More Mask Masquerades

From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, health experts have been unable to unify around a cohesive message about face masks. A virtuoso of contradiction, Dr. Anthony Fauci — then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a prominent face of the White House COVID-19 response team — publicly flip-flopped on the usefulness and need for masks multiple times.

The First Recommendation Was the Correct One

In January 2020, he said “Americans shouldn’t be wearing masks because they don’t work.” This stance was reiterated in March 2020, when he stated¹ that “people should not be walking around with masks” because “it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.”

At the time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agreed, as did Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Johns Hopkins Public Health expert,² and Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who took to Twitter urging Americans to stop buying masks, saying they are “NOT effective,”³ and that if worn or handled improperly, face masks might actually increase your risk of infection.⁴

Logically, only symptomatic individuals and health care workers were urged to wear them. However, by June 2020, universal mask mandates had become the norm and we were told we had to wear them because there may be “asymptomatic super-spreaders” among us — another lie.

By July 2020, Fauci claimed his initial dismissal of face masks had been in error and that he’d downplayed their importance simply to ensure there would be a sufficient supply for health care workers, who need them most.⁵

Triple Masking and Other IQ Tests

Fast-forward a few weeks, and by the end of July 2020, Fauci went to the next extreme, flouting the recommendation to wear goggles and full face shields in addition to a mask, ostensibly because the mucous membranes of your eyes could potentially serve as entryways for viruses as well.⁶

This, even though a March 31, 2020, report⁷ in JAMA Ophthalmology found SARS-CoV-2-positive conjunctival specimens (specimens taken from the eye) in just 5.2% of confirmed COVID-19 patients (two out of 28).

Toward the end of November 2020, the asymptomatic spread narrative was effectively destroyed by the publication of a Chinese study⁸ involving nearly 9.9 million individuals. It revealed not a single case of COVID-19 could be traced to an asymptomatic individual who had tested positive. Still, the propaganda machine churned on, ignoring the evidence at hand.

Around December 2020, recommendations for double-masking emerged,⁹ and this trend gained momentum through extensive media coverage as we moved into the first weeks of 2021.¹⁰ That two masks would be more effective than one is just “common sense,” Fauci told CNBC in January 2021.¹¹

Undeterred by scientific evidence and logic, by the end of January 2021, “experts” started promoting the use of three^12,13 or even four¹⁴ masks, whether you were symptomatic or not.

The suggestion to self-asphyxiate turned out to be one step too far, however. In the face of public ridicule, other experts encouraged the return to common sense, as impaired respiration can worsen any number of health conditions.

True to form, while promoting the concept of double-masking as recently as January 29, 2021,¹⁵ by February 1 that year, Fauci conceded, “There is no data that indicates double-masking is effective,” but that “There are many people who feel … if you really want to have an extra little bit of protection, ‘maybe I should put two masks on.’”¹⁶ In other words, the suggestion is based on emotion, not actual science.

Fauci also went from promising a mask-free existence once the vaccine rolled out, to insisting that mask-wearing was still necessary after vaccination because vaccine-resistant variants might pop up, to proposing we might need to wear masks every flu season in perpetuity.

The fact is, Fauci knew masks cannot block viruses and that claiming otherwise was unscientific. He told the truth in a private email to a colleague back in February 2020, in which he stated that masks are “not really effective in keeping out viral particles, which are small enough to pass through material.”¹⁷ Masking people up reinforced the idea that we were living in dangerous times though. It fed people’s fears, and that’s the effect they were after.

Fauci Hopes People Will Mask Up Again

As we head into fall, Fauci is now making the media rounds again, saying he hopes people will comply if mask recommendations return. Why media still believe that people will listen to Fauci is a mystery of its own. In a September 2, 2023, CNN interview, Fauci said:¹⁸

“I would hope that if we get to the point that the volume of cases is such and organizations like the CDC recommends — CDC does not mandate anything — recommends that people wear masks, I would hope that people abide by that recommendation …”

Funny he should say that. Recall the CDC not only mandated but ORDERED the wearing of masks on public transportation in January 2021. However, as noted on the CDC’s website,¹⁹ the order became unenforceable due to a court order, issued in mid-April 2022.

Remember that when the CDC renews its mask recommendations. They can’t mandate or order you to do anything. Also remember that Fauci just confirmed the CDC has no authority to do anything but make recommendations.

Gold Standard Science Review Found No Benefit

Cochrane Reviews have long been recognized as the gold standard in evidence-based health care as their analyses look at the whole body of published science, and every few years, reviews are updated to include the latest research findings.

For example, reports on “Physical Interventions to Interrupt or Reduce the Spread of Respiratory Viruses” — which includes mask wearing — were published in 2009,²⁰ 2010,²¹ 2011,²² 2020²³ and January 2023.²⁴

During 2020 and most of 2021, mask proponents tried to cast doubt on studies showing that masks had no impact on the spread of respiratory viruses because they weren’t specific to COVID-19.²⁵

This was actually irrelevant because masks cannot block viruses that are much smaller than the gaps in the fabric, and SARS-CoV-2 is even smaller than the flu virus. Still, the lack of COVID-specific trials kept the counterarguments going. That all changed in January 2023 however. By then, COVID-specific mask trials had been conducted, and all were included in the Cochrane Library’s systematic review.²⁶

In all, the 2023 update added 11 new randomized controlled trials (RTCs) and cluster-RCTs to their previous 2020 analysis, bringing the total number of RCTs to 78. Six of the 11 were conducted during the COVID pandemic, and three looked at the spread of COVID-19 specifically.

Yet, as in previous reviews, there was no evidence to support mask wearing. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, it turns out, behaves just like other influenza viruses and easily penetrates these barriers. As noted by the authors:²⁷

“Medical or surgical masks — Ten studies took place in the community, and two studies in healthcare workers.

Compared with wearing no mask in the community studies only, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness (9 studies; 276,917 people); and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 13,919 people).”

Type of Mask Makes No Difference

In summary, the 2023 Cochrane review found that surgical masks did not significantly reduce the risk of flu-like/COVID-like symptoms in the general population. Surgical masks also did not affect the risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza and COVID.

So, masking had no effect on confirmed infection rates (which are more important than self-reported symptoms). The review also found no difference between medical/surgical masks and N95/P2 respirators. So, none of the new studies changed anything. Masks failed to prevent influenza transmission before the pandemic, and they still fail to prevent respiratory infections, including COVID.

By late February 2023, The New York Times even allowed the publication of an opinion piece by conservative columnist Bret Stephens titled, “The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?”

“When it comes to the population-level benefits of masking, the verdict is in: Mask mandates were a bust,” Stephens wrote. “Those skeptics who were furiously mocked as cranks and occasionally censored as ‘misinformers’ for opposing mandates were right. The mainstream experts and pundits who supported mandates were wrong.

In a better world, it would behoove the latter group to acknowledge their error, along with its considerable physical,²⁸ psychological,²⁹ pedagogical³⁰ and political³¹ costs … The Cochrane report ought to be the final nail in this particular coffin.”

CDC Director Made False Statements About Cochrane Review

It has not become the final nail in the coffin, though. In her February 2023 congressional testimony, then-director of the CDC Dr. Rochelle Walensky doubled down on the CDC’s mask orders, arguing that the Cochrane analysis only relied on a “small number” of COVID-specific trials — as if more would somehow change the results.

It’s rare to be able to say that science has conclusively shown something to be true, but we’re as close as we can get to absolutes when it comes to mask wearing. On top of that lame argument, she falsely claimed the Cochrane Library editor-in-chief had “retracted the summary of that review,”³² which never happened.³³