Oregon's statistics highlight the folly behind mask mandates
If you have the right mask and use it in the right way, it can protect you. Well-fitting N95 masks thrown out after every use may well protect against viruses. Paper surgical masks are useless against viruses. Likewise, a cloth mask, which people repeatedly use for days or weeks, is probably an effective bacteria and virus vector, rather than a protector. If you doubt me, just look at the data out of Oregon, where Gov. Kate Brown's latest totalitarian mask mandates coincided with a huge increase in COVID cases. Correlation is not causation, but there are other data out there to suggest they're one and the same.
Jim Geraghty, at National Review, has the Oregon data:
On August 24, Oregon governor Kate Brown instated a state masking requirement that requires everyone five years and older, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask, face covering, or face shield in outdoor spaces if they are less than six feet apart from individuals not in their household.
"Cases and hospitalizations are at a record high," said Governor Brown. "Masks are a quick and simple tool we can immediately deploy to protect ourselves and our families, and quickly help stop further spread of COVID-19."
On August 24, Oregon had 49,889 active cases of COVID-19. As of yesterday, Oregon had 86,623 active cases of COVID-19 — an increase of 73 percent from the day the governor announced the outdoor mask requirement. Keep in mind, cases merely mean positive tests; an active case does not necessarily mean that person is significantly ill.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that masks were indeed vectors, but it's pretty clear they weren't protectors.
One story is just one story, and it has little statistical value. However, a Twitter user named IM (@ianmSC) has been tracking the fact that masks (and lockdowns) seem to make no difference to COVID's spread. Here are just a few of his tweets on the subject:
Newly reported deaths in Hawaii have risen 1,740% in the past two months despite one of the longest mask mandates in the world & overwhelming compliance…so I have to ask once again why Ron DeSantis did not mandate double masking & spend more time promoting vaccinations there pic.twitter.com/XqvKG2S37H
— IM (@ianmSC) September 23, 2021
Cases in South Korea have been at record high levels for nearly 3 months now despite 99% mask compliance, mask mandates and fines for non-compliance, so it’s always nice to hear politicians and experts keep pushing more mask mandates & forcing masks on 2 year olds pic.twitter.com/ExsMDVyk1C
— IM (@ianmSC) September 23, 2021
Singapore has officially reached a new high in cases, 527 days into their mask mandate and with 82% of their population fully vaccinated.
— IM (@ianmSC) September 23, 2021
Pretty incredible feat of media gaslighting that no one is asking politicians and experts how they can continue justifying mandates. pic.twitter.com/qGsf9yGLMj
Cases in Alaska are the highest they’ve ever been & the highest in the US. They reached 50% of 18 fully vaccinated by May 20th, a few weeks before Fauci said with 50% of adults vaccinated, you wouldn’t see surges like in the past
— IM (@ianmSC) September 22, 2021
Why is anyone still listening to a word he says? pic.twitter.com/8CbPxTbZgp
Cases are rising in Minnesota faster than any other state in the US, so we’re up to what now…15 states Ron DeSantis is responsible for all at once? Tremendously impressive! pic.twitter.com/UE1qMgjV8H
— IM (@ianmSC) September 22, 2021
I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that LA mandated masks 2 months ago, neighboring Orange County didn’t mandate masks, yet the county without a mandate did better and followed the same trajectory
— IM (@ianmSC) September 21, 2021
If sanity & science still existed, we’d be done pretending masks matter pic.twitter.com/IFJEL7ml9j
It’s been nearly 2 weeks since Denmark ended all domestic COVID restrictions — no vaccine passports or mask mandates — so I wanted to see how it’s gone
— IM (@ianmSC) September 21, 2021
Well would you look at that, cases are declining!
Guess this means we need more masks on 2 year olds & vaccine passes, right? pic.twitter.com/5syeR8Wszj
The fact that these data relentlessly repeat the same patterns suggests a few conclusions:
- Lockdowns don't work.
- Mask mandates don't work.
- Vaccines are of limited efficacy.
Without discussing the potential downside risks of the vaccines (which are fiercely debated), it appears that the vaccines offer some protection against getting very sick from COVID but no protection against catching the delta variant, which the vaccines themselves may have triggered.
The smartest thing would be to set up early intervention treatments. Everybody should have easy access to ivermectin or the hydroxychloroquine cocktail, which includes azithromycin and zinc, which an infected person can start taking immediately.
I'll say again what I've said before, which is that COVID is the only disease I know of that the medical establishment refuses to treat until people are on death's door. Dr. Ted Noel explains why this is, and you can blame the government for the fact that doctors have their hands tied.
The government's refusal to act is because the Democrats who run the government don't want COVID to end. It's been their E-ticket to unlimited power. The worst thing that could happen for them is to have COVID become a treatable disease like a cold or flu.
But going back to my original point, those stifling, dirty, inconvenient, face-obscuring, voice-obscuring masks, which invariably remind me of the most restrictive burqas and which have made cities dirtier, are useless.
Image: Litter, including a COVID mask, by Couleur. Pixabay license.
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