High time to dump the useless facial masks for good!
I've written numerous posts and several blogs about the useless facial masks, already. This is my latest answer created originally for Quora. It includes the latest scientific and statistical data.
I never wore a mask and I never would, because it provides absolutely no benefit whatsoever and is outright harmful. Having studies physics, including fluid dynamics, and having created expert systems for professional protective clothing, the idea of putting a piece of plastic or cloth in front of your face to protect against viruses is laughable at best.
The equipment in the photo below is the only effective protection against viruses. It requires an independent air supply and the wearer must follow a very strict protocol on disinfecting the suit before taking it off or he goes straight into quarantine.
Contrary to what mask promoters keep claiming, respiratory viruses do not spread through droplets - that is an extremely marginal method of infection, at best.
Respiratory viruses are exhaled by an infected person and then just float in the air, unhindered by his mask. For those viruses to reach a sufficient concentration to cause an infection, the infected person has to remain in the same room as a healthy person for at least 15–30 minutes while breathing the same air, which is why almost no infections occur outdoors or on public transports and airing out is a good method to prevent infections indoors - if you can do so without causing everyone to go into hypothermia.
If viruses are present in the air, then the face mask will be completely non-existent to them - they will go straight through the mask as well as around the edges, with the airflow.
Here is a medical doctor explaining why facial masks don't work, with actual examples of how facial mask wearing individuals were infected, then demonstrating that smoke goes straight through them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJpS_jajub0
If smoke particles go through, viruses cannot possibly be blocked:
This study here used tracer particles to see if a facial mask could block particles exhaled by a surgeon during an operation. The particles were found all over the wound, but none were caught in the mask, meaning that the air flow does not go through the mask, but around it.
The efficacy of standard surgical face masks: an investigation using "tracer particles"
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7379387/
This laboratory study specifically focused on the fluid dynamics aspects and found that wearing a facial mask actually increases the number of particles deposited in a person’s respiratory tract:
Effects of mask-wearing on the inhalability and deposition of airborne SARS-CoV-2 aerosols in human upper airway featured
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0034580#
Sill not convinced? How about some actual data: the rate of infections in US states with mask mandates was virtually identical to the States without mandates. States with mask mandates even had a slightly higher infection peak:
If you are thinking: “Bah, that’s just because Americans are not disciplined enough, they didn’t really wear those facial masks”, let’s compare ultra-disciplined Germans with strict mask mandates with Sweden, which did not impose a mask mandate: once again, the infection rates were almost exatly the same:
Here is a detailed study that compared mask mandates and outcomes for 35 European countries:
Correlation Between Mask Compliance and COVID-19 Outcomes in Europe
Absolutely no negative correlation between mask wearing and COVID infections could be detected, i.e. even the strictest mask mandates did not lower the number of infections, but they did lead to a slight increase in the number of deaths of all causes.
The data from Australia, Singapore and New Zealand also provide overwhelming evidence that masks do not work (and no, the Daily Mail is not a scientifi:
The astonishing data that may prove masks DON'T work as Covid cases in Singapore and New Zealand OVERTAKE Australia despite SUPER strict mandates: 'They don't matter'
We then have to ask if facial masks are actually safe to use and the answer is: absolutely not! Based on this German study by several medical institutions and experts, there are numerous harmful effects which can be catastrophic:
Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33923935/
But what about all those studies that seem to show that maks do reduce infection rates?
The answer is simple: they are not medical studies that follow the scientific method! Most of them are just wishful thinking.a
If masks cannot block viruses and the actual outcome shows that masks are useless, then a study that comes to the conclusion that they “work” is obviously flawed. The impossible does not become possible with a few random observations.
Not a single such “study” or article provided any kind of evidence or was extremely flawed or biased to the point of being meaningless.
There was one “study” by the department of economics (!) of Bangladesh that was hyped by the media as “showing that masks work”:
The Masks Were Working All Along [no they weren't!]
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/masks-were-working-all-along/619989/
For the Washington Post, it was a “massive randomized study”:
Massive randomized study is proof that surgical masks limit coronavirus spread, authors say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/01/masks-study-covid-bangladesh/
The huge echo this fake “study” received is proof that it was the first one to give any kind of hope to those who kept promoting facial masks, as all the other studies showed no effect or effects within the margin of error.
Except that this study from Bangladesh shows nothing except how not to do a medical study! Here is a detailed analysis that explains what is required for such a trial and how they utterly failed on every single point:
bangladesh mask study: do not believe the hype
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/bangladesh-mask-study-do-not-believe
Not only were no pre-conditions established, the entire evaluation was a joke. The test subjects of the mask wearing arm were basically given to understand that reporting mask wearing would earn them praise - even if they didn’t actually do it - while reporting symptoms was going to be frowned upon, thus leading to under-reporting of infections:
What the study ACTUALLY measures is the impact of mask promotion on symptom reporting. Only if a person reports symptoms, are they asked to participate in a serology study—and only 40% of those with symptoms chose to have their blood taken.
https://twitter.com/Emily_Burns_V/status/1433122124768714753?s=20
3/ Is it possible that that highly moralistic framing and monetary incentives given to village elders for compliance might dissuade a person from reporting symptoms representing individual and collective moral failure—one that could cost the village money? Maybe?https://twitter.com/Emily_Burns_V/status/1433122317492703234?s=20
Despite all these efforts to prove that masks work, the actual reported “success” was so marginal and bizarre as to be meaningless.
To quote the reviewer: “can anyone demonstrate that this data makes a more compelling case for “masks worked on old people but not young people and thus decreased overall disease”?
because i very much doubt it. and unless you can, you must abandon this study as a possibly interesting piece of sociology, but as having zero validated epidemiological relevance.”
[…]
The DANMASK study in denmark was a gold standard study for variable isolation and showed no efficacy.
perhaps most hilariously, the very kansas counties data the CDC tried to cherry pick to claim masks worked went on to utterly refute them when the covid surge came.
the evidence that masks fail to stop covid spread is strong, deep, wide, and has a lot of high quality studies. (many more here from the swiss)
This is the referenced Swiss article - excellent work, as I would expect of Swiss experts (shameless self-promotion, I know 😅):
Swiss Policy Research:
Are Face Masks Effective? The Evidence.
https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/
The harm inflicted on children’s development by those useless mask mandates are staggering. This is all the more obvious when one finds that even one of the most fascist, ruthless promoters of the lockdowns and mask mandates finally admitted that her own son’s development was stunted by the masks:
CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen Admits Masking Stunted Her Toddler’s Social Development
All those government interventions did nothing ot prevent infections or deaths, but caused immense harm in many other ways, leading to much higher numbers of all-cause mortality among the young and the middle-aged. At most, the lockdowns managed to delay the inevitable in isolated areas such as New Zealand.
The world should have listened to the highly qualified authors of the Great Barrington Declaration who recommended that the most vulnerable should be protected, but the rest of the population should not be locked down in any way:
Great Barrington Declaration
As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.
930,500+ signatures
https://gbdeclaration.org/
This analysis was agressively suppressed by the NIH as they demanded that any information about it should be censored by social media, in a massive 1st Amendment violation. Francis Collins, the head of the NIH, dared calling 3 experts from Oxford, Harvard and Stanford “fringe epidemiologists”:
He should be prosecuted for this massive abuse of his function, especially considering the immense harm caused by his actions. It is also a perfect illustration of why freedom of speech is so important and must be protected against any infringement and why social media should never suppress any speech that is legal. I hope the lessons will not be forgotten.