About Masks - I Will Try to Be Brief
Dr. Bonnie Henry says masks are not a significant preventative measure, then she mandates them - but don't ask questions.
CBC headline: New masking rules for health-care settings in B.C. coming into force Oct. 3, officials confirm
I still clearly remember the pressure to implement masking at the beginning of the pandemic. At that time Dr. Bonnie Henry repeated assurances to us that masking was one of the least effective ways of preventing infection and she did not think it was necessary to recommend masking. However, we all know what happened.
At the end of September the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) appeared to be delighted to report that masking is once again returning to the province, initially within healthcare facilities: B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix have announced that mandatory masking is returning to the province's health-care facilities. This is how it started before.
“Everybody Masking is Ideal” reads a sub-title in the CBC article. We can see where this is going.
I don’t know why I get this distinct sense that there was great anticipation around masking and now there is considerable glee over the fact that we are required to mask again, even if only in healthcare facilities at this time. It is as though a victory was won over those “anti-maskers.”
Does nobody get the irony? Do we not remember when only “unvaccinated” hospital staff looked conspicuous in hospital settings because they alone were required to wear masks? Of course, they are no longer there. No point in recruiting them for a strained healthcare system, even though they are still alive and well after a pandemic where presumably you only survived if you were vaccinated multiple times. In BC healthcare workers, possibly to the tune of 1500, are still not working. I can’t help but think of what a dream it would have access to this tremendous human resource of nurses and paramedics.
Today, if you see a healthcare worker who has a job in healthcare, they are vaccinated….and wearing a mask. This is because the vaccine doesn’t protect you well enough and so you need other layers of “protection.” I heard a renowned doctor make an odd comment this week. He said, simply, “If a vaccine doesn’t protect you from a disease then I wouldn’t call it a vaccine.”
Premier Danielle Smith, being the renegade she is made out to be, is watched closely for her reaction to mask mandates in Alberta. Here is her response:
"I believe that if Albertans want to wear a mask, they should. AHS has announced their decision to implement a new masking protocol in AHS acute care facilities," Ms. Smith said in a statement to The Epoch Times on Oct. 11.
"We recognize that AHS currently has the autonomy to make this decision. It is my expectation that no Albertan will be denied access to health care.”
Naturally, this was followed in the article with a synopsis of “Reported Outbreaks.”
Several hospitals in the province have reported cases of COVID, including in Edmonton—where 79 patients and 41 health care staff in 12 units at Royal Alexandra Hospital have been recorded with COVID-19—and Medicine Hat, where 10 patients and seven health care workers in one unit are being counted with COVID. Additional cases are being reported in hospitals in Calgary, Red Deer, and Athabasca.
The CBC article shores up support for masking as follows:
Retired emergency physician Dr. Lyne Filiatrault, a member of Protect Our Province, a group advocating for evidence-based interventions around COVID-19, is calling on the province to mandate mask-wearing for everyone in health-care settings.
As of today not, “everyone” in healthcare settings is required to mask.
The reason why the article refers to a “Protect Our Province” advocacy group is because the science supporting masks is missing. It doesn’t exist. I have searched high and low for it. So, the default is to look for an advocacy group.
I went to their website of Protect Our Province and read “The pandemic will end faster if everyone contributes.” That strikes me as the most non-evidence based piece of information I’ve heard to date. Irrespective of interventions the pandemic has taken its own jolly course over time. Well, there is the question of whether this still is a pandemic. I think a pandemic looks a little different. But if you can use the word COVID-19 then you can automatically also infer a pandemic.
People wear masks because it makes them feel good. And as Premier Smith said, “If Albertans want to wear a mask, then they should.”
Mask wearing makes people think they are more secure, more protected. They may also feel it is their obligation and that they are doing good and setting an example for others to follow.
But they are not. They are causing harm. Hear me out.
They are causing harm to themselves and to the environment.
As they breathe in the bacteria accumulated on masks after hours of wear they are becoming more likely to be infected. They limit their supply of oxygen vital to all the cells of their body by wearing a mask. They subject themselves to toxins in the form of glues and binders in masks. They inhale fibres into their lungs which will remain there and be irritants and potentially cause infection in the future. This is not to mention how mask wearing greatly increases their carbon footprint as a consequence of supporting production (think factories in China) of masks and distribution (think diesel ships crossing the ocean). Of course it has to be considered that the eventual landfill overflow of contaminated waste products in the form of biohazardous masks is happening around the planet.
Yet some people simply must to do a visible thing to feel like they are “contributing” and masks is the thing. But let’s think this through on another level. The simple common sense evidence about masks is that if you can breath out air, you can breathe in air. Even if you use a respirator mask, someone else will breathe in what you breathe out. Add the fact that what others around you breathe out will more likely stick to your mask and remain there, you have an added risk factor by wearing a mask.
Dr. Bonnie Henry was right the first time around. Let’s stop with the theatrics. In every setting where masks are being, and have been used, people are getting COVID-19.
I’m really tired of this. One of the worst fall-outs of mask wearing is that in the eyes of informed Canadians the credibility of health care “officials” is rapidly eroding. How can you support such a display of ignorance and uncaring among those who make claim to knowing the science?
One must ask, what ever happened to Bonnie Henry’s initial reasoned response? I don’t want to think this might have anything to do with the multi-million dollar mask industry, or the need for visuals to fear-monger and keep the pandemic uppermost in our minds. Because that is not how the health industry works, is it?
Thanks, Tina. Another "to the point" article. I have a doctor's appointment this morning and they told me by phone I am expected to mask up. If I don't have Covid, and they don't have Covid, then what am I protecting myself from?