‘The evidence of the benefit of using a face covering to protect others is weak and the effect is likely to be small’.

Author: 

mackenzie,       Tony Archer, ed2, 

Date: 
Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - 23:45
Article link: 

 

Scientists just can't seem to agree on the effectiveness of face masks to combat coronavirus. While the UK regulations that you link to indicate that wearing masks have little effect on protecting the individual, Science Times carried an article in April, indicating the drop in the infection rate that countries such as Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic experienced once masks were made compulsory.

There have been claims that wearing masks is better suited to people who already have the virus so as not to pass it on to others. There are counter claims to the effect that everyone should wear them because asymptomatic carriers could inadvertently infect others. As with so much to do with this virus there seems little consensus.

Mr Hitchens should continue wearing his gas mask on public transport and those places that ask that he do so so he can, in all conscience, be assured that he has done all he can do to protect himself and others.

...

 

Let's be honest, for those of us who from the start would have searched online for any meaningful evidence of masks would have come upon the only meaningful but inconclusive data which is that pertaining to masks used in the dental profession. Most all of the other compulsions and hysterics surrounding the wearing of them are about making people feel a certain way, the confidence in ignorance is what is being sold , which then having been repeated enough times becomes fact, and subsequently imposed for the ...'saving of lives'.....feeling has become preferable to knowing.

...

 

Just read the comments on the Sun website, everyone knows its a hoax and about control

The virus did not cause one person to be unemployed. The government panic based on quack science caused every single one of those job losses. Main stream media and people’s willingness to believe whatever they are told has now brought us to a situation where people cling to absurd ritualistic glove and mask wearing and cringe away from others as though they have the plague. This virus has killed virtually nobody that wasn’t already on the fast track to death yet we have allowed our liberty and wealth to be stolen and used by elites for their benefit. Every politician should stop kneeling down to BLM and start begging foregiveness for their rampant cowardice and appalling decision making. The answer to what government should do to help is simple, reduce taxes, reduce regulation and otherwise shut up and do nothing.

...

Steve
Posted June 24, 2020 at 7:59 am | Permalink
The virus did not cause one person to be unemployed. The government panic based on quack science caused every single one of those job losses. Main stream media and people’s willingness to believe whatever they are told has now brought us to a situation where people cling to absurd ritualistic glove and mask wearing and cringe away from others as though they have the plague. This virus has killed virtually nobody that wasn’t already on the fast track to death yet we have allowed our liberty and wealth to be stolen and used by elites for their benefit. Every politician should stop kneeling down to BLM and start begging foregiveness for their rampant cowardice and appalling decision making. The answer to what government should do to help is simple, reduce taxes, reduce regulation and otherwise shut up and do nothing.

Reply
Lynn Atkinson
Posted June 24, 2020 at 9:28 pm | Permalink
1,000 upticks for that one!

Reply
na
Posted June 24, 2020 at 9:49 pm | Permalink
well said, Steve

 

 

Own comment: 

The blog by Peter Hitchens seems to have a very confusing chronology, such that it is difficult to know what is written first and what is in response and when.

In any case, if there was any doubt as to whether masks are effective we can certainly state now that they have proved not to be. There is simply no way one can assert that those places which insisted on masks fared better than the rest.

As for the economic consequences, I can only agree entirely with this comment which I believe to be from although that is inconclusive due to the confusing chronology:

The virus did not cause one person to be unemployed. The government panic based on quack science caused every single one of those job losses. Main stream media and people’s willingness to believe whatever they are told has now brought us to a situation where people cling to absurd ritualistic glove and mask wearing and cringe away from others as though they have the plague. This virus has killed virtually nobody that wasn’t already on the fast track to death yet we have allowed our liberty and wealth to be stolen and used by elites for their benefit. Every politician should stop kneeling down to BLM and start begging foregiveness for their rampant cowardice and appalling decision making. The answer to what government should do to help is simple, reduce taxes, reduce regulation and otherwise shut up and do nothing.