Correlation does not imply causation, Doctor Nerdberg.
If you read the fine print on most consumer masks you will see something along the line of “not intended for medical purposes and has not been tested to reduce the transmission of disease.”
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.
Mask manufacturers should be conducting scientific tests evaluating masks specifically for their ability to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
The Food and Drug Administration and CDC should be making recommendations on which masks to use and approving masks based on their scientific efficacy rather than promoting the wrapping of any piece of miscellaneous material around your face.
Effective masks, if they exist, should be distributed to highly vulnerable groups for use only in rare and extenuating circumstances.
There would be little point for the population at large to wear masks all the time because it is not possible to eradicate a virus or stop its spread.
Universal use of unscientific face coverings is closer to medieval superstition than it is to science, but many powerful institutions have too much political capital invested in the mask narrative at this point, so the dogma is perpetuated.
- The narrative says that if cases go down it’s because masks succeeded.
- It says that if cases go up it’s because masks succeeded in preventing more cases.
- The narrative assumes rather than proves that masks work, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.
The narrative further ignores places like Sweden and Georgia, which never required masks in the first place, and it suppresses new scientific evidence if it doesn’t support desired political results, such as data from the world’s only randomized trial investigating if masks actually protect from COVID-19. Even a Nobel laureate has been canceled because his COVID charts and data were found to be undesirable.
