Nolte: The Science Turns Against America's Mask Fascists

No less than the New England Journal of Medicine has dealt a body blow to America’s growing army of mask fascists with the news that “wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.”

The reasons for this are both simple and logical:

We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.

So there you go… The only real way to catch the China Flu is to hang out with someone infectious for a protracted period of time, so it’s unlikely you will catch it walking along somewhere, like a store or sidewalk.

Obviously, as the Journal points out, if you are a healthcare worker, you are going to be dealing with someone infectious indoors, in a closed setting, and not just passing by. So the Journal warns that the “mask is a core component of the personal protective equipment (PPE) clinicians need when caring for symptomatic patients with respiratory viral infections, in conjunction with gown, gloves, and eye protection.”

Even so, the Journal’s warning for healthcare workers points out that a mask is still not very helpful “since it does not provide protection from droplets that may enter the eyes or from fomites on the patient or in the environment that providers may pick up on their hands and carry to their mucous membranes.”

“What is clear, however, is that universal masking alone is not a panacea. A mask will not protect providers caring for a patient with active Covid-19 if it’s not accompanied by meticulous hand hygiene, eye protection, gloves, and a gown,” the Journal adds.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) goes even further: “Masks should only be used by health care workers, caretakers or by people who are sick with symptoms of fever and cough,” said Dr. April Baller, a public health specialist for the W.H.O.

Baller adds that the danger to a healthy person wearing a mask is a “false feeling of protection” — which is something the CDC warned of early on during this pandemic, back when we were told not to wear masks.

Of course, the CDC has flip-flopped completely on the mask issue, which means that what we are now being told by the New England Journal of Medicine and W.H.O. contradicts the latest CDC guidelines, which, after telling us for weeks that masks are useless against the virus, now “recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.”

Since its flip-flop, I have never really bought into the idea that American health “experts” like the CDC and Drs. Fauci and Birx were genuine in their flip-flop on the mask issue. It always seemed to me that public and media pressure forced them into caving.

Even today, Fauci can’t bring himself to offer a full-throated mask endorsement, only that the mask is a “symbol” of what “you should be doing” … they are a “valuable safeguard” and part of “respect for another person.”

This is a far cry from what he said in March:

“There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told 60 Minutes. While masks may block some droplets, Fauci said, they do not provide the level of protection people think they do. Wearing a mask may also have unintended consequences: People who wear masks tend to touch their face more often to adjust them, which can spread germs from their hands.

It would seem to me that the need to wear a mask should be based on how the virus in question operates. If, as the New England Journal of Medicine points out, you need to be in close contact with an infected person for up to 30 minutes in order to get infected with the coronavirus, the mask is unnecessary unless you’re in that situation.

Out of concern for my wife, I’ve worn a mask since day one, even when Fauci was telling me not to… And I will continue to, at least for the foreseeable future, even though I hate the damn thing.

Sadly, though, this latest science against wearing masks will get no traction in our corrupt corporate media or with the corrupt Democrat politicians who have embraced mask fascism with the unbridled glee that all self-righteous bullies embrace such things, embrace any opportunity to join a pious mob and feels a false sense of superiority while shaming and terrorizing others.

Like the fact that the coronavirus is no more lethal to those 50 and under than the seasonal flu, the media will cover up this important information. Like the fact Democrat Govs. Whitmer, Cuomo, and Murphy poured infection into nursing homes, the media well bury this information. But here’s the thing…

If you believe a mask will protect you, go ahead and wear a mask. But what do you care if someone else is wearing one or not? As long as you’re wearing one what does it matter? Why can’t we just leave each other alone?

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.