Mask research by the CDC--inaccurate

"The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is widely cited but not externally peer-reviewed, serially exaggerated the evidence for mask-wearing among 77 such outside studies it published, according to an independent review by epidemiologists at the University of California San Francisco, the system's health sciences campus.

Just 14% of MMWR studies reached statistical significance and 30% actually studied mask effectiveness. Yet three-quarters concluded that masks were effective, authors Tracy Beth Hoeg, Alyson Haslam and Vinay Prasad wrote in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Medicine, the official journal of a consortium of five associations in academic internal medicine.

 
None of the 77 was randomized, the strongest form of evidence, and just one study each "used causal language appropriately" ("particle filtration on mannequins") or "cited conflicting evidence" (mostly about influenza), they wrote. "The level of evidence generated was low and the conclusions were most often unsupported by the data." "

This is not called science it's called an agenda.

CDC repeatedly misrepresents mask research, mask mandates worsen depression: studies | Just The News

More on Masking

Cochrane, the gold standard, has twice (2020 and 2023) shown that masks are not effective in stopping the transmission of the virus SARS-CoV-2. Progressives/socialists/Democrats still can't let go. So, what's up with that? They want to believe they can control the virus (although they've done a very poor job) and thus control people. These people are obsessed.

 
"In his recent City Journal piece on the 2023 Cochrane review, John Tierney asks, “Can anything persuade the maskaholics in the public-health establishment and the public to give up their obsession?” The answer, plainly, is no. Their faith transcends reason." https://www.city-journal.org/the-mask-of-ignorance?

Opinion | The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Here is the editor of Cochrane back peddling so she won't have her career cancelled. Cochrane Says Review Does Not Show That ‘Face Masks Don’t Work’ Against Covid-19 (forbes.com)

In 2020 I searched every 2 weeks or so, and never found a single study that supported the idea that mask could prevent the spread of Covid.  So did Cochrane, but the 2023 article is an update. Do Masks Work? What the Cochrane Review Can and Can’t Tell Us (health.com)

Masks Cochrane review: There’s still not strong evidence for masks’ effectiveness. (slate.com)

I know only two people personally who died of Covid. I'd say 99.99% of the ones who have had Covid I even know remotely or only by name, have survived, and most of those were vaxxed and boosted, but still got the disease. Of the two I did know one was 84 and one was 82. That's the highest risk factor--age.  I don't know if they had other conditions that might have contributed to respiratory problems.  One was fully vaxxed and boosted and very careful about exposure, usually masked.  The other was not vaxxed or boosted, but was careful in the common-sense ways--like crowds, hand washing, etc. I think the one thing they had in common was their medical care--both treated at small community hospitals. The websites and media that won't discuss or consider the failure of masks are also predominantly left of center and will interpret the article and research in that light.  No, with this disease, you can't follow the science, because in the last decade, science has been politicized. This disease has put a lot of power into the hands of a few, and huge fortunes have been made both in government and private industry.   It may take years to straighten it all out, but if these mandates aren't removed our freedoms will always be threatened,

Jennifer Sey, former gymnast, fired for speaking out for children

Jennifer Sey lost her dream job with Levi Strauss for speaking out against the crusade against children, forcing them to wear masks and lose 2 years of education. Earlier she was (belatedly) considered a hero for exposing the underbelly of the gymnastics Olympics. But when she used that toxic mix to speak up for the voiceless, she was "cancelled."

 
"More broadly, emotional and physical abuse was actually the norm and we were all so beaten down by that and made so obedient that when we knew there was a sexual abuser in our midst, we would never say anything," Sey recalled to Indianapolis Star reporters in a scene captured by the documentary.

 
"The standard methodology of coaching in elite gymnastics was cruelty," she told the documentary." But when she said the school lockdown and masking were cruel, no one listened. In fact, her woke corporation sent this life-time Democrat packing.

https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/netflixs-athlete-a-who-is-former-gymnast-jennifer-sey

https://summit.news/2022/02/16/levis-brand-president-says-she-was-offered-1-million-to-shut-up-about-being-fired-over-criticizing-covid-restrictions/

“This didn’t seem at all controversial to me. I felt—and still do—that the draconian policies would cause the most harm to those least at risk, and the burden would fall heaviest on disadvantaged kids in public schools, who need the safety and routine of school the most.”
“In the summer of 2020, I finally got the call.”

“‘You know when you speak, you speak on behalf of the company,’ our head of corporate communications told me, urging me to pipe down.”

Despite pleading that she was merely speaking in a personal capacity as “a public school mom of four kids,” Sey said the final straw was when she appeared on Fox News with Laura Ingraham and criticized further school closures.

Levi Strauss & Co. subsequently released a false statement claiming Sey had “resigned from the company.”

Controlling risk

I wear a mask when I go out, even for my morning walk at 6:30 or 7 a.m. And I'm not wearing it to protect you; it's to protect me. I'm over 80, I'm in good health (with assistance from Big Pharma), but one statistic I do believe in the ocean of misinformation about Covid19, is that the elderly are more vulnerable. The more health deficits they have like obesity, heart disease, lung congestion, smoking, alcoholism, etc. the greater the risk they'll die of Covid19 if they get it or get really sick.

When I walk in the morning, I may cross paths 4 or 5 other walkers or joggers, breathing hard. (At 80 I don't move that quickly.) I wear my mask because they don't. When I walk later in the day to attend a program in the park I may share the street with 6 teen-agers laughing and talking and doing normal kid stuff. I wear my mask because they don't. When I go in stores I meet strangers complying with the mask rules, but with their masks in odd positions--or under their noses, or lifting it to sip the ubiquitous coffee of can of pop. I wear my mask because they don't. I do eat in restaurants. I'm sharing space with people eating and talking and laughing--doing normal human activities. So I wear a mask, except when eating. In the days before the pandemic, I saw people wearing masks who were in chemo treatment or recovering from surgery but still in church or shopping. I wear a mask because I know they weren't trying to protect the public.

But loneliness and depression are also a risk--for anyone even without the pandemic. And I have good reasons for grief and isolation after the recent illness and death of our son. A few brave friends and family violated all the rules and took the risk to be with us, for which we'll forever be grateful, but it was nowhere near the support we would have had in another year from our church, our neighbors, our clubs, etc. So I'll wear the mask because I don't want to live in a prison. I don't want to live like I'm dead.

I'm still going to church (outside), I'm still shopping, I'm attending as many live programs as this odd summer at Lakeside has to offer (praise God for our wonderful staff), I'm still going to restaurants, I'm still inviting friends to our home and going to theirs, I'm still browsing the used books in the "Little Library" boxes all over Lakeside.

And masks keep the summer bugs out of my teeth.

The battle of the masks.

I do wear a mask--although there's no evidence that a bandana folded on an angle and tied behind my head then pulled up over my nose (2 layers of cloth) will protect me from anything except the flying bugs I meet on my morning walks. I passed 3 men running on the lakefront path this morning, splattering as they went. I read the research. What I see is that medical quality/grade masks worn properly, fitting tightly by medical staff are somewhat effective in blocking viruses, but those made for the general public offer very little protection, plus they cause us to touch our faces more. Nor have I read of any effort to make medical masks for the general public available even though all the experts agree those for the general public are next to useless.

Here's the statement on the box of my most recent purchase of washable, reusable 100% cotton masks, breathable, with adjustable nosepiece. "Not recommended for use in a surgical setting or where significant exposure to liquid, bodily or other hazardous fluids may be expected." "Shall not be used in a clinical setting where the infection risk level through inhalation exposure is high." Then in teeny-tiny print there is something about Covid. First, it has, "not been FDA cleared or approved." Then on the next line, "This product has been authorized by FDA under an EUA (emergency use authorization) for use by HCP as PPE to help prevent the spread of infection of illness in healthcare setting and by the general public to help slow the spread of the virus during the Covid19 pandemic." And then it cites section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. Section 360bbb-3(b)(1) unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner.

Meanwhile it has been a very useful method to keep Americans fighting amongst each other, even here in peaceful idyllic Lakeside, instead of taking back their country, churches, and freedoms.

Also, you can do your own research.  Don’t take my word for it. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

What do you think of Obama’s character now?

Story from the Wall St. Journal--other major sources are mum and shaking in their boots as the growing illegal behavior of Obama's gang is revealed. And my question about Flynn has always been why shouldn't an incoming Trump official talk to a Russian ambassador or any ambassador? Obama had been ridiculing Russia's power--what had happened in the 4 years since he'd down graded them in public on TV?

"When news stories appeared in early 2017 about Michael Flynn’s conversation with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., these columns wondered how Mr. Flynn’s call was so widely known. The names of private U.S. citizens caught on tape by U.S. intelligence are supposed to be “masked” so their privacy is protected. 

Well, now we know. GOP Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson on Wednesday released a declassified list of Obama Administration officials who in their waning days in power “unmasked” the conversations of Mr. Flynn, who was set to become President Trump’s National Security Adviser. It seems everyone but the night janitor wanted to know who Mr. Flynn was talking to. 

A stunning THIRTY NINE separate officials snooped on Mr. Flynn’s conversations with foreign actors, lodging nearly 50 unmasking demands between Nov. 30, 2016 and Jan. 12, 2017. Our sources say the nearly dozen redacted names on the list are likely intelligence types—who might have a legitimate interest in knowing who their foreign targets were speaking to in the U.S. But most of the rest are partisan officials who had no business SPYING on their successors. 

The list includes then White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, then Vice President Joe Biden, and then Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew. Ambassador to the U.N. and Obama confidante Samantha Power made no fewer than SEVEN requests, though she told Congress she had no recollection of unmasking Mr. Flynn. 

Mr. Flynn was unmasked by at least four U.S. ambassadors, six Treasury officials, and people connected to the Energy and Justice departments and NATO, among others. Then FBI Director James Comey, then CIA Director John Brennan and then Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also made the list. This means they had access to the transcripts of any phone conversations Mr. Flynn had with foreign sources as he prepared to take power. 

The media cordon sanitaire that protects Democrats will say this is no big deal because unmasking is routine and legal. But if the masking rule means nothing in practice, why pretend it exists?" . . .

Maybe because pretending to have character (something they say Trump doesn't have) is all the Democrats know about character?

. . . "The dates of the unmaskings raise further questions. The FBI’s interest in Mr. Flynn was supposedly triggered by conversations starting Dec. 29, 2016. Yet Mr. Flynn was first unmasked a month earlier—shortly after Mr. Trump named him security adviser."

This was definitely "get Flynn" and crush him. What was the Obama parade of lackeys and toadies so afraid of?