An analysis by the New York Magazine (NYM) of a recently published Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) large-scale study of COVID transmission in U.S. schools found little scientific support for masks in schools.
More troubling, the analysis by the NYM found that CDC failed to mention in the summary of the study the findings that indicated little support for some of the most common COVID mitigation measures in schools, including masks for students.
According to the NYM, the study published by the CDC covered more than 90,000 elementary-school students in 169 Georgia schools from November 16 to December 11. The study, according to the CDC, was the first of its kind to compare COVID-19 incidence in schools with certain mitigation measures in place to other schools without those measures.
The study found that masking then-unvaccinated teachers and improving ventilation with more fresh air were associated with a lower incidence of the virus in schools.
What was not included in the summary was the finding that many of the most common mitigation measures in schools were not effective. These measures included distancing, hybrid models, classroom barriers, HEPA filters, and requiring student masking.
The NYM spoke with scientists who” believe that the decision not to include the null effects of a student masking requirement (and distancing, hybrid models, etc.) in the summary amounted to ‘file drawering’ these findings, a term researchers use for the practice of burying studies that don’t produce statistically significant results.”
“That a masking requirement of students failed to show independent benefit is a finding of consequence and great interest,” says Vinay Prasad, an associate professor in University of California, San Francisco’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
“It should have been included in the summary.” “The summary gives the impression that only masking of staff was studied,” says Tracy Hoeg, an epidemiologist and the senior author of a separate CDC study on COVID-19 transmission in schools, “when in reality there was this additional important detection about a student-masking requirement not having a statistical impact.”
“A year ago, I said, ‘Masks are not the end of the world; why not just wear a mask?’” Elissa Schechter-Perkins, the director of Emergency Medicine Infectious Disease Management at Boston Medical Center, told me. “But the world has changed, there are real downsides to masking children for this long, with no known end date, and without any clear upside.”
She continued, “I’m not aware of any studies that show conclusively that kids wearing masks in schools has any effect on their own morbidity or mortality or on the hospitalization or death rate in the community around them.”
With regards to the Delta variant, Schecter-Perkins said, “I don’t think that Delta changes the calculus because it still seems clear that it doesn’t cause more severe disease, so it still doesn’t change the fundamental question of ‘What are we trying to achieve by masking kids when they are still extremely unlikely to suffer from severe illness or death if infected?’ And the adults in their lives have the opportunity to be vaccinated and also protected so we don’t need to worry about transmission.”
The pediatric immunologist said, “Even with a new variant, the onus is on those who recommend masking kids to robustly demonstrate a meaningful benefit, especially when the pre-Delta study of the Georgia schools did not find one, and when there are obvious socio-emotional and educational harms from masking children for this unprecedented duration of time.”
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” I have an engineering background and spent the early years of my career separating certain types of molecules from other types of molecules.”
That’s a long winded way of saying “I’m completely incompetent,” Priscilla.
People- this is deceitful word salad. Tallahassee reports is officially fake news.
The article referenced clearly states “A few major news outlets covered its release by briefly reiterating the study’s summary: that masking then-unvaccinated teachers and improving ventilation with more fresh air were associated with a lower incidence of the virus in schools. Those are common-sense measures, and the fact that they seem to work is reassuring bit not surprising”
A fun quiz. Looking at the graph, can you tell when people started wearing masks? When there was a mask dictate in that place? No.
https://www.covidchartsquiz.com/
https://rationalground.com/mask-charts/
https://rationalground.com/post-thanksgiving-mask-charts-still-no-evidence-that-masks-work/
https://rationalground.com/category/masks/
I’m not seeing any consistent or significant drops in spread subsequent to mask ? dictates… and they didn’t work for influenza 1918-1922, either. (Jeremy Brown 2018 _Influenza_ pp61-62; John M. Barry 2004, 2014 _The Great Influenza_ pg226).
The trouble is that they do partially block air-flow, but these virus particles are very very small. With normal paper & cloth masks, the drops are blocked, but as we move around, the aerosols are suspended in the air all around where we were, and in-doors can cause infection hours after. Surgical masks are only slightly better, NP95s a little better yet…but not perfect. Infected individuals still leave clouds of virus behind. And, similarly, mask-wearers still breathe them in. (Recently, AAAS reported that research on prions had to be paused in France because several lab scientists were “infected”; prions are much smaller than Wuhan virus, couldn’t be filtered out using a ceramic filter, even.)
I haven’t seen any recent reports about the effectiveness of UVC (hard ultraviolet) in HVAC systems. Early on there were a few scientifical * articles saying they should be effective, but that presumes all of the aerosols are drawn through the system. (* These days, one cannot trust that an article in a so-called science journal is based on actual scientific testing.)
Kudos to PW. Political power-madness serving hysteria it is.
Neither a face diaper nor two shots of sugar water and fertilizer runoff prevents anyone from contracting the China Bio-Weapon Flu.
… on THIS… the Sciences is Settled
If you actually read the study from the supplied link, it’s apparent that it is both a horribly limited study based on self-reported information & that that an argument that masks should not be worn by children in schools based on criticism of the study is also heavily flawed. In fact, an argument against children wearing masks based on the study would be even worse.
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One, the mask that surgical staff use in an operating room are very different from the cloth or paper ones most people use as a COVID precaution. Two—and more importantly—the masks that surgical staff do not work against respiratory viruses; if the patient or any of the staff is ill with a cold or flu or something worse, they don’t operate.
I’ve lost several loved ones over the past few years. None of them were wearing a face diaper and none of them died (with) the China Bio-Weapon Flu. However, every one of them was under the care of the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex in one form or another.
Wear a face diaper and take 2-shots of sugar water and fertilizer runoff if you choose. But leave the rest of us the he// alone about it. And stop damaging our children with your insanity.
“My Body; My Choice”… it’s not just for killing innocent babies anymore
Hmm, if masks don’t work at all whatsoever, I wonder why areas with mask mandates keep showing decreases in overall cases, deaths, and hospitalizations shortly after implementing them.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2781283?resultClick=1
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e3.htm
Why is that when airlines started requiring masks for all passengers and crew, mass transmission events on flights stopped happening?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7543400/
I’m starting to see a pattern.
Perhaps, and I’m just speculating here, that even if a cloth mask isn’t capable of blocking the transmission of every single droplet nuclei into the air, they might be blocking some of them?
Maybe when the person behind you at Walmart is coughing and sneezing into the air unmasked, there are more respiratory droplets being released into the air than if they had a mask on? Why do we teach kids to sneeze into their arm rather than project snot into the faces of everyone around them. What’s the difference?
If masks don’t work, why do doctors and nurses wear them in surgery?? What would you do if you went into surgery and no one wore a mask? My best friend didn’t wear a mask and didn’t get the vaccine (her husband got the vaccine and is fine) and she died yesterday from Covid, after being in the icu on a ventilator for 3 weeks. She was perfectly healthy and she thought this was all a conspiracy to “control” us. I will miss her so much and I wish everyone would just shut up about wearing a mask or getting a vaccine. I hope none of you all won’t lose a loved one and have to mourn the loss like i am. I will wear a mask as long as there are still folks getting the Covid.
For over 40 years prior to the Kung Flu outbreak study after study after study, all peer reviewed, have shown the complete ineffectiveness of cloth masks for stopping any and all viral infections. They are only meant to stop docs from sneezing onto folks while operating on them and to prevent bodily fluids squirting onto them while in the ER, OR or dental chair.
Along comes the Kung Flu and all of a sudden, Chicom Face Diapers become the magical talisman of protection against the Kung Flu virus. Now, in the past year and a half, peer reviewed study after study, most notably the Danish study early on, show the same result. Chicom Face Diapers provide zero benefit and possibly a net negative benefit other than a possible placebo effect for a panic porn society which the enemedia continues to bleat out with zero context. This nonsense has been hyper politicized through and through and has nothing to do with real science.
Finally, we have this recent CDC study getting the same result which was conveniently memory holed. The fact that you Branch Covidian Cultists of Covidstan are so wedded to your Chicom Face Diapers in the absence of any real science supporting your position proves you are in a filthy despicable cult. You cultists prefer to worship your Pope Fauci and the baby murdering federal government. What’s more despicable is you evil cultists want to force children to wear them for 6 hours a day, five days a week at a government indoctrination center. I see you child abusing, filthy Branch Covidian Cultist parents forcing your little ones to wear them in the stores, at church and at restaurants.
You cultists are also the first ones rushing out to get your young ones the clot shots, completely ignoring the tsunami of catastrophic deaths and side-effects that have overwhelmed the CDC’s own Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Antibody Dependent Enhancement is occurring before our eyes with these clot shots driving all the breakthrough infections and viral mutations. In a sane civilization all this would be stopped immediately and criminal proceedings would start against the cultists who forced this on the nation. And yes, I include that despicable Trump, who allowed all this insanity to start, with his psychotic Operation Warp Speed and handing his presidency over to Big Pharma and these Branch Covidian Cultists. That lunatic still wants you to get the clot shot. The Left seized on this to implement their tyrannical Great Reset. Well done Trump, pedophile Joe and you filthy cultists. Congratulations on finally destroying a civilization.
If masks are supposed to filter-out extremely small microscopic COVID particles, why can I still smell the french-fries at McDonalds when I walk-in with my mask on?
Breaking News… 15 Million Mail-In Ballots Unaccounted For In 2020 Election… says new report
What many People have forgotten is that, most of those catching Covid are most likely getting it from Touching instead of by Airborne. You can wear all the Masks you want but, if you are shacking hands and touching surfaces that is contaminated with Covid you are as good as Covid Positive.
Breaking News: The Dementia Joe Biden Sadministration has pressured the FDA to approve the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex’s experimental chemical cocktail – 4 years ahead of standard scientific practices – as a pure political move in an effort to redirect the news cycle away from their treasonous debacle in Afghanistan… thus placing millions of American lives at risk of who knows what long term impacts of the drug.
Politics over People… its the NaziCrat way don’t ya know.
Excellent article and some great comments – thank you. Sadly, because of political agendas, we have lost trust in our public health community. They should be pushing vaccines, not masks. I recommend this interview for more information:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/harvard-epidemiologist-martin-kulldorff-on-vaccine-passports-the-delta-variant-and-the-covid-public-health-fiasco_3942556.html
I have a close friend who got Covid (or the flu, no one really knows anymore)… then he got the shots of sugar water and fertilizer runoff… then he got Covid again. He’s fully recovered… again. (true story)
From the beginning of this nonsense, he wore a face diaper as prescribed by the non-science “experts”.
Newsflash: Face diapers and experimental chemicals do not prevent you from catching the China Bio-Weapon Flu.
… on THIS… the Science is Settled
It’s time for the Governor to hit the Leon County School District and other defiant school districts with significant financial penalties.
The conclusions don’t surprise me as they are consistent with RCT and observational data.
From a physical perspective, fine aerosols spread essentially like a gas, like part of the air. A mask would have to block air while allowing air around or through it so a person doesn’t suffocate, rendering it futile.
Masks were promoted during a period of mass hysteria. It is long past time to retire them and refocus on efforts like ventilation or moving crowded events outside.
Thank you for continuing to spread this truth. Our society is in a mass psychosis on this topic, propagated by fear campaigns and endorsed by politically motivated elected officials. I advise against holding out for the CDC to guide us, their science and their recommendations have long been hijacked by the very institutions they were designed to regulate. Masking our children is harmful and abusive. It is ineffective at preventing the transmission of a respiratory virus. If this was truly about public health one must also consider the psychological effect of these masks on our children- their inability to see a whole human face, to read facial cues, to not even see a smile- it’s despicable what we have allowed to happen and I for one say NO MORE!!! Thank you Steve for continuing excellent work!
A friend of mine quit chewing Redman because he thought it would give him throat cancer and a month later he was run over by a tobacco truck. (True story)
A life fully lived is hard and dangerous, and I greet each day with that in mind.
I’m not getting any boosters and I ain’t wearin’ any more nasty masks that have been riding in the console of my truck all week just because someone else thinks it’s a good idea. I don’t!
So if you see me comin’ and it scares you, run!
“If you don’t watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite.”
R.P. McMurphey
Thank you, Tallahassee Reports. I have an engineering background and spent the early years of my career separating certain types of molecules from other types of molecules. I know a thing or two about filters, scrubbers, and precipitators. I understand the data and the science — and I understand that this mandate is based in neither. It is based in fear. If strapping fabric across my child’s face could protect her from a deadly virus, I would do it without hesitation. I HAVE been doing it for over a year, despite my understanding of its futility, because people are fearful… But enough is enough. It’s time for Reason to prevail.