233 Comments

Back in 2020 a colleague exclaimed to me that wearing a mask was "not a big ask!"

If I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I'd retort that demanding that we wear them for hours of every day for TWO YEARS is, in fact, a very big ask.

Expand full comment

Its a farce that adults are forced to wear masks to prevent a virus. Its a criminal tragedy that children were...

Expand full comment

And what does it say that the same teachers demanding that they be allowed to groom kids with critical gender queer race theory are the loudest voices demanding that they be allowed to continue damaging childrens brains with CO2?

Expand full comment

These people are truly beyond sick.

Expand full comment

They breathed too much of their own exhale (meant physically, morally and spiritually) .

Expand full comment

Amen, John. It really is mind boggling that none of these decisions/policies Is ever about what is best for the kids. I am disgusted western medicine & our education system

Expand full comment

That removing the old system where we were more than babysitters with student loans was a bad idea?

Show me a woke-tard who can endure and complete the five years I spent at university, back when you got kicked out if you flunked your exams too much or too many times or at all in some cases (Sociology first semester f.e., the exam was for 75% of the entire semester so failing it meant you hadn't done your work).

So instead of dilligent, dutiful and knowledgable teachers with a strong professional ethic disassociated from private views and with personal integrity, you get semi-literate overgrown (in both senses) hysterical girls who can barely string together a complete sentence, can only teach by the book and what's in the book, and who lack real knowledge of their subject: automata, repeating what's been poured in their ear.

Their "male" counterparts the vegan-before-it-was-mainstream soy-toys are even worse.

A real teacher is someone you can wake 03:30 and yell "Compare and contrast the themes of Richardson's 'Pamela' with the ones in Cleland's 'Fanny Hill', and juxtapose those in a cultural analysis with de Sade's 'Eugenie'!" and immediately get a lecture delivered.

Chalk screeching on blackboard, that's my reveille!

Expand full comment

Well, as a teacher's daughter, I would say that parents and students play a BIG role in driving the good ones out of the system. I never even once thought about following in my parents' footsteps after seeing how the system demoralized them. I remember one incident in particular. My father taught high school earth science and for the section on mining he brought in some photos he took on one of our family vacations where we visited the open pit iron mines in Minnesota. A couple of these pictures showed us kids next to one of the monster mining trucks to show size. SOMEONE complained and said Dad was using class time to show "home movies". That was the LAST time Dad ever went out of his way to bring a little extra to the class. From that time on until retirement he taught strictly from the book and only from the book.

Expand full comment

Such a shame. I was so fortunate to have gone to government school when teachers were "allowed" to and encouraged to use things outside the box to enhance our interest in subjects and help us learn to think. It hurts my heart to hear stories like yours. It might be oversimplifying the issue to say this, but "government ruins *everything* it touches...

Expand full comment

This was a student or group of students that complained. It had nothing to do with the government and everything to do with society's attitudes towards education or at least a certain segment of society. There is a culture of disrespect towards teachers and school in general. What this means is that teachers like my Dad had the unenviable job of trying to get students interested in a subject that nobody outside the school building really gave a damn about and had very little relevance to their lives. Students are there not because they want to learn but because the law said they have to be there or else. Hmm, does that sound familiar?

Some years ago the daughter of one of my neighbors who had just graduated from high school asked me why it was necessary to study history. I started out with the canned speech I'd heard all my life, no doubt you've heard a variation of it yourself, and then I stopped, looked around at this girl's surroundings, her family, and her life. There was never going to be any college or career in her future. So what I said next shocked her. I said, "For you, studying history was an utter waste of your time in high school that could have been better spent on other things. You will never use it. Or any of the other things that they wanted you to learn." Her eyes opened wide. Now, disclaimer, I am a history buff--BUT when it comes right down to it, that is not what puts food on my table and a roof over my head. What did put food on my table and a roof over my head was a typing class I took in high school. Not any of the other subjects I studied--and I was on a college prep track. Knowing how to type meant I wasn't stuck washing dishes or doing other menial unskilled work. So I stand by what I said to my neighbor's daughter.

There is a story about a group of colonists on the East Coast and a band of Native Americans who decided to swap places. Each would send two of their young men to the other group to see who had the better education. The two English youths went to the Natives and in due time learned how to hunt, fish, and otherwise survive in the New World. The two Native youths went to England and received a classical education. When they returned home, the tribal leaders said that they were cheated and that these young men were ruined for tribal life. They did not know how to do anything of use to their people. I often think about these two young men, how lonely their lives must have been afterwards. Because they could no longer relate to their society. They couldn't share the things they'd learned. No one was interested. No one gave a damn.

Expand full comment

Both my parents were teachers. My Dad taught 7th and 8th grade life and earth science for 30+ years. He is the reason I decided to become a scientist. By the time he retired, over two decades ago, he felt "the system" was completely FOS. It has only gotten worse since then.

Expand full comment

I finished my bachelor's less than 10 years ago and it was still the case you could easily flunk out (more than half of my cohort did in first year), exams were worth 90% of the total grade etc. However, this is just not the case for EDUCATION degrees and this is a big part of the problem. They have been notoriously easy for decades.

But don't worry, teachers won't be able to teach from books for long, because new school curricula are trying to bring an end to all that literacy. You can just play videos instead of lessons after all.

Expand full comment

You write as if that were somehow a contradiction...? On the one hand: we wanna harm kids... on the other: we wanna harm kids.

Expand full comment

They still are here in NYC, and the truly criminal part is that it is the youngest ones who are still mandated. Mayor Adams is reserving himself a very toasty room in hell.

Expand full comment

were? We still need them on public transport in Spain. Lots of people still wearing them outdoors. This country is lost.

Expand full comment

And it was virtually never an ask; it was a demand. It was an "...or else."

It was and is tyranny.

Expand full comment

Strangely, there are some of a certain political party that believe our democratic system is a synonym for mob rule. Mob rule, where the easily manipulated mob decides that they will "vote" with their loudness and then their suggestions and then their demands and then their cries of wishing for your death if you are opposed to the mob is tyranny. When you tell them so they "circle back" and scream "It is democracy! We live in America!" Sheesh.

Expand full comment

And, of course, this same mob will throw a tantrum, burn, loot and murder if they don't get their way and those not part of this very small number of mob members are told to sit down and shut up because, after all, the mob is just "blowing off a little bit of steam".

Expand full comment

He won't remember. Short term memory is the second to go after a year or more of oxygen deprivation. Tell him that. And when he asks "what is first?" cringe and let your eyes fall southward.

Expand full comment

exactly the same logic like with vaccines:

if your [whatever] protects you. Why do I have to impose [whatever] on myself to protect you?

Expand full comment

"My magic protective talisman provides amazing protection, which is why you have to use one to, because if you don't mine won't work."

Expand full comment

The talismanic nature of many (all?) the NPIs is worthy of several papers! Our species loves talismans though, and superstition as well.

Expand full comment

Logic's got nothing to do with it, comrade! Unless you want communism. Then, yes, its totally logical.

Expand full comment

So my federal Department of Defense agency is requiring everyone who works in their buildings in a certain county to WEAR MASKS AGAIN, starting today, because the CDC claims the county is now at "medium." The county itself isn't posting levels anymore. WTH?

Expand full comment

I read the surgeon study in March of 2020, among others, and knew the masks were nothing more than a psyop so I never once wore one. No one wants to hear that, I know. But I post as a reminder to always do your own research, make a decision and don't just follow the crowd. What we did to children for two years is beyond unforgivable. No one considered the many downsides.

Expand full comment

Not surprisingly, scientific articles on masks, which could be readily found up till early 2020, are now nearly impossible to find, or have been "fact-checked" false. They've taken the internet, the wonder that it once was, and turned it into a vehicle of global government propaganda. What a waste.

Expand full comment

There was an excellent, well-sourced article on masks that was written in 2016 and very accessible to laypeople (though directed at dental professionals), which basically shredded the “masks can stop or slow respiratory virus transmission” myth. Within a couple of weeks of Fauci’s 180° on masking, the site took the article down, saying that it was published in 2016 and “is no longer relevant in our current climate.”

For now, it’s still accessible via the Wayback Machine (https://bit.ly/3wefZkA ), but even that is becoming highly politicized. It seems the CDC has also found a way to program parts of their website so the Wayback Machine no longer works to access things they don’t want people to find, which I guess is the first step toward a true 1984 memory hole.

Expand full comment

Yes, watching the scrubbing of actual science has been wild

Expand full comment

This. And as we aggregated all the data, all the science, they didn’t care. Because ‘the experts’ told them to wear them, and they did it for others. Genius really, the appeal to emotion.

Expand full comment

Common sense is not so common anymore...

Expand full comment

Oh I want to hear it! :-). After over 30 years of wearing masks for the *right reason* in the proper circumstances I also refused to wear such a useless mitigation tool. I will have to be held down and beaten before I will ever ever EVER put on one of these ridiculous ritualistic diapers. I'm fed up with the insanity.

Expand full comment

>>>as a performative symbol of social signaling

It was never about anything but that

Expand full comment

it was only about three weeks ago (after years, obviously) that i realised that THIS and this alone, is the reason the chinese virtually all wear masks and have for some time. period. it signals my [mask-wearer's] compliance and IS, indeed, protective: it protects me from my fellow humans (whether fellow victims of a command society, or the commanders themselves), NOT from either pathogens or particulates. i truly had not fully "gotten" this until now ...

Expand full comment
Comment removed
May 12, 2022
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I wonder if anyone EVER says, "It's so other people will treat me better."

Expand full comment

I would say that is way too mild; it was "about" submission and domination; which is why slaves were long forced to wear masks. And why Hillary Clinton's African American attendant was wearing a mask just a few weeks back.

Expand full comment

The bad cat actually wrote a post about this exact thing way before Hilary’s photo debacle.

Expand full comment

Circa Met Gala 2021, lots o' commenters pointing out that 1% = unmasked, servant class = masked.

Expand full comment

The greatest signal that it was always religious and never scientific is that you could pose a myriad of arguments just like this and no amount of them would change the position of the adherent.

Expand full comment

That goes for the whole kitten kaboodle. (uh... sorry, Gato)

Expand full comment

Both that they were useless and harmful, and both most especially for young kids, was painfully obvious from pretty much the beginning. I am proud to say I've never put a mask on my young kids through the whole thing. I even, at great personal cost, pulled them from school and homeschooled because I would not do so. 👍

Expand full comment

And I bet you gave them a better schooling at home, too.

Expand full comment

Thank you for your sacrifice and for caring more about your children than being liked by the herd. You have my utmost respect and admiration. Cheers!

Expand full comment

Too bad so many people don't even know that they are out of field when talking about masks. Doctors, economists, biologists...and even the epidemiologist chick!

Who are in field? Anyone who understands that masks wick moisture and droplets evaporate quickly in masks. You know, physicists...and maybe a few engineers.

Not the CDC. Not NIOSH. Not the AMA. They are clowns when they discuss masking.

Doofus: Well, doctors wear masks to prevent infection.

Physicist: And people carry rabbits' feet, too. If you carry a rabbit's foot when you mask, you double your protection!

Expand full comment

I come from a biochemical engineering background. We study fluid flow and I worked with bioreactors in which the a primary concern is contamination.

As far as I can tell, the reason a doctor or biologist might think it is obvious that a mask would prevent infection is that have a model of infection that consists of somebody sharing bodily fluids with another person that then leads to a transfer of infection. It’s a macro process that can be impeded by covering the point where infection occurs. It’s like a band aid.

From a fluid dynamics and systems perspective, it is not at all obvious that a mask would hinder transmission. In fact, once it was admitted that the virus could be transmitted through aerosols, it became probable that the masks might actually increase the rate of transmission.

Expand full comment

"the masks might actually increase the rate of transmission. "

Droplets >100 microns fall to the floor in seconds in the unmasked case and are out of the breathing zone.

Droplets > 100 microns are converted into aerosolized virus in the masked case.

So masks actually increase viral density in breathable air.

Expand full comment

THANK YOU!

I am so sick of 'studies say the mask blocks the droplet'. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The droplet evaporates and now the virus is airborne on your next breath out!

Expand full comment

Exactly. I haven’t seen any tests that convince me one way or the other, but I know that shear forces increase heat, turbulence, and breakup and dispersion of emulsions. Common sense would actually conclude that masks increase aerosolization of the virus.

Expand full comment

Pretty sure it is Meghan Mansell (@mamasaurusmeg) on Twitter who has posted extensively about the aerosolization of droplets via masks, in case you haven't seen her work.

Expand full comment

To call Meghan's work "extensive" is to undersell it. And yes, masks increase aerosolization.

Expand full comment

Dentists wore masks prior to 2020. I don’t think I’ve ever (before 2020) seen an MD in a mask. The only dentists I knew (I’m one myself, so I know a lot) who supported universal masking were the small handful of political activists.

Masks are useful at keeping large chunks of debris flying in your face. Very helpful when you are spinning a drill at half a million RPM in a dirty mouth while sitting 18 inches away

In dental school we all had to watch the movie “If Saliva Were Red” and thus knew that masking without FREQUENT changing and good training would be a cross contamination nightmare. I’ve fired people over that. And now I’m supposed to MANDATE it? Uhhh... how about no?

Expand full comment

"I don’t think I’ve ever (before 2020) seen an MD in a mask."

Maybe surgeons? But then, you probably weren't awake.

Expand full comment

Yeah, I never heard surgery, which is likely why I've never seen an MD in a mask.

And I'm exaggerating, I have seen DDS, MDs wearing a mask when I assisted in oral surgery. Technically they have an MD, but they are also dentists so "not real doctors" or something. lol

Expand full comment

That should have been never HAD surgery. I've heard of surgery. hahaha

Expand full comment

Did dentists wear masks before 2020? I don't recall. I know the hygienists would wear face shields during cleaning but don't recall the dentist wearing a mask to check out the teeth.

Expand full comment

Very few dentists I know wore masks before 2020 unless doing a "splash and splatter" procedure.

Expand full comment

There actually is a field that can be applied. The ones who create clean rooms. I forgot what the discipline is called. (Not guaranteeing that there aren't woke folk there, too.)

Expand full comment

Industrial hygiene. Or anyone that has to run either a production or experimental facility with hazardous substances. We knew PDQ that this was all B.S.

Expand full comment

Do you mean industrial hygiene? I haven't seen industrial hygienists discussing masks, wicking, and evaporation, so I think that they are likely out of field as well.

Expand full comment

I’m an IH and knew from the beginning that masks were going to be ineffective. It flew in the face of 50 years of data. Anyone who had ever performed a quantitative fit test knew they would be useless.

Expand full comment

Am I right that if you in IH were to try to mitigate viral exposure you would suit up like Bad Lady from China? Not just wear a stupid N95? Not a sarc question BTW, I’m actually asking if that’s taught in IH protocols anywhere?

Expand full comment

To truly prevent inhalation exposure, a tight fitting half mask respirator with P100 cartridges is the first step. Powered air purifying respirators with a P100 would probably be a better choice because they are easier to fit and breathe with for extended periods. On a larger, public scale, improving ventilation in a given space to better clear aerosolized virus is the best solution. We saw no workplace cases where the ventilation was giving us a few air changes per hour and using 100% outdoor makeup air.

Expand full comment

I wish the bad cat would look into this stuff as well. If he hasn’t--perhaps I missed it. The Belgians have been pretty successful implementing this mitigation.

Expand full comment

Just go to rumble and search for Stephen Petty (industrial hygienist/PPE expert whose testimony got a number of places to ditch mask mandates).

Expand full comment

I can provide a simple physics demonstration that masks increase evaporation. The implication is that masks produce free virus aerosols.

Expand full comment

Megan Mansell demonstrated something similar at Rational Ground i.e. that masks can nebulize droplets into aerosol plumes. Similar to what happens when you put your thumb on the garden hose while it's running--it doesn't make the water stop, just makes it go everywhere!

Expand full comment

Mask evaporation rate is governed by three things, basically--ambient heat, ambient humidity, and the droplet's surface area to mass ratio. Increase the surface area and the rate increases directly. Wicking droplets increase surface area dramatically.

We know that when the surface area to mass is the same as that of a 5 micron droplet, then evaporation occurs in microseconds.

Why do we use paper towels? wicking

What do masks do to droplets? wicking

Expand full comment

MSM is always quoting some Mask engineer online. He’s on twitter too I can’t remember his name. He does tests on masks. Looks to me as though he’s got anhome air purifier and works from his closet at home. Not exactly lab conditions. I thought his test looked so preposterous that I couldn’t even watch his boring presentations. They just looked like an add for MSM stupidity. But this is supposed to be his expertise? I don’t know.

Expand full comment

THIS guy ~ https://www.facebook.com/stefhan.gordon/videos/527017888944524 (industrial engineer testifying to NH Senate)

Expand full comment

THIS:

“it’s really not a big deal. do it for me. even if it works a little or makes people feel better, where is the harm? why not try?”

IS WHAT A CHILD ABUSER SAYS.

Expand full comment

And even besides that, "...makes people feel better" - well, it doesn't make ME feel better. So why do *I* have to bend to THEM; why don't they have to bend to ME, to make ME feel better?

The dishonesty and intellectual idiocy of those making the "mask up to make others feel better" argument is breathtaking (no pun intended)

Expand full comment

Agree. Why do they get to tell everyone else how to live but we don’t even get to choose how to live? Why do THEIR needs and wishes take precedence?? Not just dishonesty and intellectual idiocy but sheer self centeredness!!

Expand full comment

💯

Expand full comment

GREAT observation!!!!

Expand full comment

Exactly why I raged at my son's public school board directors, superintendent, and administrators during the public comment portion of the school board meeting (I was labeled a right-winged terrorist after my outburst. I pulled my mask down under my chin so I was also labeled dangerous). It's exactly why I quit my job at said public school because I would not abuse elementary school children. It had and still has nothing to do with health. Anything the government touches is fraut with evil.

Expand full comment

Thank you for your sacrifice and for putting principles over conformity! You have my respect!

Expand full comment

I pulled my son out of that public school. He’s homeschooled and attends a few classes at a Christian learning center. Not a sacrifice at all. I’m grateful for all that has transpired in the past few years because I’m protecting my children and experiencing a whole new paradigm that I have more control over. We’re much happier.

My body, my life, my choice, my responsibility. Same goes for my children.

Expand full comment

How much longer will that be allowed?

Expand full comment

I actually found masking very helpful. It was an easy way to tell the real scientists who actually put evidence over politics vs. those who were willing to go along with a narrative as long it served their political interests. The preponderance of evidence against masking effectiveness was so stark that it was obvious that the scientists who supported this were either incompetent or disingenuous. That's how I could tell the CDC had become a propaganda machine, because they produced nonsense "studies" like the Missouri hairdressers instead of running proper RCTs to actually determine if this was a viable intervention.

Expand full comment

Remember when the CDC pointed to the Kansas mask study that was already invalidated by the data they had gotten since the study closed?

https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/et-tu-snohomish

Expand full comment

Or the Arizona study, yet another attempt to create data on masking effectiveness.

Expand full comment

Or the Germany study, which was also rendered invalid by data, obvious in the same dataset, gathered after publication.

Expand full comment

Great point

Expand full comment

Of all the absurd outrages perpetrated in the name Covid, what has been done to the children is the most infuriating.

I'm not sure my blood will ever stop boiling.

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

~ H. L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series

Expand full comment

Hell YES!!!! I see masked children all the time here in Commifornia. I have to bite my tongue when I see parents UNmasked and their children with masks on. It’s child abuse. People this stupid should not procreate!

Expand full comment

I live in Silicon Valley, and the level of masking is almost unbelievable.

I take my son to school most mornings and probably some 50% of the kids on their way to school are muzzled, perhaps more.

Just an absolute disgrace.

Expand full comment

I follow Dr. Mark McDonald’s lead when seeing unmasked parents with masked kids: https://markmcdonaldmd.substack.com/p/pity-the-children

You’d say something if you saw a child being abused in public, right? So…say something. These children are actively being abused.

Expand full comment

I DO say something!!!! As a follower of Jesus Christ, I know the evil waged against the children. I know that the children are the prime targets. Kill innocence…it makes me sick, truly.

Expand full comment

One of my guiding principles is that if it's on a roadside sign, it's probably crap. I recall the visceral annoyance I felt when I saw, "It's a small ask!" on signs in Rochester, NY. The most basic, simplistic, engineering analysis on the actions a mask could perform--either a semi-permeable membrane or an impermeable membrane--show it as folly. The lunacy of keeping a nice, warm, bacteria substrate on your mouth and nose? What's the worse that could happen?

Expand full comment

GROSS!!!! And kids are playing outside with them on!!!! No fresh air!!!!

Expand full comment

Don't forget masking on planes.

"Why are customers so unruly lately?"

Remove the masks -

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/why-uss-unruly-air-passenger-incidents-halved-last-week/CML3VMHTLO3EFYVK7O7S7JNHYQ/

Unruly air passenger incidents in America have hit their lowest level since 2020 just one week after the government dropped the mask mandate on public transport.

The Federal Aviation Administration recorded 1.9 incidents per 10,000 flights during the week ending April 24. This is down from 4.4 a week earlier.

The mask mandate was dropped on April 18.

Expand full comment

Even when I had to wear a mask for my job *for the right reasons* (never for flipping "covid") I would feel my heart rate increase as it began pumping harder to supply oxygen to my body and brain. I often felt like I had drank 2 pots of coffee in just a few minutes. When working with my crew it was extremely easy for us to start snapping at one another when we were all masked up. These are things that many of us regular working class people knew from the beginning and we we're laughed at or shunned. This great mask experiment is just as harmful as the experimental shots in my opinion. And the powers that should not be absolutely know what they are doing.

Expand full comment

Masking is nice for less facial recog also. Just a snark comment BTW 🙄

Expand full comment

The only proper place for masking ;)

Expand full comment

It’s truly disheartening to see how many STILL cling to the belief that masks have value re COVID. Whether through fear, virtue signalling or peer pressure.. what’s it going to take to deprogram the population?

As always, thank you for you insightful essays 🙏🏼

Expand full comment

While I consider masks the least of our problems, you are right that they are part and parcel of the mental programming and subservience campaign by the ones who desire to be our overlords.

Expand full comment

Masking, (now) voluntary, psychologically "sticky," clung-to like a Linus blanket, is indicative of one of the real issues---acceptance of small requests that (invariably) lead to acceptance of larger requests. There is a psychological principle, maybe even part of a series of observations made about hostage behavior and/or torture techniques, that speaks directly to the practice. Put in terms of pop culture, no matter how tempting it is to accept that cool, refreshing water, the answer must remain, "There are four lights!" Any other admission, however small, to the contrary, leads to more submission. At least, that's my view.

Expand full comment

We should have never taken off our fucking shoes at the airport 👞

Expand full comment

Absolutely 100% correct.

Expand full comment

Absolutely! The masks may be the least of our problems *now* (personally I think they are still a huge problem) but they were a springboard for ever increasing tyranny and they worked like a charm.

Expand full comment

First, the cat in the mask picture. No, I repeat, no self-respecting cat would submit to this sort of stupidity. 🙀

Thanks however. None of it surprises me. I am admin at Doc office. I am required to say “wear a mask” when assisting a patient. It sticks in my throat. Today more than ever. Not unique unfortunately is the comment I got back this morning: “I’m glad your office is still masking”. I HAVE taken to having fun with my phrasing in response “My doctors BELIEVE in masks.”. I sincerely say that almost every time. Two of my docs even look really smug in their high class expensive versions. Hmmmm.

I have long guessed at CO2 levels but have not had the documentation. Thanks for posting.

Expand full comment

We withdrew our son from NJ public school in October, 5 weeks into the school year. He was having difficulty focusing, was getting headaches and his grades were suffering. He is so much happier now, doing very well in his online school and making new like-minded friends. Masks are optional again in the public schools, but he's definitely not going back!

Expand full comment

I withdrew my son from his private school, not because they forced it on their own, but were too afraid to push back against the health department and the rabid mask proponents among the parents (most scientists and MDs 🙄). I am so disgusted with what has been done to our children by these people. I think anyone who requires mask wearing needs to sign a document accepting any and all liability for any adverse effects.

Expand full comment

Thank you for loving your child enough to make the sacrifice necessary for him!

Expand full comment

What a sweet reply. Being a mom is my greatest pleasure and greatest responsibility. Our kids (we have another in college) will always come first.

Expand full comment

I have always seen covid/masks in a monster-under-the-bed scenario. Some of you may have been comforted by the "fact" that you're safe under the covers because monsters can't penetrate covers. In reality, you were safe because there were no monsters under the bed.

Expand full comment