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Horowitz: Pro-mask study withdrawn after virus spread in counties analyzed by researchers
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Horowitz: Pro-mask study withdrawn after virus spread in counties analyzed by researchers

'Because there are increased rates of SARS- CoV-2 cases in the areas that we originally analyzed in this study'

Call it the divine rule of masks. You shall not utter a negative word about them. You shall never question their effectiveness, even when they've failed to work for six months. You shall never be caught without the idol on your face – even on the face of your two-year-old, for that matter. You shall worship the cloth until the bitter end.

It doesn't take a scientist to see that masks don't work. The experience of unprecedented universal mask-wearing for months – even in places that had few COVID cases to begin with but then skyrocketed after mask use – demonstrates that the idea of wearing a mask to block a respiratory virus is sheer lunacy. Yet one group of researchers tried to cherry-pick data from selected counties to show that cases dropped after the mask mandate, without any regard for the fact that each wave only lasts for about 6-8 weeks in a given area before dissipating – regardless of what actions are taken by the local population. Then it comes back a few times until everyone has been exposed to the virus.

On October 23, researchers from MIT and the University of California San Francisco published a preprint study titled, "Decrease in Hospitalizations for COVID-19 after Mask Mandates in 1083 U.S. Counties." Somehow, we were to believe that these counties bucked the worldwide trend of cases spiking after a mask mandate. In reality, these were merely counties that likely already peaked in terms of the viral reproduction rate by the time the mandate was in place, so the cases were destined to drop anyway. That is, until the next natural wave.

On November 4, they were forced to withdraw the study "because there are increased rates of SARS- CoV-2 cases in the areas that we originally analyzed in this study." Oops. I guess the masks worked until they didn't.

The authors say they plan to publish "an updated analysis using data from the second and now third wave of SARS-CoV-2 in this country soon." However, the obvious fact is lost on them. The very fact that there are multiple waves demonstrates that this is a natural phenomenon and will keep going until it burns through the population regardless of what we put on our faces. When the virus is burning out in a given area, nothing can be done to rekindle it. Conversely, when it is spreading, no amount of "non-pharmaceutical interventions" will arrest the spread.

This is why proponents of the mask religion are resorting to fabricating data in order to demonstrate effectiveness while blocking the publication of any study, such as the large Danish randomized controlled trial, demonstrating that masks don't work.

Then again, we don't need any fancy study to project or predict what we see with our eyes. The virus is spreading universally more than ever (because of the cold weather and seasonality) despite months of extremely unprecedented draconian mask-wearing and other voodoo restrictions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the military, where there is more compliance than you will ever experience in a civilian population, which itself has been remarkably obsequious on the mask issue.

Last week, researchers for the Naval Medical Research Center in Maryland and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing how mask-wearing and social isolation failed to stop the spread among U.S. Marine Corps recruits at Parris Island. The over 3,000 participants were divided into two study groups, and those who tested positive up front were removed from the group on day 1. By day 14, spread was actually greater among those in the supervised quarantine group (2.8%) than in the control group (1.7%).

What was the protocol for those in the quarantine group?

All recruits wore double-layered cloth masks at all times indoors and outdoors, except when sleeping or eating; practiced social distancing of at least 6 feet; were not allowed to leave campus; did not have access to personal electronics and other items that might contribute to surface transmission; and routinely washed their hands. They slept in double-occupancy rooms with sinks, ate in shared dining facilities, and used shared bathrooms. All recruits cleaned their rooms daily, sanitized bathrooms after each use with bleach wipes, and ate preplated meals in a dining hall that was cleaned with bleach after each platoon had eaten. Most instruction and exercises were conducted outdoors. All movement of recruits was supervised, and unidirectional flow was implemented, with designated building entry and exit points to minimize contact among persons. All recruits, regardless of participation in the study, underwent daily temperature and symptom screening. Six instructors who were assigned to each platoon worked in 8-hour shifts and enforced the quarantine measures.

This is everything that Dr. Fauci and the other fascists have asked for, right?

Now, anyone who has been in military training can tell you that if a drill sergeant commands you to do something, you listen. This is doubly true for a protocol that is regarded with the upmost importance for public health. Yet the masks were worthless. Now extrapolate this for a civilian population. You will never obtain more control over a population and achieve a greater degree of compliance than in a group of Marine recruits, and these absurd measures failed miserably. Just like they failed with a group of Army recruits at Fort Benning.

The good news is that the study also found that 90% of those infected among this predominantly young population were asymptomatic, consistent with other research. So why are we abusing children and young adults with tactics that don't work for a virus that is not dangerous to them?

It's about control and idolatry. Except this form of idolatry requires more faith in cloth diapers than the men of cloth have in God.

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