In April, 2022, a federal judge overturned the CDC’s mask mandate on public transportation and American’s rejoiced that they could travel and breathe at the same time.
The judge ruled that the CDC failed to properly explain its decision to impose the mandate or follow proper rule making procedures. “Because ‘our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in the pursuit of desirable ends,’ the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate,”1 Mizelle wrote in her decision.
Yet, the CDC appears ready to appeal and Dr. Fauci claims to be mystified as to why the courts have the right to second-guess public health officials. It makes one wonder why public health officials are so committed to masks.
Lest you think that the CDC really wants to protect you, consider that their own study from May, 2020, proves the ineffectiveness of masks in preventing infection. The paper Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures 2 comes to this conclusion regarding masks:
“Disposable medical masks (also known as surgical masks) are loose-fitting devices that were designed to be worn by medical personnel to protect accidental contamination of patient wounds, and to protect the wearer against splashes or sprays of bodily fluids. There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
The study was a “meta-analysis,” taking the data from 14 previous randomized controlled trials and re-analyzing the data. The studies were not Covid-specific but there is a study that looks at mask effectiveness during the Covid era. The study Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe3 analyzes data from 35 countries and looks at how mask usage correlates with Covid cases and deaths. The study concludes:
“The lack of negative correlations between mask usage and COVID-19 cases and deaths suggest that the widespread use of masks at a time when an effective intervention was most needed, i.e., during the strong 2020-2021 autumn-winter peak, was not able to reduce COVID-19 transmission. Moreover, the moderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths in Western Europe also suggests that the universal use of masks may have had harmful unintended consequences.”
The CDC’s own study shows that masks do not work and analysis of real-world Covid data from Europe confirms this and goes beyond it to show that masks may have harmful consequences. Yet the CDC has said that it intends to appeal the federal court’s decision. Why would they appeal? Could it be that the CDC cares more about their authority over public health policy than of public health itself?
Was the public’s health ever in danger? Even if masks worked, was there ever a need for them? Dr. Fauci published in the New England Journal of Medicine4 in March, 2020, saying that “the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza …” Of course, he promptly forgot that he said such a thing and began to scream that the sky was falling. He was joined in by many others including Bill Gates who had a Netflix special to inform us that the sky was falling. Now, however, Gates is quietly admitting that “we didn’t understand that it’s a fairly low fatality rate and that it’s a disease mainly in the elderly, kind of like flu is, although a bit different than that.”5 If Covid was just a flu there was never a need for masks, or social distancing or lockdowns.
Why is it that if you scream “fire” in a theater you can be arrested, but, if you wreck people’s lives with phony claims about a killer virus you get to be interviewed and taken to be an expert?
(Update on 6/1/2022): After two years of advocating for lock-downs and masking, The New York Times has admitted that “In U.S. cities where mask-wearing has been more common, Covid has spread at a similar rate as in mask-resistant cities.”6
1 Biden admin suspends mask mandate for airports, buses after judge rules against CDC guidelines
3 Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe