Daily Verse | 2 Kings 2:9b
“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
Wednesday and I didn’t write a Broadside yesterday because I was in Orlando over the weekend. By the time I got home Monday night I was sunburned, travel-whipped and out of gas.
Even though I was in Florida, which is an “open” state, you have to wear a mask just about everywhere. That’s after suffering through the airports’ and airlines’ policies. I took a budget airline this past weekend, but had flown a few weeks ago on one of the big three. They all warn you as you’re waiting at the gate that a mask is required to fly, that if you don’t comply you’ll be refused service, and you may even be denied service in the future.
They tell you so at the gate at least twice, and then repeat it once you’re aboard the plane. “You must wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth. It must remain on at all times. If the oxygen mask drops from the ceiling, remember to remove your mask before placing the oxygen mask over your nose and mouth. We will be coming through the cabin to check if your mask is secured over your nose and mouth. If you fall asleep and your mask falls down, we will wake you up and ask you to put it back in place. If you’re eating or drinking, please replace the mask when you’re in between bites or sips.”
Then—and get this—on the flight to Orlando they seated us every other row to help us “social distance” but then packed us shoulder-to-shoulder in the remaining rows, three seats across. On the flight back, they sat us shoulder-to-shoulder three across and filled every row! I sat in the middle seat both there and back, my nose and mouth less than 18-inches from the person’s nose and mouth sitting on either side of me.
That’s “science.”
It was all too much. My ears hurt from not only the repeated warnings (“mask-wearing is not up for discussion,” said one gate attendant over the sound system), but from actually wearing a mask. Masks may be light-weight like those blue pleated surgical models, but if they’re hooked over your ears for hours, they will hurt.
By the way, did you know walking through an airport with a mask is a respiratory activity? Getting from security (“please pull your mask down so I can see your face,” says the guard checking your ID) to your gate 80 miles away produces a slight sweat that sticks the mask to your face. Not to mention that your breath escapes through the edge of the mask on your nose, fogging up your glasses. Yeah, nothing gets through this face diaper!
It’s insane. At least the Lone Ranger’s mask did what it was supposed to and kept his identity secret.
You do know that wearing a mask is ineffective, don’t you? Read this story from six months ago in The Federalist, comparing infection rates in states with mask mandates to states without. Here’s what they found (my emphasis in all following quotes):
Masks can work well when they’re fully sealed, properly fitted, changed often, and have a filter designed for virus-sized particles. This represents none of the common masks available on the consumer market, making universal masking much more of a confidence trick than a medical solution.
Another study using similar data found that
A February 2021 review by the European CDC found no significant evidence supporting the effectiveness of non-medical and medical face masks in the community. Furthermore, the European CDC advised against the use of FFP2/N95 respirators by the general public. (Source)
Finally, here’s another report from February 2021 that concludes,
In fact, it is not unreasonable at this time to conclude that surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are, have absolutely no impact on controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus, and current evidence implies that face masks can be actually harmful.
We knew this about masks more than 100 years ago:
After the Spanish flu, the surgeon general of the U.S. Navy wrote in an annual report in 1919: “The wearing of face masks by healthy persons was made compulsory at several stations and on board a few vessels. On the whole this was not a practicable measure and little or no good was accomplished by the use of masks. The eyes were not protected. The masks quickly became soiled and required frequent adjustment by the fingers.”
He further continued: “No evidence was presented which would justify compelling persons at large to wear masks during an epidemic. The mask is designed only to afford protection against a direct spray from the mouth of a carrier of pathogenic microorganisms.”
So why does the website for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say about masks, “Masks are an additional step to help prevent people from getting and spreading COVID-19. They provide a barrier that keeps respiratory droplets from spreading. Wear a mask and take every day preventive actions in public settings”?
How can that be true if the stats show that current mask mandates make no discernible difference in controlling the spread of the Chinese Lung Pox? And how can that be true if the CDC’s own research disputes the claim they’re making above?
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.
Like you, I can only read the studies and decide who I trust. I don’t trust the CDC for obvious reasons—they’re part of the U.S. government—and I don’t trust the U.S. government. For obvious reasons.
