Jack Torrance, the raging alcoholic character in The Shining, screamed famously in the movie, “I’m back!”

Another such character in the real-life horror movie called COVID-19, is the face mask. And like Jack Torrance, the mask is beginning to shout, “I’m back!”

According to the CDC, COVID hospitalizations and deaths are creeping up a bit, but overall the numbers are low compared to a few years ago. There is also the issue of “with versus from” COVID. Someone hospitalized for back or heart surgery who tests positive for COVID will be counted a COVID hospitalization. This is vastly different from a patient with respiratory failure or pneumonia from COVID.

Similarly, someone who dies and has a positive COVID test is counted as a COVID death. Examples include gunshot fatalities in Grand County, Colorado classified as COVID deaths because they just happened to be test positive before death or at autopsy.

Using that logic, George Floyd died of COVID as he had a positive COVID test on autopsy. America could have been spared billions of dollars in property damage from the George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020 if he was just another COVID fatality.

And they are still using the PCR test, which is overly sensitive based on an overly high cycle threshold, a topic I discussed previously. Lastly, we are soon entering flu season.

How many of these “COVID” cases are influenzae or a bad cold? Remember how flu cases disappeared once COVID came to town? Was it because of masks and lockdowns? Or were seasonal flu cases misdiagnosed as COVID? If masks could all but eliminate the flu, why didn’t public health officials recommend them previously?

That’s all history, but history may be repeating itself, or at least rhyming with the past. Like Jack Torrance, masks are saying, “I’m back!”

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As reported by Newsweek,  several places are bringing back mandatory masks. These include the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Santa Rosa, California, Morris Brown College, a small liberal arts school in Atlanta, Georgia, Upstate Medical in Syracuse, New York, and Lionsgate Movie Studio in Santa Monica, California.

Contrary to rumor, Rutgers University is not returning to mask mandates. TSA denies Alex Jones’s claims of mask mandates returning to TSA employees and airplane travelers. A federal judge ruled in April 2022 that the mask mandate was unlawful.

That’s comforting, but who knows what the future brings? Arresting your political opponent for questioning election integrity is also unlawful, meaning “the law” doesn’t matter to the current ruling class.

Many government agencies promised that COVID vaccines were “safe and effective” and would stop COVID transmission. Government promises and assurances these days are worth little.

Why are masks even an issue over three years since COVID emerged in the U.S.? Cochrane whose “[w]ork is internationally recognized as the benchmark for high-quality information about the effectiveness of health care” analyzed mask efficacy and found:

The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection.

In other words, the standard mask provided no measurable benefit, and neither did the N95 masks, which were deemed comparable to the standard mask for routine medical care and daily life.

Let the New York Times, water carrier for the left, explain it clearly.

Here it is from the lead author of the above Cochrane review.

The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous.

“There is just no evidence that they” — masks — “make any difference,” he told the journalist Maryanne Demasi. “Full stop.”

But wait, hold on. What about N-95 masks, as opposed to lower-quality surgical or cloth masks?

“Makes no difference — none of it,” said Jefferson.

What about the studies that initially persuaded policymakers to impose mask mandates?

“They were convinced by nonrandomized studies, flawed observational studies.”

What about the utility of masks in conjunction with other preventive measures, such as hand hygiene, physical distancing or air filtration?

“There’s no evidence that many of these things make any difference.”

Watch Dr. Anthony Fauci on CNN, channeling his inner Ralph Kramden with a “homina homina homina,” trying to descredit the Cochrane analysis by claiming “there are other studies,” while ignoring the comprehensive Cochrane meta-analysis.

Why don’t masks provide the protection that the medical bureaucrats and media promised?

The answer is size.

From a viral particle size perspective, masks also do little. The COVID virus is 50-140 nm, while the pore size in standard surgical masks is 300 nm to 10,000 nm. This is using a chain-link fence to stop mosquitoes. 

The CDC inadvertently confirms this.

From a July 2023 report on wildfires and smoke, the CDC reminds,

Other than N95 respirators, masks that are used to slow the spread of COVID-19 offer little protection against the harmful air pollutants in wildfire smoke. They might protect the wearer from the large particles in wildfire smoke; however, the level of respiratory protection is lower than that of NIOSH-approved N95 respirators, especially for small particles that can injure the lungs.

The CDC says standard masks don’t work for smoke. They can filter out large particles within smoke, like droplets from someone’s cough or sneeze, but not the smoke itself. How large are the actual smoke particles?

Wildfire smoke is between 0.4-0.7 microns (400-700 nm), much larger than the COVID virus. If the CDC says standard masks don’t work for larger smoke particles, why would they work for a smaller respiratory virus?

Why hasn’t any “journalist” ever asked that question of Drs. Anthony Fauci or Rochelle Walensky? Or any of the other cable news television doctors telling everyone to mask up?

Why is there even talk about masks returning? Once upon a time both Dr. Fauci and Surgeon General Jerome Adams said masking was unnecessary and potentially harmful. That was until COVID mutated from a respiratory virus to a political issue that would dominate the news cycle, conveniently promoting election law changes ahead of a presidential election.

Where is the science? Not all masks, wearers, and situations are the same. Schools, grocery stores, and airplanes are not operating rooms.

A one-size-fits-all approach, based on fear and control, is the antithesis of science. But it does allow the ruling class to make an end run around the Constitution to enact their agendas without regard for laws, inalienable rights, or the consent of the governed.

And don’t forget that another presidential election is approaching. Is it time for another government psy-op, like a new variant, leading to lockdowns and masks, in order to change election rules facilitating a predetermined outcome?

A quote attributed to author Marie Lu sums it up: “The irony of life is that those who wear masks often tell us more truths than those with open faces.” Listen carefully to those wearing masks and pushing them on everyone else.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.