Government Forces Schoolchildren to Wear Masks in Classrooms Again Despite Studies Showing No Benefit

Masks are back for schoolchildren in Year 7 and above, who from the start of term will be required to wear them throughout the day including in classrooms. The Telegraph has the story.

Secondary school pupils will be asked to wear face masks in classrooms again as ministers draw up contingency plans to keep schools open amid fears of widespread teacher absences.

The measure will apply to students across the country in Year 7 and above, with the Government issuing new guidance just 48 hours before millions of pupils are due to start returning after the Christmas holidays.

It brings England in line with Wales and Scotland, with mask guidance already in force for staff and pupils when walking through corridors and communal areas.

Defending the decision to reimpose masks in classrooms for the first time since May last year, Nadhim Zahawi said it was designed to help “maximise the number of children in school” and would remain only as long as needed.

Writing for the Telegraph, the Education Secretary said face-to-face teaching would be the “expected norm” heading into the new term, and confirmed that all exams in January would “go ahead as planned”.

“The Prime Minister could not be clearer: education is our number one priority and we will do everything in our power as a government to minimise the disruption to schools,” he said.

However, the Telegraph can also disclose that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) have begun discussing proposals that could see heads asked to prioritise primary, GCSE and A-level pupils for face-to-face teaching should schools be hit by widespread staff absences, with others taught remotely.

Other potential guidance that could be issued in a worst-case scenario includes grouping multiple classes together in sports and assembly halls. The department is also looking at “flexible staff models” should absences hit 10%, 15% or 25%, but insiders say schools are likely to “tip over” at 30%.

Worth reading in full.

The controversial move comes despite the two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) for the use of masks against COVID-19 finding no robust evidence of benefit. The Danish Danmask-19 study found no statistically significant reduction in COVID-19 incidence from the use of surgical masks (the study didn’t look at the even less effective cloth masks that are common among school pupils). The Bangladesh mask study also found no benefit from cloth masks and the reported benefit from surgical masks was just 11%, with a 95% confidence interval that included zero (meaning we can’t even be 95% sure there was any benefit at all). The mask intervention in Bangladesh was also accompanied by an awareness raising campaign, among other issues that confounded the findings.

Masks are ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 largely because SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus and cloth and surgical masks do not prevent people breathing, or filter particles small enough to prevent sufficient virus particles passing in and out.

But why let scientific evidence get in the way of a political gesture and a sop to the unions?

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DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Its less than a cold which is being 100% exploited, if the teachers can’t understand that they are too dim to be in the education sector.

emel
emel
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

That’s why they become teachers; they are too dim to do anything else.

BS665
BS665
4 years ago
Reply to  emel

A tough hide, not a supple mind, is what teachers generally have.

Corky Ringspot
4 years ago
Reply to  emel

A bit cruel but largely true. I speak as a secondary school teacher. Most of my colleagues are not subtle thinkers, but are – have to be – very thick-skinned. I’m no Bertrand Russell but nor am I a pachyderm, and I’m looking for a way out of this profession. The stress is difficult to convey to people who’ve never attempted to teach a class of 30 disaffected British teenagers – even under non-Covid conditions. But the Covid nonsense has given me extra impetus; school life is now intolerable. It’s a daily torture to see many children plainly suffering from the callousness with which the government, through the unions, is directing their lives. Every class contains at least one child who won’t ever remove that flimsy, utterly useless face covering – despite the obvious rude health of his/her classmates. Some kids horse around and behave normally, in close proximity to their friends, yet continue to wear a mask – because…it’s cool? it’s different? I don’t know. Others – always at least one per class – very painfully avoid all contact and are evidently petrified. God knows what they’re being told at home. A shocking state of affairs.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago
Reply to  emel

Those who can do, those who can’t teach, and those who can’t teach, teach teachers. (Not my words.)

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Will teachers skivving off for Covid be on furlough or sick leave?

Early Doubter
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

and elsewhere a Govt Minister says no need for more restrictions, yet the masking comes to secondary schools!!!

DoctorCOxford
DoctorCOxford
4 years ago

My son is in the last push to A Levels. He doesn’t need a sop thrown to the unions screwing up this period. Fortunately we signed his medical waiver last March, so, he can avoid it. But he enjoys his friends and the whole atmosphere. This, um, stinks (keeping it family friendly here).

No demonstrated efficacy. Engineering-wise can’t stop the virus anymore than a chain-linked fence can stop snow. This is the ultimate “do something” move for a group that doesn’t need anything done. If a parent is frightened, they mask their kid. Stop testing and tell kids stay home when unwell and if they miss 3 days in a row, then text. The insanity has to stop but sadly Princess Nut Nut and her wandering husband don’t have the backbone to do anything.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  DoctorCOxford

“We signed his medical waiver . . . so he can avoid it altogether”

Back in my schooldays the rest of us would have been immensely jealous of our classmate not having to wear a mask (“just coz his dad’s a doctor”) and done everything possible to get that privilege too.(25% of the class)

But not the goody-two-shoes bedwetters with designer masks (25%) who sit by the open window.

The remaining 50% who have obeyed thus far might now be prepared to jump ship by tearing off their masks and seeing what teacher can do about it.

Vxi7
Vxi7
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

You have to wear a facecovering according the law. There are sites to order from or you can do it at home from curtain material a face covering which looks like mask but absolutely does FA.

As I am forced to wear a mask in the job I’m using one like this so my boss is happy and me too. As a light physical worker I refuse to suffocate for nothing.

Catee
4 years ago
Reply to  Vxi7

Not if you’re exempt you don’t and you decide if you’re exempt.

maccone
maccone
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

It’s a ‘mandate’ but not law. I hate these useless suffocating pieces of paper or cloth and refuse to wear one ever since it caused me to lose a hearing aid. Without aids I can hear very little, especially when everyone else is masked. So please remove them, too. Don’t be a sheep!!

The old bat
4 years ago
Reply to  Vxi7

You don’t have to wear a facecovering! I have a heart condition and I have never worn a mask. I used to wear a lanyard, but decided I did not need to excuse myself any longer – I mean, the very thought of having to show you don’t need to wear a government appointed item of apparel is ridiculous if you think about it. I go about my business unmasked and have only once been mildly challenged by a security guard, who backed off pretty quick when I snarled at him.
My condition is very mild tbh, and wearing a mask would be no problem 90% of the time, but it’s the principle. Just like no one is going to tell me who and how many I can invite to my home, no one is going to tell me what to wear either.
Stop complying. It’s all a load of utter bs. You could wear a loose crochet mask and people would be happy because you were masked up, despite the massive holes! (I have actually seen this).

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  Vxi7

Its not law, its guidance..

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Vxi7

Schoolchildren are not allowed to smoke by law, neither are they allowed to bunk off school, play ‘Adult’ computer games or squeeze each other until they faint to everyone’s satisfaction and delight.

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

And behold, they never do any of these things.
Nor are there any bullies in our schools, because all schools are plastered with notices saying so.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Actually, a whole class “conspiring” together to tear off their masks in a sign of protest would be an interesting social experiment.

I recall in my times we had such conspiracies to organize flunking of some late classes during good summer weather, and it was a major effort to convince some holdouts to participate. But nowadays we’d probably be shot on the spot if we tried to leave school premises.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  rayc

Losing the middle 50% would be teachers greatest danger.
Starting with just one or two as they opt to emulate their maskless friends . . .

stewart
4 years ago
Reply to  DoctorCOxford

The insanity has to stop but sadly Princess Nut Nut and her wandering husband don’t have the backbone to do anything.

Worse still, we are going to be treated to comments about how much of an anti-lockdowner Johnson is because he hasn’t locked the country down again, how much worse it could have been and what a totally liberal guy he is, fighting off the SAGE monsters.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

From the article, with this measure Johnson is “bringing England into line with Scotland and Wales”

This is just the beginning of a comprehensive process, it’s the excuse I expected him to use for locking England down on NYE but he bottled it.

Slowly but surely new measures will be introduced merely “bringing England into line with Scotland and Wales”.

amanuensis
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

If England ultimately has to do all the insane things that Scotland and Wales do then we’re doomed.

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  amanuensis

We don’t ‘have’ to do anything.. and we’re not doomed if we don’t do what we’re told. Enough defeatist talk already!

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  amanuensis

It could be part of a wider political/constitutional game.

Once England is fully aligned with Scotland and Wales numbers will count so that S&W have to follow Englands lead thus negating some of the damage to England-Scotland/Wales relations caused by Blair.

N.I. is different since bozo sold them out to Brussels.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

We shall see. I think he is very aware that he is haemorrhaging votes. Which is what he really cares about. He’s made it quite clear our well being is of no concern to him and the First Lady

Susan
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

And eventually bring England in line with Australia. What’s to stop it?

Epi
Epi
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

fighting off the SAGE monsters. He’s just given the F*****s gongs!! Incredible!!!

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  DoctorCOxford

Demonstrated medical problems for kids wearing masks for any more than very short periods. Less oxygen intake, and expelled CO2 recirculated into lungs.

Malevolent abuse of children. May Johnson and the loathsome teaching unions rot in hell.

George L
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Absolutely, I’ve posted a similar comment..

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

They will. If there were multiple eternities, they’d rot in hell for all of them.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago
Reply to  DoctorCOxford

That’s being far too kind to them to say they don’t have the backbone. They know EXACTLY the evil they’re doing, and the terrible wickedness they’re perpetrating. They don’t care because they’re smug and self-serving. There is something else on their horizon which is MUCH more important to them than the well being of OUR children.

Paul B
4 years ago

At the new years party I went to, out of 100 people, the only people I saw wearing masks were 1 child (over mouth) and 3 under chin. They either don’t care, have become some sort of weird fashion, peer pressure or maybe they are too young to realise it’s not normal. Impressionable, you can see why they are targeted constantly by progressives, easy way to change the world, set and forget for a generation.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Paul B

3 out of 100 so it’s not peer pressure; it can’t be out of tradition like the last of the old geezers who still display a pocket handkerchief.

More like normalisation as you suggest. I remember being at a party years ago chatting to a carpet fitter who was horrified when he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his specially designed Stanley Knife, a normal tool of his trade but at a party it it became an offensive weapon and made him a criminal.

eon
eon
4 years ago
Reply to  Paul B

I was recently told by a BTP police officer on a train to put my mask on. I put it over my chin and when she returned back down the carriage nothing was said.

Many people are chin wearers now to avoid the fines and then occasionally you exchange a glance with worried looking cloth mask wearer because you’re not wearing it properly.

These germophobe neurotics are oblivious to the fact their mask does nothing, and with Omicron having r0 of 8 or more (as bad as measles), even an N95 isn’t stopping it.

TheBluePill
4 years ago
Reply to  eon

You only have to say the magic word “exempt” if asked, and if you look confident they won’t even ask.

Occasionally at my destination city centre train station they have a pair of police armed with automatic rifles near the ticket barriers. I always head in their direction and walk as close as possible unmuzzled. I do this so the sheep can see that the authorities have no… well… authority.

I’ve noticed a new behaviour from some hesitant sheeple recently. They don’t wear a muzzle on the train, but put one on when they arrive at city centre stations. These people clearly know that masks are bullshit but they fear being caught.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  TheBluePill

Fear of the authorities has probably outweighed fear of Covid for many months now. The same applies to fear of condemnation and shaming by fellow members of the public should they dare to ignore the latest government diktat.

Susan
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

“Fear” doesn’t quite cover it. In my case, I dread the inevitable encounter with the self- appointed mask police, who disregard one’s humanity and show an utter lack of charity.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Susan

The self appointed mask Police are probably the same school playground bullies that you learned to del with years ago.
Or, if you didn’t, now is the time to get your revenge.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  eon

Full face mask wearers were probably feeble neuroticts to begin with but they are still victims of nearly two years of sustained psyops conducted against them by our own government with the mercenary collusion of the media.

That visitors to sites such as Daily Sceptic can see through the crass and obvious propaganda does not make their victimhood less so.

It was for this reason that I used to carry spare ‘exempt’ lanyards during Lockdown Lite last Summer, to give to the deserving uninformed if they accepted my explanation about why they were themselves exempt.

Gregoryno6
4 years ago

It’s beyond ‘no benefit’.
Oxygen Deprivation Mask Syndrome.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Gregoryno6

‘Research Reveals 20% oxygen depletion’ bollocks.
“Research absolutely confirms the bleedin’ obvious” would have been a better title.

This was the very first and loudest objection to ‘proposals’ for drivers having to wear masks be they private citizens, taxis, hauliers or delivery drivers.

During the ‘proposals’ stage I had a conversation with a Traffic Cop in a petrol station.
I asked him if he, his Union or his Force Police Serviçe had a view on the dangers of drivers wearing masks, especially for long distances or time.

He met me squarely in the eyes and said

“We dont wear them”

I took this to indicate that Officers don’t want to wear them but that there was lively debate going on with management.

Subsequently they did wear them.

NeilParkin
4 years ago

Perpetuating the child abuse I see. What happened to ‘no further measures’.?

TheBluePill
4 years ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

They are masking them to show that children need experimental jabs. I am aware of lots of teachers who acquired moronic variant over the Christmas holidays. Most of it came from them socialising with each other. You would think that might demonstrate to them how little transmission actually comes from children.

Prester John
Prester John
4 years ago

In a decent country, these regulations would be quashed by a judicial review. I do not include England (or the UK) in the category of countries where you could have a reasonable hope that you would get a fair hearing on the issue.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Prester John

They.made access to Judicial Review much more difficult and expensive shortly before Covid arrived, coincidence I am sure.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

The psychopaths manipulating this would like us living the handmaidens tale

loopDloop
loopDloop
4 years ago

If they’re all wearing masks, it can hardly be described as ‘face-to-face’ teaching, can it. Just saying.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  loopDloop

This was pointed out to me by a senior practising psychologist who carried on working at a secure mental health unit throughout Lockdown Proper, including directly with Sectioned persons.

When management started to return after Working From Home memos appeared demanding all one to one meeting be held fully masked.
This meant that neither could read each others faces so any evaluation was worthless.
Further, the Sectioned person often regarded the mask as part of the punishment being inflicted upon them, similar to them not being allowed to smoke, even though they might not have been convicted of any crime.

stewart
4 years ago

Children once again being made to pay the price for political posturing.

Jabs and masks, not for them, but to pretend to help older people.

Disgusting.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

In the beginning of the pandemic I was wondering “since when does a consumerist society led by military-industrial complex care about the old people so much, shouldn’t they be worried about economic damage instead?” Today it is very clear that it has always been a completely fabricated ruse to advance business as usual, i.e. violent economic redistribution/robbery from the naive defenseless masses to the ruling “elite” wielding the sticks.

Annie
4 years ago

God, the bastards. The foul, vile, filthy, sadistic, lying bastards.

Lucan Grey
4 years ago

The question we need to ask is why government, after two years, does not have a cast iron study of face masks in classrooms and the impact on viral spread in schools.

Why have we not collected the hard data and instead are buckling in the face of religious wing nuts?

This isn’t science. It is a political retreat in the face of the National Education Untion.

caipirinha17
caipirinha17
4 years ago
Reply to  Lucan Grey

If the govt isn’t commissioning this research, independent concerned individuals with the appropriate expertise could do it anyway. No sign of that either. We need to stop expecting the govt to do the right thing – they won’t.

CynicalRealist
4 years ago
Reply to  caipirinha17

There is research out there, which always shows that the face nappies have no benefit. It can also be seen by comparing stats between countries and states. It’s not necessary to do a load of RCTs to see this.

The problem is that the governent insist that they work despite no evidence, and the media parrot it as instructed.

Let’s not forget that it should always be those who claim that an intervention works who have to demonstrate that it actually does – not the other way round.

Lucan Grey
4 years ago
Reply to  caipirinha17

Government has control of the purse, and therefore they can pay for it to be done.

Carl Heneghan et al still have to put food on the table, which is why they are operating as doctors not study supervisors.

We have a government for a reason. So that stuff that needs to be done gets done – rather than the whims of those with money and power.

The money wants you subdued permanently, and currently they are winning. Unless we demand government prove their case loudly, they will continue to pander to the squealing and wailing of the other side. Government responds to those who make the biggest noise.

A passerby
A passerby
4 years ago

Now will everyone please calm down, please, everyone, quiet please……….Today’s announcement merely wishes to confirm to you all, all of the people living in the UK, that the establishment is only trying, quiet please, trying it’s best to preserve stupidity at all costs.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

‘So we will celebrate the end of a good enough year despite covid and all of its nuisances’,. from a cousin in Canada, who has had an operation delayed and all of her social activities seriously curtailed. Personally, I’m getting impatient for the day of reckoning

sophie123
4 years ago

This is despicable.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago

Until parents march into schools and have ‘serious words’ with the headmasters and teachers and union representatives, this child abuse is just going to continue.

2021 showed that no parents did this. Why would 2022 be any different?
Whilst their kids are at school, parents are at home testing themselves with lateral flow kits… more fun than The National Lottery – and, what’s better, it’s free!

Niborxof
Niborxof
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

We pulled our children out from a school because of masks. They have the lawyers attempting to get years notice period in fees. They have been told where to shove it. Now unlikely to be able to work due to v maddness… stressful but resolute. Thankfully none comes as a surprise due to comment sections of sites like this.

Norman
4 years ago

It is not about health , it never was-
contingency plans to keep schools open amid fears of widespread teacher absences”
It is all about teachers finding excuses to skive.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Norman

Someone posted on another site yesterday; they took part in Resiliance Planning Scenarios for the Home Office (I belive).

One such scenario was about civilians all over the country raiding goverment depots in search of a well known virus killing substance (can’t remember which one).
Rather than plans for orderly distribution of the miracle cure the scenario concentrated on Military Action in response to such raids.

I asked the poster what % of such Home Office scenarios started off by seeing the British public as the enemy. Sadly I did not get an answer.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

They aren’t teachers, they are implementing a curriculum, not an independent thought in their heads

Hester
Hester
4 years ago

“Education is our number one priority” Educating them in what exactly? how to not question? how to obey pointless, health harming rules? making them hurt their own bodies whilst men and women in suits watch, whilst their teachers are complicit in the cruelty, If you allow your child to sit for 7 or 8 hours a day being forced to breathe through a rag over their faces, which becomes damp with their warm breath and so produce the perfect environment for the growth of harmful bacteria, aside from it catching pollution, dirt and carbon dioxide, which is in itself a toxic gas thus causing illness, and mental damage then you have to ask yourself are you too complicit in the damage to your child because you are not strong enough to stand up and protect them against these people who seek only to harm.

Lucan Grey
4 years ago

The Bangladesh study is a bit more than ‘among other issues’.

it violates pretty much every single tenet of setting up and running a randomized controlled experiment. its output is not even sound enough to be wrong. it’s complete gibberish.

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/bangladesh-mask-study-do-not-believe

caravaggio57
4 years ago

When will Government understand that teaching unions will always do their best to **** up anything it wants to do. Just ignore them.

Catee
4 years ago

So parliament has been recalled to vote on this increase in restrictions has it and zahawi has produced the research that backs up this imposition?
…. No, just more of the same kowtowing to the public sector unions, how come its teachers and hospital staff who are continuously off and not the shop workers or the self employed? You know the ones who don’t get full pay for being repeatedly off and it not being counted on their absence record.
Stop paying the cunts to be off instead of masking our children

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

Having just returned from a ten day stint as an inpatient on a highly specialised NHS ward I can report that, with one exception, there no longer appears to be a ‘covid absenteeism’ problem within my large regional hospital at least. Bank Holiday shifts were shared out in exactly the same way as in years past with some not expected to work at all over the holidays. These are staff that cannot simply be replaced by agency nurses overnight, if at all. The Ward Round was conducted each morning by a different Consultant, none of whom seemed to work on the Holiday afternoons. The exception was my only constant, Maria, the Domestic who serviced my solo en-suite room for 7 days running (and no doubt the other 15 such rooms on the ward). Questioning this she told of her many colleagues reporting sick with Omnicon leaving the department understaffed and her overworked. She took a dim view of these excuses. On Monday 27th Dec she was able to finnish at lunchtime and take the rest of the week off. How so? “Because Monday and Tuesday are (faux) Bank Holidays so Double Time and everyone suddenly recovered from Omnicon”. Maria also… Read more »

MTF
MTF
4 years ago

I suppose it is worth repeating. The Danish study did not look at the role of masks in reducing transmission. It only looked at the role of masks in protecting the wearer which has always been accepted as marginal. It is almost impossible to organise an RCT to measure transmission which is why you have to explore other evidence such as laboratory explorations of the effect of masks on expiration which provide mixed but somewhat positive evidence that they make a difference.

But why let scientific evidence get in the way of a political gesture and a sop to the readers of this forum?

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

Masks for something less than a cold? whatever the scientific evidence

Anti_socialist
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

I remember reading a research paper on bTB & Badger transmission. Apparently to try to prove cows catch Tb from badgers they put an infected caged badger in a cow shed for 24 hrs among a herd of cattle. They failed to prove anything, they’re still trying, apparently.

Another interesting experiment, Unscientific Human @Dr. Sam Bailey, Another first British Failure.

A Heretic
A Heretic
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

We’ve got real world comparisons between masked and unmasked states/countries that show no difference in any of the ridiculous mandates.

MTF
MTF
4 years ago
Reply to  A Heretic

There are some comparisons that show no difference but:

  • There is a large gap between mandates and actual mask wearing.
  • The studies tend to take one or two countries or states and compare them without allowing for confounding factors. Studies such as this one that include a lot of countries or states and allow for confounding factors tend to show a moderate but noticeable benefit.
tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

That study looks at a plethora of variables and is full of words like “might”, “could”, “hypothesized” and so on. Hardly convincing. It seeks, rather desperately, to extract some suggestion that masks might work.

It has been conducted to try to justify a pointless policy after it has been introduced. It does not start with an open mind trying to discover whether something might help significantly.

MTF
MTF
4 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

That study looks at a plethora of variables and is full of words like “might”, “could”, “hypothesized” and so on

The same is true of any study that is not a political rant. Anyway it is only an example.

It has been conducted to try to justify a pointless policy after it has been introduced.

Tricky to study the effects of a policy before it has been introduced!

Beowulf
Beowulf
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

But why let scientific evidence get in the way of a political gesture and a sop to the readers of this forum?”

What scientific evidence? The Danish RCT demonstrated that masks made no difference to the wearer – are you suggesting that masks fail to prevent the wearer from breathing in SARS CoV2 viruses, but do prevent the wearer from breathing out the virus? Are cotton rags a one way system then? Do tell.

MTF
MTF
4 years ago
Reply to  Beowulf

 are you suggesting that masks fail to prevent the wearer from breathing in SARS CoV2 viruses, but do prevent the wearer from breathing out the virus? 

It is to do with concentrations. If you are infected, then the virus is present in the air you breath out in much greater concentration than the air you breath in – even if there are infected people in the room. The mask can make a much bigger difference to the relatively large concentration than it can make to the relatively small concentration.

Beowulf
Beowulf
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

“The mask can make a much bigger difference to the relatively large concentration than it can make to the relatively small concentration.”

And the evidence supporting that claim is…?

If masks markedly reduce the ‘concentrations’ of virus particles (which I doubt) in the exhaled breath of infected people, then they ought to reduce the ‘concentrations’ of virus particles in the air that is inhaled as well, and as a result, the rates of infection ought to differ between the masked and the unmasked, but the Danish Mask Study results showed that there was no statistically significant difference. Why do you think cheap masks are a one-way system?

MTF
MTF
4 years ago
Reply to  Beowulf

And the evidence supporting that claim is…?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7
https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/5/e002794?ijkey=b5b031c6c1374104486ca0c94fa8fb5a9655099a&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2007800
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0016018

and so on …

If masks markedly reduce the ‘concentrations’ of virus particles (which I doubt) in the exhaled breath of infected people, then they ought to reduce the ‘concentrations’ of virus particles in the air that is inhaled as well,

Yes – but if the level of concentration in the inhaled breath is low then the reduction in concentration is going to be very small (because there isn’t that much to reduce) and the difference in your chances of infection may not be statistically significant; whereas there is much more scope for reducing the concentration of the exhaled breath and therefore it is more likely to show up in reduced infection risk.

tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

Any scientific proof of the efficacy of face shields, or medical masks worn incorrectly, or those bits of plastic you can buy to push the mask away from your face and allow in fresh air? Anything to prove that the variety of face coverings worn by the general public have had any overall benefit?

You can show that, in contrived situations, with specific coverings worn properly there might be a small chance that a droplet containing a virus might be stopped. Whoopee!

Beowulf
Beowulf
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

Have you actually read any of these studies? I’ve looked at the first on your list and I’l quote

Our results indicate that aerosol transmission is a potential mode of transmission for coronaviruses as well as influenza viruses and rhinoviruses.”

Well as this is a very early study we now know that aerosol transmission is the mode.

“Our findings indicate that surgical masks can efficaciously reduce the emission of influenza virus particles into the environment in respiratory droplets, but not in aerosols.”

“Among the samples collected without a face mask, we found that the majority of participants with influenza virus and coronavirus infection did not shed detectable virus in respiratory droplets or aerosols…”.

There are too many problems with this study to go into, but as you can see, the results don’t support your view, particularly as the study did not address the infectivity of the viral shedding.

tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

And what scientific evidence might that be? Can you show me any evidence that any country or state with mask mandates has achieved a better outcome than an equivalent area that hasn’t had such mandates?

huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  MTF

I don’t need a study to convince me one way or the other.

We have survived and until two years ago thrived on this planet with millions of viruses. Our immune systems are so good that they have managed to keep the species alive without requiring an evolutionary adaptation to our respiratory systems – you know flaps for the open bits. Amazing.

If you believe that spending 8 hours per day with a rag on your face is in any way safe you are deluded – constantly taking up your own exhausts from an increasingly soppy piece of cloth which is full of germs.

Really?

Anti_socialist
4 years ago

The bumbling bozo buffoon isn’t such a hero after all, then.

Smelly Melly
4 years ago

Over Christmas we went to a family gathering and a member of the family works in social services. She was saying that suicides amongst the youth have jumped dramatically. In her area they use to see 5 or 6 youth suicides a year, now it’s 2 or 3 per week. She said the majority of cases are high achieving males who have lost hope.

Evil doesn’t describe this shower of shit thats called a government.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

From the outset of Lockdown One Local Live Online (Mirror Group News) would carry 1, 2 or sometimes 3 daily reports along the lines of ‘man found dead in car on M-Way bridge’, ‘Woman found dead at bottom of cliffs’ or ‘popular local musician found dead at home’.

These reports generally ended with “the Police say there are no suspicious circumstances and the Coroner has been informed”. ie not crime but not natural causes either.

What these reports did not include were the words Covid, Lockdown or Suicide (presumably to stymie internet searches) yet they were usually accompanied by pop up adverts for The Samaritans.
What a clever algorithm.

alw
alw
4 years ago

It’s a small number of vociferous adults who are the problem. They should not be allowed anywhere near children. We must shout NO from the highest rooftops. You do not have to consent and can exempt yourself/ your parents can exempt you.

tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  alw

Yes, but will they? Too many will just go along with everything.

Quizzical
Quizzical
4 years ago

How sad that Minister so successful at cutting through the “blob” over the vaccine rollout should now have been captured by the “blob”. I had high hopes for Zahawi, now evaporated

Catee
4 years ago
Reply to  Quizzical

Really, you had high hopes for him?

tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

No. These people are always a king-size let down.

huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  Quizzical

Are you winding us up?

He’s a bloody Iraqi gangster.

Smelly Melly
4 years ago

I was talking to a fairly high up Rotarian friend back in November. He informed me that they have been asked to prepare for volunteers for mass testing on 4th Jan, when the children return to school. So this was planned weeks if not months ago. They will mass test and guess what, they will find a high percentage of “positives” in the children and by mathematical modelling they will conclude the virus is rampant and we need to be locked down again, for our safety.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Smelly Melly

It’s the predictability of moves like this that can be so depressing.

wantok87
4 years ago

Parents and teachers who encourage their children to wear masks are encouraging a dangerous false truth and should be utterly condemned.

eon
eon
4 years ago

Has anyone found any details as to who owns the masks companies?

Like the testing companies some of which are linked financially to ministers, it is most likely a big scam to make ministers more money.

karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  eon

Someone reported the other days that some NHS Trusts pay twice as much as others for identical masks depending on where in China they source them (and the abilities of their procurement officers).

RTSC
RTSC
4 years ago

“Amid fears of teacher absences” …… code for teacher REFUSING to do their jobs, not ill.

Once again, children are to be sacrificed to appease the teaching unions because this pathetic Government won’t dare take them on and won’t admit that the masks are useless.

huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  RTSC

The government are quite happy for the teaching unions – the leaders have clearly been bought – to cause trouble because it provides them a get out, an excuse:

It was the unions, not us.