more infectious coronavirus. Indeed, influenza disappeared even in states without masks, lockdowns and school closures (e.g. Sweden and Florida).
The initially low coronavirus infection rate in some Asian countries was not due to masks, but due to very rapid border controls. For instance, Japan, despite its widespread use of face masks, had experienced its most recent influenza epidemic just one year prior to the covid pandemic.
Early in the pandemic, the advocacy group “Mask for All” argued thatCzechia had few infections thanks to the early use of masks. In reality, the pandemic simply hadn’t reached Eastern Europe yet; a few months later, Czechia had one of the highest infection rates in the world.
During the notorious 1918 influenza pandemic, the use of face masks among the general population was widespread and in some places mandatory, but they made no difference.
E) The facemask aerosol issue
In the following video, Dr. Theodore Noel explains the facemask aerosol issue.https://videopress.com/embed/4egEyh2b?hd=1&cover=1&loop=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=1
F) Studies claiming face masks are effective
Some recent studies argued that face masks are indeed effective against the new coronavirus and could at least prevent the infection of other people. However, most of these studies suffer from poor methodology and sometimes show the opposite of what they claim to show.
Typically, these studies ignore the effect of other measures, the natural development of infection rates, changes in test activity, or they compare places with different epidemiological conditions. Studies performed in a lab or as a computer simulation often aren’t applicable to the real world.
An overview:
A meta-study in the journal Lancet, commissioned by the WHO, claimed that masks “could” lead to a reduction in the risk of infection, but the studies considered mainly N95 respirators in a hospital setting, not cloth masks in a community setting, the strength of the evidence was reported as “low”, and experts found numerous flaws in the study. Professor Peter Jueni, epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, called the WHO study “essentially useless”.
A study in the journal PNAS claimed that masks had led to a decrease in infections in three global hotspots (including New York City), but the study did not take into account the natural decrease in infections and other simultaneous measures. The study was so flawed that over 40 scientists recommended that the study be withdrawn.
A US studyclaimed that US counties with mask mandates had lower Covid infection and hospitalization rates, but the authors had to withdraw their study as infections and hospitalizations increased in many of these counties shortly after the study was published.
A German studyclaimed that the introduction of mandatory face masks in German cities had led to a decrease in infections. But the data did not support this claim: in some cities there was no change, in others a decrease, in others an increase in infections (see graph below). The city of Jena was an ‘exception’ only because it simultaneously introduced the strictest quarantine rules in Germany, but the study did not mention this.
A Canadian studyclaimed that countries with mandatory masks had fewer deaths than countries without mandatory masks. But the study compared countries with very different demographic structures and covered only the first few weeks of the pandemic.
A review by the University of Oxfordclaimed that face masks are effective, but it was based on studies about SARS-1 and in health care settings, not in community settings.
A review by members of the lobby group ‘Masks for All’, published in the journal PNAS, claimed that masks are effective as a source control against aerosol transmission in the community, but the review provided no real-world evidence supporting this proposition.
A study published in Nature Communications in June 2021 claimed that masks reduced the risk of infection by 62%, but the study relied on numerous questionable modelling assumptions and on self-reported online survey results, not on actual measurements.
A large study run in Bangladeshclaimed that face masks “reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections” by 0.08% (ARR) and only in people over 50. The study was designed and organized so poorly that it “ended before it even began”, according to one reviewer.
Mandatory masks in German cities: no relevant impact. (IZA 2020)
G) Risks associated with face masks
Wearing masks for a prolonged period of time may not be harmless, as the following evidence shows:
The WHO warns of various “side effects” such as difficulty breathing and skin rashes.
Tests conducted by the University Hospital of Leipzig in Germany have shown that face masks significantly reduce the resilience and performance of healthy adults.
A German psychological study with about 1000 participants found “severe psychosocial consequences” due to the introduction of mandatory face masks in Germany.
The Hamburg Environmental Institute warned of the inhalation of chlorine compounds in polyester masks as well as problems in connection with face mask disposal.
The European rapid alert system RAPEX has already recalled over 100 mask models because they did not meet EU quality standards and could lead to “serious risks”.
A study by the University of Muenster in Germany found that on N95 (FFP2) masks, Sars-CoV-2 may remain infectious for several days, thus increasing the risk of self-contamination.
In China, several children who had to wear a mask during gym classes fainted and died; autopsies found a sudden cardiac arrest as the probable cause of death. In the US, a car driver wearing an N95 (FFP2) mask fainted and crashed due to CO2 intoxication.
Video: A mask-wearing, 19-year-old US athlete collapsing during an 800-meter run (April 2021):https://www.youtube.com/embed/AmEzfG3uJX8?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent
Conclusion
Face masks in the general population might be effective, at least in some circumstances, but there is currently little to no evidence supporting this proposition. If the coronavirus is indeed transmitted via indoor aerosols, face masks are unlikely to be protective. Health authorities should therefore not assume or suggest that face masks will reduce the rate or risk of infection.
Postscript (August 2021)
A long-term analysis shows that infections have been driven primarily by seasonal and endemic factors, whereas mask mandates and lockdowns have had no discernible impact (charts: IanMSC).
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on Tuesday said he is hopeful he can lift the statewide mask mandate before the holidays, but he made no promises as the state’s 14-day case average rises by 11 percent, while states with no mask mandates, such as Florida, drop by 33 percent in the same timeframe.
Southwest Airlines dropped a plan to put unvaccinated workers with pending exemptions on unpaid leave after a December 8 deadline following protests by their employees.
“The employee will continue to work, while following all COVID mask and distancing guidelines applicable to their position, until the accommodation has been processed,” according to an internal note obtained by CNBC written by Southwest’s Senior Vice President of Operations and Hospitality Steve Goldberg and Vice President and Chief People Officer Julie Weber.
Laramie, WY — The Board of Education in Albany County School District 1 of Wyoming has voted 6-1 to keep its mark of the sheep, or mask mandate to continue indefinitely after one of its schools, Laramie High School, had a 16-year-old girl handcuffed, arrested and fined for showing her face at school.
Article 1, Section 38A states ‘each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own healthcare decisions. The parent, guardian or legal representative of any other natural person should have the right to make healthcare decisions for that person.’”
The Transportation Security Administration says 4-in-10 members of its workforce, including screeners, remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 as its deadline looms.
The deadline for civilian federal government workers to be fully vaccinated is Nov. 22 — the Monday before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel times of the year.
