NEJM Bombshell: "universal masking may lead to more transmission of Covid-19"
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A new article published in The New England Journal of Medicine points out the truth about mass mask wearing, and that the main if not only benefit of masks is that it eases anxiety of some people, which JAMA points out "may not be strictly logical."
Please share this article widely and visit NoMask.info which includes a collection of many peer-reviewed medical studies and testimony by many doctors who tell the truth about masks and all the harm that can occur when healthy people wear masks unnecessarily.
Here are some key excerpts from the New JAMA article:
"We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection.
Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures.
fear and anxiety are better countered with data and education than with a marginally beneficial mask, particularly in light of the worldwide mask shortage, but it is difficult to get clinicians to hear this message in the heat of the current crisis.
The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372
Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era
May 21, 2020
List of authors.
Michael Klompas, M.D., M.P.H., Charles A. Morris, M.D., M.P.H., Julia Sinclair, M.B.A., Madelyn Pearson, D.N.P., R.N., et al
We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.
What is clear, however, is that universal masking alone is not a panacea. A mask will not protect providers caring for a patient with active Covid-19 if it’s not accompanied by meticulous hand hygiene, eye protection, gloves, and a gown. A mask alone will not prevent health care workers with early Covid-19 from contaminating their hands and spreading the virus to patients and colleagues. Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures.
The calculus may be different, however, in health care settings. First and foremost, a mask is a core component of the personal protective equipment (PPE) clinicians need when caring for symptomatic patients with respiratory viral infections, in conjunction with gown, gloves, and eye protection. Masking in this context is already part of routine operations for most hospitals. What is less clear is whether a mask offers any further protection in health care settings in which the wearer has no direct interactions with symptomatic patients. There are two scenarios in which there may be possible benefits.
The first is during the care of a patient with unrecognized Covid-19. A mask alone in this setting will reduce risk only slightly, however, since it does not provide protection from droplets that may enter the eyes or from fomites on the patient or in the environment that providers may pick up on their hands and carry to their mucous membranes (particularly given the concern that mask wearers may have an increased tendency to touch their faces).
More compelling is the possibility that wearing a mask may reduce the likelihood of transmission from asymptomatic and minimally symptomatic health care workers with Covid-19 to other providers and patients. This concern increases as Covid-19 becomes more widespread in the community. We face a constant risk that a health care worker with early infection may bring the virus into our facilities and transmit it to others. Transmission from people with asymptomatic infection has been well documented, although it is unclear to what extent such transmission contributes to the overall spread of infection.1-3
The extent of marginal benefit of universal masking over and above these foundational measures is debatable. It depends on the prevalence of health care workers with asymptomatic and minimally symptomatic infections as well as the relative contribution of this population to the spread of infection...
And then the potential benefits of universal masking need to be balanced against the future risk of running out of masks and thereby exposing clinicians to the much greater risk of caring for symptomatic patients without a mask. Providing each health care worker with one mask per day for extended use, however, may paradoxically improve inventory control by reducing one-time uses and facilitating centralized workflows for allocating masks without risk assessments at the individual-employee level.
There may be additional benefits to broad masking policies that extend beyond their technical contribution to reducing pathogen transmission. Masks are visible reminders of an otherwise invisible yet widely prevalent pathogen and may remind people of the importance of social distancing and other infection-control measures.
It is also clear that masks serve symbolic roles. Masks are not only tools, they are also talismans that may help increase health care workers’ perceived sense of safety, well-being, and trust in their hospitals. Although such reactions may not be strictly logical, we are all subject to fear and anxiety, especially during times of crisis. One might argue that fear and anxiety are better countered with data and education than with a marginally beneficial mask, particularly in light of the worldwide mask shortage, but it is difficult to get clinicians to hear this message in the heat of the current crisis. Expanded masking protocols’ greatest contribution may be to reduce the transmission of anxiety, over and above whatever role they may play in reducing transmission of Covid-19. The potential value of universal masking in giving health care workers the confidence to absorb and implement the more foundational infection-prevention practices described above may be its greatest contribution.
Whether wearing a mask will "protect" or not, to what "degree", who said what about the mask and when...etc is completely irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteThe mask's nefarious effect resides in its symbolism and in it being a tool to manipulate one's subconscious into voluntary servitude. Once you acquiesce to smother yourself because the demons posing as the father-figures of mankind said so, you have given the green light for your own enslavement as well as the enslavement of everybody else. Once you start wearing a mask out of fear of the consequences, you then just joined the slaves and those for whom resistance is too good and honoroble to be on their daily menu
Notice how, while pretending that people's health is all of a sudden all they care about, those demons have demoted a human being to simply being a vector of disease and death. Those who worship those demons, are still scraping the walls and trying to get away as fast as possible when they cross path with an ordinary human being.
The following video shows what the demons-worshipers, wearing a muzzle, are paving the road for :
https://youtu.be/d_B_g1oNODQ
May the demons as well as the demons-worshipers be cursed.
See what those demons advertise about themselves, for all to see. Do you see any children's toys that the caption is mentioning, in that poster ?. Those are the kind of demons empty people are so anxious to obey :
https://youtu.be/JSV0pPujd4I