Masks Aren't Working Anywhere...So We Must Keep Using Them

Posted by IM - August 20, 2021

When the CDC changed their guidance in May to say that vaccinated individuals no longer needed masks, many in the general public thought that it signaled the end of the pandemic. The majority of politicians quickly dropped most COVID-related restrictions, because, as many of us had been saying for a year, masks were the visible reminder that the country “was in the middle of a pandemic.” As we’ve seen afterwards, that was, unfortunately, wildly incorrect.

Testing, inescapable media panic, and the incompetence of public health officials results in an unending pandemic, under current definitions. The CDC’s devotion to pseudoscience and the organization’s apparent predisposition to irrational fear, impossibly poor risk analysis, and their recent expressions of doubt on the long-term efficacy of the vaccines have made it abundantly clear that they have no end game for COVID.

Their decision to return to recommending mask mandates for all, the death of science, as it were, has been followed by many corporations, cities and several states. And there is no vaccine on the horizon to provide an easy way out. What possible justification can there be for them to revert back to their guidance on vaccinated masking? They’ve now downplayed the efficacy of the vaccines they’ve relentlessly pushed, and refuse to acknowledge the reality that COVID cases will always exist, especially with how hard we look for them. What is the end game?

While we have no way to predict how far down the anti-science rabbit hole the CDC will continue to sink, we can look at how their guidance, their recommendation to wear masks is faring in a number of areas in the US and beyond that have followed their evidence-free advice.

Louisiana

One of the greatest gifts the CDC unwittingly gave us with their habitual flip flopping is the opportunity to compare areas with and without mask mandates. They provided us the ability to have some semblance of a “control” group, which is obviously quite valuable when examining the possible impact of masks. With many governors or local politicians reluctant to return to mask mandates, the True Believers in The Science™ have created an easy comparison point.

One such state is Louisiana, where Governor John Bell Edwards, a True Believer, mandated masks again out of desperation at his state’s rising case rate. Nearby, Arkansas and Mississippi did not mandate masks, despite Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s best efforts.

Unsurprisingly, they’ve followed the same trends regardless:

In fact, case growth in Arkansas appears to have slowed earlier and might be reaching a plateau.

The complete context of cases in these three states clearly showcases the futility of masks and their associated policies, does it not? They’ve had nearly identical curves for the entirety of the pandemic, regardless of mask policy or timing. Cases go up and down at identical intervals, despite the states removing their mandates at wildly different times.

It’s the same story that plays out everywhere. Masks go in, masks go off, cases rise and fall regardless, government, experts and media ignore it . . .

[SNIP]