Thread by @yinonw

In science, observations drive conclusion.
In politics, conclusions drive observations.

A thread about masks. This is not advice not to wear a mask. It is simply sharing information. Share it before twitter censors it. (1/X)

Nobody wants unnecessary deaths. Wearing a face covering isn’t that hard to do, so what’s the big deal? Why are we so divided? (2/X)

For one, it’s hard to know who to trust. Many officials wear masks when they think the cameras are on them but then take them off when they think the cameras are off. Dr. Fauci has been caught doing this multiple times. (3/X)

Chicago mayor and the media were all caught taking off their masks and violating social distancing as soon as their press conference ended and they thought the cameras were off. (4/X)

Some politicians and health officials are so desperate to make people believe in masks that they doctor up charts to make their case, even when their own data actually undermines them. It's no wonder people lose trust in some health officials. (5/X) wsj.com/articles/kansa…

So what is the actual science behind masks? Let’s look at some of the hard research and perhaps Twitter won’t censor me for sharing scientific studies. (6/X)

The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford summarized six international studies which “showed that masks alone have no significant effect in interrupting the spread of ILI or influenza in the general population, nor in healthcare workers." cebm.net/covid-19/maski… (7/X)

Oxford went on to say that “that despite two decades of pandemic preparedness, there is considerable uncertainty as to the value of wearing masks”.

Warning that this has “left the field wide open for the play of opinions, radical views and political influence.” (8/X)

A study of healthcare workers in over 1600 hospitals showed that cloth masks only filtered out 3% of particles. bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e0…. (9/X)

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine stated “[W]earing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection” and that “[T]he desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.” nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

There are many other credible studies reaching similar conclusions. Here are just a few to explore:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216002/

cambridge.org/core/journals/…

academic.oup.com/cid/article/65…

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.11…
(11/X)

Studies do show masks can help in the case of direct respiratory droplets… which would matter if somebody is coughing, breathing, or sneezing directly on you (confined spaced). But do not help in aerosols, where two people are just in the same area. (12/X)nature.com/articles/s4159…

And what about real world situations? The evidence simply isn’t compelling that masks meaningfully help, and certainly not when wearing them outdoors. (13/X)

The same can be seen when comparing cases among states. With and without mask mandates, Texas and Georgia followed a nearly identical development. (14/X)

For those more interested in comparing deaths than cases, we again don't see a pattern of masks meaningfully helping (15/X):

As we have seen, there were many studies showing universal wearing of masks lacked medical efficacy. That is probably why prior to covid, the standard recommendation was for healthy people not to wear masks in a pandemic. So what changed? It wasn’t a new study. (16/X)

What changed, in my opinion, is that governments scared the crap out of people and they needed a way to back peddle without admitting their lockdowns were a mistake.

Just wear any old piece of cloth on your face and you will magically be ok to go out shopping. (17/X)

A common sense test: put your mask on w/your hand an inch in front of it. Now blow out as hard as you can. How much air do you feel on your hand? Probably little to none, because much of the air you breath goes out the path of least resistance, through the top and sides. (18/X)

Masks work well when they're sealed and have a real filter. I know this from the military. Otherwise they may only protect against someone breathing directly on you. With an unsealed mask, you may be breathing air 2" to the left of your mouth instead of 2" in front of it.

If masks were really important, the gov't would be conducting all sorts of tests on which masks are most effective. The FDA would be making recommendations on which to use.

There is none of that. Just put anything on. Perhaps because it's more psychological than medical. (20/X)

Our nation has more important things to debate than masks. So this is not advice not to wear a mask. It's just information.

Imagine how many more lives we could help by focusing our resources and efforts on our leading causes of death and on society's biggest problems. (21/21)

(22/21) Bonus: Video that visually shows how air actually travels in and around a mask when you breath.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't wear a mask, but this 2 min video can at least make everyone a little more informed.

videopress.com/v/4egEyh2b