Dear Reader,
The wearing of a face mask to protect against a respiratory virus is an act of grand deceit. It is a behavior that deifies research on the topic.
Until the narrative around mandatory masking has changed, each day, by 6am Eastern and by 6pm Eastern, I will post a science-based reason why no one should wear a face mask.
I ask that you help me circulate these pieces to those around you who you believe could most benefit from them. It is important not to remain silent on this topic. These are important discussions to be having with friends, family members, business owners, healthcare practitioners, public servants, and others in the community.
-Allan
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has an estimated 15,000 people in its workforce; some 88 of them work on Emerging Infectious Diseases1, a highly regarded, peer-reviewed journal of epidemiology, published by the CDC.
April 3, 2020 — CDC Face Mask Order
On April 3, 2020, the CDC announced that everyone should wear face masks, wash their hands, and clean surfaces in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19.2
CDC 4/3/20: Wear Masks To Fight Covid
On April 3, 2020, the CDC advised, “Everyone should wear a cloth face cover when they have to go out in public, for example to the grocery store or to pick up other necessities.”2 Private and governmental policies across the US and internationally were crafted according to this statement.
CDC 4/3/20: Wash Hands To Fight Covid
On April 3, 2020, the CDC advised, “Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.”
CDC 4/3/20: Clean Surfaces To Fight Covid
On April 3, 2020, the CDC advised, “Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily. This includes tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, and sinks.”2
May 2020 — Researchers Prove the Opposite
May 2020, Jingyi Xiao, an epidemiologist from the University of Hong Kong, and her colleagues, ran a paper entitled “Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings — Personal Protective and Environmental Measures”3 at the CDC’s journal of epidemiology, Emerging Infectious Diseases. In this paper they sought to separate myth from reality and to demonstrate what data-driven measures can be helpful in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Xiao’s research in the peer-reviewed CDC journal specializing on this topic, showed the opposite of the April 3, 2020, statements from the CDC to be true.
Superior Methodology
Xiao’s efforts began with more diligent and rigorous methodology than recent reviewers who came before: “We searched 4 databases3 (Med line, PubMed, EMBASE, and CENTRAL) for literature in all languages. We aimed to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of each measure for laboratory-confirmed influenza outcomes for each of the measures because RCTs provide the highest quality of evidence.”
Throughout 2020, it has been easy for low-quality Covid research to get published and then circulated through the media, entirely out of con text. This has been detrimental in a time when high quality and dependable information would be most useful in the protection of life and livelihood in 2020. Consequently, Xiao does not treat every study the same. Randomized controlled trials with laboratory confirmed outcomes were the standard their review of the literature sought. Rather than cherry picking the studies with fashionable results, they sought truth and quality over political correctness and assessed the gold standard studies. Not surprisingly, in doing so, Xiao produced the exact opposite results of what you would find from Fox News, The New York Times, Google, or their many clones.
Xiao, unsurprisingly, reports what researchers of randomized controlled trials with laboratory-confirmed outcomes have long known:
“Although mechanistic studies support the potential effect of hand hygiene or face masks, evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza. We similarly found limited evidence on the effectiveness of improved hygiene and environmental cleaning. We identified several major knowledge gaps requiring further research, most fundamentally an improved characterization of the modes of person-to-person transmission.”3
You read that right:
1.) It does not matter if you sanitize surfaces;
2.) It does not matter if you wash your hands;
3.) Masks do not work.
CDC Journal 5/1/20: Sanitizing Surfaces Does Not Protect Against Covid3
Sanitizing surfaces is effective for the prevention of gastrointestinal illnesses, but it does not protect from Covid. Xiao writes:3
“Although we found no evidence that surface and object cleaning could reduce influenza transmission, this measure does have an established impact on prevention of other infectious diseases.”
CDC Journal 5/1/20: Washing Your Hands Does Not Protect Against Covid3
Similarly, hand washing is useful for the prevention of gastrointestinal illness, but the laboratory-confirmed, randomized controlled trials show that it is not useful in the prevention of Covid. Xiao writes:3
“Hand hygiene is a widely used intervention and has been shown to effectively reduce the transmission of gastrointestinal infections and respiratory infections. However, in our systematic review, updating the findings of Wong et al.4 we did not find evidence of a major effect of hand hygiene on laboratory-confirmed influenza virus transmission. Nevertheless, hand hygiene might be included in influenza pandemic plans as part of general hygiene and infection prevention.”
CDC Journal 5/1/20: Masks Do Not Work3
Face masks might help prevent the spread of some infections, but there is no proof that they work with Covid-19 or influenza. Xiao writes:3
“We did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility. However, as with hand hygiene, face masks might be able to reduce the transmission of other infections and therefore have value in an influenza pandemic when healthcare resources are stretched.”
CDC Journal 5/1/20: Face Masks Do Not Work When Worn By The Sick Either3
Some say face masks should be worn by the infected, not the healthy. In doing so, they can prevent infected people from transmitting the virus to the healthy. Xiao found no such evidence of this. Rather than relying on datasets based on questionnaires such as “Did you suffer from the sniffles last week?” Xiao, in examining this issue, only looked at laboratory-confirmed cases and found no proof that people sick with a respiratory virus should wear masks either:
“There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
CDC Journal 5/1/20: Covering Your Mouth Does Not Even Seem To Work3
Etiquette in many places says you cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough. Xiao went so far as to investigate this also, finding such respiratory etiquette unhelpful in preventing the transmission of Covid, and encouraging others to take up that area of research:
“Respiratory etiquette is often listed as a preventive measure for respiratory infections. However, there is a lack of scientific evidence to support this measure. Whether respiratory etiquette is an effective non-pharmaceutical intervention in preventing influenza virus transmission remains questionable, and worthy of further research.”
Caveat: Xiao Did Not Look At N95 And P2 Respirators3
Focusing on the most pressing matters that relate to the greatest number of people, Xiao looked at face masks and not respirators. Respirators come with their own warning. They, too, require their own hygiene and fit protocol in order or be effective, protocol seldom followed. Xiao writes:3
“We did not consider the use of respirators in the community. Respirators are tight-fitting masks that can protect the wearer from fine particles and should provide better protection against influenza virus exposures when properly worn because of higher filtration efficiency. However, respirators, such as N95 and P2 masks, work best when they are fit-tested, and these masks will be in limited supply during the next pandemic.”
Who Is More Credible — Political Hacks or Gold Standard Scientists?
It would look on the surface, like the CDC is contradicting itself. One organ of the CDC said one thing in April,2 and another organ said something else in May.3 This would not be the first confusing message from the CDC. One may feel torn between who to believe. That need not be the case at all.
You have the top brass at the CDC, composed of political hacks saying to wear something, anything, as long as it vaguely resembles a mask. Their statements shift whenever it is expedient to them. Then, in contrast, you have the peer-reviewed scientists pointing to the well-established fact that masks do not work for reducing coronavirus transmission.
I do not know what the political hacks are trying to pull or why, and I do not particularly need to know in order to understand why not to trust political hacks. What I know is that what they are saying is predictably inaccurate. This is the case for much of what political hacks say. Just because it comes from the hacks does not make it wrong, but hacks have a bad track record when it comes to science. They just do not have a primary penchant for truth. If they did, they would not be political hacks.
Face masks do not work in preventing the spread of Covid.3 The science on that is well-established.
2020 — A Year Of Superstition, Not Science
Many of the weird, OCD, germophobe, anti-social, hypochondriac maneuvers that have become commonplace in 2020 and beyond are rooted in superstition, but not science.3 While these interventions may be the advice of those reading Fox News marquees or The New York Times headlines, they are not data-driven interventions backed by peer-reviewed, laboratory-confirmed, randomized controlled trials. Those trials say something clearly different.3
Face mask orders are the territory of the science-denier, the anti-logician, the mob with torches ready to punish Copernicus for applying the scientific method and thinking according to his findings. It is not me saying that. These are the 14 gold standard studies used by Xiao and her research team.3
Knowing This, What Will You Do?
Now I have tremendous regard for those who will take this knowledge and evangelize. I also have tremendous praise for those who will take this knowledge and crash the gates. My method has been to encourage people with exemptions to say the words “I am unable to wear a face mask safely.”5 Thousands have successfully used this technique. Millions can successfully use it. One free person at a time, these lockdowns come to an end, not when a blue ribbon committee says they end.6
Conclusion: The Experts Know A Lot Less Than They Have Led Us To Believe
Xiao provides a useful slice of humble pie to the people who suddenly became Covid experts7 and tinpot dictators in the spring of 2020. The aggressive mask-police do not know as much as they think they do. The “experts”8 that the aggressive mask police are getting their information from do not either.
Unfortunately, this sober appraisal does not sell advertising, fund studies, or make careers, so instead of being the most cited study of 2020, Xiao has practically been ignored.
Perhaps in your own circle of friends, you can change this by sharing her important research.
So many of the bad policies of 2020 and beyond were refuted in the pages of the May 2020 study, yet it was widely ignored. It remains the best paper on the topic of face masks and demands widespread consideration by the medical and public health community.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2021. Retrieved from https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. How to Protect Yourself & Others. 2021. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html
Xiao J, Shiu EYC, Gao H, et al. Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings — Personal Protective and Environmental Measures. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2020;26(5):967-975. doi:10.3201/eid2605.190994
Wong VW, Cowling BJ, Aiello AE. Hand hygiene and risk of influenza virus infections in the community: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Epidemiol Infect. 2014;142:922–32.
Stevo, A. You’re Still Exempt. Just Say “I Am Unable to Wear a Face Mask Safely.” Nothing More. LewRockwell. 2020. Retrieved from https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/08/allan-stevo/youre-still-exempt-just-say-i-am-unable-to-wear-a-face-mask-safely-nothing-more/
Stevo, A. The 38-Member Blue Ribbon Committee To Protect Society From Itself Has Met And Determined That This Is The Best Way To Lift The Quarantine. LewRockwell. 2020. Retrieved from https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/04/allan-stevo/the-38-member-blue-ribbon-committee-to-protect-society-from-itself-has-met-and-determined-that-this-is-the-best-way-to-lift-the-quarantine/
Stevo, A. Suddenly Everyone Is a Corona Expert. LewRockwell. 2020. Retrieved from https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/allan-stevo/suddenly-everyone-is-a-corona-expert/
Stevo, A. COVID-19: The "Experts" Have No Crystal Ball. Mises Institute. 2020. Retrieved from https://mises.org/wire/covid-19-experts-have-no-crystal-ball
At the time this book went to press, the paper “Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare. Settings (https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article#fn1),” the best paper on face masking in 2020, had not been cited 100,000, 10,000 or even 1,000 times. It had been cited a mere 66 times.
The bestselling book "Face Masks In One Lesson,” by Allan Stevo describes how to never wear a face mask again. The follow-up to the book, "Face Masks Hurt Kids," describes why to never wear a face mask again. We must defeat the awful, narrative around the mandates. Examples of how face masks hurt kids will be posted to the Lockdown Land Substack each morning and afternoon until the narrative around this ineffective and harmful medical intervention has shifted. Face masks are, in fact, not just harmful to children. Face masks are harmful to everyone. Thank you so much for helping me circulate this research.
I wanted to point to the work by Steve Kirsh concerning masking and he and his team have proven that the masks are useless. He offered a huge amount of money to any agency or representative of any health agency who would debate his team and defend their stance on masking. Not one taker has offered to take the challenge to this day. It is easy to find what the N-95 was made for; it blocks out 95% of dust particles in factory settings but the virus particles are so small that they pass through the mask with ease and cloth is worse. Thanks for another great article but I am afraid we are up against a foe that is international in scope, and I would say that they make the Mafia look like mere candy thieves as they control every branch of government, medicine, regulatory agencies, AMA, CDC, et al but if you think on the David V Goliath story it was David who won right?
I have not once followed the hand washing/sanitizing ritual. I brew beer at home so I'm very well familiar with micro-organism and sanitation in that regard. Let's not forget that even if something is *sterilized* (never mind sanitized) once exposed to the atmosphere the clock of sterile/sanitary starts ticking even in the best of controlled environments. And I'm not talking about hours -- it's minutes at best! Seconds on average unless you're in a clean room.
Then keeping in mind that respiratory viruses do not spread by surface contact, the entire idea has always been 100% stupid. Doesn't even qualify as "doing something". You may as well pray to an Egyptian cat god -- will be just as effective.
Also, I need the bacteria on my skin. Most of it anyway. Alcohol, unless you're going to get an injection or have an open wound (etc), is not a good idea for you any of your skin. If you keep doing it like an obsessive dummy, you're going to negatively affect (if not outright injure) your skin.
The skin is the largest organ of the body. It readily absorbs all manner of substances and, often enough, that gets sent to the liver. This is well known.