Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

(Part 2 of Face Masks: A Placebo with Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the second article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.) 

Part 1 - Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2 - Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3 - The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4 - Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5 - Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~

In part 1 of this five-part series about face masks, I discussed how the politicization of the COVID-19 virus has led our health authorities to prioritize opinions over evidence, causing them to turn their backs on decades worth of randomized controlled trials, which clearly demonstrated that face masks are not an effective tool to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. 

In this article I will explain why they don't work, despite our initial gut instinct that they should.

Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

(Part 4 of Face Masks: A Placebo With Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the fourth article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.) 

Part 1 - Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2 - Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3 - The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4 - Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5 - Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~

In part 1 of this series, I showed how our health authorities are ignoring decades of robust scientific evidence demonstrating that face masks don't reduce the spread of respiratory viruses in favor of opinions that they do. In part 2, I explored the basic physics of the droplets and aerosols produced by coughing, sneezing, and breathing, which explained why face masks cannot reduce the spread of a respiratory virus despite our gut instinct that they should. And in part 3, I showed how our misplaced confidence in face masks and air filtration caused us to recklessly expose many of our most vulnerable citizens to contaminated air spaces, leading to thousands of entirely preventable deaths.

In this article I will discuss how face masks are contributing to a self-reinforcing cycle of irrational fear. A placebo is not harmless if the psychological effect of wearing this placebo contributes to an unjustified level of panic not proportional to the threat. And, even more importantly, a placebo is not harmless if the illusion of safety offered by this placebo gives people unrealistic expectations of being able to avoid the risk altogether. Then, when this misplaced faith in masks fails to stop new infections and deaths, the public (and policymakers) erroneously blame "irresponsible" citizens, which leads to an escalation of authoritarian enforcement of ineffective health measures that dismantle our civil liberties and ruin our lives.

Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

(Part 5 of Face Masks: A Placebo With Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the fifth and final article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.)

Part 1: Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2: Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3: The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4: Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5: Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin, 1755

A mandatory face mask is not just a piece of cloth strapped to your face. The laws making face masks mandatory represent a fundamental shift in the social contract between citizens and their governments. They have made individual autonomy negotiable, subject to the needs of our nations, the fears of our neighbors, and the whims of our leaders.

The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

(Part 3 of Face Masks: A Placebo with Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the third article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.)

Part 1 - Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2 - Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3 - The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4 - Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5 - Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~ 

In part 1 of this article series I explained why our health authorities turned their backs on decades of medical evidence when they wrongly assumed that face masks are capable of reducing the spread of respiratory viruses. In part 2 I discussed the basic physics of why the large droplets produced by coughing and sneezing don't meaningfully contribute to spreading the virus while the aerosols that are responsible for spreading the virus are too small to be filtered by masks. 

In this article I will explain how our misplaced faith in masks (and air filtration in general) is dramatically increasing the risk of death among our most vulnerable citizens in long-term care homes. The mistaken focus on air filtration prevented health authorities from implementing other effective measures and led to dangerous policies that put many of our most vulnerable citizens in harm's way by locking them in contaminated air spaces with other infected COVID patients. 

Carrots and Sticks Go Viral

Marks on the ground for where to stand,

Lines in the stores so we don’t get out of hand,

Punished in the park for where we sit,

Praised for wearing masks so no-one gets bit,

Now all that’s missing is biscuits, clickers, and chaining,

This ain’t a health exercise, it’s dog training!

COVID-19 Lockdown

The Epidemiological Data Shows it is Unnecessary, Extremely Risky, and Harmful to Those Most in Need of Protection

The rapidly-growing body of epidemiological, virological, and forensic data from around the world shows that, in our fight against the COVID-19 virus, we have taken the precautionary principle to absurd extremes, completely out of proportion to the risk we face. We are in the process of throwing ourselves off an economic cliff to escape a virus that, while not to be taken lightly, is revealing itself to be far less of a threat to the majority of our population than first anticipated.

Our health policies are not being adjusted to match the emerging data. The lockdowns have not been repealed and our politicians and public health officials are not being confronted by the obvious questions raised by this data. The public deserves to see what epidemiologists, virologists, and forensic scientists are learning about COVID-19 before we continue to submit to the significant restrictions and economic devastation that our leaders are unleashing upon us.

So, over the coming paragraphs I will go through this publicly available data on COVID-19 to explain why our lockdown is unnecessary, extremely risky, and even harmful to those most in need of protection from the virus.