Masks don't work so why are people continuing to push for them?

A wide ranging look at developmental issues around mask wearing plus a review of their efficacy.

Once again prominent people are continuing to push for mask mandates eg the Tony Blair Institute:

“ Mandate FFP2/3 face-mask wearing for NHS staff in health-care settings. Be prepared to re-introduce the mandating of mask wearing on public transport”

and, in addition, masks remain a prominent feature of health services.

This posting includes an interview on the subject with Jeffrey Peel followed by a summary of the scientific evidence on their ineffectiveness—with updated research. I also include a brief summary of the harms they have done. For those interested the post ends with brief excerpts from reports on the impact on the development of babies, young children and teenagers.

The Scientific evidence from around the world is quite clear: masks do not work. Indeed some 167 studies show they do not work-in a review of the scientific literature, Professor Paul Alexander presents the available evidence. “With robust and clear conclusions: masks do not control the virus and can be dangerous, especially for children”.

And government knows it.

“It was deeply concerning to see schools “strongly encouraging” children to wear face coverings before the summer break. Despite early hopes, we now know from the real world data that mask mandates had no significant effect on interrupting the spread of coronavirus. Meanwhile, the damaging unintended harms of covering our faces are profound and still being felt. The use of masks is not, and has never been, a benign or recommended public health intervention”( signed by the Co Chairs of the APPG (All Party Group at Westminster on Pandemic Response and Recovery)

The UK Government’s own  Evidence Summary  on the use of face coverings in education settings found  they had NO statistically significant effect on transmission – the evidence showing they serve NO purpose in controlling the spread of Covid.

And according to Carl Heneghan  Professor of Evidence based Medicine at Oxford University, “There is no evidence that masks are protecting children and teachers in schools.” Which he repeated very recently on his Substack “Clinical Trials Show No Clear-Cut Effect of masks”

And as he told the N. Ireland government.

A very recent study in Spain published by the BMJ concludes:

“We found no significant differences in SARS0CoV-2 transmission due to face covering mandates in schools”

and in Wales

"There was no evidence that face coverings, 2-metre social distancing or stopping children mixing was associated with lower odds of COVID-19 or cold infection rates in the school." (Marchant et al. 2021)

In August  a European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report concluded that children were much less likely to contract the virus. It reported that that ‘re-opening schools had not been associated with significant increases in community transmission’.

If cases are running at a certain level and masks work---what would happen ----cases would fall. As Ian Miller said  masking children is completely unsupported by the data and here is the data.

 Recent American research carried out by Guerra and Guerra into case growth in states which had a mask mandate and those which did not ---showed that mask mandates were not associated with lower COVID-19 case growth.

And in Europe-graphs for most European countries are available in Unmasked by Ian Miller.

The graph below shows that the effect of the graduated mask mandate in the UK was non-existent and also confirms that cases rose after the mandate.

Figure

I am grateful to Ian Miller and Ivor Cummins for the graphs

Results such as these are replicated in study after study and country after country -and the reason-

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons concludes: “Wearing masks  will not be effective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, whether worn as source control or as PPE. 

Masks remain at the centre of the fear agenda and their continued use ignores their ineffectiveness and the harm they are doing

so why are people continuing to push for them?

PART 2 The Harms

“The implications of face masks for babies and families during the COVID-19 pandemic”: This paper published in the Journal of Neonatal nursing is very informative -and see below for a longer excerpt.

“For an infant, this(wearing a mask) has the potential for long reaching effects in the early stages of neurobehavioral development”.

The most recent Ofsted report  in Spring 2022, highlighted the damaging effects of the restrictions on the development and learning of young children. The report should be enough to set alarm bells ringing.

• delays in babies’ physical development

• a generation of babies struggling to crawl and communicate

• babies suffering delays in learning to walk

• babies struggling to respond to basic facial expression.

• toddlers struggling to make friends,

• regression in children’s independence eg unable to toilet independently

• delays in speech and language

• children with limited vocabulary

The report also highlights the ongoing negative impact of face masks on young children’s language and communication skills, noting that those turning two years old will have been surrounded by adults wearing masks and who have therefore been unable to see lip movements or mouth shapes.

Ruth Sedgewick, the Head of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in Northern Ireland said:

“A growing number of young children are experiencing significant communication problems following the lockdowns. We’re seeing children who can’t talk at all, they grunt or they point at things they want. They don’t know how to speak to the other children and if they want a toy they will push the other child out of the way or snatch a toy from them.” She too highlighted the damaging effects of masks

In addition to-headaches, irritability, fatigue, sleeplessness, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, less cheerfulness (according to Pandata) also acknowledged by government by the way.

For reasons of length, I have omitted harms to education, which I have covered here and here. and which formed the main component of my presentation at the  recent Healthcare for the Future conference, this will be available next week.

I have included below three pieces of research commentary which are very informative and easily read.

Addenda:

Excerpt from the Journal of neo natal nursing.

“The brain grows rapidly during this time and has reached half its adult size within three months, doubling in size in the first year. By age three, it has reached 80 percent of its adult volume (Cao et al., 2017). Brain growth is strongly affected by the baby’s experiences with people in their world, and brain development is influenced by relationships, experiences, and the environment (Griffin, 2017; Jensen and Nutt 2015; Tronick et al., 1975).

From the minute of birth, faces are visible to infants, with research indicating that newborns shown photos of their mothers and other people, are adept at differentiating their mother’s face from the faces of strangers (LoBue, 2016). LoBue’s research also indicated that newborns chose to look longer at images of their own mothers compared to images of different women (LoBue, 2016). Moreover, research has demonstrated that it only takes newborns a few days to learn how to discriminate between differing emotional facial expressions, such as happy, sad and surprised (Farroni et al., 2007; Palama et al., 2018). By the time an infant has reached five months of age, they are able to match the image of an emotional expression such as a sad face, with the corresponding sad vocal expression (Rigato et al., 2011).

 Reciprocity is a process of communication between a baby and a parent. The baby sends out signals using facial and vocal expressions about his/her needs, and then waits for a response. The parent or caregiver reads and responds to the baby’s signals, and this in turn serves as a return signal for the baby to read. The actions of the baby and parent affects the other in a manner that has been described as resembling an intricate dance (Brazelton et al.,1974, 1975; Yogman et al., 2018).

The ability of an infant to recognise and prefer its mother’s face over others’ faces has also been explored and highlighted as well as facial preference related to gender and race. Infants have been shown to be able to discriminate between male and female gender (Righi et al., 2014)

 For infants and children to feel safe, there is a heavy dependence on facial expressions as they rely on their parents’ emotional cues via facial expression to regulate their responses towards them or to potentially threatening situations. Karz and Hadani (2020 "

Fair Start Report sets out the importance of these early years and the scale of the tragedy is highlighted in the recently published Fair Start report  in N. Ireland.

 It emphasises that “children’s early experiences have a profound and lasting impact on their future learning and development”

Vivian Hill, professor of educational psychology and part of the British Psychological Society Covid working group, looking at isolation and confinement and Dr Goldin of Great Ormond Street hospital give a very clear and succinct account of the timeline of harms in their piece entitled

“How lockdown harmed the mental health of our children, from toddlers to teens”

The article describes the harms at the various stages of development and is well worth reading.