18 Comments

We need to start listening to the Industrial Hygienists who actually do PPE for a living. Masks don't work against viruses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3dor-4Af2A

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Dear Gato,

Something I cannot understand today which you perhaps are most qualified to educate me about. So I ask, how is it the clinical, academic and institutional doctors in the US and Europe too it seems, so utterly cowed into submission to say or not say anything to support "the narrative". Seriously, is it threats to loose licenses? Yet a very few like flccc are very vocal and remain licensed (but have lost jobs I think). Or student loan debt? Or, is weekly waterboarding part of medical school for some time now???

I wonder what hold exactly "they" have on them to render smart people, trained in nuanced thinking to destroy the hard won credibility of their profession to protect such obvious frauds. And thanks to you for pointing out many examples.

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As an elementary teacher (in-person in a lockdown state, half my students in the classroom with me, half on zoom simultaneously — it’s nuts)....I can attest to the adverse impact that masking has on me and I think on my students. My colleagues largely seem chipper about masks — doing their duty and “keeping everybody safe” — but the losses in human communication add up hourly, daily, and even though I have been compliant with the school rules I am not shy about reminding my students this is not normal. I have resisted cloth masks because the cutesy designs and “personalization” serve to distract from the supposed emergency and abnormality of this....but now with new reports about carcinogenic effects and massive pollution resulting from use of these surgical-style masks, Indint know what to do.

Oh and by the way the effectiveness of masks must be part of the cost benefit analysis. After a year wearing these damn things when required (but never outside unless I am with my students and following school rules) — three weeks ago, I, as a healthyish middle aged teacher with no major co-morbidities, woke with a strange headache and popped a + PCR test later that day. Been teaching from home since then as required and will be back in the classroom on Monday. (Sense of smell still affected but feel okay.).

The shame is that my positive test meant that every in-person kid in class had to get tested, and several of them are now relegated to “at-home learning” via zoom for a few more weeks, with or without symptoms.

At least I get to see them smile now, from home on camera....if I can get them to smile. Some of them are undoubtedly now saddled with guilt for having “brought corona into the classroom” — and I have to undo that psychological abuse while still enforcing a mask policy that on the one hand is obviously ineffective and on the other hand is a prerequisite to in-person attendance in school.

Thank you for your important work.

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I find your work invaluable, if sometimes challenging to explain to people why I attribute so much credibility to a cat I've never met. I raise this with that in mind: the NCBI study you cite was retracted. Now, I have no trouble believing and agreeing with 99% of the things a cat writing *free* content puts forth. But if I'm going to convince the school board, the underlying stuff has got to be solid. (Says the guy contributing nothing and gaining much from someone volunteering their time and talent...)

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I can't understand why they haven't solved the spread of cholera with butt plugs. Same science, surely?

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Excellent work Gato, is insane how even if you give all this data to the "authorities" they most likely ignore you, I'm not even gonna mention their main ally, mass media. I guess our only hope is to spread this knowleage to our most loved ones, friends and family (though some of them are already hard-brainwashed).

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I am forwarding this to my daughter who works 10-12 hour shifts at a behavioral health center fro children. She is required, currently to double mask. It's insane. And it's not helping the kids (many of whom are on the autism spectrum) understand and interpret her directions as they cannot see her face. These are kids who have experienced trauma and the facility is adding more...it's wrong. But I doubt if her superiors will listen as they are following "CDC guidlines" whatever those are at the moment. Breaks my heart for her, her co-workers and the chilren.

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I've got a lot of experience shopping in close quarters for the last 6 months and it's clear to me that most of the public in Florida believes that they are suffieiently protected by a cloth mask worn losely and not even covering the nose, to make the 6 foot distancing rule irrelevant. Seems to me it's common sense the farther away you are from an infected person the better if you're not protected any other way. If people believed that the cloth masks offered little or no protection, then I'm sure many more would not crowd others and the infection rate would be less.

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