“I think everyone should always wear a mask” – a patient, November, 2020
When I hear a patient voice a medical opinion, I wish she could see what I have seen and have my background before making an opinion.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.
That is one reason that I write these blogs. Now, I don’t expect that everyone agrees with my opinion. I respect other points of view, especially opposing ones, as long as they are informed.
The Basis of Evidence?
I see over and over again patients wanting evidence backing up medical opinions. However, when you dig deeper than the media or CDC recommendations, the evidence may surprise you.
You may have noticed that there are a lot of contradictory statements thrown around, most of them backed by “evidence.”
It takes you, the informed opinion-maker, to look deeper at the evidence and see whose agenda is being served. If you have any inclination to believe as I do, that Nature holds our key to healing, then listen up.
I see evidence that modern medicine has been bought by special interest groups for their own power and financial gain, therefore, the recommendations of modern medicine is open to scrutiny as to who it serves: the health of the people or the health of their bank accounts.
I have written about this in blogs such as these:
Contradictory Recommendations based on Evidence
For example, between March and April, Dr. Fauci, top infectious disease expert and a member of the White House task force on the coronavirus, must have received different evidence:
- “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask” Dr. Anthony Fauci March 8, 2020
- “I think that there should be universal wearing of masks. If we can accomplish that with local mayors, governors, local authorities, fine. If not, we should seriously consider national. Dr. Anthony Fauci
Also, studies on other viruses have been cited, which also are contradictory:
- “surgical masks can efficaciously reduce the emission of influenza virus particles into the environment in respiratory droplets, but not in aerosols” Nature, April 2020
- “This recent crop of trials showed that masks alone have no significant effect in interrupting the spread of ILI or influenza in the general population, nor in healthcare workers.” The Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, July 23, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted the mask recommendation. You may ask, “What is their evidence?”
- “Wear masks in public settings when around people not living in your household and particularly where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain” CDC July 2020
Gold Standard in Evidence
However, just this month, a study was released which is the first one specifically involving masks and COVID infection. Randomized controlled trials are said to be the gold standard in evidence-based medicine, and even better if it is a cross-over study, which this could not be. It was robust enough, with more than 6,000 people studied. The researchers concluded:
- “The recommendation to wear surgical masks to supplement other public health measures did not reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among wearers” Effectiveness of Adding a Mask – A Randomized Controlled Study, Annals of Internal Medicine, November 2020
There are many other credible studies showing that masks don’t help, such as these:
- A Randomized Control Study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information
- A Systematic Review by Cambridge University Press
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis by Oxford Clinical Infectious Diseases
- A Systematic Review of Evidence in Influenza Journal.
Beyond clinical studies, we can also look at general trends in the population. Yinon Weiss did in this article, showing in graphs that Mask mandates do nothing to stop COVID:
- “No matter how strictly mask laws are enforced nor the level of mask compliance the population follows, cases all fall and rise around the same time.” Yinon Weiss, The Federalist, Oct 29, 2020
Science invoked for conclusions
I have seen review articles invoking evidence, and their assessment of evidence, such as these:
“The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces the transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected droplets in both laboratory and clinical contexts.” Face Masks Against COVID-19: An Evidence Review (not peer reviewed)
Our assessment of this evidence leads us to a clear conclusion: keep your droplets to yourself – wear a mask. Masks for all? The science says yes.
I suggest you make your own assessment of the evidence presented here.
