In March of 2020, public health told us that wearing medical grade face masks did not work when used by the general public.
Then on Apr 6, 2020, they told us to wear “cloth face coverings”.
The studies pre-Covid and post-Covid said that N95 masks work well, certified surgical masks work less well, and there is no real world evidence to support “facial coverings” made of random bits of cloth.
But here we are in July 2021 and they still tell us to use “cloth face coverings”.
After we had 94% “face covering” compliance, daily cases increased by 10x more. And this perhaps because of the use of “cloth face coverings” rather than actual respirator masks.
- In January, 2021 the CDC said we should wear two – and some said three – “face coverings”.
- The White House, Bavaria, Austria, and the NBA *banned* the use of cloth face masks and mandated N95s or FP2s *only*.
But, here we are on July 18, 2021:
What kinds of masks are acceptable?
Face coverings come in many kinds, including homemade cloth face coverings, plastic face shields, surgical masks and N95 respirators.
OHA recommends wearing a face covering or mask instead of a face shield, except in limited situations when a face shield by itself is appropriate, like talking to someone who is deaf or hard of hearing and needs to read lips to communicate.
We encourage Oregonians to continue conserving medical-grade masks for the medical professionals who need them most. Cloth face coverings are effective for most non-medical uses, and they’re reusable and washable.
Source: Oregon Mask Requirements
Instead of recommending masks that might work, they continue to recommend “cloth face coverings”, which have not stopped the spread of Covid-19. Further they specifically tell us NOT TO USE “medical-grade masks” of any type.
When someone tells you that “masks are proven to work”, ask them to define “mask”: Do they mean N95s or random bits of “cloth facial coverings”?
A few public health “experts” have begun to notice that “mask” should mean an effective mask, not a random bit of cloth:
Gottlieb, Emauel, Osterholm – add more experts daily to the call to ban cloth facial coverings and replace them with actual masks that actually do something of value.
