109 Comments

The only way to judge if anything truly works is to see if it performs in the wild as it did in the laboratory and or in studies. Masks do not work against viruses. There is a body of work a century long predating Covid that again and again and again have found masks to have no positive effect against viruses with many finding perverse effects. Using respirators for commercial use, independent contractors may be exempted in certain cases, requires medical screening, certification and fitting. Respirators are far more capable at removing things from the air than masks, yet those under going certification for them learn that they are not to be used as protection against viruses. Reading the instructions and warnings on the provided insert or in same cases the packaging states the same.

If respirators with the higher standard of manufacture, fit and a seal are not effective against viruses, then masks made under less stringent regulations and wholly lacking any kind of a seal can not stop a virus.

However, these arguments are discounted by mad maskers who provide their studies as proof masks work. Thus we have the value of the Cockrain (sp?) report, a study to trump their studies. Meaningless.

We just need to look at how masks work in the wild. If masks work against Covid, why have they not in Japan? The Japanese government rescinded its recommendation for masks on May 8th 2023. While many love to point out that Japan never mandated masks and use this fact to ignore the increasing sizes of it waves of Covid, this “recommendation” was followed by 99% of the population nationwide for 3 and 1/2 years. In the greater Tokyo area, statistically 100% of those outside their homes wore masks this entire time. This is from my own observations, I being the sole unmasked person amount the multitudes of individuals I viewed as I commuted into Tokyo. This “recommendation” is strong enough to render me, one who refuses to wear one as “recommended” almost unemployed. To further drive home the effectiveness of a recommendation from the Japanese, this “recommendation” to wear masks included demands that I wear one for online classes taught from my own home, by medical professionals. My kids’ swim coaches wore clear plastic masks moulded in the shape of the lower face while swimming. The human performers at sea world in Japan wore face coverings even while in the water and all the visitors except myself wore masks despite the wind driven rain from the typhoon that hit that day. Thousands of people self water boarding themselves to stop the virus. Let no one get away with discounting Japan’s failed attempts to stop the virus with masking with, “Japan didn’t mandate masks.”

Yet, during the three and a half years of 99% of the population wearing masks, Japan experienced 8 waves of Covid. The 7th was bigger than any that preceded it and the 8th bigger still. It simply can not be said that the masks had any positive effect against the virus. It could be suggested that masks had the previously reported perverse effect. I can state with confidence that statistically 100% of all covid cases in Japan were of people who wore masks, and socially distanced and religiously sanitized their hands. My brother in law was in shock that he got covid despite taking all these precautions. In his case, he was also vaxxed, but that is another issue. The idea that these efforts were useless at best has yet to occur to him.

If masks worked against Covid, then the reality in Japan could not exist. Around half here, including foreign tourists and residents are still wearing masks.

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Huh? As far as I know, no one has EVER suggested that people would not be allowed to wear masks; the ONLY question has been whether or not masks should be req'd; thus, the ONLY question was whether or not mandates worked - this study proved they don't. Mandate or no mandate, it didn't matter, which was the ONLY question in this debate. Look, if you want to hide in a hole & never see another person ever, you'd probably avoid COVID - and you should be free to hide in a hole. The question is whether or not we as a society should FORCE people into holes - and that study has answered that question. I think you're debating a straw man here - it was always about mandates, not masks.

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Many thanks Brian, masks are stupid things to wear for the 'flu.

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This is my complaint as well. As far as I know I have not caught it despite trying hard. I guess I need to try skiing. Unless you count that 24-hour virus and two weeks of coughing I had in January of 2022. Nice joke by the way.

https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/covid-my-struggle

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Mar 15, 2023Liked by Brian Mowrey
Mar 14, 2023Liked by Brian Mowrey

"Reality is not adjudicated by randomized control trials nor “reviews” of the same; this is merely a conventionally accepted (and not particularly impressive) process for evaluating drugs and care protocols. " Love this!

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If you want to wear masks because you imagine that they have talismanic powers to protect you against illness, please feel free.

But if you want to mandate that all others wear masks, please fuck off and keep your illness anxiety disorder to yourself.

And you can also replace "wear masks" with "get mRNA injections" and "show a vaccine passport to gain entrance" and "stay at least 6 feet away from others" and "imprison yourself in your home" and "constantly use hand disinfectant" and "live in a plastic bubble."

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I also saw Eugyppius make the same analogy with bike helmets. I understand that bike helmets probably don't help with most accidents, but as I commented over there, I do think that helmets can help with very specific types of crashes, namely crashes where your head hits hard pavement after falling from a good height. This happened to me in the 80s, and I'm pretty sure that the helmet reduced the severity of my head injury. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether it really helped, so I could very well be wrong.

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Mar 13, 2023·edited Mar 13, 2023Liked by Brian Mowrey

I love this!

Thank you Brian!

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The mask is a muzzle. It was advanced on spurious grounds by a shady WEF-linked group led by an AI entrepreneur.

"All of these problems evaporate with A.I. One example of how powerful this can be is the global campaign to promote masking. This was accomplished, in a matter of weeks, by a WEF-linked group called “Masks4All”.

From their about page:

“#Masks4All is an all-volunteer org that started and powered the movement for people and Governments to follow the overwhelming scientific evidence that shows we need to wear homemade masks in public to slow COVID-19.

Now that this is widely accepted as a fact by Government, news, and health leaders, we’re focused on getting masks to be required across the U.S. and the world.”

The face of the organization was and is Jeremy Howard, Co-Founder & Leader

Distinguished Research Scientist at USF; Founding Researcher at fast.ai; Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Council."

It's not even a "political" issue. It's a psy-op tactic as part of the global technocracy coup.

https://icthruit.substack.com/p/synthetic-intelligence-pt-1

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The mask thing has been bizarre to me since the beginning. Can't we all see that immunological naivety is bad, like Iroquois with smallpox bad? Had this been an actual 'superbug', not saying that they exist in reality as they do in fiction but IF, then exposure to small amounts, such as you might get from incidental asymptomatic contact, triggering a less than normal infection would have been your best chance to survive and develop immunity. Asymptomatic infection is actually probably the best driver of mild outcomes and natural immunity that you can imagine in an ACTUAL pandemic, not a stagemanaged Plandemic.

These mask conversations always miss out on the importance of concentration or 'viral load'. A mild infection triggering a mild immune response logically is the best protection against a later more concentrated dose of the pathogen.(whatever it might be all mechanisms that I am aware of are concentration dependent)

So, although I agree with Brian that focusing on the human and political and social dimensions gets more to the root of the problem than focusing on the medical and pseudomedical dimensions I would say, Masks not working is preferable to masks working. Even if they do work, wearing them is a bad decision, I don't support centrally forbidding this particular bad decision, but knowing that it is a bad decision and why seems like a good measure.

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Mar 12, 2023Liked by Brian Mowrey

I know a few people who, despite working in medicine or pharmacy during the pandemic, never got sick because they invested in expensive, name-brand, made-in-western country N95's, and did not take those things off in places where colleagues were sharing air.

We frequently have the scenario where Covid sweeps through the department, passing between nurses and patients. Went from 25+ nurses to 3 who did not have Covid within a week. The nurses wear cheap masks in the hallways, but sit around the coffee table together having breakfast, lunch, cake, coffee the rest of the day. Studies done of "hospital employees who wore masks" include these behavioral patterns, because honestly, who can work 8 hours without taking off the mask to eat and drink? Most of the nurses have young school children at home and active social lives, so that table is a high-risk environment.

Meanwhile doctors with their own offices are able to eat alone. The ones with high quality masks and disciplined habits don't get sick. They make it through these waves that pass through the department.

We can all agree that tyranny is undesirable and eminent.

However: you have one set of lungs, one brain with neurons that need to last forever, one set of reproductive organs. There is a lab-engineered something floating around with the ability to target those cells, and it likes to sneak in through your nose.

You have the freedom to decide how to proceed.

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Mar 12, 2023Liked by Brian Mowrey

You and eugyppius must be cross-pollinating. You both make analogies with bicycle helmets today.

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Mar 12, 2023Liked by Brian Mowrey

I was recently in a position that put my principles to the test. I live out in the middle of nowhere, and recently participated in a highway cleanup with a local nonprofit. Individuals drove to a remote location and then were shuttled to the actual cleanup site several miles away. I rode to the meeting point with friends. Getting on the shuttle bus, I was presented with an N95 mask because a mask was required in order to ride in the bus.

My choices were: to sit there alone several hours waiting for my friends to return; to walk to the cleanup site, though the activity would've been over by the time I got there; or to accept the mask with a muttered protest that I'd rather walk.

I'm slightly embarrassed that I chose the third.

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023Liked by Brian Mowrey

Rather than spending a ton of time stressing over the details, my pragmatic approach is: if masks worked, it would've been obvious to everybody, and we wouldn't still be arguing about it.

Wading a tiny bit farther into the weeds: you can't prove a negative*, i.e. you can't prove masks don't work. But nobody has proved that they do, see above.

* An old aphorism. Is it true?

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023Liked by Brian Mowrey

What do you suggest when people (usually women but one stupid male also) chastise you for not wearing a mask or not wearing it properly?

Is it OK to say: "I'm an asshole. Deal with it."

However, you are correct. It was a political issue and the political response would be to enact laws to penalize people who do not comply.

I used to sort-of-comply. I have a mask that says "This mask is as useless as Joe Biden" and that got a few laughs and thumbs up from people in stores.

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