CDC “Mask Guideline Update”

 

This could be medical malpractice of the highest sort. The data, and the science, show that mask-wearing by ordinary, uninfected members of the American Public does not slow or stop the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus. If it did, the State of Washington would have had very few new cases after July of 2020 when our statewide mask mandate went into effect. Instead, we are told that there are over 700 new cases appearing daily.  And the average citizen of Washington State is extremely compliant.  I can count on the fingers of two hands, the number of people I have seen in stores without masks.

Today, the CDC issued new “guidelines” on mask-wearing. The result of One Lab Experiment shows that two masks, one on top of another, help slow the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus. This is a bald-faced lie.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its mask guidance on Wednesday to include data from a recent lab experiment that found placing a cloth mask over a surgical mask, as well as using a properly fitted mask, was effective in stopping coronavirus spread.

The update, which was announced by CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky during a White House coronavirus briefing, comes after a lab experiment using simulated respiratory breaths found that placing a cloth mask over a medical procedure mask or using a medical procedure mask with knotted ear loops and tucked in sides decreased exposure to potentially infectious aerosols by about 95%.

This is the biggest bunch of baloney I have ever heard. The American population has already been subjected to a full year of lockdowns, business and school closures, unemployment, and deaths of despair of people young and old alike. Are they going to send a healthcare professional to each and every household daily to ensure that everyone is wearing a mask or two properly? Will a doctor be stationed at the door of every business to make sure all customers are properly wearing their two masks?

This new guidance is stupid and unnecessary. No mask mandate! Let the American People live their lives!

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  1. DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone Member
    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone
    @DrewInWisconsin

    We Should Worry about a Permanent Covidocracy

    Freedom once surrendered can be hell to claw back.

    That’s why I sympathize with those opposing even Covid-19 control measures that have some merit such as masks. Masks can reduce spread by blocking virus that’s attached to droplets, either outgoing or incoming, although they are of little value with the main problem which is fully aerosolized virus. Even for droplets a mask is hardly foolproof, which is why of late the omnipotent Dr. Fauci has told us that double masking “just makes common sense” (before pointing out that there’s no data to support that claim) while others now urge triple masking. Can a plastic bag be far behind?

    Further, masking is usually just part of a wider package of measures such as curfews (the virus spreads more easily at night, you see) and represent the controversial strategy of focusing not on the ill but the healthy. 

    But what about those surrendered liberties? Herewith a couple of examples in which we find that, mirabile dictu, regulators love to regulate for the sheer sake of it and will not stop until the public seriously fights back. 

    . . .

    Just as somehow “15 days to flatten the curve” became indefinite, the media are clearly preparing us for permanence regarding masking and anti-social distancing. After all, not only will Covid not disappear but we can expect even more variants. Besides, we’re told, masks are reducing flu and cold transmission. (No, nobody keeps data on colds.) The “save one life” standard is pretty easy to reach, and even without mandates who wants to be seen as selfish?

    Bill Buckley once said, “A liberal is someone who is determined to reach into your shower and adjust the water temperature for you.” That’s probably true of all persons given the power to reach into your shower. We either set firm goalposts now – when do the masks come off; when does the distancing end; when do kids return to school and restaurants operate at enough capacity to stay in business – or we risk many years of control.

    • #1
  2. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Or they risk real insurrection.

    • #2
  3. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    I only wear a mask to get through a door into a building, then pull it down. I need to be able to breathe. And as being hearing impaired, I also request others to lower their mask so I can lip read them.

    • #3
  4. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Isn’t there a saying that if one lie is good, two must better? Right . . . 

    • #4
  5. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone (View Comment):

    We Should Worry about a Permanent Covidocracy

    Freedom once surrendered can be hell to claw back.

    That’s why I sympathize with those opposing even Covid-19 control measures that have some merit such as masks. Masks can reduce spread by blocking virus that’s attached to droplets, either outgoing or incoming, although they are of little value with the main problem which is fully aerosolized virus. Even for droplets a mask is hardly foolproof, which is why of late the omnipotent Dr. Fauci has told us that double masking “just makes common sense” (before pointing out that there’s no data to support that claim) while others now urge triple masking. Can a plastic bag be far behind?

    Further, masking is usually just part of a wider package of measures such as curfews (the virus spreads more easily at night, you see) and represent the controversial strategy of focusing not on the ill but the healthy.

    But what about those surrendered liberties? Herewith a couple of examples in which we find that, mirabile dictu, regulators love to regulate for the sheer sake of it and will not stop until the public seriously fights back.

    . . .

    Just as somehow “15 days to flatten the curve” became indefinite, the media are clearly preparing us for permanence regarding masking and anti-social distancing. After all, not only will Covid not disappear but we can expect even more variants. Besides, we’re told, masks are reducing flu and cold transmission. (No, nobody keeps data on colds.) The “save one life” standard is pretty easy to reach, and even without mandates who wants to be seen as selfish?

    Bill Buckley once said, “A liberal is someone who is determined to reach into your shower and adjust the water temperature for you.” That’s probably true of all persons given the power to reach into your shower. We either set firm goalposts now – when do the masks come off; when does the distancing end; when do kids return to school and restaurants operate at enough capacity to stay in business – or we risk many years of control.

    Just this week a social / musical activity that was scheduled to resume in early March has again been postponed indefinitely out of the leader’s fear that the vaccine won’t be effective against one of the new variants. Although that is a “voluntary” activity (not government driven), it shows that restarting life is going to be even more difficult than I had expected. Now that a halt on life is the norm, the default is going to be permanent halt on life. 

    • #5
  6. DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone Member
    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Just this week a social / musical activity that was scheduled to resume in early March has again been postponed indefinitely out of the leader’s fear that the vaccine won’t be effective against one of the new variants. Although that is a “voluntary” activity (not government driven), it shows that restarting life is going to be even more difficult than I had expected. Now that a halt on life is the norm, the default is going to be permanent halt on life.

    The only way we’re going to get back to normal is if people just stop complying en masse. They’ll certainly try to fine us or arrest us, so some of us are going to have to take a bullet for the team. But it’s the only way.

    • #6
  7. Barry Jones Thatcher
    Barry Jones
    @BarryJones

    So if the CDC is to be believed, the medical professionals can stop spending the money for and waiting for N95 masks as their report two masks filter out 95% of the virus…which is the standard for N95 masks –  I wonder if the CDC will be ok with workers that have previously required N95 masks for safety in chemical or high dust areas to just double up? Who knew? All these years we have been relying on a scientific testing standard that had so simple a solution! Or not.

    • #7
  8. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    My guess is that choral music will not be allowed at all.  I wonder how churches will fight the disbanding of all their choirs.  I also wonder what will happen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

    • #8
  9. DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone Member
    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone
    @DrewInWisconsin

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    My guess is that choral music will not be allowed at all. I wonder how churches will fight the disbanding of all their choirs.

    You have to fight all the fear-driven people who go along with this.

    Our choir hasn’t done anything in a year now. Willingly. Not because someone’s ordered it, but because they have convinced themselves it’s dangerous.

    • #9
  10. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    The organization sponsoring the choir fears losing their license, or the church its tax-exempt status if they are caught with a choir singing without masks and keeping 6 feet apart.  All it takes is one snitch to bring the authorities down on them, and as we know, those snitches are everywhere.  The University Unitarian Church in Seattle had to cancel their full-length Messiah sing-and-play-along last December for the first time in 50 years.  Well, since they may have to cancel their entire music program, they won’t need that Messiah as a fund-raiser.

    • #10
  11. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    What is the lie, exactly?  That is quite an accusation.  The OP reports the result of a test.  It calls this a “lie” — but does not rebut the results of the test, and does not cite any contrary authority.

    I think that I am as annoyed about the mask rules as just about anyone else.  I understand why people would be frustrated.  I do not think that the proper response is to make unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations that public health officials are lying.

    I think that they were lying, last year.  As I recall, multiple public health officials, including Fauci and the Surgeon General, advised that masks were unnecessary.  I think that they were lying about this to avoid accountability for the severe mask shortage, and to try to prevent a panicked run on masks, which were needed for the medical folks providing care to the sick in the first wave.

    • #11
  12. DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone Member
    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):
    I think that they were lying, last year. As I recall, multiple public health officials, including Fauci and the Surgeon General, advised that masks were unnecessary. I think that they were lying about this to avoid accountability for the severe mask shortage, and to try to prevent a panicked run on masks, which were needed for the medical folks providing care to the sick in the first wave.

    Fauci admitted he lied about that. He thought it was a “noble lie.”

    I would have fired him on the spot. Any government official who lies to the American people needs to immediately lose his job.

     

    • #12
  13. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    Y not 4? 6? 20?

    See the source image

    • #13
  14. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    I know a nurse who works at a residential treatment center for teens.  Kids are removing the metal pieces in masks and are using them to self-harm.

    • #14
  15. DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) Coolidge
    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!)
    @DonG

    Barry Jones (View Comment):
    filter out 95% of the virus…which is the standard for N95 masks

    N95 has to do with particulate blocking.  Virus blocking is not a measured standard.

    • #15
  16. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I think that they were lying, last year. As I recall, multiple public health officials, including Fauci and the Surgeon General, advised that masks were unnecessary. I think that they were lying about this to avoid accountability for the severe mask shortage, and to try to prevent a panicked run on masks, which were needed for the medical folks providing care to the sick in the first wave.

    I think it was actually the other way around.  They were telling the truth originally and now they are lying.  I’ve seen many articles on mask wearing before this pandemic from prestigious medical journals that say masks should not be worn in public by healthy people.  Here is a typical example from the Journal of the American Medical Association.  You need to scroll down a little bit to the heading “When Should Masks be Used?”

    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762694?fbclid=IwAR3fI10GKsPfg16ths4EKE6od7JrZT15U_CJ-OQJo96fMTbZWxuQDc_NGuU

    I got the feeling that this was the prevailing thought before Covid.   When the Pandemic caused such an overblown reaction I think the medical authorities like Fauci panicked.  Having not a single viable course of action against the virus, they chose to promote mask wearing because it seems like we are doing something.  I’m not sure Fauci and others really believe the masks work at all, but they are terrified to be accused of letting people die.  Surely they must know that everywhere in the world that mask mandates have been implemented, the number of Covid cases has just skyrocketed to levels up to 20 times higher than the previous height of the pandemic.

    • #16
  17. DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone Member
    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    Surely they must know that everywhere in the world that mask mandates have been implemented, the number of Covid cases has just skyrocketed to levels up to 20 times higher than the previous height of the pandemic.

    I know that correlation is not causation, but it sure does seem like everywhere in the US where mask mandates went into effect, it was followed by a sharp increase in cases.

    I am of the opinion that masks act as virus-collecting devices, funneling those little guys right into our air passages. Everyone I know who had gotten the Wuhan Flu has also been a strict mask-wearer. Those I know who flout the masks have not gotten it. Data isn’t the plural of anecdote either, but it sure mystifies me.

    As a study, let’s find a place and have everyone stop wearing masks, and start living normally again and see what happens with the case numbers. (I offer my city.) 

    • #17
  18. Barry Jones Thatcher
    Barry Jones
    @BarryJones

    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) (View Comment):

    Barry Jones (View Comment):
    filter out 95% of the virus…which is the standard for N95 masks

    N95 has to do with particulate blocking. Virus blocking is not a measured standard.

    That is true but the N95 mask is the gold standard for PPE in the current situation. Same comment applies…if two masks work for 95% of aerosols, then why go to the expense of N95 masks? I think the use of the “95%” is a deliberate attempt to blur the lines…and I thought the masks were to protect other people, not the ones wearing the masks – or has that gone away as well?

    • #18
  19. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone (View Comment):

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    Surely they must know that everywhere in the world that mask mandates have been implemented, the number of Covid cases has just skyrocketed to levels up to 20 times higher than the previous height of the pandemic.

    I know that correlation is not causation, but it sure does seem like everywhere in the US where mask mandates went into effect, it was followed by a sharp increase in cases.

    I am of the opinion that masks act as virus-collecting devices, funneling those little guys right into our air passages. Everyone I know who had gotten the Wuhan Flu has also been a strict mask-wearer. Those I know who flout the masks have not gotten it. Data isn’t the plural of anecdote either, but it sure mystifies me.

    As a study, let’s find a place and have everyone stop wearing masks, and start living normally again and see what happens with the case numbers. (I offer my city.)

    Isn’t that what’s happened in Florida?

    • #19
  20. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Weeping (View Comment):

    As a study, let’s find a place and have everyone stop wearing masks, and start living normally again and see what happens with the case numbers. (I offer my city.)

    Isn’t that what’s happened in Florida?

    Oh no, a lot of restrictions have been let up, but we’re still asked to wear masks when we are in close quarters. We’re still wearing them in the grocery store, at the hairdresser and at the gym.

    • #20
  21. Weeping Inactive
    Weeping
    @Weeping

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    As a study, let’s find a place and have everyone stop wearing masks, and start living normally again and see what happens with the case numbers. (I offer my city.)

    Isn’t that what’s happened in Florida?

    Oh no, a lot of restrictions have been let up, but we’re still asked to wear masks when we are in close quarters. We’re still wearing them in the grocery store, at the hairdresser and at the gym.

    Ok. I stand corrected then. I really thought Florida had done away with their mask mandate completely. 

    • #21
  22. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    There is no ethical way to test whether wearing a mask will protect the wearer or others from being infected with the virus. There are so many environmental variables that you could not find a suitable place to put test subjects who are exposed to the virus, have half wear masks and half not wear masks for a certain time period, then see how many subjects get infected. There are also too many subject variables to determine whether the people who end up infected got it due to not wearing a mask or some other reason. If a mask wearer gets infected it might mean that masks do not protect the wearer but you have no way of determining whether a person wearing a mask protects others. 

    • #22
  23. tigerlily Member
    tigerlily
    @tigerlily

    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone (View Comment):

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    Just this week a social / musical activity that was scheduled to resume in early March has again been postponed indefinitely out of the leader’s fear that the vaccine won’t be effective against one of the new variants. Although that is a “voluntary” activity (not government driven), it shows that restarting life is going to be even more difficult than I had expected. Now that a halt on life is the norm, the default is going to be permanent halt on life.

    The only way we’re going to get back to normal is if people just stop complying en masse. They’ll certainly try to fine us or arrest us, so some of us are going to have to take a bullet for the team. But it’s the only way.

    This.

    • #23
  24. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Weeping (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    As a study, let’s find a place and have everyone stop wearing masks, and start living normally again and see what happens with the case numbers. (I offer my city.)

    Isn’t that what’s happened in Florida?

    Oh no, a lot of restrictions have been let up, but we’re still asked to wear masks when we are in close quarters. We’re still wearing them in the grocery store, at the hairdresser and at the gym.

    Ok. I stand corrected then. I really thought Florida had done away with their mask mandate completely.

    I don’t know if some counties have mandates but the state doesn’t.

    • #24
  25. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    I think it was actually the other way around. They were telling the truth originally and now they are lying.

    And they did go into detail about why masks are not advisable.  You touch them and contaminate them.  You touch them and touch something else and you contaminate it.  They build up and spread viral load.  They don’t really block viruses.  It all made sense at the time.  But now we know differently.

    Now — if that picture is to be believed — fauci is taking responsibility and leading the public awareness with wearing nine masks.  Which is to his credit.

    • #25
  26. DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone Member
    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone
    @DrewInWisconsin

    People seem to believe that Florida is a COVID-blasted hellscape, and DeSantis is a COVID-denying monster, yet they praise Cuomo, even though he has so much blood on his hands. But that’s the media narrative. And people just believe it.

    • #26
  27. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    Having not a single viable course of action against the virus, they chose to promote mask wearing because it seems like we are doing something. I’m not sure Fauci and others really believe the masks work at all, but they are terrified to be accused of letting people die.

    I don’t think you’re far off. I watched a PBS documentary last night, American Experience: Influenza 1918. It was made either in 2016 or 2018 (I’m seeing both dates for some reason), so it was not political. Most of the story of research and discovery is also told on the CDC website here.

    It was very interesting to me, even with all the reading I have done elsewhere about the current pandemic.

    Dr. Fauci figures prominently, which is not surprising. He’s been at the CDC for decades.

    This was made before the current pandemic (or epidemic, whichever it turns out to be). Dr. Fauci’s description of the steps that were taken in 1918 to slow the spread of the disease are exactly what they are recommending today: canceling crowded events, social distancing, frequent hand-washing, and masks. He and others on the show, however, point out that actually the nursing care was the biggest factor leading to positive outcomes. That intuitively makes sense. And advising the public to wear masks has been standard practice before Dr. Fauci was born.

    He also talks about the importance of developing a vaccine because the other steps aren’t sufficient. He and others in the program mention the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. The influenza virus is always on their minds because it could mutate faster than they could get a vaccine together. Obviously, this is what Moderna was working on–the theory being that the mRNA route would be faster than the DNA route.

    The problems in every epidemic and pandemic are, and always will be, the same: getting care to infected people, developing isolation areas, and keeping essential economic activities going.

    I understood Dr. Fauci when he originally said that the masks would not be all that helpful. I understood him to mean that at that time, PPE was needed in the hospitals. I also understood that we didn’t have enough simple masks for the general public but that those simple masks were better than nothing in the hospitals and other medical settings. (A company on Cape Cod switched its manufacturing operation to make masks by the millions.) People were even making poor-quality masks at home for people who had to deal with the public and for hospital workers. I understood him. He didn’t lie.

    Not much has changed in terms of how the public is told to avoid the flu and now SARS-CoV-2. The masks saved lives, I think, not from the virus but in giving people confidence to live somewhat normally. There was nowhere near the suffering from depravation there could have been given how terrified people were.

    • #27
  28. Hammer, The Inactive
    Hammer, The
    @RyanM

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    What is the lie, exactly? That is quite an accusation. The OP reports the result of a test. It calls this a “lie” — but does not rebut the results of the test, and does not cite any contrary authority.

    I think that I am as annoyed about the mask rules as just about anyone else. I understand why people would be frustrated. I do not think that the proper response is to make unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations that public health officials are lying.

    I think that they were lying, last year. As I recall, multiple public health officials, including Fauci and the Surgeon General, advised that masks were unnecessary. I think that they were lying about this to avoid accountability for the severe mask shortage, and to try to prevent a panicked run on masks, which were needed for the medical folks providing care to the sick in the first wave.

    You should know better, as a lawyer. When someone tells you that he’s lied, what does that mean? Does it mean he’s now telling you the truth? No, it only means he’s a liar. A finder of fact looks to motivation. 

    The most truthful anyone in the public health establishment has ever been this year was back in February, before they had incentive to lie. Back then, their advice was based on years of research and accumulated knowledge. Nothing changed in 3 months, except motivation to lie.

    And the only thing that has changed since then is 2 things. 1) research has been done. The only actually studies on masks find that they don’t work (computer modeling is not research). We have countless examples and case studies showing no effect from masks. Quite the opposite. 2) people are starting to reject covid hysteria. Florida, South Dakota, now Iowa… They are rejecting the CDC and Fauci, and their numbers prove that these people deserve to be rejected.  When masks are gone, covid is gone. Masks are propaganda and nothing more.

    It’s worse than a lie. It is outright manipulation in violation of human rights.

    • #28
  29. Hammer, The Inactive
    Hammer, The
    @RyanM

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Weeping (View Comment):

    As a study, let’s find a place and have everyone stop wearing masks, and start living normally again and see what happens with the case numbers. (I offer my city.)

    Isn’t that what’s happened in Florida?

    Oh no, a lot of restrictions have been let up, but we’re still asked to wear masks when we are in close quarters. We’re still wearing them in the grocery store, at the hairdresser and at the gym.

    Ok. I stand corrected then. I really thought Florida had done away with their mask mandate completely.

    I don’t know if some counties have mandates but the state doesn’t.

    Depends on where you are.  But that’s even better, right? There are counties that are virtually mask-free. Shall we check the numbers?  There is a reason this isn’t being widely reported. The mask-free counties are no worse off … same as everywhere in the world where real data is compared.

     

    • #29
  30. Hammer, The Inactive
    Hammer, The
    @RyanM

    DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone (View Comment):

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    Surely they must know that everywhere in the world that mask mandates have been implemented, the number of Covid cases has just skyrocketed to levels up to 20 times higher than the previous height of the pandemic.

    I know that correlation is not causation, but it sure does seem like everywhere in the US where mask mandates went into effect, it was followed by a sharp increase in cases.

    I am of the opinion that masks act as virus-collecting devices, funneling those little guys right into our air passages. Everyone I know who had gotten the Wuhan Flu has also been a strict mask-wearer. Those I know who flout the masks have not gotten it. Data isn’t the plural of anecdote either, but it sure mystifies me.

    As a study, let’s find a place and have everyone stop wearing masks, and start living normally again and see what happens with the case numbers. (I offer my city.)

    This is very likely true. We do not follow the science, though. Science must bend to the official narrative…. Funny that this thing originated in China. How appropriate.

    • #30
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