Face Masks

There is no strong medical consensus on whether face masks help outside of health care settings. However, there does seem to be evidence that they can have negative health effects for the wearer.

According to Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, children could spread COVID-19 more if they wear masks.

HM Government guidance for restaurants, pubs, bars and takeaway services, 24 June 2020:

“The evidence suggests that wearing a face covering does not protect you…evidence of the benefit of using a face covering to protect others is weak.”

Browse the articles related to this topic below.

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Categories
Opinion

Continued mask wearing won’t help us return to normal – The Critic

Masks act as a crude reminder that danger is all around, that we are all potential biohazards. So, on a common-sense level, continued wearing of them will exacerbate anxieties rather than reduce them. But there is another, less obvious reason why the continued use of face coverings is counterproductive as a means of promoting confidence and encouraging people to return to normality: masks will act as a “safety behaviour” that will prevent disconfirmation of anxious beliefs.

https://thecritic.co.uk/continued-mask-wearing-wont-help-us-return-to-normal/

Categories
News

Debunked, the myth of asymptomatic Covid transmission – The Conservative Woman

The concern that SARS-CoV-2 could be spread by people without symptoms originally came from a single case report. It was alleged that an asymptomatic woman from China had spread the virus to 16 other contacts in Germany. Later reports showed that, at the time of contact, this woman was taking medication for flu-like symptoms, invalidating the evidence provided for the theory of asymptomatic transmission. As with other common respiratory viruses, SARS-CoV-2 spreads by being exhaled, coughed or sneezed into the air. The largest droplets fall quickly and settle on the ground whilst the most lightweight particles, known as aerosols, may remain suspended in the air for days. Once the virus is present in the environment, it spreads by finding its way into the respiratory tract of new hosts in a large enough quantity (known as the ‘viral load’ or ‘infectious dose’) to infect them. The theory of fomite transmission (touching contaminated surfaces and then touching the face) is not supported by scientific evidence.

 …In asymptomatic individuals, the viral load is typically very low and the infectious period is also short in duration. They may still exhale virus particles, which another person may encounter. However, the overall likelihood of transmitting the disease to others is negligible. Thus asymptomatic cases are not the major drivers of epidemics. As Dr Anthony Fauci of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases stated in March 2020: ‘In all the history of respiratory-borne viruses of any type, asymptomatic transmission has never been the driver of outbreaks. The driver of outbreaks is always a symptomatic person.’ 

Debunked, the myth of asymptomatic Covid transmission
Categories
Opinion

Why masks must be binned on June 21 – and never come back – Dr Gary Sidley, The Conservative Woman

  1. No evidence that masks reduce viral transmission in real-world settings
  2. Wearing masks is likely to do harm
  3. Masks increase compliance with the ongoing public health tyranny
  4. Masks are dehumanising
  5. Masks perpetuate the elevated levels of fear

The recently-launched Smile Free campaign – of which I’m a part – is campaigning for the removal of mask mandates in the UK, and believes that, in a democratic society, the evidential bar to justify mandating a behaviour should be set very high. The research in support of masks offering protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection falls a long way short of this threshold, and the negative consequences of wearing them are considerable. The decision whether to wear a face covering should be a personal one, not one imposed by Government diktat. All mask mandates must be lifted on June 21 and this most insidious of all the Covid-19 restrictions must never return. 

Why masks must be binned on June 21 – and never come back
Categories
News

Was mask-wearing pointless, after all? Fauci must be forced to answer – New York Post

It’s a touchy, complex question. People may not want to learn that millions of us covered our faces for 15 months for no good reason, after all. But asking the questions is exactly what we must do.

Last week, a trove of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s e-mails were released to the public. In a Feb. 5, 2020, e-mail to a Team Obama health official, the ­virus guru wrote that masks were for infected people, and that “the typical mask you buy in a drug store is not really effective in keeping out the virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.”

https://nypost.com/2021/06/06/was-mask-wearing-pointless-after-all-fauci-must-answer/

Categories
Opinion

There is no reason why new variants should prevent us from reopening – Professor Robert Dingwall, The Telegraph

SARS-Cov-2 is a more stable virus than influenza. Trillions of replications have thrown up a handful of variants of concern, clustering around a small set of mutations. These variants are worth monitoring but the vaccines effectively prevent them causing serious illness. There is a theoretical risk of a more dangerous variant but it does not seem more likely than a shift in the influenza virus. If it were to occur, we could now manage it with short-term measures and rapid vaccine modification.

…Vaccination protects the vaccinated. It helps protect others but it means that we take no greater risk in the autumn of 2020 than in the autumn of 2019. Interventions should be proportionate to that – which means that most cannot be justified.

Some are worth retaining, like improved hygiene in public places or greater readiness to stay at home with respiratory symptoms. It is probably a good idea to invest further in the search for effective antiviral therapies. Promoting better population health through diet and exercise is always a good thing. But it is time for a bonfire of face masks and the despatch of lateral flow tests to landfill.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/29/no-reason-new-variants-should-prevent-us-reopening/

Categories
Opinion

I’m a doctor, but Covid’s broken my faith in medical research. I can’t believe anything I read or accept any mainstream facts – Dr Malcolm Kendrick, RT

The main purpose of science is to question and attack. To subject ideas to the greatest scrutiny. Those who decide to shut down and stifle debate – whatever they may believe themselves to be doing – are, in fact, traitors to the cause of science. Stranglers of the enlightenment, assassins of progress.

They are not alone, and things have gotten far worse in the past year or so. Science has taken a terrible battering during Covid-19, though I have always known that dissent against a widely held scientific hypothesis is difficult.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/525071-doctor-covid-medical-research/

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Alternative Media Videos

Dr. Hodkinson Interview – COVID-19 Vaccines, Infertility & Spike Protein Dangers

Dr. Hodkinson, here to discuss the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines, the possibility of infertility, and the very real concerns about the vaccine-induced spike proteins and what new scientific research is clearly suggesting about their risks to your health.

Categories
News Videos

Epidemiologist Prof Sunetra Gupta welcomes news of independent inquiry to examine the government’s handling of the pandemic – talkRadio

Epidemiologist Prof Sunetra Gupta welcomes news that an independent inquiry will examine the government’s handling of the pandemic. “There was a religious belief that lockdowns and facemasks work. Let’s look at the costs of these strategies.”

Mirrors:

Categories
News

By ditching compulsory face masks in schools, the government is finally prioritising children’s welfare – The Telegraph

Still, however, the battle for common sense over hysteria is far from won. Do we really think testing healthy children at an estimated cost of £144,564 per positive test is either “sensible” or “proportionate”? Do we really think that asking children who’ve already missed so much this year to miss further days isolating for a virus against which all vulnerable adults have been vaccinated is a drawback appropriately balanced against a benefit? And what do we think of this in the context of the looming discussion over offering the vaccine to children – at negligible risk from Covid – given the harm we should assume will ensue to a small minority of them?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/11/ditching-compulsory-face-masks-schools-government-finally-prioritising/

Categories
Opinion

Why are we being lied to about Covid? There’s no good reason – Dr Mike Yeadon, The Conservative Woman

So in recent weeks I’ve made a clear decision no longer merely to point out what it is that governments and their advisers and spokespersons around the world are doing is wrong, scientifically unjustified and harmful, but to join the dots in an attempt to provide potential explanations of why they’re doing these things.

…Why do I say this? Simply because there is no benign interpretation of the acts of commission and omission consistently imposed upon us and no explanation of the statements which are flatly wrong other than an intention to deceive the population.

…It is my deduction and conclusion that the only motivation that fits all the observations is the intention to ‘herd’ every citizen into a VaxPass system. This is a completely novel system. Never before have all individuals been represented in a single, interoperable database as a unique digital ID, accompanied by an editable health-related field. Whoever controls that database, and the algorithms which govern what it permits and denies, has literally totalitarian control of the entire population. There is no personal threshold crossing or transaction which doesn’t fall to those operating that system.

Why are we being lied to about Covid? There’s no good reason
Categories
News

Pollutants and nanoplastics found in disposable face masks, according to Swansea University study – Wales Online

Scientists have uncovered potentially dangerous chemical pollutants that are released from disposable face masks when submerged in water.

The research by Swansea University reveals high levels of pollutants – including lead, antimony, and copper – within the silicon-based and plastic fibres of common disposable face masks.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/pollutants-nanoplastics-disposable-face-masks-20519711

Categories
Opinion Videos

Covid is the cure worse than the disease? Dr John Lee, Unlocked

Unlocked Exclusive — in a hard-hitting interview, retired NHS pathologist Dr John Lee discusses the government’s response to the pandemic, analyses why proven scientific procedures were abandoned, makes the case for ending Lockdown now, and asks the question most doctors are unable to discuss in public. Covid-19: is the cure worse than the disease?

Backup mirrors:

https://www.facebook.com/unlockedunitedkingdom/videos/506787697359395/

Categories
News

Face masks in classroom risk causing children ‘physical and psychological harm’ – The Telegraph

There is a “prima facie risk” of harm to secondary school pupils from wearing masks during lessons due to the impact it has on their ability to breathe properly, according to lawyers acting for a 12-year-old girl against the Trust that runs her school.

http://archive.today/2021.05.01-013849/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/30/face-masks-classroom-risk-causing-children-physical-psychological/

Categories
Publications

Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards? – MPDI

Many countries introduced the requirement to wear masks in public spaces for containing SARS-CoV-2 making it commonplace in 2020. Up until now, there has been no comprehensive investigation as to the adverse health effects masks can cause. The aim was to find, test, evaluate and compile scientifically proven related side effects of wearing masks. For a quantitative evaluation, 44 mostly experimental studies were referenced, and for a substantive evaluation, 65 publications were found. The literature revealed relevant adverse effects of masks in numerous disciplines. In this paper, we refer to the psychological and physical deterioration as well as multiple symptoms described because of their consistent, recurrent and uniform presentation from different disciplines as a Mask-Induced Exhaustion Syndrome (MIES). We objectified evaluation evidenced changes in respiratory physiology of mask wearers with significant correlation of O2 drop and fatigue (p < 0.05), a clustered co-occurrence of respiratory impairment and O2 drop (67%), N95 mask and CO2 rise (82%), N95 mask and O2 drop (72%), N95 mask and headache (60%), respiratory impairment and temperature rise (88%), but also temperature rise and moisture (100%) under the masks. Extended mask-wearing by the general population could lead to relevant effects and consequences in many medical fields.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4344/htm

Categories
Opinion

End face masks and social distancing on June 21 – top scientists demand – The Express

The open letter states that “a good society cannot be created by an obsessive focus on a single cause of ill-health” and states all restrictions should be lifted in June on the final date in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown. Masks should no longer be worn by schoolchildren after May 17, say the scientists – and they warn the damage to society will be too great if the current Covid control measures continue beyond the June roadmap date. 

Vaccine passports should also be scrapped along with mass community testing, they say.

Instead, the government should focus on targeted testing, creating better incentives for staying home if ill and basic hygiene measures, such as handwashing and surface cleaning.

Signatories (in alphabetical order)

Professor Ryan Anderson, Translational Science, Medicines Discovery Catapult

Dr Colin Axon, Mechanical Engineering, Brunel University

Professor Anthony Brookes, Genomics and Bioinformatics, University of Leicester

Professor Jackie Cassell, FFPH, Deputy Dean,  Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Professor Angus Dalgleish, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, Oncology, St George’s, University of London

Professor Robert Dingwall, FAcSS, HonMFPH, Sociology, Nottingham Trent University

Professor Sunetra Gupta, Theoretical Epidemiology, University of Oxford

Professor Carl Heneghan, MRCGP,  Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, University of Oxford

Professor Mike Hulme,  Human Geography, University of Cambridge.

Dr John Lee – formerly Pathology, Hull York Medical School

Professor David Livermore, Medical Microbiology,  University of East Anglia.

Professor Paul McKeigue Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics, University of Edinburgh

Professor David Paton, Industrial Economics, University of Nottingham

Emeritus Professor Hugh Pennington, CBE, FRCPath, FRCP (Edin), FMedSci, FRSE, Bacteriology, University of Aberdeen

Dr Gerry Quinn, Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster

Dr Roland Salmon, MRCGP, FFPH, former Director of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (Wales).

Emeritus Professor John Scott, CBE, FRSA, FBA, FAcSS, Sociology, University of Essex

Professor Karol Sikora, FRCR, FRCP, FFPM, Medicine, University of Buckingham

Professor Ellen Townsend, Psychology, University of Nottingham

Dr Chao Wang, Health & Social Care Statistics, Kingston University and St George’s, University of London,

Professor John Watkins,  Epidemiology, Cardiff University

Professor Lisa White, Modelling and Epidemiology, University of Oxford.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1427568/Lockdown-latest-face-masks-social-distancing-scientists

Categories
News

MIT researchers say you’re no safer from Covid indoors at 6 feet or 60 feet in new study challenging social distancing policies – CNBC

The risk of being exposed to Covid-19 indoors is as great at 60 feet as it is at 6 feet — even when wearing a mask, according to a new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers who challenge social distancing guidelines adopted across the world.

MIT professors Martin Z. Bazant, who teaches chemical engineering and applied mathematics, and John W.M. Bush, who teaches applied mathematics, developed a method of calculating exposure risk to Covid-19 in an indoor setting that factors in a variety of issues that could affect transmission, including the amount of time spent inside, air filtration and circulation, immunization, variant strains, mask use, and even respiratory activity such as breathing, eating, speaking or singing.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/23/mit-researchers-say-youre-no-safer-from-covid-indoors-at-6-feet-or-60-feet-in-new-study.html

Categories
Opinion

Much to Forgive – City Journal

Adults have failed children in foisting unnecessary, harmful Covid-19 restrictions on them.

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul,” Nelson Mandela famously said, “than the way in which it treats its children.” By that standard, our society now has the soul of an abusive parent. The pandemic has turned American adults, or at least the ones who make the rules, into selfish neurotics who have been punishing innocent children for over a year—and still can’t restrain themselves.

http://archive.today/2021.04.22-072614/https://www.city-journal.org/masking-children-unnecessary-and-harmful

Categories
Publications

Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards? – Europe PMC

On the one hand, the advocacy of an extended mask requirement remains predominantly theoretical and can only be sustained with individual case reports, plausibility arguments based on model calculations and promising in vitro laboratory tests. Moreover, recent studies on SARS-CoV-2 show both a significantly lower infectivity and a significantly lower case mortality than previously assumed, as it could be calculated that the median corrected infection fatality rate (IFR) was 0.10% in locations with a lower than average global COVID-19 population mortality rate. In early October 2020, the WHO also publicly announced that projections show COVID-19 to be fatal for approximately 0.14% of those who become ill—compared to 0.10% for endemic influenza—again a figure far lower than expected.

On the other hand, the side effects of masks are clinically relevant.

…We not only found evidence in the reviewed mask literature of potential long-term effects, but also evidence of an increase in direct short-term effects with increased mask-wearing time in terms of cumulative effects for: carbon dioxide retention, drowsiness, headache, feeling of exhaustion, skin irritation (redness, itching) and microbiological contamination (germ colonization).

https://europepmc.org/article/MED/33923935

Categories
Videos

Lockdown legacy facing future generations – Dr Rob Verkerk, Pandemic Podcast

Rob Verkerk, Founder, Executive and Scientific Director of the Alliance for Natural Health International, a scientist who has for 30 years been exploring positive ways to span the gulfs between science and the law, between academia and industry, and between governments and their people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mx5cbKVDQg

Backup mirror:

Mirrored on odysee.com

Categories
Opinion

The Dangers of Masks – Paul E Alexander MSc PhD, AIER

Emergent reports, albeit nascent and anecdotal but nevertheless vitally important (and will be clarified and defined in time) regarding the manufacture of masks, where, “many of them (face masks) are made of polyester, so you have a microplastic problem…many of the face masks would contain polyester with chlorine compounds…if I have the mask in front of my face, then of course I inhale the microplastic directly and these substances are much more toxic than if you swallow them, as they get directly into the nervous system.”

There are also reports of toxic mould, fungi, and bacteria that can pose a significant threat to the immune system by potentially weakening it. Of particular concern to us is the recent report of breathing in synthetic fibers in the face masks. This is of serious concern. “Loose particulate was seen on each type of mask. Also, tight and loose fibers were seen on each type of mask. If every foreign particle and every fiber in every facemask is always secure and not detachable by airflow, then there should be no risk of inhalation of such particles and fibers. However, if even a small portion of mask fibers is detachable by inspiratory airflow, or if there is debris in mask manufacture or packaging or handling, then there is the possibility of not only entry of foreign material to the airways, but also entry to deep lung tissue, and potential pathological consequences of foreign bodies in the lungs.” 

The Dangers of Masks