THE NEURO-SEMANTICS
BEHIND MASKING
Behind every experience, every
activity, every event—there are meanings and where there are meanings there are
elicitations of neurology. So now that the governments which forced us to wear
masks have ended “the mask mandate,” what have we learned? What meanings have
we discovered? Do masks work? Did the masks that we were forced to wear
actually prevented the spread of Covid? The evidence that is now coming in
suggests a strong negative answer. No, they did not actually work to
limit the spread.
A lot of the confusion was and
still is caused by the inept way governments attempted to communicate about
covid. Most governments did an extremely poor job. For one thing, they
over-promised. “Get the vaccine and you will not get covid.” That proved
false. “Wear a mask and substantially reduce the spread of covid.” Again, that
proved incorrect. Further, many governments took a very heavy-handed approach
by punishing anyone who did not wear a mask, including firing them or jailing
them. Then there was the man swimming in the ocean under a sunshine sky who was
arrested for not wearing a mask—while swimming of all
things!
What’s ironic here in the US is
that the first recommendation from Dr. Fauci was to stop wearing masks.
Remember?
“When you’re in the middle of an
outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it
might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that
people think it is.”
That’s what he said in the
early days of the epidemic. Then he explained further:
“Often, there are unintended
consequences. People keep fiddling with the mask, and they keep touching their
faces.” (Video of Fauci saying ‘There’s no Reason to be Walking around with a
Mask’ Rueters, Oct. 8, 2020).
For medical questions like
this, a UK-based non-profit organization known as Cochrane has long provided a
major source of high quality, reputable meta-analyses. They have published
comprehensive meta-analyses on medical and therapeutic interventions. The
result:
“Our analysis confirms the effectiveness of medical
masks and respiratory against SARS. Disposable, cotton, or paper masks are
not recommended.”
“Single-use
medical masks are preferable to cloth masks, for which there is no evidence of
protection and which might facilitate transmission of pathogens when used
repeatedly without adequate sterilization.”
“Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or
no difference to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza/ SARS-CoV2
compared to not wearing masks.”
Then there is the issue about
how to wear a mask consistently and correctly. Studies have shown that
“if you have properly fitted N95 masks you do have some protection.” Yet as one
doctor said, “Outside of hospital I have never seen a properly fitted mask. The
observation I’m sharing is this, if you can smell wood smoke while wearing your
face covering of choice, you’re probably not at all protected from
Covid.”
Accordingly, taking a mask off
to get a drink or eat radically reduces the effectiveness of the mask and does
so to such an extent that the mask becomes essentially worthless. This was what
struck me as completely ridiculous on the numerous airlines I have flown in the
past year. “You have to wear a mask, you can take it off when you are eating or
drinking. Then you have to put it back on.” And this is a context where the
air is conditioned and filtered so it is as “clean” as a surgery
room!
What we have found is that what
a mask mostly protects is you from projecting the virus into the
area immediately around you if you have Covid. That means that the only persons
who should wear a mask is someone with covid! If you have the flu, wear
a mask. Then a mask would warn the rest of us who to avoid. Only in
that way would a mask slow the spread.
One of the problems with
wearing a mask is that it creates a false confidence. For many people, wearing
a mask makes them feel that they are doing something that effectively reduces
the chance of getting the flu or covid. But because that is not really the
case, it’s a false confidence. It may deceive you into thinking you are doing
something useful. But it may be satisfying a person’s paranoia without actually
contributing to one’s well-being.
For more: https://www.city-journal.org/the-mask-of-ignorance
L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
ISNS Executive Director
