Study/report title, author, and year
published and interactive url link |
Predominant study/evidence report finding |
LOCKDOWNS |
1) Lockdown
Effects on Sars-CoV-2 Transmission – The evidence
from Northern Jutland, Kepp, 2021 |
“Analysis shows that while infection levels
decreased, they did so before lockdown was
effective, and infection numbers also decreased in
neighbour municipalities without mandates…direct
spill-over to neighbour municipalities or the
simultaneous mass testing do not explain this…data
suggest that efficient infection surveillance and
voluntary compliance make full lockdowns
unnecessary.” |
2) A
country level analysis measuring the impact of
government actions, country preparedness and
socioeconomic factors on COVID-19 mortality and
related health outcomes, Chaudhry, 2020 |
“Analysis was conducted to assess the impact of
timing and type of national health policy/actions
undertaken towards COVID-19 mortality and related
health outcomes…low levels of national preparedness,
scale of testing and population characteristics were
associated with increased national case load and
overall mortality….in our analysis, full lockdowns
and wide-spread COVID-19 testing were not associated
with reductions in the number of critical cases or
overall mortality.” |
3) Full
lockdown policies in Western Europe countries have
no evident impacts on the COVID-19 epidemic,
Meunier, 2020 |
“Extrapolating pre-lockdown growth rate trends, we
provide estimates of the death toll in the absence
of any lockdown policies, and show that these
strategies might not have saved any life in western
Europe. We also show that neighboring countries
applying less restrictive social distancing measures
(as opposed to police-enforced home containment)
experience a very similar time evolution of the
epidemic.” |
4) Effects
of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19: A
Tale of Three Models, Chin, 2020 |
“Inferences on effects of NPIs are non-robust and
highly sensitive to model specification. Claimed
benefits of lockdown appear grossly exaggerated.” |
5) Assessing
mandatory stay-at-home and business closure
effects on the spread of COVID-19, Bendavid,
2020 |
“Assessing mandatory stay-at-home and business
closure effects on the spread of COVID-19…we do not
find significant benefits on case growth of more
restrictive NPIs. Similar reductions in case growth
may be achievable with less-restrictive
interventions.”“After subtracting the epidemic and
lrNPI effects, we find no clear, significant
beneficial effect of mrNPIs on case growth in any
country.”“In the framework of this analysis, there
is no evidence that more restrictive
nonpharmaceutical interventions (‘lockdowns’)
contributed substantially to bending the curve of
new cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy,
the Netherlands, Spain or the United States in early
2020.” |
6) Effect
of school closures on mortality from coronavirus
disease 2019: old and new predictions, Rice,
2020 |
“We therefore conclude that the somewhat
counterintuitive results that school closures lead
to more deaths are a consequence of the addition of
some interventions that suppress the first wave and
failure to prioritise protection of the most
vulnerable people.When the interventions are lifted,
there is still a large population who are
susceptible and a substantial number of people who
are infected. This then leads to a second wave of
infections that can result in more deaths, but
later. Further lockdowns would lead to a repeating
series of waves of infection unless herd immunity is
achieved by vaccination, which is not considered in
the model. A similar result is obtained in some of
the scenarios involving general social distancing.
For example, adding general social distancing to
case isolation and household quarantine was also
strongly associated with suppression of the
infection during the intervention period, but then a
second wave occurs that actually concerns a higher
peak demand for ICU beds than for the equivalent
scenario without general social distancing.” |
7) Stay-at-home
policy is a case of exception fallacy: an
internet-based ecological study, Savaris, 2021 |
“To assess the association between staying at home
(%) and the reduction/increase in the number of
deaths due to COVID-19 in several regions in the
world… With our results, we were not able to explain
if COVID-19 mortality is reduced by staying at home
in ~ 98% of the comparisons after epidemiological
weeks 9 to 34.”“We were not able to explain the
variation of deaths/million in different regions in
the world by social isolation, herein analyzed as
differences in staying at home, compared to
baseline. In the restrictive and global comparisons,
only 3% and 1.6% of the comparisons were
significantly different, respectively.” |
8) Was
Germany’s Corona Lockdown Necessary?
Kuhbandner, 2020 |
“Official data from Germany’s RKI agency suggest
strongly that the spread of the corona virus in
Germany receded autonomously, before any
interventions become effective. Several reasons for
such an autonomous decline have been suggested. One
is that differences in host susceptibility and
behavior can result in herd immunity at a relatively
low prevalence level. Accounting for individual
variation in susceptibility or exposure to the
coronavirus yields a maximum of 17% to 20% of the
population that needs to be infected to reach herd
immunity, an estimate that is empirically supported
by the cohort of the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
Another reason is that seasonality may also play an
important role in dissipation.” |
9) A
First Literature Review: Lockdowns Only Had a
Small Effect on COVID-19, Herby, 2021 |
“Lockdowns Only Had a Small Effect on COVID-19…studies
which differentiate between the two types of
behavioral change find that, on average, mandated
behavioral changes accounts for only 9% (median: 0%)
of the total effect on the growth of the pandemic
stemming from behavioral changes. The remaining 91%
(median: 100%) of the effect was due to voluntary
behavioral changes.” |
10) Trajectory
of COVID-19 epidemic in Europe, Colombo, 2020 |
“We show that relaxing the assumption of
homogeneity to allow for individual variation in
susceptibility or connectivity gives a model that
has better fit to the data and more accurate 14-day
forward prediction of mortality. Allowing for
heterogeneity reduces the estimate of
“counterfactual” deaths that would have occurred if
there had been no interventions from 3.2 million to
262,000, implying that most of the slowing and
reversal of COVID-19 mortality is explained by the
build-up of herd immunity.” |
11) Modeling
social distancing strategies to prevent SARS-CoV2
spread in Israel- A Cost-effectiveness analysis,
Shlomai, 2020 |
“A national lockdown has a moderate advantage in
saving lives with tremendous costs and possible
overwhelming economic effects.” |
12) Lockdowns
and Closures vs COVID – 19: COVID Wins,
Bhalla, 2020 |
“As we have stressed throughout, a direct test of
lockdowns on cases is the most appropriate test.
This direct test is a before after test i.e. a
comparison of what happened post lockdown versus
what would have happened. Only for 15 out of 147
economies the lockdown “worked” in making infections
lower; for more than a hundred countries, post
lockdown estimate of infections was more than three
times higher than the counterfactual. This is not
evidence of success – rather it is evidence of
monumental failure of lockdown policy…“we also test,
in some detail, the hypothesis that early lockdowns,
and more stringent lockdowns, were effective in
containing the virus. We find robust results for the
opposite conclusion: later lockdowns performed
better, and less stringent lockdowns achieved better
outcomes.” “For the first time in human history,
lockdowns were used as a strategy to counter the
virus. While conventional wisdom, to date, has been
that lockdowns were successful (ranging from mild to
spectacular) we find not one piece of evidence
supporting this claim.” |
13) SARS-CoV-2
waves in Europe: A 2-stratum SEIRS model solution,
Djaparidze, 2020 |
“Found that 180-day of mandatory isolations to
healthy <60 (i.e. schools and workplaces closed)
produces more final deaths…e mandatory isolations
have caused economic damages and since these
enforced isolations were sub-optimal they
involuntarily increased the risk of covid-19
disease-related damages.” |
14) Government
mandated lockdowns do not reduce Covid-19 deaths:
implications for evaluating the stringent New
Zealand response, Gibson, 2020 |
“Lockdowns do not reduce Covid-19 deaths. This
pattern is visible on each date that key lockdown
decisions were made in New Zealand. The apparent
ineffectiveness of lockdowns suggests that New
Zealand suffered large economic costs for little
benefit in terms of lives saved.” |
15) Did
Lockdown Work? An Economist’s Cross-Country
Comparison, Bjørnskov,
2020 |
“The lockdowns in most Western countries have
thrown the world into the most severe recession
since World War II and the most rapidly developing
recession ever seen in mature market economies. They
have also caused an erosion of fundamental rights
and the separation of powers in a large part of
the world as both democratic and autocratic regimes
have misused their emergency powers and ignored
constitutional limits to policy-making (Bjørnskov
and Voigt, 2020). It is therefore important to
evaluate whether and to which extent the lockdowns
have worked as officially intended: to suppress the
spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and prevent deaths
associated with it. Comparing weekly mortality in 24
European countries, the findings in this paper
suggest that more severe lockdown policies have not
been associated with lower mortality. In other
words, the lockdowns have not worked as intended.” |
16) Inferring
UK COVID-19 fatal infection trajectories from
daily mortality data: were infections already in
decline before the UK lockdowns ?, Wood, 2020 |
“A Bayesian inverse problem approach applied to UK
data on first wave Covid-19 deaths and the disease
duration distribution suggests that fatal infections
were in decline before full UK lockdown (24 March
2020), and that fatal infections in Sweden started
to decline only a day or two later. An analysis of
UK data using the model of Flaxman et al. (2020,
Nature 584) gives the same result under relaxation
of its prior assumptions on R.” |
17) The
1illusory effects of non-pharmaceutical
interventions on COVID-19 in Europe, Homburg,
2020 |
“We show that their methods involve circular
reasoning. The purported effects are pure artefacts,
which contradict the data. Moreover, we demonstrate
that the United Kingdom’s lockdown was both
superfluous and ineffective.” |
18) Child
malnutrition and COVID-19: the time to act is now,
Fore, 2020 |
“The COVID-19 pandemic is undermining nutrition
across the world, particularly in low-income and
middle-income countries (LMICs). The worst
consequences are borne by young children. Some of
the strategies to respond to COVID-19—including
physical distancing, school closures, trade
restrictions, and country lockdowns—are impacting
food systems by disrupting the production,
transportation, and sale of nutritious, fresh, and
affordable foods, forcing millions of families to
rely on nutrient-poor alternatives.” |
19) Covid-19
Mortality: A Matter of Vulnerability Among Nations
Facing Limited Margins of Adaptation, De
Larochelambert, 2020 |
“Countries that already experienced a stagnation
or regression of life expectancy, with high income
and NCD rates, had the highest price to pay. This
burden was not alleviated by more stringent public
decisions.” |
20) Impact
of non-pharmaceutical interventions against
COVID-19 in Europe: A quasi-experimental study,
Hunter, 2020 |
“Closure of education facilities, prohibiting mass
gatherings and closure of some non-essential
businesses were associated with reduced incidence
whereas stay at home orders and closure of all
non-businesses was not associated with any
independent additional impact.” |
21) Israel:
thefatemperor, 2020 |
“Given that the evidence reveals that the Corona
disease declines even without a complete lockdown,
it is recommendable to reverse the current policy
and remove the lockdown.” |
22) Smart
Thinking, Lockdown and COVID-19: Implications for
Public Policy, Altman, 2020 |
“The response to COVID-19 has been overwhelmingly
to lockdown much the world’s economies in order to
minimize death rates as well as the immediate
negative effects of COVID-19. I argue that such
policy is too often de-contextualized as it ignores
policy externalities, assumes death rate
calculations are appropriately accurate and, and as
well, assumes focusing on direct Covid-19 effects to
maximize human welfare is appropriate. As a result
of this approach current policy can be misdirected
and with highly negative effects on human welfare.
Moreover, such policies can inadvertently result in
not minimizing death rates (incorporating
externalities) at all, especially in the long run…
such misdirected and sub-optimal policy is a product
of policy makers using inappropriate mental models
which are lacking in a number of key areas; the
failure to take a more comprehensive macro
perspective to address the virus, using bad
heuristics or decision-making tools, relatedly not
recognizing the differential effects of the virus,
and adopting herding strategy (follow-the-leader)
when developing policy.” |
23) The
Mystery of Taiwan, Janaskie,
2020
|
“Another fascinating outlier – often cited as a
case in which a government handled the pandemic the
correct way – was Taiwan. Indeed, Taiwan presents an
anomaly in the mitigation and overall handling of
the Covid-19 pandemic. In terms of stringency,
Taiwan ranks among the lowest in the world, with
fewer controls than Sweden and far lower than the
U.S….The government did test at the border and
introduce some minor controls but nowhere near that
of most counties. In general, Taiwan rejected
lockdown in favor of maintaining social and economic
functioning.” “Despite Taiwan’s closer
proximity to the source of the pandemic, and its
high population density, it experienced a
substantially lower-case rate of 20.7 per million
compared with New Zealand’s 278.0 per million. Rapid
and systematic implementation of control measures,
in particular effective border management
(exclusion, screening, quarantine/isolation),
contact tracing, systematic quarantine/isolation of
potential and confirmed cases, cluster control,
active promotion of mass masking, and meaningful
public health communication, are likely to have been
instrumental in limiting pandemic spread.
Furthermore, the effectiveness of Taiwan’s public
health response has meant that to date no lockdown
has been implemented, placing Taiwan in a stronger
economic position both during and post-COVID-19
compared with New Zealand, which had seven weeks of
national lockdown (at Alert Levels 4 and 3).” |
24) What
They Said about Lockdowns before 2020,
Gartz, 2021 |
“While expert consensus regarding the
ineffectiveness of mass quarantine of previous years
has recently been challenged, significant
present-day evidence continuously
demonstrates that mass quarantine is both
ineffectual at preventing disease spread as well as
harmful to individuals.” |
25) Cost
of Lockdowns: A Preliminary Report, AIER,
2020 |
“In the debate over coronavirus policy, there has
been far too little focus on the costs of lockdowns.
It’s very common for the proponents of these
interventions to write articles and large studies
without even mentioning the downsides…a brief look
at the cost of stringencies in the United States,
and around the world, including stay-at-home orders,
closings of business and schools, restrictions on
gatherings, shutting of arts and sports,
restrictions on medical services, and interventions
in the freedom of movement.” |
26) Leaked
Study From Inside German Government Warns Lockdown
Could Kill More People Than Coronavirus,
Watson, 2020
German
Minister: Lockdown Will Kill More Than Covid-19
Does |
“The lockdown and the measures taken by the German
federal and central governments to contain the
coronavirus apparently cost more lives, for example
of cancer patients, than of those actually killed by
it.”
“Half a million more will die from tuberculosis.” |
27) Evaluating
the effects of shelter-in-place policies during
the COVID-19 pandemic, Berry, 2021 |
“Previous studies have claimed that
shelter-in-place orders saved thousands of lives,
but we reassess these analyses and show that they
are not reliable. We find that shelter-in-place
orders had no detectable health benefits, only
modest effects on behavior, and small but adverse
effects on the economy.” |
28) Study:
Lockdown “Will Destroy at Least Seven Times More
Years of Human Life” Than it Saves, Watson,
2020 |
“A study has found that the “stay at home”
lockdown order in the United States will “destroy at
least seven times more years of human life” than it
saves and that this number is “likely” to be more
than 90 times greater… Research shows that at least
16.8% of adults in the United States have suffered
“major mental harm from responses to
Covid-19…Extrapolating these numbers out, the
figures show that “anxiety from responses to
Covid-19 has impacted 42,873,663 adults and will rob
them of an average of 1.3 years of life, thus
destroying 55.7 million years of life.” |
29) Four
Stylized Facts about COVID-19, Atkeson,
2020 |
“Failing to account for these four stylized facts
may result in overstating the importance of policy
mandated NPIs for shaping the progression of this
deadly pandemic… The existing literature has
concluded that NPI policy and social distancing have
been essential to reducing the spread of COVID-19
and the number of deaths due to this deadly
pandemic. The stylized facts established in this
paper challenge this conclusion.” |
30) THE
LONG-TERM IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 UNEMPLOYMENT
SHOCK ON LIFE EXPECTANCY AND MORTALITY RATES,
Bianchi, 2021 |
“Policy-makers should therefore consider combining
lockdowns with policy interventions meant to reduce
economic distress, guarantee access to health care,
and facilitate effective economic reopening under
health care policies to limit SARS-CoV-19
spread…assess the long-run effects of the COVID-19
economic recession on mortality and life expectancy.
We estimate the size of the COVID-19-related
unemployment shock to be between 2 and 5 times
larger than the typical unemployment shock,
depending on race and gender, resulting in a
significant increase in mortality rates and drop in
life expectancy. We also predict that the shock will
disproportionately affect African-Americans and
women, over a short horizon, while the effects for
white men will unfold over longer horizons. These
figures translate in more than 0.8 million
additional deaths over the next 15 years.” |
31) Lockdowns
Do Not Control the Coronavirus: The Evidence,
AIER, 2020 |
“The question is whether lockdowns worked to
control the virus in a way that is scientifically
verifiable. Based on the following studies, the
answer is no and for a variety of reasons: bad data,
no correlations, no causal demonstration, anomalous
exceptions, and so on. There is no relationship
between lockdowns (or whatever else people want to
call them to mask their true nature) and virus
control.” |
32) Too
Little of a Good Thing A Paradox of
Moderate Infection Control, Cohen, 2020 |
“The link between limiting pathogen exposure and
improving public health is not always so
straightforward. Reducing the risk that each member
of a community will be exposed to a pathogen has the
attendant effect of increasing the average age at
which infections occur. For pathogens that inflict
greater morbidity at older ages, interventions that
reduce but do not eliminate exposure can
paradoxically increase the number of cases of severe
disease by shifting the burden of infection toward
older individuals.” |
33) Covid
Lockdown Cost/Benefits: A Critical Assessment of
the Literature, Allen, 2020 |
“Generally speaking, the ineffectiveness of
lockdown stems from voluntary changes in behavior.
Lockdown jurisdictions were not able to prevent
noncompliance, and non-lockdown jurisdictions
benefited from voluntary changes in behavior that
mimicked lockdowns. The limited effectiveness of
lockdowns explains why, after one year, the
unconditional cumulative deaths per million, and the
pattern of daily deaths per million, is not
negatively correlated with the stringency of
lockdown across countries. Using a cost/benefit
method proposed by Professor Bryan Caplan, and using
two extreme assumptions of lockdown effectiveness,
the cost/benefit ratio of lockdowns in Canada, in
terms of life-years saved, is between 3.6–282. That
is, it is possible that lockdown will go down as one
of the greatest peacetime policy failures in
Canada’s history.” |
34) Covid-19:
How does Belarus have one of the lowest death
rates in Europe? Karáth, 2020
|
“Belarus’s beleaguered government remains unfazed
by covid-19. President Aleksander Lukashenko, who
has been in power since 1994, has flatly denied the
seriousness of the pandemic, refusing to impose a
lockdown, close schools, or cancel mass events like
the Belarusian football league or the Victory Day
parade. Yet the country’s death rate is among the
lowest in Europe—just over 700 in a population of
9.5 million with over 73 000 confirmed cases.” |
35) PANDA,
Nell, 2020 |
“For each country put forward as an example,
usually in some pairwise comparison and with an
attendant single cause explanation, there are a host
of countries that fail the expectation. We set out
to model the disease with every expectation of
failure. In choosing variables it was obvious from
the outset that there would be contradictory
outcomes in the real world. But there were certain
variables that appeared to be reliable markers as
they had surfaced in much of the media and pre-print
papers. These included age, co-morbidity prevalence
and the seemingly light population mortality rates
in poorer countries than that in richer countries.
Even the worst among developing nations—a clutch of
countries in equatorial Latin America—have seen
lighter overall population mortality than the
developed world. Our aim therefore was not to
develop the final answer, rather to seek common
cause variables that would go some way to providing
an explanation and stimulating discussion. There are
some very obvious outliers in this theory, not the
least of these being Japan. We test and find wanting
the popular notions that lockdowns with their
attendant social distancing and various other NPIs
confer protection.” |
36) States
with the Fewest Coronavirus Restrictions,
McCann, 2021 |
Graphics reveal no relationship in stringency
level as it relates to the death rates, but finds a
clear relationship between stringency and unemployment. |
37) COVID-19
Lockdown Policies: An Interdisciplinary Review,
Robinson, 2021 |
“Studies at the economic level of analysis points
to the possibility that deaths associated with
economic harms or underfunding of other health
issues may outweigh the deaths that lockdowns save,
and that the extremely high financial cost of
lockdowns may have negative implications for overall
population health in terms of diminished resources
for treating other conditions. Research on ethics in
relation to lockdowns points to the inevitability of
value judgements in balancing different kinds of
harms and benefits than lockdowns cause.” |
38) Comedy
and Tragedy in Two Americas, Tucker,
2021 |
“Covid unleashed a version of tyranny in the
United States. Through a surreptitious and
circuitous route, many public officials somehow
managed to gain enormous power for themselves and
demonstrate that all our vaunted limits on
government are easily transgressed under the right
conditions. Now they want to use that power to enact
permanent change in this country. Right now, people,
capital, and institutions are fleeing from them to
safe and freer places, which only drives the people
in power to madness. They are right now plotting to
shut down the free states through any means
possible.” |
39) Lockdowns
Worsen the Health Crisis, Younes,
2021 |
“We suspect that one day, the quarantining of
entire societies that was carried out in response to
the coronavirus pandemic, leading to vast swaths of
the population becoming unhealthier overall and
ironically more susceptible to severe outcomes from
the virus, will be seen as the 21st century
version of bloodletting. As the epidemiologist
Martin Kulldorff has
observed, public health is not just about one
disease, but all health outcomes. Apparently,
in 2020, the authorities forgot this obvious truth.” |
40) The
Damage of Lockdowns to Young People, Yang,
2021 |
“Biological and cultural reasons why young people,
mostly referring to those under the age of 30, are
particularly vulnerable to the isolation as well as
lifestyle disruptions brought about by lockdowns…
“Adults under 30 experienced the highest increase in
suicidal thinking in the same period, with rates of
suicidal ideation rising from 12.5%
to 14% in people aged 18-29. For many of
the young adults surveyed, these mental health
challenges persisted into the summer, despite a
loosening of restrictions.” |
41) Lifestyle
and mental health disruptions during COVID-19,
Giuntella, 2021 |
“COVID-19 has affected daily life in unprecedented
ways. Drawing on a longitudinal dataset of college
students before and during the pandemic, we document
dramatic changes in physical activity, sleep, time
use, and mental health. We show that biometric and
time-use data are critical for understanding the
mental health impacts of COVID-19, as the pandemic
has tightened the link between lifestyle behaviors
and depression.” |
42) CDC:
A Quarter of Young Adults Say They Contemplated
Suicide This Summer During Pandemic, Miltimore,
2020 |
“One in four young adults between the ages of 18
and 24 say they’ve considered suicide in the past
month because of the pandemic, according to new CDC
data that paints a bleak picture of the nation’s
mental health during the crisis. The data also flags
a surge of anxiety and substance abuse, with more
than 40 percent of those surveyed saying they
experienced a mental or behavioral health condition
connected to the Covid-19 emergency. The CDC study
analyzed 5,412 survey respondents between June 24
and 30.” |
43) Global
rise in childhood mental health issues amid
pandemic, LEICESTER, 2021 |
“For doctors who treat them, the pandemic’s impact
on the mental health of children is increasingly
alarming. The Paris pediatric hospital caring for
Pablo has seen a doubling in the number of children
and young teenagers requiring treatment after
attempted suicides since September.Doctors elsewhere
report similar surges, with children — some as young
as 8 — deliberately running into traffic, overdosing
on pills and otherwise self-harming. In Japan, child
and adolescent suicides hit
record levels in 2020, according to the
Education Ministry.” |
44) Lockdowns:
The Great Debate, AIER, 2020 |
“The global lockdowns, on this scale with this
level of stringency, have been without precedent.
And yet we have examples of a handful of countries
and US states that did not do this, and their record
in minimizing the cost of the pandemic is better
than the lockdown countries and states. The evidence
that the lockdowns have done net good in terms of
public health is still lacking.” |
45) COVID-19
containment policies through time may cost more
lives at metapopulation level, Wells, 2020 |
“Show that temporally restricted containment
efforts, that have the potential to flatten epidemic
curves, can result in wider disease spread and
larger epidemic sizes in metapopulations.” |
46) The
Covid-19 Emergency Did Not Justify Lockdowns,
Boudreaux,
2021 |
“Yet there was no such careful calculation for the
lockdowns imposed in haste to combat Covid-19.
Lockdowns were simply assumed not
only to be effective at significantly slowing the
spread of SARS-CoV-2, but also to impose only costs
that are acceptable. Regrettably, given the novelty
of the lockdowns, and the enormous magnitude of
their likely downsides, this bizarrely sanguine
attitude toward lockdowns was – and remains – wholly
unjustified.” |
47) Death
and Lockdowns, Tierney, 2021 |
“Now that the 2020 figures have been properly
tallied, there’s still no convincing evidence that
strict lockdowns reduced the death toll from
Covid-19. But one effect is clear: more deaths from
other causes, especially among the young and
middle-aged, minorities, and the less affluent.The
best gauge of the pandemic’s impact is what
statisticians call “excess mortality,” which
compares the overall number of deaths with the total
in previous years. That measure rose among older
Americans because of Covid-19, but it rose at an
even sharper rate among people aged 15 to 54, and
most of those excess deaths were not attributed to
the virus.” |
48) The
COVID Pandemic Could Lead to 75,000 Additional
Deaths from Alcohol and Drug Misuse and Suicide,
Well Being Trust, 2021 |
“The brief notes that if the country fails
to invest
in solutions that can help heal the
nation’s isolation, pain, and suffering, the
collective impact of COVID-19 will be even more
devastating. Three factors, already at work, are
exacerbating deaths of despair: unprecedented
economic failure paired with massive unemployment,
mandated social isolation for months and possible
residual isolation for years, and uncertainty caused
by the sudden emergence of a novel, previously
unknown microbe…the deadly impact of lockdowns will
grow in future years, due to the lasting economic
and educational consequences. The United States will
experience more than 1 million excess deaths in the
United States during the next two decades as a
result of the massive “unemployment shock” last
year… lockdowns are the single worst public health
mistake in the last 100 years,” says
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford
Medical School. “We will be counting the
catastrophic health and psychological harms, imposed
on nearly every poor person on the face of the
earth, for a generation.” |
49) Professor
Explains Flaw in Many Models Used for COVID-19
Lockdown Policies, Chen, 2021 |
“Economics professor Doug Allen wanted to know why
so many early models used to create COVID-19
lockdown policies turned out to be highly incorrect.
What he found was that a great majority were based
on false assumptions and “tended to over-estimate
the benefits and under-estimate the costs.” He found
it troubling that policies such as total lockdowns
were based on those models. “They were built on a
set of assumptions. Those assumptions turned out to
be really important, and the models are very
sensitive to them, and they turn out to be false,”
said Allen, the Burnaby Mountain Professor of
Economics at Simon Fraser University, in an
interview.”“Furthermore, “The limited
effectiveness of lockdowns explains why, after one
year, the unconditional cumulative deaths per
million, and the pattern of daily deaths per
million, is not negatively correlated with the
stringency of lockdown across countries,” writes
Allen. In other words, in his assessment, heavy
lockdowns do not meaningfully reduce the number of
deaths in the areas where they are implemented, when
compared to areas where lockdowns were not
implemented or as stringent.” |
50) The
Anti-Lockdown Movement Is Large and Growing,
Tucker, 2021 |
“The lesson: lockdown policies failed to protect
the vulnerable and otherwise did little to nothing
actually to suppress or otherwise control the virus.
AIER has assembled fully
35 studies revealing no connection
between lockdowns and disease outcomes. In addition,
the Heritage Foundation has published an outstanding
roundup of the Covid experience,
revealing that lockdowns were largely political
theater distracting from what should have been good
public health practice.” |
51) The
Ugly Truth About The Covid-19 Lockdowns,
Hudson, 2021 |
“By following the data and official communications
from global organisations, PANDA unravels what
transpired that led us into deleterious lockdowns,
which continue to have enormous negative impacts
across the world.” |
52) The
Catastrophic Impact of Covid Forced Societal
Lockdowns, Alexander, 2020 |
“It is also noteworthy that these irrational and
unreasonable restrictive actions are not limited to
any one jurisdiction such as the US, but shockingly
have occurred across the globe. It is stupefying as
to why governments, whose primary roles are to
protect their citizens, are taking these punitive
actions despite the compelling evidence that these
policies are misdirected and very harmful; causing
palpable harm to human welfare on so many levels.
It’s tantamount to insanity what governments have
done to their populations and largely based on no
scientific basis. None! In this, we have lost our
civil liberties and essential rights, all based on
spurious ‘science’ or worse, opinion, and this
erosion of fundamental freedoms and democracy is
being championed by government leaders who are
disregarding the Constitutional (USA) and Charter
(Canada) limits to their right to make and enact
policy. These unconstitutional and unprecedented
restrictions have taken a staggering toll on our
health and well-being and also target the very
precepts of democracy; particularly given the fact
that this viral pandemic is no different in overall
impact on society than any previous pandemics. There
is simply no defensible rationale to treat this
pandemic any differently.” |
53) Cardiovascular
and immunological implications of social
distancing in the context of COVID-19, D’Acquisto,
2020 |
“It is clear that social distancing measures such
as lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic will have
subsequent effects on the body including the immune
and cardiovascular systems, the extent of which will
be dependent on the duration of such measures. The
take-home message of these investigations is that
social interaction is an integral part of a wide
range of conditions that influence cardiovascular
and immunological homeostasis.” |
54) A
Statistical Analysis of COVID-19 and Government
Protection Measures in the U.S., Dayaratna,
2021 |
“Our analysis demonstrates that the time from a
state’s first case to voluntary changes in residence
mobility, which occurred before the imposition of
shelter-in-place orders in 43 states, indeed quelled
the time to reach the maximum growth in per capita
cases. On the other hand, our analysis also
indicates that these behavioral changes were not
significantly effective in quelling mortality… our
simulations find a negative effect of the time from
a state’s first case to the imposition of
shelter-in-place orders on the time to reach the
specified per capita mortality thresholds. Our
analysis also finds a slightly smaller negative
effect on the time from a state’s first case to the
imposition of prohibitions on gatherings above 500
people…. shelter-in-place orders can also have
negative unforeseen health-related consequences,
including the capacity to cause patients to avoid
visits to doctors’ offices and emergency rooms. In
addition, these policies can result in people,
including those with chronic illnesses, skipping
routine medical appointments, not seeking routine
procedures to diagnose advanced cancer, not pursuing
cancer screening colonoscopies, postponing
non-emergency cardiac catheterizations, being unable
to seek routine care if they experience chronic
pain, and suffering mental health effects, among
others…drug overdose deaths, alcohol consumption,
and suicidal ideation have also been noted to have
increased in 2020 compared to prior years.” |
55) Lockdowns
in Taiwan: Myths Versus Reality, Gartz,
2021 |
“Articles citing a
“tightening” of rules only briefly acknowledge that
Taiwan never locked down. Instead, they blame the
increase in cases on a loosening
of travel restrictions and on people’s
becoming “more relaxed or careless as time goes by.”
A closer look reveals that this harsh turn in
restrictions consists of capping gatherings at 500
for outdoors and 100 for indoors to
10 and 5 respectively — more in line with
gathering limits imposed by Western nations.The
reality is that the hyperbolic 124 action items
misrepresent the Taiwanese approach. Relative to
other countries, Taiwan serves as a beacon of
freedom: children still attended school,
professionals continued to go to work, and
businesspeople were able to keep their businesses
open.” |
56) Lockdowns
Need to Be Intellectually Discredited Once and For
All, Yang, 2021 |
“Lockdowns do not provide any meaningful benefit
and they cause unnecessary collateral damage.
Voluntary actions and light-handed accommodations to
protect the vulnerable according to comprehensive
analysis, not cherry-picked studies with overly
short timelines, provide similar, if not better,
virus mitigation compared to lockdown policies.
Furthermore, contrary to what many keep trying to
say, it is lockdowns that are the causal factor
behind the unprecedented economic and social damage
that has been dealt to society.” |
57) Canada’s
COVID-19 Strategy is an Assault on the Working
Class, Kulldorff, 2020 |
“The Canadian COVID-19 lockdown strategy is the
worst assault on the working class in many decades.
Low-risk college students and young professionals
are protected; such as lawyers, government
employees, journalists, and scientists who can work
from home; while older high-risk working-class
people must work, risking their lives generating the
population immunity that will eventually help
protect everyone. This is backwards, leading to many
unnecessary deaths from both COVID-19 and other
diseases.” |
58) Our
COVID-19 Plan would Minimize Mortality and
Lockdown-induced Collateral Damage, Kulldorff,
2020 |
“While mortality is inevitable during a pandemic,
the COVID-19 lockdown strategy has led to more
than 220,000 deaths, with the urban working
class carrying the heaviest burden. Many older
workers have been forced to accept high mortality
risk or increased poverty, or both. While the
current lockdowns are less strict than in March, the
lockdown and contact tracing strategy is the worst
assault on the working class since segregation and
the Vietnam War.Lockdown policies have closed
schools, businesses and churches, while not
enforcing strict protocols to protect high-risk
nursing home residents. University closures and the
economic displacement caused by lockdowns have
led millions
of young adults to live with older parents,
increasing regular close interactions across
generations.” |
59) The
costs are too high; the scientist who wants
lockdown lifted faster; Gupta, 2021 |
“It’s becoming clear that a lot of people have
been exposed to the virus and that the death rate in
people under 65 is not something you would lock down
the economy for,” she says. “We can’t just think
about those who are vulnerable to the disease. We
have to think about those who are vulnerable to
lockdown too. The costs of lockdown are too high at
this point.” |
60) Review
of the Impact of COVID-19 First Wave Restrictions
on Cancer Care, Collateral Global, Heneghan;
2021 |
“Restrictive measures in the first wave of the
COVID19 pandemic in 2019-20 led to wide-scale,
global disruption of cancer care. Future
restrictions should consider disruptions to the
cancer care pathways and plan to prevent unnecessary
harms.” |
61) German
Study Finds Lockdown ‘Had No Effect’ on Stopping
Spread of Coronavirus, Watson, 2021 |
“Stanford researchers found “no clear, significant
beneficial effect of [more restrictive measures] on
case growth in any country.” |
62) Lockdown
will claim the equivalent of 560,000 lives because
of the health impact of the ‘deep and prolonged
recession it will cause’, expert warns,
Adams/Thomas/Daily Mail, 2020 |
“Lockdowns will end up claiming the
equivalent of more than 500,000 lives because of the
health impact of the ‘deep and prolonged recession
it will cause.” |
63) Anxiety
From Reactions to Covid-19 Will Destroy At Least
Seven Times More Years of Life Than Can Be Saved
by Lockdowns, Glen, 2021 |
“Likewise, a 2020
paper about quarantines published
in The Lancet states: “Separation
from loved ones, the loss of freedom, uncertainty
over disease status, and boredom can, on occasion,
create dramatic effects. Suicide has been reported,
substantial anger generated, and lawsuits brought
following the imposition of quarantine in previous
outbreaks. The potential benefits of mandatory mass
quarantine need to be weighed carefully against the
possible psychological costs.”Yet, when dealing
with Covid-19 and
other issues, politicians sometimes ignore this
essential principle of sound decision-making. For a
prime example, NJ Governor Phil Murphy
recently insisted that
he must maintain a lockdown or “there will be blood
on our hands.” What that statement fails to
recognize is that lockdowns also kill people via the
mechanisms detailed above… In other words, the
anxiety from reactions to Covid-19—such as business
shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, media exaggerations,
and legitimate concerns about the virus—will
extinguish at least seven
times more years of life than can
possibly be saved by the lockdowns.Again, all of
these figures minimize deaths from anxiety and
maximize lives saved by lockdowns. Under the more
moderate scenarios documented above, anxiety will
destroy more than 90
times the life saved by lockdowns.” |
64) The
psychological impact of quarantine and how to
reduce it: rapid review of the evidence,
Brooks, 2020 |
“Reported negative psychological effects including
post-traumatic stress symptoms, confusion, and
anger. Stressors included longer quarantine
duration, infection fears, frustration, boredom,
inadequate supplies, inadequate information,
financial loss, and stigma. Some researchers have
suggested long-lasting effects. In situations where
quarantine is deemed necessary, officials should
quarantine individuals for no longer than required,
provide clear rationale for quarantine and
information about protocols, and ensure sufficient
supplies are provided. Appeals to altruism by
reminding the public about the benefits of
quarantine to wider society can be favourable.” |
65) Lockdown
‘had no effect’ on coronavirus pandemic in Germany,
Huggler, 2021 |
“A new study by German scientists claims to have
found evidence that lockdowns may have had little
effect on controlling the coronavirus pandemic.
Statisticians at Munich University found “no direct
connection” between the German lockdown and falling
infection rates in the country.” |
66) Swedish
researchers: Anti-corona restrictions have killed
as many people as the virus itself, Peterson,
2021 |
“The restrictions against the coronavirus have
killed as many people as the virus itself. The
restrictions have first and foremost hit the poorer
parts of the world and struck young people, the
researchers believe, pointing to children who died
of malnutrition and various diseases. They also
pointed to adults who died of diseases that could
have been treated. “These deaths we see in poor
countries are related to women who die in
childbirth, newborns who die early, children who die
of pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria because they are
malnourished or not vaccinated,” Peterson said.” |
67) Lockdowns
Leave London Broken, Burden, 2021 |
“In normal times, London runs on a sprawling
network of trains and buses that bring in millions
of commuters to work and spend. Asking those people
to work from home ripped the heart out of the
economy, leaving the U.K. capital more like a ghost
town than a thriving metropolis.The city
is now emerging from a year of lockdowns with
deeper scars than much of the rest of the U.K. Many
restaurants, theaters and shops remain
shuttered, and the migrant workers that staffed them
fled to their birth countries in the tens of
thousands. Even when most
of the rules expire in June, new border
restrictions since the U.K. left the European Union
will make it harder for many to return. As a result,
the city’s business model focused on population
density is in upheaval, and many of London’s
strengths have turned to weaknesses.” |
68) Lockdowns
Are a Step Too Far in Combating Covid-19,
Nocera, 2020 |
“The truth is that using lockdowns to halt the
spread of the coronavirus was never a good idea. If
they have any utility at all, it is short term: to
help ensure that hospitals aren’t overwhelmed in the
early stages of the pandemic. But the long-term
shutdowns of schools and businesses, and the
insistence that people stay indoors — which almost
every state imposed at one point or another — were
examples of terribly misguided public policy. It is
likely that when the history of this pandemic is
told, lockdowns will be viewed as one of the worst
mistakes the world made.” |
69) Stop
the Lies: Lockdowns Did Not and Do Not Protect the
Vulnerable, Alexander, 2021 |
“Lockdowns didn’t protect the vulnerable,
but rather harmed them and shifted the morbidity and
mortality burden to the underprivileged.” |
70) Why
Shutdowns and Masks Suit the Elite, Swaim,
2021 |
“The dispute over masks—like those over school
closures, business shutdowns, social-distancing
guidelines and all the rest—should always properly
have been a discussion of acceptable versus
unacceptable risk. But the preponderance of
America’s cultural and political leaders showed no
ability to think about risk in a helpful way.” |
71) The
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Policy
Responses on Excess Mortality, Agrawal, 2021 |
“Find that following the implementation of SIP
policies, excess mortality increases. The increase
in excess mortality is statistically significant in
the immediate weeks following SIP implementation for
the international comparison only and occurs despite
the fact that there was a decline in the number of
excess deaths prior to the implementation of the
policy… failed to find that countries or U.S. states
that implemented SIP policies earlier, and in which
SIP policies had longer to operate, had lower excess
deaths than countries/U.S. states that were slower
to implement SIP policies. We also failed to observe
differences in excess death trends before and after
the implementation of SIP policies based on pre-SIP
COVID-19 death rates.” |
72) COVID-19
Lockdowns Over 10 Times More Deadly Than Pandemic
Itself, Revolver, 2020 |
“We have drawn upon existing economic studies on
the health effects of unemployment to calculate an
estimate of how many years of life will have been
lost due to the lockdowns in the United States, and
have weighed this against an estimate of how many
years of life will have been saved by the
lockdowns. The results are nothing short of
staggering, and suggest that the lockdowns will end
up costing Americans over 10 times as many years of
life as they will save from the virus itself.” |
73) The
Impact of Interruptions in Childhood Vaccination,
Collateral Global, 2021 |
“COVID-19 pandemic measures caused significant
disruption to childhood vaccination services and
uptake. In future pandemics, and for the remainder
of the current one, policymakers must ensure access
to vaccination services and provide catch-up
programs to maintain high levels of immunisation,
especially in those most vulnerable to childhood
diseases in order to avoid further inequalities.” |
74) Shelter-in-place
orders didn’t save lives during the pandemic,
research paper concludes, Howell, 2021
COVID-19
lockdowns caused more deaths instead of reducing
them, study finds |
“Researchers from the
RAND Corporation and the University
of Southern California studied excess
mortality from all causes, the virus or otherwise,
in 43 countries and the 50 U.S. states that imposed
shelter-in-place, or “SIP,” policies. In short, the
orders didn’t work. “We fail to find that SIP
policies saved lives. To the contrary, we find a
positive association between SIP policies and excess
deaths. We find that following the implementation of
SIP policies, excess mortality increases,” the
researchers said in a working paper for
the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).” |
75) Experts
Said Ending Lockdowns Would Be Worse for the
Economy than the Lockdowns Themselves. They Were
Wrong, MisesInstitute, 2021 |
“There is no indication whatsoever that states
with longer periods of lockdown and forced
social distancing fared better economically than
states that abandoned covid restrictions much
earlier. Rather, many states that ended lockdowns
early—or didn’t have them at all—now show less unemployment
and more economic growth than
states that imposed lockdowns and social distancing
rules much longer. The complete lack of any
correlation between economic success and covid
lockdowns illustrates yet again that the confident
predictions of the experts—who insisted that states
without long lockdowns would endure bloodbaths and
economic destruction—were very wrong.” |
76) The
Harms of Lockdowns, The Dangers of Censorship, And
A Path Forward, AIER, 2020 |
“When you read about failures of intelligence,
probably the most spectacular being the weapons of
mass destruction fiasco, the lesson that they were
supposed to learn from that, and maybe have learned,
is that you need to encourage cognitive dissonance.
You need to encourage critical thinking. You need to
have people who are looking at things differently
than your mainstream view, because it will help to
prevent you from making catastrophic errors. It will
help to keep you honest.And we’ve done exactly the
opposite instead of encouraging critical thinking,
different ideas, we’ve stifled it. That’s what makes
the actions of the Ontario College of Physicians and
Surgeons towards you so shocking because it’s
absolute the opposite of what we need to do. And
it’s been that absence of critical thinking of
incorporating critical thinking in our
decision-making that has led to one mistake after
another in handling COVID-19.” |
77) UNDERSTANDING
INTER-REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN COVID-19 MORTALITY
RATES, PANDA, 2021 |
“We cannot argue that the phased adoption of these
measures has any impact on risk mitigation. This is
an important consideration for policy makers who
must carefully balance the benefits of a phased
lockdown strategy with the economic harm caused by
such an intervention.” |
78) Potential
lessons from the Taiwan and New Zealand health
responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Summers,
2020 |
“Extensive public health infrastructure
established in Taiwan pre-COVID-19 enabled a fast
coordinated response, particularly in the domains of
early screening, effective methods for
isolation/quarantine, digital technologies for
identifying potential cases and mass mask use. This
timely and vigorous response allowed Taiwan to avoid
the national lockdown used by New Zealand. Many of
Taiwan’s pandemic control components could
potentially be adopted by other jurisdictions.” |
79) 5
Times More Children Committed Suicide Than Died of
COVID-19 During Lockdown: UK Study, Phillips,
2021 |
“Five times more children and young people
committed suicide than died of COVID-19 during
the first year of the pandemic in the United
Kingdom, according to a study, which also concluded
that lockdowns are more detrimental to children’s
health than the virus itself.” |
80) Study
Indicates Lockdowns Have Increased Deaths of
Despair, Yang, 2021 |
“Deaths of despair due in large part to social
isolation. Regardless of whether they think
lockdowns work, policymakers must be cognizant of
the fact shutting down society also leads to excess
deaths. Whether it’s from the government policies
themselves or the willful compliance of society
enforcing the soft despotism of popular hysteria,
social isolation is taking its toll on the lives of
many.” |
81) DEATHS
OF DESPAIR AND THE INCIDENCE OF EXCESS MORTALITY
IN 2020, Mulligan, 2020 |
“Presumably social isolation is part of the
mechanism that turns a pandemic into a wave of
deaths of despair. However, the results in this
paper do not say how much, if any, comes from
government stay-at-home orders versus various
actions individual households and private businesses
have taken to encourage social distancing.” |
82) Effects
of the lockdown on the mental health of the
general population during the COVID-19 pandemic in
Italy: Results from the COMET collaborative
network, Fiorillo, 2020 |
“Although physical isolation and lockdown
represent essential public health measures for
containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, they
are a serious threat for mental health and
well-being of the general population. As an integral
part of COVID-19 response, mental health needs
should be addressed.” |
Mental
Health and the Covid-19 Pandemic, Pfefferbaum,
2020 |
“The Covid-19 pandemic has alarming implications
for individual and collective health and emotional
and social functioning. In addition to providing
medical care, already stretched health care
providers have an important role in monitoring
psychosocial needs and delivering psychosocial
support to their patients, health care providers,
and the public — activities that should be
integrated into general pandemic health care.” |
83) Why
Government Lockdowns Mostly Harm the Poor,
Peterson, 2021 |
“For developed countries, lockdowns undoubtedly
imposed significant economic and health costs. Many
workers in the service sector, like the food
industry, for example, were left unemployed and had
to rely on government stimulus checks to get them
through the bumpiest stages of the pandemic. Some
businesses had to shutter their doors entirely,
leaving many employers without jobs as well. This is
to say nothing of the severe
mental health consequences of government lockdown
orders…These irresponsible government actions
are especially acute and more harmful in developing
countries and among the poor because most workers
can’t afford to sacrifice weeks or perhaps months of
income, only to be confined to what is effectively
house arrest.” |
84) Cost
of Lockdowns: A Preliminary Report,
AIER, 2020 |
“In the debate over coronavirus policy, there has
been far too little focus on the costs of lockdowns.
It’s very common for the proponents of these
interventions to write articles and large studies
without even mentioning the downsides.” |
85) In
Africa, social distancing is a privilege few can
afford, Noko, 2020 |
“Social distancing could probably work in China
and in Europe – but in many African countries, it is
a privilege only a minority can afford.” |
86) Teargas,
beatings and bleach: the most extreme Covid-19
lockdown controls around the world, Ratcliff,
2020 |
“Violence and humiliation used to police
coronavirus curfews around globe, often affecting
the poorest and more vulnerable.” |
87) “Shoot
them dead”: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
orders police and military to kill citizens who
defy coronavirus lockdown, Capatides, 2020 |
“Later that night, Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte took to the airwaves with a chilling warning
for his citizens: Defy the lockdown orders again and
the police will shoot you dead.” |
88) Colombia’s
Capital Locks Down as Cases Surge, Vyas, 2021
Colombia
Protests Turn Deadly Amid Covid-19 Hardships |
“Bogotá, which has logged a quarter of the
nation’s cases, had already applied restrictions on
mobility and alcohol sales in order to contain
gatherings and the spread of the virus before
expanding the measures.”“The nationwide unrest was
triggered by a proposed tax-collection overhaul
and stringent
pandemic lockdowns that have been blamed
for causing mass unemployment and throwing some four
million people into poverty.” |
89) Argentina
receives AstraZeneca jabs amid anti-lockdown
protests, AL JAZEERA, 2021
|
“New COVID-19 restrictions have been imposed in
and around Buenos Aires in effort to stem recent
rise in infections…Argentines took to the streets on
Saturday, however, to protest against new
coronavirus-related restrictions in and around the
capital, Buenos Aires, that came into effect on
Friday… Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, head of the city
government, said last week that Buenos Aires
“totally disagree[s] with the decision of the
national government to close schools.” |
90) Lives
vs. Livelihoods Revisited: Should Poorer Countries
with Younger Populations Have Equally Strict
Lockdowns? Von Carnap, 2020 |
“Economists in the rich world have largely
supported stringent containment measures, rejecting
any trade-off between lives and livelihoods…strict
lockdowns in countries where a significant share of
the population is poor are likely to have more
severe consequences on welfare than in richer
countries. From a macro perspective, any negative
economic effect of a lockdown is reducing a budget
with already fewer resources in a poor country.” |
91) Responding
to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Developing Countries:
Lessons from Selected Countries of the Global
South, Chowdhury, 2020 |
“If testing, contact tracing and other early
containment measures had been adequately done in a
timely manner to stem viral transmission, nationwide
lockdowns would not have been necessary, and only
limited areas would have had to be locked down for
quarantine purposes. The effectiveness of
containment measures, including lockdowns, are
typically judged primarily by their ability to
quickly reduce new infections, ‘flatten the curve’
and avoid subsequent waves of infections. However,
lockdowns can have many effects, depending on
context, and typically incur huge economic costs,
unevenly distributed in economies and societies.” |
92) Battling
COVID-19 with dysfunctional federalism: Lessons
from India, Choutagunta,
2021 |
“Find that India’s centralized lockdown was at
best a partial success in a handful of states, while
imposing enormous economic costs even in areas where
few were affected by the pandemic.” |
93) The
2006 Origins of the Lockdown Idea, Tucker,
2020 |
“Now begins the grand effort, on display in
thousands of articles and news broadcasts daily,
somehow to normalize the lockdown and all its
destruction of the last two months. We didn’t lock
down almost the entire country in 1968/69, 1957,
or 1949-1952,
or even during 1918.
But in a terrifying few days in March 2020, it
happened to all of us, causing an avalanche of
social, cultural, and economic destruction that will
ring through the ages.” |
94) Young
People Are Particularly Vulnerable To Lockdowns,
Yang, 2021 |
“The damage to society was certainly extensive,
with a 3.5
percent annualized economic retraction record
in 2020 and a 32.9 percent decline in Q2 of 2020,
making this one of the sharpest economic declines in
modern history. However, the level of suffering and
trauma caused by these policies cannot be
appropriately expressed by economic data
alone. Lockdown policies may have caused a
substantial amount of financial damage but the
social damage is just as concerning, if not more so.
Across the board, there have been increased reports
of mental
health issues, such as depression and
anxiety, that are linked to social isolation,
substantial life disruptions, and existential dread
over the state of the world. Unlike lost dollars,
mental health problems leave real and lasting damage
which could lead to complications later in life, if
not self-harm or suicide. For young people, a
drastic increase in suicides has claimed
more lives than Covid-19. That is because they are
far less vulnerable to Covid than older segments of
the population but far more negatively impacted by
lockdowns.” |
95) More
“Covid Suicides” than Covid Deaths in Kids,
Gartz, 2021 |
“Before Covid, an American youth died by suicide every
six hours. Suicide
is a major public health threat and a leading cause
of death for those aged under 25 — one far bigger
than Covid. And it is something that we have only
made worse as we, led by politicians and ‘the
science,’ deprived our youngest members of society —
who constitute one-third of the US
population — of educational, emotional and
social development without their permission or
consent for over a year… the biggest increase in
youth deaths occurred in the 15-24 age bracket — the
age group most susceptible to committing suicide,
and which constitutes 91% of youth suicides… such
“deaths of despair” tend to be higher among youths,
particularly for those about to graduate or enter
the workforce. With economic shrinkage due to
lockdowns and forced closures
of universities, youths face both less
economic opportunity and limited social support —
which plays an important role in reporting and
preventing self-harm — through social networks.” |
96) Comparison
of COVID-19 outcomes among shielded and
non-shielded populations, Jani, 2021 |
“Linked family practitioner, prescribing,
laboratory, hospital and death records and compared
COVID-19 outcomes among shielded and non-shielded
individuals in the West of Scotland. Of the 1.3
million population, 27,747 (2.03%) were advised to
shield, and 353,085 (26.85%) were classified a
priori as moderate risk…in spite of the shielding
strategy, high risk individuals were at increased
risk of death.” |
97) Sweden:
Despite Variants, No Lockdowns, No Daily Covid
Deaths, Fumento, 2021 |
““Locking down is saving time,” he
said last year. “It’s not solving anything.”
In essence the country “front-loaded” its deaths and
decreased those deaths later on…Despite Sweden
inevitably feeling undertow from economies that did
lock down, “Covid-19 has had a rather limited impact
on its economy compared with most other European
countries,” according
to the Nordetrade.com consulting firm.
“Softer preventative restrictions against Covid-19
earlier in the year and a strong recovery in the
third quarter contained the GDP contraction,” it
said.Thus, the country the media loved to hate is
reaping the best of all worlds: Few current cases
and deaths, stronger economic growth than the
lockdown countries, and its people never experienced
the yoke of tyranny.” |
98) Lockdown
lessons, Ross, 2021 |
“Never take radical action without overwhelming
evidence that it will work. The authorities took all
manner of drastic actions and weren’t the least bit
interested in offering evidence and they still
aren’t. Unelected bureaucrats, who know nothing
about us, dictated how we live our lives down to the
tiniest details. The
authorities coerced hundreds of millions
of people to wear masks. They assumed that
would reduce transmission. There is now evidence
that masks are worse than
useless.Be extremely reluctant to commit
sweeping violations of the Constitution. The
Constitution is our country’s greatest asset and our
north star. Ignoring it or trampling on it
is never a good idea. The Constitution is
what makes us who we are. We ought to treat it like
the treasure it is.Always consider both costs and
benefits and make best-effort projections of both.
The costs of virtually every aspect of the lockdown
were more than the benefits, usually far more…it has
increased the amount of depression and number of
suicides, especially among those age 18 and
younger. The postponement and cancellation of
medical appointments have resulted in thousands of
premature deaths.” |
99) Prof.
Sunetra Gupta — New Lockdown is a Terrible Mistake,
Gupta, 2020 |
“I would beg to disagree. I think there is an
alternative, and that alternative involves reducing
the deaths that this pandemic might cause by
diverting our energies to protecting the
vulnerables. Now, why would I say that? The
main reason to say that is because the costs of
alternative strategies such as lockdown are so
profound that we are left with a contemplation of
how to go ahead, go forwards, in this current sort
of situation without inflicting harm, not just to
those who are vulnerable to COVID, but to the
general population in a way that meets with
those standards that we set ourselves from the
moment we were, maybe not born, but from the moment
that we became cognizant of those responsibilities
towards society.” |
100) The
harms of lockdown will vastly outweigh the
benefits, Hinton, 2021 |
“Nearly 1.2 m people waiting at least six months
for vital services.” |
101) Lockdowns
don’t work, Stone/AEI, 2020 |
“Lockdowns don’t work. That simple sentence is
enough to ignite a firestorm of controversy these
days, whether you say it in public (to someone at
least six feet away, of course) or online. As soon
as the words leave your lips, they begin to be
interpreted in extraordinary ways. Why do you want
to kill old people? Why do you think the economy is
more important than saving lives? Why do you hate
science? Are you a shill for Trump? Why are you
spreading misinformation about the severity of
COVID? But here’s the thing: there’s no evidence of
lockdowns working. If strict lockdowns actually
saved lives, I would be all for them, even if they
had large economic costs. But, put simply, the
scientific and medical case for strict lockdowns is
paper-thin… If you’re going to essentially cancel
the civil liberties of the entire population for a
few weeks, you should probably have evidence
that the strategy will work.” |
102) Science
Killed itself over COVID-19, Raleigh/Federalist/Atlas,
2021 |
“Lockdowns destroyed people, Atlas said, by
“shutting down medical care, stopping people from
seeking emergency medical care, increasing drug
abuse, increasing death by suicide, more
psychological damage, particularly among the younger
generation. Hundreds and thousands of child abuse
cases went unreported. Teenagers’ self-harm cases
have tripled… Mortality data showing that anywhere
from a third or half of the deaths during the
pandemic were not due to COVID-19,” Atlas said.
“They were extra deaths due to the lockdowns…we
should offer targeted protections for high-risk
people but no lockdowns of low-risk people.” |
103) Assembling
Covid Jigsaw Pieces Into a Complete Pandemic
Picture, Brookes, 2021 |
“Overall there is a minimal positive impact from
quarantine policy, isolation requirements, Test and
Trace regimes, social distancing, masking or other
non-pharmaceutical interventions. Initially, these
were the only tools in the tool-box of
interventionist politicians and scientists. At best
they slightly delayed the inevitable, but they also
caused considerable collateral harms.” |
104) Covid
Lockdowns Signal the Rise of Public Policy by
Ransom, O’Neill/MisesInstitute,
2021 |
“Public policy by ransom occurs when a government
imposes a behavioral requirement on individuals and
enforces this by punishing the general public in
aggregate until a stipulated level of
compliance is attained. The method relies on members
of the public and public commentators—like
Marcotte—who will attribute blame for these negative
consequences to recalcitrant citizens who fail to
adopt the preferred behaviors of the governing
class. In the weltanschauung that underpins this
type of governance, government reactions to public
behaviors are “metaphysically given” and are treated
as a mere epiphenomenon of the actions of individual
members of the public who dare to behave in ways
disliked by public authorities… what has emerged as
an ominous mode of thinking in this atmosphere is
the reflexive attribution of
blame to recalcitrant members of the
public for any subsequent negative consequences
imposed on the public by government policies. If the
government chooses to impose a negative consequence
on the public—even conditionally on the behavior of
the public—that consequence is a chosen
policy of the government and must be
viewed as a policy choice.” |
105) Sweden
Saw Lower Mortality Rate Than Most of Europe in
2020, Despite No Lockdown, Miltimore, 2021 |
“I think people will probably think very carefully
about these total shutdowns, how good they really
were…t hey may have had an effect in the short term,
but when you look at it throughout the pandemic, you
become more and more doubtful…data published
by Reuters that show Sweden,
which shunned the strict lockdowns embraced by most
nations around the world, experienced a smaller
increase in its mortality rate than most European
countries in 2020.” |
106) Weighing
the Costs of COVID Versus the Costs of Lockdowns,
Leef/National Review, 2021 |
“Yet there was no such careful calculation for the
lockdowns imposed in haste to combat Covid-19.
Lockdowns were simply assumed not
only to be effective at significantly slowing the
spread of SARS-CoV-2, but also to impose only costs
that are acceptable. Regrettably, given the novelty
of the lockdowns, and the enormous magnitude of
their likely downsides, this bizarrely sanguine
attitude toward lockdowns was – and remains – wholly
unjustified. And the unjustness of this reaction is
further highlighted by the fact that, in a free
society, the burden of proof is on those who would
restrict freedom and not on those who resist such
restrictions… policy-makers should be just as
interested in the costs of the problem as in the
costs of any proposed solution to it.” |
107) Did
Lockdown Work? An Economist’s Cross-Country
Comparison, Bjørnskov,
2020 |
“Explore the association between the severity of
lockdown policies in the first half of 2020 and
mortality rates. Using two indices from the
Blavatnik Centre’s Covid 19 policy measures and
comparing weekly mortality rates from 24 European
countries in the first halves of 2017-2020, and
addressing policy endogeneity in two different ways,
I find no clear association between lockdown
policies and mortality development.” |
108) Increase
in preterm stillbirths and reduction in iatrogenic
preterm births for fetal compromise: a
multi-centre cohort study of COVID-19 lockdown
effects in Melbourne, Australia, Hui, 2021 |
“Lockdown restrictions in a high-income setting,
in the absence of high rates of COVID-19 disease,
were associated with a significant increase in
preterm stillbirths, and a significant reduction in
iatrogenic PTB for suspected fetal compromise.” |
109) Impact
of the COVID19 pandemic
on cardiovascular mortality
and catherization activity
during the lockdown in central
Germany: an observational study, Nef,
2021 |
“During the COVID-19-related lockdown a
significant increase in cardiovascular mortality was
observed in central Germany, whereas catherization
activities were reduced.” |
110) Editor’s
Note – Cancer Review Issue, Collateral Global,
2021 |
“Before the lockdowns, we had made so much
progress in the war on cancer. Between 1999
and 2019, cancer mortality dropped by
an astonishing 27% in the United States, down to
600,000 deaths in
2019. Worldwide, the age-standardized death
rate from cancer has decreased by
15% since 1990. Cancer, like COVID-19, is by
proportion an old person’s disease, with 27% of
cases afflicting people
70 and over and over 70% of cases afflicting people
50 and over. Despite progress against the
disease, 18.1 million new cases were diagnosed
worldwide in 2018, and 9.6 million people died from
cancer… N\nearly eight out of ten cancer patients
reported delays in care, with almost six out ten
skipping doctor visits, one in four skipping
imaging, and one in six missing surgery…the toll
from cancer, exacerbated by lockdown and panic, will
continue into the indefinite future.” |
111) Impact
of COVID-19 and partial lockdown on access to
care, self-management and psychological well-being
among people with diabetes: A cross-sectional
study, Yeoh, 2021 |
“COVID-19 and lockdown had mixed impacts on
self-care and management behaviours. Greater
clinical care and attention should be provided to
people with diabetes with multiple comorbidities and
previous mental health disorders during the pandemic
and lockdown…the pandemic and quarantine measures
may have led to many losses including a loss of
loved ones, employment, financial security, direct
social contacts, educational opportunities,
recreation and social support. A review of the
psychological impact of quarantine demonstrated a
high prevalence of psychological symptoms and
emotional disturbance.” |
112) Mental
Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United
States: Online Survey, Jewell, 2020 |
“Findings suggest that many US residents are
experiencing high stress, depressive, and anxiety
symptomatology, especially those who are
underinsured, uninsured, or unemployed.” |
113) Mental
health in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic:
cross-sectional analyses from a community cohort
study, Jia, 2020 |
“Increased psychological morbidity was evident in
this UK sample and found to be more common in
younger people, women and in individuals who
identified as being in recognised COVID-19 risk
groups. Public health and mental health
interventions able to ameliorate perceptions of risk
of COVID-19, worry about COVID-19 loneliness and
boost positive mood may be effective.” |
114) The
psychological impact of quarantine on coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19), Luo, 2020 |
“Based on these studies, a great amount of
psychologic symptoms or problems developed during
the quarantine period, including anxiety (228/649,
35.1%), depression (110/649, 16.9%), loneliness
(37/649, 5.7%) and despair (6/649, 0.9%). One study
(Dong et al.,
2020) reported that people quarantined had
suicidal tendencies or ideas than those not
quarantined.” |
115) COVID-19
pandemic leads to major backsliding on childhood
vaccinations, new WHO, UNICEF data shows, WHO,
2021 |
“23 million children missed out on basic childhood
vaccines through routine health services in 2020,
the highest number since 2009 and 3.7 million more
than in 2019” |
116) Virus-linked
hunger tied to 10,000 child deaths each month,
Hinnant, 2020 |
“All around the world, the coronavirus and its
restrictions are pushing already hungry
communities over
the edge, cutting off meager farms from
markets and isolating villages from food and medical
aid. Virus-linked hunger is leading to the deaths of
10,000 more children a month over the first year of
the pandemic, according to an urgent call to action
from the United Nations shared with The Associated
Press ahead of its publication in the Lancet medical
journal…The parents of the children are without
work,” said Annelise Mirabal, who works with a
foundation that helps malnourished children in
Maracaibo, the city in Venezuela thus far hardest
hit by the pandemic. “How are they going to feed
their kids?…in May, Nieto recalled, after two months
of quarantine in Venezuela, 18-month-old twins
arrived at his hospital with bodies bloated from
malnutrition.” |
117) CG
REPORT 3: The Impact of Pandemic Restrictions on
Childhood Mental Health, Collateral Global,
2021 |
“The evidence shows the overall impact of COVID-19
restrictions on the mental health and well-being of
children and adolescents is likely to be severe…
Eight out of ten children and adolescents report
worsening of behaviour or any psychological symptoms
or an increase in negative feelings due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. School closures contributed to
increased anxiety, loneliness and stress; negative
feelings due to COVID-19 increased with the duration
of school closures. Deteriorating mental health was
found to be worse in females and older adolescents.” |
118) Unintended
Consequences of Lockdowns: COVID-19 and the Shadow
Pandemic, Ravindran, 2021 |
“Using variation in the intensity of
government-mandated lock-downs in India, we show
that domestic violence complaints increase 0.47 SD
in districts with the strictest lockdown rules. We
find similarly large increases in cyber-crime
complaints.” |
119) Projected
increases in suicide in Canada as a consequence of
COVID-19, McIntyre, 2020 |
“A percentage point increase in unemployment was
associated with a 1.0% increase in suicide between
2000 and 2018. In the first scenario, the rise in
unemployment rates resulted in a projected total of
418 excess suicides in 2020-2021 (suicide rate per
100,000: 11.6 in 2020). In the second scenario, the
projected suicide rates per 100,000 increased to
14.0 in 2020 and 13.6 in 2021, resulting in 2114
excess suicides in 2020-2021. These results indicate
that suicide prevention in the context of
COVID-19-related unemployment is a critical
priority.” |
120) COVID-19,
unemployment, and suicide, Kawohl, 2020 |
“In the high scenario, the worldwide unemployment
rate would increase from 4·936% to 5·644%, which
would be associated with an increase in suicides of
about 9570 per year. In the low scenario, the
unemployment would increase to 5·088%, associated
with an increase of about 2135 suicides… expect an
extra burden for our mental health system, and the
medical community should prepare for this challenge
now. Mental health providers should also raise
awareness in politics and society that rising
unemployment is associated with an increased number
of suicides. The downsizing of the economy and the
focus of the medical system on the COVID-19 pandemic
can lead to unintended long-term problems for a
vulnerable group on the fringes of society.” |
121) The
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer deaths
due to delays in diagnosis in England, UK: a
national, population-based, modelling study,
Maringe, 2020 |
“Substantial increases in the number of avoidable
cancer deaths in England are to be expected as a
result of diagnostic delays due to the COVID-19
pandemic in the UK.” |
122) Economic
impact of avoidable cancer deaths caused by
diagnostic delay during the COVID-19 pandemic: A
national population-based modelling study in
England, UK, Gheorghe, 2021 |
“Premature cancer deaths resulting from diagnostic
delays during the first wave of the COVID-19
pandemic in the UK will result in significant
economic losses. On a per-capita basis, this impact
is, in fact, greater than that of deaths directly
attributable to COVID-19. These results emphasise
the importance of robust evaluation of the
trade-offs of the wider health, welfare and economic
effects of NPI to support both resource allocation
and the prioritisation of time-critical health
services directly impacted in a pandemic, such as
cancer care.” |
123) Cancer
during the COVID-19 pandemic: did we shout loudly
enough and did anyone listen? A lasting legacy for
nations, Price, 2021 |
“In just four cancer types (breast, colon, lung
and oesophagus), studies during the first wave of
the COVID-19 pandemic (published July 2020 [3])
predicted 60,000 lost life years. The
quality-adjusted life years and the
productivity losses due to these excess cancer
deaths have been estimated in this new article to be
32,700 and £104 million over 5 years, respectively.
This is nearly 1.5 times higher per capita than that
of deaths directly related to COVID-19 in that time.
The authors confirm that this is a conservative
estimate for these cancer groups as it does not take
into account additional productivity losses due to
delays or reduction in quality of treatment and
stage migration.” |
124) Donation
and transplantation activity in the UK during the
COVID-19 lockdown, Manara, 2020 |
“Compared with 2019, the number of deceased donors
decreased by 66% and the number of deceased donor
transplants decreased by 68%, larger decreases than
we estimated.” |
125) Rapid
Systematic Review: The Impact of Social Isolation
and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children
and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19,
Loades, 2020 |
“Children and adolescents are probably more likely
to experience high rates of depression and most
likely anxiety during and after enforced isolation
ends. This may increase as enforced isolation
continues.” |
126) The
Costs and Benefits of Covid-19 Lockdowns in New
Zealand, Lally, 2021 |
“Using data available up to 28 June 2021, the
estimated additional deaths from a mitigation
strategy are 1,750 to 4,600, implying a Cost per
Quality Adjusted Life Year saved by locking down in
March 2020 of at least 13 times the generally
employed threshold figure of $62,000 for health
interventions in New Zealand; the lockdowns do not
then seem to have been justified by reference to the
standard benchmark. Using only data available to the
New Zealand government in March 2020, the ratio is
similar and therefore the same conclusion holds that
the nation-wide lockdown strategy was not
warranted.” |
127) Trends
in suicidal ideation over the first three months
of COVID-19 lockdowns, Killgore, 2020 |
“The percentage of respondents endorsing suicidal
ideation was greater with each passing month for
those under lockdown or shelter-in-place
restrictions due to the novel coronavirus, but
remained relatively stable and unchanged for those
who reported no such restrictions.” |
128) Cardiovascular
Mortality during the COVID-19 Pandemics in a Large
Brazilian City: a Comprehensive Analysis,
Brant, 2021 |
“The greater occurrence of CVD deaths at home, in
parallel with lower hospitalization rates, suggests
that CVD care was disrupted during the COVID-19
pandemics, which more adversely affected older and
more socially vulnerable individuals, exacerbating
health inequities in BH.” |
129) Excess
Deaths in People with Cardiovascular Diseases
during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Banerjee, 2021 |
“Mortality data suggest indirect effects on CVD
will be delayed rather than contemporaneous (peak RR
1.14). CVD service activity decreased by 60–100%
compared with pre-pandemic levels in eight hospitals
across China, Italy, and England.” |
130) Cardiovascular
Deaths During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United
States, Wadhera, 2021 |
“Hospitalizations for acute cardiovascular
conditions have declined, raising concern that
patients may be avoiding hospitals because of fear
of contracting severe acute respiratory syndrome-
coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)…there was an increase in
deaths caused by ischemic heart disease and
hypertensive diseases in some regions of the United
States during the initial phase of the COVID-19
pandemic.” |
131) Lockdowns
of Young People Lead to More Deaths from Covid-19,
Berdine, 2020 |
“On April 1, 2020 Dr Anthony Fauci indicated that
lockdowns would have to continue until there were
zero new cases. This policy indicated a strategy
whose goal was eradication of the virus through
lockdown. The premise that the virus could be
eradicated was a false one. While individual virus
particles can certainly be killed, the Covid-19
virus cannot be eradicated. If the virus could be
eradicated, then Australia would have already
succeeded with its brutal lockdown. All of the
scientific data, as opposed to the wishful thinking
coming out of Garbage In Garbage Out models,
indicates that the virus is here forever – much like
influenza. Given the fact that the virus will
eventually spread to the entire young and
economically active population, lockdowns of the
young cannot possibly achieve reduced mortality
compared to voluntary action.” |
132) A
second lockdown would break South Africans,
Griffiths, 2020 |
“It is likely that soon there will be increased
calls for a second hard lockdown as it gets worse,
either countrywide or in particular provinces.
Should such a decision be implemented it will
probably take many South Africans over their
breaking point as some may well lose what they so
desperately attempted to save during the initial
lockdown.” |
133) CDC,
Longitudinal Trends in Body Mass Index Before and
During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Persons Aged
2–19 Years — United States, 2018–2020, Lange,
2021 |
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, children and
adolescents spent more time than usual away from
structured school settings, and families who were
already disproportionally affected by obesity risk
factors might have had additional disruptions in
income, food, and other social determinants of
health.† As a result, children and adolescents might
have experienced circumstances that accelerated
weight gain, including increased stress, irregular
mealtimes, less access to nutritious foods,
increased screen time, and fewer opportunities for
physical activity (e.g., no recreational sports)
(2,3).” |
134) The
Truth About Lockdowns, Rational Ground, 2021 |
“1.4
million additional tuberculosis deaths due to
lockdown disruptions, 500,000
additional deaths related to HIV, Malaria
deaths could double to 770,000 total per year,
65
percent decrease in all cancer screenings, Breast cancer
screenings dropped 89 percent, Colorectal
screenings dropped 85 percent, At
least 1/3 of excess deaths in the U.S. are already
not related to COVID-19, Increase
in cardiac arrests but decrease in EMS calls for
them, Significant
increase in stress-related cardiomyopathy during
lockdowns, 132
million additional people in sub-Saharan Africa
are projected to be undernourished due to lockdown
disruptions, Study
estimates up to 2.3 million additional child
deaths in the next year from lockdowns, Millions
of girls have been deprived of access to food,
basic healthcare, and protection and thousands
exposed to abuse and exploitation.” |
135) The
Backward Art of Slowing the Spread? Congregation
Efficiencies during COVID-19, Mulligan, 2021 |
“Micro evidence contradicts the public-health
ideal in which households would be places of
solitary confinement and zero transmission. Instead,
the evidence suggests that “households show the
highest transmission rates” and that “households are
high-risk settings for the transmission of
[COVID-19].” |
136) Stay-at-home
policy is a case of exception fallacy: an
internet-based ecological study, Savaris, 2021 |
“After preprocessing the data, 87 regions around
the world were included, yielding 3741 pairwise
comparisons for linear regression analysis. Only 63
(1.6%) comparisons were significant. With our
results, we were not able to explain if COVID-19
mortality is reduced by staying at home in ~ 98% of
the comparisons after epidemiological weeks 9 to
34.” |
137) The
Failed Experiment of Covid Lockdowns,
Luskin, 2020 |
“Six months into the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S.
has now carried out two large-scale experiments in
public health—first, in March and April, the
lockdown of the economy to arrest the spread of the
virus, and second, since mid-April, the reopening of
the economy. The results are in. Counterintuitive
though it may be, statistical analysis shows that
locking down the economy didn’t contain the
disease’s spread and reopening it didn’t unleash a
second wave of infections.” |
138) An
Interview with Gigi Foster, Warrior Against
Lockdowns, Brownstone, 2021 |
“Well, I mean, we thought that was necessary
because we were just surrounded by people who have
bought into the lockdown ideology. And they will
have in their minds, a very facile sort of reason
why lockdowns should work. And so, we addressed that
very directly in that section as you know. We say,
“Look, on the surface of it, the idea is that you
prevent people from interacting with each other and
therefore, transmitting the virus. That’s what
people believe. That’s what they think when they
think lockdown, they think, “That’s what I’m doing.”
But they don’t realize how many other collateral
problems are happening and also how little that
particular objective is actually being serviced,
because of the fact that we live in these
interdependent societies now. And we also are
trapping people often in large buildings, sharing
air together, and not able to go outside as much and
so we’re actually potentially increasing the spread
of the virus, at least within communities, our
communities. So, it basically is an example of
trying to engage with the people we feel are
misguided on this issue in a calm way, not screaming
at each other, not sort of taking the radical
position on either side and just saying, “I’m going
to play gotcha with you” because that’s not
productive.” |
139) The
Politicisation of Science Funding in the US,
Carl, 2021 |
Regarding Sweden: “As an aside, the report clearly
states: “The best way of comparing the mortality
impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
internationally is by looking at all-cause mortality
compared with the five-year average.” So what do the
new numbers show? Sweden has had negative excess
mortality. In other words, the level of mortality
between January 2020 and June 2021 was lower than
the five-year average. If this isn’t a vindication
of Anders Tegnell’s approach, I don’t know what is.” |
140) Pandemic
lockdown, healthcare policies and human rights:
integrating opposed views on COVID-19 public
health mitigation measures, Burlacu, 2020 |
“Starting from the rationale of the lockdown, in
this paper we explored and exposed the other
consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic measures such
as the use or abuse of human rights and freedom
restrictions, economic issues, marginalized groups
and eclipse of all other diseases. Our scientific
attempt is to coagulate a stable position and
integrate current opposing views by advancing the
idea that rather than applying the uniform lockdown
policy, one could recommend instead an improved
model targeting more strict and more prolonged
lockdowns to vulnerable risk/age groups while
enabling less stringent measures for the lower-risk
groups, minimizing both economic losses and deaths.
Rigorous (and also governed by freedom) debating may
be able to synchronize the opposed perspectives
between those advocating an extreme lockdown (e.g.,
most of the epidemiologists and health experts), and
those criticizing all restrictive measures (e.g.,
economists and human rights experts). Confronting
the multiple facets of the public health mitigation
measures is the only way to avoid contributing to
history with yet another failure, as seen in other
past epidemics.” |
141) Mental
Health, Substance Use, and Suicidal Ideation
During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, June
24–30, 2020, Czeisler, 2020 |
25.5% of persons 18 to 24 years old seriously
considered suicide in the prior 30 days (Table 1).CDC:
A Quarter of Young Adults Say They Contemplated
Suicide This Summer During Pandemic – Foundation
for Economic Education (fee.org) |
142) Will
the Truth on COVID Restrictions Really Prevail?,
Atlas, 2021 |
“Separate from their limited value
in containing the virus — efficacy that has often
been “grossly
exaggerated” in published papers — lockdown
policies have been extraordinarily harmful.
The harms to
children of closing in-person schooling are
dramatic, including poor learning, school dropouts,
social isolation, and suicidal ideation, most of
which are far worse for
lower income groups. A recent study confirms
that up to 78% of cancers were never detected due to
missed screening over three months. If one
extrapolates to the entire country, where
about 150,000 new
cancers are diagnosed per month, three-fourths to
over a million new cases over nine months will have
gone undetected. That health disaster adds to missed
critical surgeries, delayed presentations of
pediatric illnesses, heart attack and stroke
patients too afraid to call emergency services, and
others all well documented… Beyond hospital care,
CDC reported four-fold increases in depression,
three-fold increases in anxiety symptoms, and a
doubling of suicidal ideation, particularly
among young
adults after the first few months of
lockdowns, echoing the AMA reports
of drug overdoses and suicides. Domestic
abuse and child
abuse have been skyrocketing due
to the isolation and specifically to the loss
of jobs, particularly in the strictest lockdowns.” |
143) With
Low Vaccination Rates, Africa’s Covid Deaths
Remain Far below Europe and the US, Mises
Wire, 2021 |
“Since the very beginning of the covid panic, the
narrative has been this: implement severe lockdowns
or your population will experience a bloodbath.
Morgues will be overwhelmed, the death total toll
will be astounding. On the other hand, we were
assured those jurisdictions that do lock
down would see only a fraction of the death toll…
The lockdown narrative, of course, has already been
thoroughly overturned. Jurisdictions that did not
lock down or adopted only weak and short
lockdowns ended
up with covid death tolls that were
either similar to—or even better than—death tolls in
countries that adopted draconian lockdowns. Lockdown
advocates said locked-down countries would be
overwhelmingly better off. These people were clearly
wrong.” |
144) Rethinking
lockdowns, Joffe, 2020 |
“Lockdowns have also resulted in a wide-range of
unintended ramifications. Economic damage, delays in
“non-urgent” surgeries, diagnoses, and treatments,
and excess deaths arising from the “collateral
effects” of lockdown measures should all be
considered as policy-makers weigh future
measures.Dr. Joffe argues that Canadians have been
essentially presented with a “false dichotomy” –
between a choice of either economically-damaging
lockdowns or lethal inaction. However, his analysis
finds that the costs of the lockdown measures
compare poorly against their purported benefits when
measured by Quality Adjusted Life Years, or QALY.
“Various cost-benefit analyses from different
countries, including some of these costs, have
consistently estimated the cost in lives from
lockdowns to be at least five to 10 times higher
than the benefit, and likely far higher.” |
145) Non-pharmaceutical
public health measures for mitigating the risk and
impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza,
WHO, 2020 |
“Home quarantine of exposed individuals to reduce
transmission is not recommended because there is no
obvious rationale for this measure, and there would
be considerable difficulties in implementing it.” |
146) Projected
deaths of despair from COVID-19, Well Being
Trust, 2020 |
“More Americans could lose their lives to deaths
of despair, deaths due to drug, alcohol, and
suicide, if we do not do something immediately.
Deaths of despair have been on the rise for the last
decade, and in the context of COVID-19, deaths of
despair should be seen as the epidemic within the
pandemic.” |
147) Dr
Matthew Owens: Undoing the untold harms of
COVID-19 on young people: a call to action,
2020 |
“A sense of proportion is now needed to help
mitigate the negative impact of the ‘lockdown’
measures and encourage the healthy development and
wellbeing of all young people.” |
148) Stay
at Home, Protect the National Health Service, Save
Lives”: A cost benefit analysis of the lockdown in
the United Kingdom, Miles, 2020 |
“The costs of continuing severe restrictions are
so great relative to likely benefits in lives saved
that a rapid easing in restrictions is now
warranted.” |
149) Great
Barrington Declaration, Gupta, Kulldorff,
Bhattacharya, 2020 |
“Both COVID-19 itself and the lockdown policy
reactions have had enormous adverse consequences for
patients in the US and around the world. While the
harm from COVID-19 infections are well represented
in news stories every day, the harms from lockdowns
themselves are less well advertised, but no less
important. The patients hurt by missed medical
visits and hospitalizations due to lockdowns are as
worthy of attention and policy response as are
patients afflicted by COVID-19 infection.” |
150) Sweden
saw lower 2020 death spike than much of Europe –
data, Ahlander, 2021 |
“Sweden, which has shunned the strict lockdowns
that have choked much of the global economy, emerged
from 2020 with a smaller increase in its overall
mortality rate than most European countries, an
analysis of official data sources showed.” |
151) Covid-19
Mortality: A Matter of Vulnerability Among Nations
Facing Limited Margins of Adaptation, De
Larochelambert, 2020 |
“Countries that already experienced a stagnation
or regression of life expectancy, with high income
and NCD rates, had the highest price to pay. This
burden was not alleviated by more stringent public
decisions.” |
152) Open
Letter from Medical Doctors and Health
Professionals to All Belgian Authorities and All
Belgian Media, AIER, 2020 |
“If we compare the waves of infection in countries
with strict lockdown policies to countries that did
not impose lockdowns (Sweden, Iceland …), we see
similar curves. So there is no link between
the imposed lockdown and the course of the
infection. Lockdown has not led to a lower mortality
rate.” |
153) Will
Months of Remote Learning Worsen Students’
Attention Problems? Harwin, 2020 |
“Robert is working from home again, along
with over
50 million students, as schools in 48 states
have shut down in-person classes to curb the spread
of the novel coronavirus. How will the long absence
from traditional school routines affect Robert and
the millions of other students across the country
who struggle with self-control, focus, or mental
flexibility?” |
154) Covid
Lockdown Cost/Benefits: A Critical Assessment of
the Literature, Allen, 2021 |
“An examination of over 80 Covid-19 studies
reveals that many relied on assumptions that were
false, and which tended to over-estimate the
benefits and under-estimate the costs of lockdown.
As a result, most of the early cost/benefit studies
arrived at conclusions that were refuted later by
data, and which rendered their cost/benefit findings
incorrect. Research done over the past six months
has shown that lockdowns have had, at best, a
marginal effect on the number of Covid-19 deaths.
Generally speaking, the ineffectiveness of lockdown
stems from voluntary changes in behavior. Lockdown
jurisdictions were not able to prevent
non-compliance, and non-lockdown jurisdictions
benefited from voluntary changes in behavior that
mimicked lockdowns. The limited effectiveness of
lockdowns explains why, after one year, the
unconditional cumulative deaths per million, and the
pattern of daily deaths per million, is not
negatively correlated with the stringency of
lockdown across countries. Using a cost/benefit
method proposed by Professor Bryan Caplan, and using
two extreme assumptions of lockdown effectiveness,
the cost/benefit ratio of lockdowns in Canada, in
terms of life-years saved, is between 3.6–282. That
is, it is possible that lockdown will go down as one
of the greatest peacetime policy failures in
Canada’s history.” |
155) COVID-19
Mandates Will Not Work for the Delta Variant,
Alexander, 2021 |
“Yet the elites are far removed from the
ramifications of their nonsensical, illogical,
specious policies and edicts. Dictates that do not
apply to them or their families or friends. The
‘laptop’ affluent class could vacate, work remotely,
walk their dogs and pets, catch up on reading their
books, and do tasks they could not do had they been
in the workplace daily. They could hire extra
teachers for their children etc. Remote working was
a boon. The actions of our governments however,
devastated and long-term hurt the poor in societies
and terribly and perversely so, and many could not
hold on and committed suicide. AIER’s Ethan
Yang’s analysis showed that deaths
of despair skyrocketed. Poor children,
especially in richer western nations such as the US
and Canada, self-harmed and ended
their lives, not due to the pandemic virus,
but due to the lockdowns and school
closures. Many children took their own lives
out of despair, depression, and hopelessness due to
the lockdowns and school closures.” |
156) Open
letter from medical doctors and health
professionals to all Belgian authorities and all
Belgian media, The
American Institute of Stress, 2020 |
“If we compare the waves of infection in countries
with strict lockdown policies to countries that did
not impose lockdowns (Sweden, Iceland …), we see
similar curves. So there is no link between
the imposed lockdown and the course of the
infection. Lockdown has not led to a lower mortality
rate. If we look at the date of application of the
imposed lockdowns we see that the lockdowns were set
after the peak was already over and the number of
cases decreasing. The drop was therefore not the
result of the taken measures.” |
157) Lockdown
Scepticism Was Never a ‘Fringe’ Viewpoint,
Carl, 2021 |
“Whether or not lockdowns are justifiable on
public-health grounds, they certainly represent the
greatest infringement on
civil liberties in modern history. In the UK,
lockdowns have contributed to the largest economic
contraction in more than 300 years, as well as
countless bankruptcies,
and a dramatic rise in
public borrowing.” |
158) Actuaries
warn Ramaphosa of a ‘humanitarian disaster to
dwarf Covid-19′ if restrictive lockdown is
not lifted, Bell, 2020 |
“The frequently voiced government mantra that
lives are being prioritised and that the issue is
“lives versus the economy” is described in the Panda
report as a false dichotomy. The report notes:
“Viruses kill. But the economy sustains lives, and
poverty kills too.”It points out that the admitted
intention of the lockdown is to “flatten the curve”,
to spread expected virus deaths over time, so as not
to overburden hospital systems. This “saves lives to
the extent that avoidable deaths are prevented, but
merely shifts the timing of the rest by some weeks.” |
159) THE
STATE OF THE NATION: A 50-STATE COVID-19 SURVEY
REPORT #23: DEPRESSION AMONG YOUNG ADULTS,
Perlis, 2020 |
“In line with our May results, our survey
indicates that the next administration will lead a
country where unprecedented numbers of younger
individuals are experiencing depression, anxiety,
and, for some, thoughts of suicide. These symptoms
are not concentrated among any particular subgroup
or region in our survey; they are elevated in every
group we examined. Our survey results also strongly
suggest that those with direct economic and property
losses resulting from COVID-19 appear to be at
particular risk, so strategies focusing on these
individuals may be critical.” |
160) COVID-19
to Add as Many as 150 Million Extreme Poor by 2021,
The World Bank, 2020 |
“Global extreme poverty is expected to rise in
2020 for the first time in over 20 years as the
disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic compounds the
forces of conflict and climate change, which were
already slowing poverty reduction progress, the
World Bank said today.The COVID-19 pandemic is
estimated to push an additional 88 million to 115
million people into extreme poverty this year, with
the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021,
depending on the severity of the economic
contraction. Extreme poverty, defined as living on
less than $1.90 a day, is likely to affect between
9.1% and 9.4% of the world’s population in 2020,
according to the biennial Poverty and
Shared Prosperity Report. This would
represent a regression to the rate of 9.2% in 2017.
Had the pandemic not convulsed the globe, the
poverty rate was expected to drop to 7.9% in 2020.” |
161) The
impact of COVID-19 on heart failure
hospitalization and management: report from a
Heart Failure Unit in London during the peak of
the pandemic, Bromage, 2020 |
“Incident AHF hospitalization significantly
declined in our centre during the COVID-19 pandemic,
but hospitalized patients had more severe symptoms
at admission. Further studies are needed to
investigate whether the incidence of AHF declined or
patients did not present to hospital while the
national lockdown and social distancing restrictions
were in place. From a public health perspective, it
is imperative to ascertain whether this will be
associated with worse long-term outcomes.” |
SCHOOL CLOSURES |
1) Suffering
in silence: How COVID-19 school closures inhibit
the reporting of child maltreatment, Baron,
2020 |
“While one would expect the financial, mental, and
physical stress due to COVID-19 to result in
additional child maltreatment cases, we find that
the actual number of reported allegations was
approximately 15,000 lower (27%) than expected for
these two months. We leverage a detailed dataset of
school district staffing and spending to show that
the observed decline in allegations was largely
driven by school closures.” |
2) Association
of routine school closures with child maltreatment
reporting and substantiation in the United States;
2010-2017, Puls, 2021 |
“Results suggest that the detection of child
maltreatment may be diminished during periods of
routine school closure.” |
3) Reporting
of child maltreatment during the SARS-CoV-2
pandemic in New York City from March to May 2020,
Rapoport, 2021 |
“Precipitous drops in child maltreatment reporting
and child welfare interventions coincided with
social distancing policies designed to mitigate
COVID-19 transmission.” |
4) Calculating
the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on child abuse and
neglect in the U.S, Nguyen, 2021 |
“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a precipitous
drop in CAN investigations where almost 200,000
children are estimated to have been missed for
prevention services and CAN in a 10-month period.” |
5) Effect
of school closures on mortality from coronavirus
disease 2019: old and new predictions, Rice,
2020 |
“We therefore conclude that the somewhat
counterintuitive results that school closures lead
to more deaths are a consequence of the addition of
some interventions that suppress the first wave and
failure to prioritise protection of the most
vulnerable people. When the interventions are
lifted, there is still a large population who are
susceptible and a substantial number of people who
are infected. This then leads to a second wave of
infections that can result in more deaths, but
later. Further lockdowns would lead to a repeating
series of waves of infection unless herd immunity is
achieved by vaccination, which is not considered in
the model. A similar result is obtained in some of
the scenarios involving general social distancing.
For example, adding general social distancing to
case isolation and household quarantine was also
strongly associated with suppression of the
infection during the intervention period, but then a
second wave occurs that actually concerns a higher
peak demand for ICU beds than for the equivalent
scenario without general social distancing.” |
6) Schools
Closures during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A
Catastrophic Global Situation, Buonsenso,
2020 |
“This extreme measure provoked a disruption of the
educational system involving hundreds of million
children worldwide. The return of children to school
has been variable and is still an unresolved and
contentious issue. Importantly the process has not
been directly correlated to the severity of the
pandemic s impact and has fueled the widening of
disparities, disproportionately affecting the most
vulnerable populations. Available evidence shows SC
added little benefit to COVID-19 control whereas the
harms related to SC severely affected children and
adolescents. This unresolved issue has put children
and young people at high risk of social, economic
and health-related harm for years to come,
triggering severe consequences during their
lifespan.” |
7) The
Impact of COVID-19 School Closure on Child and
Adolescent Health: A Rapid Systematic Review,
Chaabane,
2021 |
“COVID-19-related school closure was associated
with a significant decline in the number of hospital
admissions and pediatric emergency department
visits. However, a number of children and
adolescents lost access to school-based healthcare
services, special services for children with
disabilities, and nutrition programs. A greater risk
of widening educational disparities due to lack of
support and resources for remote learning were also
reported among poorer families and children with
disabilities. School closure also contributed to
increased anxiety and loneliness in young people and
child stress, sadness, frustration, indiscipline,
and hyperactivity. The longer the duration of school
closure and reduction of daily physical activity,
the higher was the predicted increase of Body Mass
Index and childhood obesity prevalence.” |
8) School
Closures and Social Anxiety During the COVID-19
Pandemic, Morrissette,
2020 |
“Reported on the effects that social isolation and
loneliness may have on children and adolescents
during the global 2019 novel coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) pandemic, with their findings suggesting
associations between social anxiety and
loneliness/social isolation.” |
9) Parental
job loss and infant health, Lindo, 2011 |
“Husbands’ job losses have significant negative
effects on infant health. They reduce birth weights
by approximately four and a half percent.” |
10) Closing
schools is not evidence based and harms children,
Lewis, 2021 |
“For some children education is their only way out
of poverty; for others school offers a safe haven
away from a dangerous or chaotic home life. Learning
loss, reduced social interaction, isolation, reduced
physical activity, increased mental health problems,
and potential for increased abuse, exploitation, and
neglect have all been associated with school
closures. Reduced future income6 and
life expectancy are associated with less education.
Children with special educational needs or who are
already disadvantaged are at increased risk of
harm.” |
11) Impacts
of school closures on physical and mental health
of children and young people: a systematic review,
Viner, 2021 |
“School closures as part of broader social
distancing measures are associated with considerable
harms to CYP health and wellbeing. Available data
are short-term and longer-term harms are likely to
be magnified by further school closures. Data are
urgently needed on longer-term impacts using strong
research designs, particularly amongst vulnerable
groups. These findings are important for
policy-makers seeking to balance the risks of
transmission through school-aged children with the
harms of closing schools.” |
12) School
Closure: A Careful Review of the Evidence,
Alexander, 2020 |
“Based on the existing reviewed evidence,
the predominant finding is that children
(particularly young children) are at very low risk
of acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection, and if they do
become infected, are at very low risk of spreading
it among themselves or to other children in the
school setting, of spreading it to their teachers,
or of spreading it to other adults or to their
parents, or of taking it into the home setting;
children typically become infected from the home
setting/clusters and adults are typically the index
case; children are at very low risk of severe
illness or death from COVID-19 disease except in
very rare circumstances; children do not drive
SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 as they do seasonal influenza;
an age gradient as to susceptibility and
transmission capacity exists whereby older children
should not be treated the same as younger children
in terms of ability to transmit e.g. a 6 year-old
versus a 17 year-old (as such, public health
measures would be different in an elementary school
versus a high/secondary school); ‘very low risk’ can
also be considered ‘very rare’ (not zero risk, but
negligible, very rare); we argue that masking and
social distancing for young children is unsound
policy and not needed and if social distancing is to
be used, that 3-feet is suitable over 6-feet and
will address the space limitations in schools; we
argue that we are well past the point where we must
replace hysteria and fear with knowledge and
fact. The schools must be immediately
re-opened for in-person instruction as there is no
reason to do otherwise.” |
13) Children,
school and COVID-19, RIVM, 2021 |
“If we look at all hospital admissions reported by
the NICE Foundation between 1 January and 16
November 2021, 0.7% were younger than 4 years old.
0.1% were aged 4-11 years and 0.2% were aged 12-17
years. The vast majority (99.0%) of all people
admitted to hospital with COVID-19 were aged 18
years or older.” |
14) FEW
CARRIERS, FEW TRANSMITTERS”: A STUDY CONFIRMS THE
MINIMAL ROLE OF CHILDREN IN THE COVID-19 EPIDEMIC,
Vincendon, 2020 |
“Children are few carriers, few transmitters, and
when they are contaminated, it is almost always
adults in the family who have contaminated them.” |
15) Transmission
of SARS-CoV-2 in children aged 0 to 19 years in
childcare facilities and schools after their
reopening in May 2020, Baden-Württemberg, Germany,
Ehrhardt,
2020 |
“Investigated data from severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infected 0-19
year olds, who attended schools/childcare
facilities, to assess their role in SARS-CoV-2
transmission after these establishments’ reopening
in May 2020 in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Child-to-child transmission in schools/childcare
facilities appeared very uncommon.” |
16) Australian
Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC)
coronavirus (COVID-19) statements on 24 April 2020,
Australian government, 2020 |
“AHPPC continues to note that there is very
limited evidence of transmission between children in
the school environment; population screening
overseas has shown very low incidence of positive
cases in school-aged children. In Australia, 2.4 per
cent of confirmed cases have been in children aged
between 5 and 18 years of age (as at 6am, 22 April
2020). AHPPC believes that adults in the
school environment should practice room density
measures (such as in staff rooms) given the greater
risk of transmission between adults.” |
17) AN
EVIDENCE SUMMARY OF PAEDIATRIC COVID-19 LITERATURE,
Boast, 2021 |
“Critical illness is very rare (~1%). In data from
China, the USA and Europe, there is a “U shaped”
risk gradient, with infants and older adolescents
appear most likely to be hospitalised and to suffer
from more severe disease. Deaths in children remain
extremely rare from COVID-19, with only 4 deaths in
the UK as of May 2020 in children <15 years, all
in children with serious comorbidities.” |
18) Transmission
dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 within families with
children in Greece: A study of 23 clusters, Maltezou,
2020 |
“While children become infected by SARS-CoV-2,
they do not appear to transmit infection to
others.” |
19) No
evidence of secondary transmission of COVID-19
from children attending school in Ireland, 2020,
Heavey, 2020 |
“Children are thought to be vectors for
transmission of many respiratory diseases including
influenza. It was assumed that this would be true
for COVID-19 also. To date however, evidence of
widespread paediatric transmission has failed to
emerge. School closures create childcare issues for
parents. This has an impact on the workforce,
including the healthcare workforce. There are also
concerns about the impact of school closures on
children’s mental and physical health… examination
of all Irish paediatric cases of COVID-19 attending
school during the pre-symptomatic and symptomatic
periods of infection (n = 3) identified no cases of
onward transmission to other children or adults
within the school and a variety of other settings.
These included music lessons (woodwind instruments)
and choir practice, both of which are high-risk
activities for transmission. Furthermore, no onward
transmission from the three identified adult cases
to children was identified.” |
20) COVID-19,
school closures, and child poverty: a social
crisis in the making, Van Lancker, 2020 |
“The UN
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates
that 138 countries have closed schools nationwide,
and several other countries have implemented
regional or local closures. These school closures
are affecting the education of 80% of children
worldwide. Although scientific debate is ongoing
with regard to the effectiveness of school closures
on virus transmission, the fact that schools are
closed for a long period of time could have
detrimental social and health consequences for
children living in poverty, and are likely to
exacerbate existing inequalities.” |
21) Impact
of school closures for COVID-19 on the US
health-care workforce and net mortality: a
modelling study, Bayham, 2020 |
“School closures come with many trade-offs, and
can create unintended child-care obligations. Our
results suggest that the potential contagion
prevention from school closures needs to be
carefully weighted with the potential loss of
health-care workers from the standpoint of reducing
cumulative mortality due to COVID-19, in the absence
of mitigating measures.” |
22) The
Truth About Kids, School, and COVID-19,
Thompson/The Atlantic, 2021 |
“The CDC’s judgment comes at a particularly
fraught moment in the debate about kids, schools,
and COVID-19. Parents are exhausted.
Student suicides are
surging. Teachers’ unions are facing national opprobrium for
their reluctance to return to in-person instruction.
And schools are already
making noise about staying closed until
2022… Research from around the world has, since the
beginning of the pandemic, indicated that people
under 18, and especially younger kids, are less
susceptible to infection, less
likely to experience severe symptoms,
and far
less likely to be hospitalized or die…in May
2020, a small
Irish study of young students and
education workers with COVID-19 interviewed more
than 1,000 contacts and found “no case of onward
transmission” to any children or adults. In June
2020, a
Singapore study of three COVID-19
clusters found that “children are not the primary
drivers” of outbreaks and that “the risk of
SARS-CoV-2 transmission among children in schools,
especially preschools, is likely to be low.” |
23) Feared
coronavirus outbreaks in schools yet to arrive,
early data shows, Meckler/The Washington Post,
2020 |
“This early evidence, experts say, suggests that
opening schools may not be as risky as many have
feared and could guide administrators as they chart
the rest of what is already an unprecedented school
year. Everyone had a fear there would be explosive
outbreaks of transmission in the schools. In
colleges, there have been. We have to say that, to
date, we have not seen those in the younger kids,
and that is a really important observation.” |
24) Three
studies highlight low COVID risk of in-person
school, CIDRAP, 2021 |
“A trio of new studies demonstrate low risk of
COVID-19 infection and spread in schools, including
limited in-school COVID-19 transmission in North
Carolina, few cases of the coronavirus-associated
multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
(MIS-C) in Swedish schools, and minimal spread of
the virus from primary school students in Norway.” |
25) Incidence
and Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2
Infections in Schools, Zimmerman, 2021 |
“In the first 9 weeks of in-person instruction in
North Carolina schools, we found extremely limited
within-school secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2,
as determined by contact tracing.” |
26) Open
Schools, Covid-19, and Child and Teacher Morbidity
in Sweden, Ludvigsson, 2020 |
“Of the 1,951,905 children aged 1 to 16 years in
Sweden as of Dec 31, 2019, 65 died in the
pre-pandemic period of November 2019 to February
2020, compared with 69 in the pandemic period of
March through June 2020. None of the deaths were
caused by COVID-19. Fifteen children diagnosed as
having COVID-19, including seven with MIS-C, were
admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) from March
to June 2020 (0.77 per 100,000 children in this
age-group). Four children required mechanical
ventilation. Four children were 1 to 6 years old
(0.54 per 100,000), and 11 were 7 to 16 (0.90 per
100,000). Four of the children had an underlying
illness: 2 with cancer, 1 with chronic kidney
disease, and 1 with a hematologic disease). Of the
country’s 103,596 preschool teachers and 20
schoolteachers, fewer than 10 were admitted to an
ICU by Jun 30, 2020 (an equivalent of 19 per
100,000).” |
27) Minimal
transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from paediatric
COVID-19 cases in primary schools, Norway, August
to November 2020, Brandal,
2021 |
“This prospective study shows that transmission of
SARS-CoV-2 from children under 14 years of age was
minimal in primary schools in Oslo and Viken, the
two Norwegian counties with the highest COVID-19
incidence and in which 35% of the Norwegian
population resides. In a period of low to medium
community transmission (a 14-day incidence of
COVID-19 of < 150 cases per 100,000
inhabitants), when symptomatic children were asked
to stay home from school, there were < 1%
SARS-CoV-2–positive test results among child
contacts and < 2% positive results in adult
contacts in 13 contract tracings in Norwegian
primary schools. In addition, self-collection of
saliva for SARS-CoV-2 detection was efficient and
sensitive (85% (11/13); 95% confidence interval:
55–98)…use of face masks is not recommended in
schools in Norway. We found that with the IPC
measures implemented there is low to no transmission
from SARS-CoV-2–infected children in schools.” |
28) Children
are unlikely to be the main drivers of the
COVID-19 pandemic – A systematic review, Ludvigsson,
2020 |
“Identified 700 scientific papers and letters and
47 full texts were studied in detail. Children
accounted for a small fraction of COVID-19 cases and
mostly had social contacts with peers or parents,
rather than older people at risk of severe
disease…Children are unlikely to be the main drivers
of the pandemic. Opening up schools and
kindergartens is unlikely to impact COVID-19
mortality rates in older people.” |
29) Science
Brief: Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in K-12 Schools
and Early Care and Education Programs – Updated,
CDC, 2021 |
“Findings from several studies suggest that
SARS-CoV-2 transmission among students is relatively
rare, particularly when prevention strategies are in
place…several studies have also concluded that
students are not the primary sources of exposure to
SARS-CoV-2 among adults in school setting.” |
30) Children
under 10 less likely to drive COVID-19 outbreaks,
research review says, Dobbins/McMaster, 2020 |
“The bottom line thus far is that children under
10 years of age are unlikely to drive outbreaks of
COVID-19 in daycares and schools and that, to date,
adults were much more likely to be the transmitter
of infection than children.” |
31) Role
of children in the transmission of the COVID-19
pandemic: a rapid scoping review, Rajmil, 2020 |
“Children are not transmitters to a greater extent
than adults. There is a need to improve the validity
of epidemiological surveillance to solve current
uncertainties, and to take into account social
determinants and child health inequalities during
and after the current pandemic.” |
32) COVID-19
in schools – the experience in NSW, NCIRS,
2020 |
“SARS-CoV-2 transmission in children in schools
appears considerably less than seen for other
respiratory viruses, such as influenza. In contrast
to influenza, data from both virus and antibody
testing to date suggest that children are not the
primary drivers of COVID-19 spread in schools or in
the community. This is consistent with data from
international studies showing low rates of disease
in children and suggesting limited spread among
children and from children to adults.” |
33) Spread
of SARS-CoV-2 in the Icelandic Population,
Gudbjartsson, 2020 |
“In a population-based study in Iceland, children
under 10 years of age and females had a lower
incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection than adolescents
or adults and males.” |
34) Case-Fatality
Rate and Characteristics of Patients Dying in
Relation to COVID-19 in Italy, Onder, 2020 |
Infected children and females were less likely to
have severe disease. |
35) BC
Center for Disease Control, BC Children’s
hospital, 2020 |
“BC families reported impaired learning, increased
child stress, and decreased connection during
COVID-19 school closures, while global data show
increased loneliness and declining mental health,
including anxiety and depression… Provincial child
protection reports have also declined significantly
despite reported increased domestic violence
globally. This suggests decreased detection of child
neglect and abuse without reporting from schools…
The impact of school closures is likely to be
experienced disproportionately by families subject
to social inequities, and those with children with
health conditions or special learning needs.
Interrupted access to school-based resources,
connections, and support compounds the broader
societal impact of the pandemic. In particular,
there are likely to be greater effects on single
parent families, families in poverty, working
mothers, and those with unstable employment and
housing.” |
36) Transmission
of SARS-CoV-2 in Australian educational settings:
a prospective cohort study, Macartney, 2020 |
“SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates were low in NSW
educational settings during the first COVID-19
epidemic wave, consistent with mild infrequent
disease in the 1·8 million child population.” |
37) COVID-19
Cases and Transmission in 17 K–12 Schools — Wood
County, Wisconsin, August 31–November 29, 2020,
CDC/Falk, 202138) COVID-19
in children and the role of school settings in
transmission – second update, ECDC, 2021 |
“In a setting of widespread community SARS-CoV-2
transmission, few instances of in-school
transmission were identified among students and
staff members, with limited spread among children
within their cohorts and no documented transmission
to or from staff members.”“Children aged between
1-18 years have much lower rates of hospitalisation,
severe disease requiring intensive hospital care,
and death than all other age groups, according to
surveillance data…the decision to close schools to
control the COVID-19 pandemic should be used as a
last resort. The negative physical, mental and
educational impacts of proactive school closures on
children, as well as the economic impact on society
more broadly, would likely outweigh the
benefits.”“Investigations of cases identified in
school settings suggest that child to child
transmission in schools is uncommon and not the
primary cause of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children
whose onset of infection coincides with the period
during which they are attending school, particularly
in preschools and primary school.” |
39) COVID-19
in children and young people, Snape, 2020 |
“The near-global closure of schools in response to
the pandemic reflected the reasonable expectation
from previous respiratory virus outbreaks that
children would be a key component of the
transmission chain. However, emerging evidence
suggests that this is most likely not the case. A
minority of children experience a postinfectious
inflammatory syndrome, the pathology and long-term
outcomes of which are poorly understood. However,
relative to their risk of contracting disease,
children and adolescents have been
disproportionately affected by lockdown measures,
and advocates of child health need to ensure that
children’s rights to health and social care, mental
health support, and education are protected
throughout subsequent pandemic waves…There are many
other areas of potential indirect harm to children,
including an increase in home injuries (accidental
and nonaccidental) when children have been less
visible to social protection systems because of
lockdowns. In Italy, hospitalizations for accidents
at home increased markedly during the COVID-19
lockdown and potentially posed a higher threat to
children’s health than COVID-19. UK pediatricians
report that delay in presentations to hospital or
disrupted services contributed to the deaths of
equal numbers of children that were reported to have
died with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Many countries are
seeing evidence that mental health in young people
has been adversely affected by school closures and
lockdowns. For example, preliminary evidence
suggests that deaths by suicide of young people
under 18 years old increased during lockdown in
England.” |
40) Clinical
characteristics of children and young people
admitted to hospital with covid-19 in United
Kingdom: prospective multicentre observational
cohort study, Swann, 2020 |
“Children and young people have less severe acute
covid-19 than adults.” |
41) The
Dangers of Keeping the Schools Closed, Yang,
2020 |
“The data from a range of countries shows that
children rarely, and in many countries never, have
died from this infection. Children appear to get
infected at a much lower rate than those who are
older… there is no evidence that children are
important in transmitting the disease…What we know
about social distancing policies is based largely on
models of influenza, where children are a vulnerable
group. However, preliminary data on COVID-19
suggests that children are a small fraction of cases
and may be less vulnerable than older adults.” |
42) SARS-CoV-2
Infection in Children, Lu, 2020 |
“In contrast with infected adults, most infected
children appear to have a milder clinical course.
Asymptomatic infections were not uncommon.” |
43) Characteristics
of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus
Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary
of a Report of 72 314 Cases From the Chinese
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wu,
2020 |
Less than 1% of the cases were in children younger
than 10 years of age. |
44) Risk
for COVID-19 Infection, CDC, 2021 |
A CDC
report on hospitalization and death in
children, found that when compared to persons 18 to
29 years old, children 0 to 4 years had a 4x lower
rate of hospitalization and a 9x lower rate of
death. Children 5 to 17 years old had a 9x lower
rate of hospitalization and a 16x lower rate of
death. |
45) Children
are unlikely to have been the primary source of
household SARS-CoV-2 infections, Zhu, 2020 |
“Whilst SARS-CoV-2 can cause mild disease in
children, the data available to date suggests that
children have not played a substantive role in the
intra-household transmission of SARS-CoV-2.” |
46) Characteristics
of Household Transmission of COVID-19, Li,
2020 |
“The secondary attack rate to children was 4%
compared with 17.1% for adults.” |
47) Are
The Risks Of Reopening Schools Exaggerated?,
Kamenetz/NPR, 2020 |
“Despite widespread concerns, two new
international studies show no consistent
relationship between in-person K-12 schooling and
the spread of the coronavirus. And a third study
from the United States shows no elevated risk to
childcare workers who stayed on the job…As a
pediatrician, I am really seeing the negative
impacts of these school closures on
children,” Dr. Danielle Dooley, a medical director
at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.,
told NPR. She ticked off mental health
problems, hunger,
obesity due to inactivity, missing routine medical
care and the risk of child abuse — on top of the
loss of education. “Going to school is really vital
for children. They get their meals in school, their
physical activity, their health care, their
education, of course.” |
48) Child
care not associated with spread of COVID-19, Yale
study finds, YaleNews, 2020 |
“Findings show child care programs that remained
open throughout the pandemic did not contribute to
the spread of the virus to providers, lending
valuable insight to parents, policymakers, and
providers alike.” |
49) Reopening
US Schools in the Era of COVID-19: Practical
Guidance From Other Nations, Tanmoy Das, 2020 |
“There is evidence that, compared with adults,
children are 3-fold less susceptible to infection,
more likely to be asymptomatic, and less likely to
be hospitalized and die. While rare reports of
pediatric multi-inflammatory syndrome need to be
monitored, its association with COVID-19 is
extremely low and typically treatable.” |
50) Low-Income
Children and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
in the US, Dooley, 2020 |
“Restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus
make these challenges more formidable. While school
districts are engaging in distance learning, reports
indicate wide variability in access to quality
educational instruction, digital technology, and
internet access. Students in rural and urban school
districts are faced with challenges accessing the
internet. In some urban areas, as many as one-third
of students are not participating in online classes.
Chronic absenteeism, or missing 10% or more of
the school year, affects educational outcomes,
including reading levels, grade retention,
graduation rates, and high school dropout rates.
Chronic absenteeism already disproportionately
affects children living in poverty. The
consequences of missing months of school will be
even more marked.” |
51) COVID-19
and school return: The need and necessity,
Betz, 2020 |
“Of particular concern are the consequences for
children who live in poverty. These children live in
homes that have inadequate resources for virtual
learning that will contribute to learning deficits,
and thereby falling further behind with expected
academic performance for grade level. Children from
low-resourced homes are likely to have limited space
for doing school work, inadequate temperature
controls for heating and cooling and safe outdoor
space for exercise (Van
Lancker & Parolin, 2020). Furthermore,
this group of children are at high risk for food
insecurity as they may not have access to school
lunches/breakfasts with school closures.” |
52) Children
are not COVID-19 super spreaders: time to go back
to school, Munro, 2020 |
“Evidence is therefore emerging that children
could be significantly less likely to become
infected than adults…At the current time, children
do not appear to be super spreaders.” |
53) Cluster
of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the
French Alps, February 2020, Danis, 2020 |
“The index case stayed 4 days in the chalet with
10 English tourists and a family of 5 French
residents; SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 5 individuals
in France, 6 in England (including the index case),
and 1 in Spain (overall attack rate in the chalet:
75%). One pediatric case, with picornavirus and
influenza A coinfection, visited 3 different schools
while symptomatic. One case was asymptomatic, with
similar viral load as that of a symptomatic case…The
fact that an infected child did not transmit the
disease despite close interactions within schools
suggests potential different transmission dynamics
in children.” |
54) COVID-19
– research evidence summaries, RCPCH, 2020 |
“In children, the evidence is now clear that
COVID-19 is associated with a considerably lower
burden of morbidity and mortality compared to that
seen in the elderly. There is evidence of
critical illness and death in children, but it is
rare. There is also some evidence that children may
be less likely to acquire the infection. The role of
children in transmission, once they have acquired
the infection, is unclear, although there is no
clear evidence that they are any more infectious
than adults. Symptoms are non-specific and most
commonly cough and fever.” |
56) Absence
of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission from Children in
Isolation to Guardians, South Korea, Lee/EID,
2021 |
“Did not observe SARS-CoV-2 transmission from
children to guardians in isolation settings in which
close proximity would seem to increase transmission
risk. Recent studies have suggested that children
are not the main drivers of the COVID-19 pandemic,
although the reasons remain unclear.” |
57) COVID-19
National Emergency Response Center, Epidemiology
and Case Management Team. Contact tracing
during coronavirus disease outbreak, South Korea,
2020, Park/EID, 2020 |
“A large
study on contacts of COVID-19 case-patients in
South Korea observed that household transmission was
lowest when the index case-patient was 0–9 years of
age.” |
58) COVID-19
in Children and the Dynamics of Infection in
Families, Posfay-Barbe, 2020 |
“In 79% of households, ≥1 adult family member was
suspected or confirmed for COVID-19 before symptom
onset in the study child, confirming that children
are infected mainly inside familial clusters. Surprisingly,
in 33% of households, symptomatic HHCs tested
negative despite belonging to a familial cluster
with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases, suggesting an
underreporting of cases. In only 8% of households
did a child develop symptoms before any other HHC,
which is in line with previous data in which it is
shown that children are index cases in <10% of
SARS-CoV-2 familial clusters.” |
59) COVID-19
Transmission and Children: The Child Is Not to
Blame, Lee, 2020 |
“Report on the dynamics of COVID-19 within
families of children with reverse-transcription
polymerase chain reaction–confirmed SARS-CoV-2
infection in Geneva, Switzerland. From March 10 to
April 10, 2020, all children <16 years of age
diagnosed at Geneva University Hospital (N =
40) underwent contact tracing to identify infected
household contacts (HHCs). Of 39 evaluable
households, in only 3 (8%) was a child the suspected
index case, with symptom onset preceding illness in
adult HHCs. In all other households, the child
developed symptoms after or concurrent with adult
HHCs, suggesting that the child was not the source
of infection and that children most frequently
acquire COVID-19 from adults, rather than
transmitting it to them.”“In intriguing study from
France, a 9-year-old boy with respiratory symptoms
associated with picornavirus, influenza A, and
SARS-CoV-2 coinfection was found to have exposed
over 80 classmates at 3 schools; no secondary
contacts became infected, despite numerous influenza
infections within the schools, suggesting an
environment conducive to respiratory virus
transmission.”“In New South Wales, Australia, 9
students and 9 staff infected with SARS-CoV-2 across
15 schools had close contact with a total of 735
students and 128 staff. Only 2 secondary infections
were identified, none in adult staff; 1 student in
primary school was potentially infected by a staff
member, and 1 student in high school was potentially
infected via exposure to 2 infected schoolmates.” |
60) Role
of children in household transmission of COVID-19,
Kim, 2020 |
“A total of 107 paediatric COVID-19 index cases
and 248 of their household members were identified.
One pair of paediatric index-secondary household
case was identified, giving a household SAR of 0.5%
(95% CI 0.0% to 2.6%).” |
61) Secondary
attack rate in household contacts of COVID-19
Paediatric index cases: a study from Western India,
Shah, 2021 |
“The household SAR from pediatric patients is
low.” |
62) Household
Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review
and Meta-analysis, Madewell, 2021 |
“Household secondary attack rates were increased
from symptomatic index cases (18.0%; 95% CI,
14.2%-22.1%) than from asymptomatic index cases
(0.7%; 95% CI, 0%-4.9%), to adult contacts (28.3%;
95% CI, 20.2%-37.1%) than to child contacts (16.8%;
95% CI, 12.3%-21.7%).” |
63) Children
and Adolescents With SARS-CoV-2 Infection,
Maltezou, 2020 |
“Child-to-adult transmission was found in one
occasion only.” |
64) Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2
Transmission in an Urban Community: The Role of
Children and Household Contacts, Pitman-Hunt,
2021 |
“A household sick contact was identified in fewer
than half (42%) of patients and no child-to-adult
transmission was identified.” |
65) A
Meta-analysis on the Role of Children in Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in
Household Transmission Clusters, Zhu, 2020 |
“The secondary attack rate in pediatric household
contacts was lower than in adult household contacts
(RR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.42-0.91). These data have
important implications for the ongoing management of
the COVID-19 pandemic, including potential vaccine
prioritization strategies.” |
66) The
role of children in transmission of SARS-CoV-2: A
rapid review, Li, 2020 |
“Preliminary results from population-based and
school-based studies suggest that children may be
less frequently infected or infect others.” |
67) Novel
Coronavirus 2019 Transmission Risk in Educational
Settings, Yung, 2020 |
“The data suggest that children are not the
primary drivers of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in
schools and could help inform exit strategies for
lifting of lockdowns.” |
68) INTERPOL
report highlights impact of COVID-19 on child
sexual abuse, Interpol, 2020 |
“Key environmental, social and economic factor
changes due to COVID-19 which have impacted child
sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) across the
world include:closure of schools and subsequent
movement to virtual learning environments;increased
time children spend online for entertainment, social
and educational purposes;restriction of
international travel and the repatriation of foreign
nationals;limited access to community support
services, child care and educational personnel who
often play a key role in detecting and reporting
cases of child sexual exploitation.” |
69) Do
school closures reduce community transmission of
COVID-19? A systematic review of observational
studies, Walsh, 2021 |
“With such varied evidence on effectiveness, and
the harmful effects, policymakers should take a
measured approach before implementing school
closures.” |
70) Association
between living with children and outcomes from
COVID-19: an OpenSAFELY cohort study of 12 million
adults in England, Forbes, 2020 |
“For adults living with children there is no
evidence of an increased risk of severe COVID-19
outcomes. These findings have implications for
determining the benefit-harm balance of children
attending school in the COVID-19 pandemic.” |
71) School
closure and management practices during
coronavirus outbreaks including COVID-19: a rapid
systematic review, Viner, 2020 |
“Data from the SARS outbreak in mainland China,
Hong Kong, and Singapore suggest that school
closures did not contribute to the control of the
epidemic.” |
72) Non-pharmaceutical
public health measures for mitigating the risk and
impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza,
WHO, 2020 |
“The effect of reactive school closure in reducing
influenza transmission varied but was generally
limited.” |
73) New
research finds no evidence that schools are
playing a significant role in driving spread of
the Covid-19 virus in the community, Warwick,
2021 |
“New research led by epidemiologists at the
University of Warwick has found that there is no
significant evidence that schools are playing a
significant role in driving the spread of the
Covid-19 disease in the community, particularly in
primary schools…our analysis of recorded school
absences as a result of infection with COVID-19
suggest that the risk is much lower in primary than
secondary schools and we do not find evidence to
suggest that school attendance is a significant
driver of outbreaks in the community.” |
74) When
schools shut: New UNESCO study exposes failure to
factor gender in COVID-19 education responses,
UNESCO, 2021 |
“As governments brought remote learning solutions
to scale to respond to the pandemic, speed, rather
than equity in access and outcomes, appears to have
been the priority. Initial COVID-19 responses seem
to have been developed with little attention to
inclusiveness, raising the risk of increased
marginalization… Most countries across all income
groups report providing teachers with different
forms of support. Few programmes, however, helped
teachers recognize the gender risks, disparities and
inequalities that emerged during COVID-19 closures.
Female teachers also have been largely expected to
take on a dual role to ensure continuity of learning
for their students, while facing additional
childcare and unpaid domestic responsibilities in
their homes during school closures.” |
75) School
Closures Have Failed America’s Children,
Kristof, 2021 |
“Flags are flying at half-staff across the United
States to commemorate the half-million American
lives lost to the coronavirus. But there’s another
tragedy we haven’t adequately confronted: Millions
of American schoolchildren will soon have missed a
year of in-person instruction, and we may have
inflicted permanent damage on some of them, and on
our country… But the educational losses are
disproportionately the fault of Democratic governors
and mayors who too often let schools stay closed
even as bars opened.” |
MASKS-INEFFECTIVENESS |
1) Effectiveness
of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public
Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in
Danish Mask Wearers, Bundgaard,
2021 |
“Infection with SARS-CoV-2 occurred in 42
participants recommended masks (1.8%) and 53 control
participants (2.1%). The between-group difference
was −0.3 percentage point (95% CI, −1.2 to 0.4
percentage point; P = 0.38) (odds
ratio, 0.82 [CI, 0.54 to 1.23]; P =
0.33). Multiple imputation accounting for loss to
follow-up yielded similar results…the recommendation
to wear surgical masks to supplement other public
health measures did not reduce the SARS-CoV-2
infection rate among wearers by more than 50% in a
community with modest infection rates, some degree
of social distancing, and uncommon general mask
use.” |
2) SARS-CoV-2
Transmission among Marine Recruits during
Quarantine, Letizia,
2020 |
“Our study showed that in a group of predominantly
young male military recruits, approximately 2%
became positive for SARS-CoV-2, as determined by
qPCR assay, during a 2-week, strictly enforced
quarantine. Multiple, independent virus strain
transmission clusters were identified…all recruits
wore double-layered cloth masks at all times indoors
and outdoors.” |
3) Physical
interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of
respiratory viruses, Jefferson, 2020 |
“There is low certainty evidence from nine trials
(3507 participants) that wearing a mask may make
little or no difference to the outcome of
influenza‐like illness (ILI) compared to not wearing
a mask (risk ratio (RR) 0.99, 95% confidence
interval (CI) 0.82 to 1.18. There is moderate
certainty evidence that wearing a mask probably
makes little or no difference to the outcome of
laboratory‐confirmed influenza compared to not
wearing a mask (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.26; 6
trials; 3005 participants)…the pooled results of
randomised trials did not show a clear reduction in
respiratory viral infection with the use of
medical/surgical masks during seasonal influenza.” |
4) The
Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A
Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh,
Abaluck, 2021
Heneghan
et al. |
A cluster-randomized trial of community-level mask
promotion in rural Bangladesh from November 2020 to
April 2021 (N=600 villages, N=342,126 adults.
Heneghan writes: “In a Bangladesh
study, surgical masks reduced symptomatic
COVID infections by between 0 and 22 percent, while
the efficacy of cloth masks led to somewhere between
an 11 percent increase to a 21
percent decrease. Hence, based on these randomized
studies, adult masks appear to have either no or
limited efficacy.” |
5) Evidence
for Community Cloth Face Masking to Limit the
Spread of SARS-CoV-2: A Critical Review,
Liu/CATO, 2021 |
“The available clinical evidence of facemask
efficacy is of low quality and the best available
clinical evidence has mostly failed to show
efficacy, with fourteen of sixteen identified
randomized controlled trials comparing face masks to
no mask controls failing to find statistically
significant benefit in the intent-to-treat
populations. Of sixteen quantitative meta-analyses,
eight were equivocal or critical as to whether
evidence supports a public recommendation of masks,
and the remaining eight supported a public mask
intervention on limited evidence primarily on the
basis of the precautionary principle.” |
6) Nonpharmaceutical
Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare
Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental
Measures, CDC/Xiao, 2020 |
“Evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of
these measures did not support a substantial effect
on transmission of laboratory-confirmed
influenza…none of the household studies reported a
significant reduction in secondary
laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in
the face mask group…the overall reduction in ILI or
laboratory-confirmed influenza cases in the face
mask group was not significant in either studies.” |
7) CIDRAP:
Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data,
Brosseau, 2020 |
“We agree that the data supporting the
effectiveness of a cloth mask or face covering are
very limited. We do, however, have data from
laboratory studies that indicate cloth masks or face
coverings offer very low filter collection
efficiency for the smaller inhalable particles we
believe are largely responsible for transmission,
particularly from pre- or asymptomatic individuals
who are not coughing or sneezing…though we support
mask wearing by the general public, we continue to
conclude that cloth masks and face coverings are
likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19
transmission, because they have minimal ability to
prevent the emission of small particles, offer
limited personal protection with respect to small
particle inhalation, and should not be recommended
as a replacement for physical distancing or reducing
time in enclosed spaces with many potentially
infectious people.” |
8) Universal
Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era,
Klompas/NEJM, 2020 |
“We know that wearing a mask outside health care
facilities offers little, if any, protection from
infection. Public health authorities define a
significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face
contact within 6 feet with a patient with
symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least
a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or
even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19
from a passing interaction in a public space is
therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for
widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to
anxiety over the pandemic…The calculus may be
different, however, in health care settings. First
and foremost, a mask is a core component of the
personal protective equipment (PPE) clinicians need
when caring for symptomatic patients with
respiratory viral infections, in conjunction with
gown, gloves, and eye protection…universal masking
alone is not a panacea. A mask will not protect
providers caring for a patient with active Covid-19
if it’s not accompanied by meticulous hand hygiene,
eye protection, gloves, and a gown. A mask alone
will not prevent health care workers with early
Covid-19 from contaminating their hands and
spreading the virus to patients and colleagues.
Focusing on universal masking alone may,
paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19
if it diverts attention from implementing more
fundamental infection-control measures.” |
9) Masks
for prevention of viral respiratory infections
among health care workers and the public: PEER
umbrella systematic review, Dugré,
2020 |
“This systematic review found limited evidence
that the use of masks might reduce the risk of viral
respiratory infections. In the community setting, a
possible reduced risk of influenza-like illness was
found among mask users. In health care workers, the
results show no difference between N95 masks and
surgical masks on the risk of confirmed influenza or
other confirmed viral respiratory infections,
although possible benefits from N95 masks were found
for preventing influenza-like illness or other
clinical respiratory infections. Surgical masks
might be superior to cloth masks but data are
limited to 1 trial.” |
10) Effectiveness
of personal protective measures in reducing
pandemic influenza transmission: A systematic
review and meta-analysis, Saunders-Hastings,
2017 |
“Facemask use provided a non-significant
protective effect (OR = 0.53; 95% CI
0.16–1.71; I2 = 48%) against
2009 pandemic influenza infection.” |
11) Experimental
investigation of indoor aerosol dispersion and
accumulation in the context of COVID-19: Effects
of masks and ventilation, Shah, 2021 |
“Nevertheless, high-efficiency masks, such as the
KN95, still offer substantially higher apparent
filtration efficiencies (60% and 46% for R95 and
KN95 masks, respectively) than the more commonly
used cloth (10%) and surgical masks (12%), and
therefore are still the recommended choice in
mitigating airborne disease transmission indoors.” |
12) Exercise
with facemask; Are we handling a devil’s sword?- A
physiological hypothesis, Chandrasekaran,
2020 |
“Exercising with facemasks may reduce available
Oxygen and increase air trapping preventing
substantial carbon dioxide exchange. The hypercapnic
hypoxia may potentially increase acidic environment,
cardiac overload, anaerobic metabolism and renal
overload, which may substantially aggravate the
underlying pathology of established chronic
diseases. Further contrary to the earlier thought,
no evidence exists to claim the facemasks during
exercise offer additional protection from the
droplet transfer of the virus.” |
13) Surgical
face masks in modern operating rooms–a costly and
unnecessary ritual?, Mitchell, 1991 |
“Following the commissioning of a new suite of
operating rooms air movement studies showed a flow
of air away from the operating table towards the
periphery of the room. Oral microbial flora
dispersed by unmasked male and female volunteers
standing one metre from the table failed to
contaminate exposed settle plates placed on the
table. The wearing of face masks by non-scrubbed
staff working in an operating room with forced
ventilation seems to be unnecessary.” |
14) Facemask
against viral respiratory infections among Hajj
pilgrims: A challenging cluster-randomized trial,
Alfelali, 2020 |
“By intention-to-treat analysis, facemask use did
not seem to be effective against
laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections
(odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI],
0.9 to 2.1, p = 0.18) nor against clinical
respiratory infection (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.9 to 1.4,
p = 0.40).” |
15) Simple
respiratory protection–evaluation of the
filtration performance of cloth masks and common
fabric materials against 20-1000 nm size particles,
Rengasamy,
2010 |
“Results obtained in the study show that common
fabric materials may provide marginal protection
against nanoparticles including those in the size
ranges of virus-containing particles in exhaled
breath.” |
16) Respiratory
performance offered by N95 respirators and
surgical masks: human subject evaluation with NaCl
aerosol representing bacterial and viral particle
size range, Lee, 2008 |
“The study indicates that N95 filtering facepiece
respirators may not achieve the expected protection
level against bacteria and viruses. An exhalation
valve on the N95 respirator does not affect the
respiratory protection; it appears to be an
appropriate alternative to reduce the breathing
resistance.” |
17) Aerosol
penetration and leakage characteristics of masks
used in the health care industry, Weber, 1993 |
“We conclude that the protection provided by
surgical masks may be insufficient in environments
containing potentially hazardous
sub-micrometer-sized aerosols.” |
18) Disposable
surgical face masks for preventing surgical wound
infection in clean surgery, Vincent, 2016 |
“We included three trials, involving a total of
2106 participants. There was no statistically
significant difference in infection rates between
the masked and unmasked group in any of the
trials…from the limited results it is unclear
whether the wearing of surgical face masks by
members of the surgical team has any impact on
surgical wound infection rates for patients
undergoing clean surgery.” |
19) Disposable
surgical face masks: a systematic review,
Lipp, 2005 |
“From the limited results it is unclear whether
wearing surgical face masks results in any harm or
benefit to the patient undergoing clean surgery.” |
20) Comparison
of the Filter Efficiency of Medical Nonwoven
Fabrics against Three Different Microbe Aerosols,
Shimasaki ,
2018 |
“We conclude that the filter efficiency test using
the phi-X174 phage aerosol may overestimate the
protective performance of nonwoven fabrics with
filter structure compared to that against real
pathogens such as the influenza virus.” |
21) The
use of masks and respirators to prevent
transmission of influenza: a systematic review of
the scientific evidence, Bin-Reza,
2012 |
“None of the studies established a conclusive
relationship between mask/respirator use and
protection against influenza infection. Some
evidence suggests that mask use is best undertaken
as part of a package of personal protection
especially hand hygiene.” |
22) Facial
protection for healthcare workers during
pandemics: a scoping review, Godoy, 2020 |
“Compared with surgical masks, N95 respirators
perform better in laboratory testing, may provide
superior protection in inpatient settings and
perform equivalently in outpatient settings.
Surgical mask and N95 respirator conservation
strategies include extended use, reuse or
decontamination, but these strategies may result in
inferior protection. Limited evidence suggests that
reused and improvised masks should be used when
medical-grade protection is unavailable.” |
23) Assessment
of Proficiency of N95 Mask Donning Among the
General Public in Singapore, Yeung, 2020 |
“These findings support ongoing recommendations
against the use of N95 masks by the general public
during the COVID-19 pandemic.5 N95
mask use by the general public may not translate
into effective protection but instead provide false
reassurance. Beyond N95 masks, proficiency among the
general public in donning surgical masks needs to be
assessed.” |
24) Evaluating
the efficacy of cloth facemasks in reducing
particulate matter exposure, Shakya, 2017 |
“Standard N95 mask performance was used as a
control to compare the results with cloth masks, and
our results suggest that cloth masks are only
marginally beneficial in protecting individuals from
particles<2.5 μm.” |
25) Use
of surgical face masks to reduce the incidence of
the common cold among health care workers in
Japan: a randomized controlled trial, Jacobs,
2009 |
“Face mask use in health care workers has not been
demonstrated to provide benefit in terms of cold
symptoms or getting colds.” |
26) N95
Respirators vs Medical Masks for Preventing
Influenza Among Health Care Personnel, Radonovich,
2019 |
“Among outpatient health care personnel, N95
respirators vs medical masks as worn by participants
in this trial resulted in no significant difference
in the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza.” |
27) Does
Universal Mask Wearing Decrease or Increase the
Spread of COVID-19?, Watts up with that? 2020 |
“A survey of peer-reviewed studies shows that
universal mask wearing (as opposed to wearing masks
in specific settings) does not decrease the
transmission of respiratory viruses from people
wearing masks to people who are not wearing masks.” |
28) Masking:
A Careful Review of the Evidence, Alexander,
2021 |
“In fact, it is not unreasonable at this time to
conclude that surgical and cloth masks, used as they
currently are, have absolutely no impact on
controlling the transmission of Covid-19 virus, and
current evidence implies that face masks can be
actually harmful.” |
29) Community
and Close Contact Exposures Associated with
COVID-19 Among Symptomatic Adults ≥18 Years in 11
Outpatient Health Care Facilities — United States,
July 2020, Fisher, 2020 |
Reported characteristics of symptomatic adults ≥18
years who were outpatients in 11 US academic health
care facilities and who received positive and
negative SARS-CoV-2 test results (N = 314)* — United
States, July 1–29, 2020, revealed that 80% of
infected persons wore face masks almost all or most
of the time. |
30) Impact
of non-pharmaceutical interventions against
COVID-19 in Europe: a quasi-experimental study,
Hunter, 2020 |
Face masks in public was not associated with
reduced incidence. |
31) Masking
lack of evidence with politics, CEBM,
Heneghan, 2020 |
“It would appear that despite two decades of
pandemic preparedness, there is considerable
uncertainty as to the value of wearing masks. For
instance, high rates of infection with cloth
masks could be due to harms caused by cloth masks,
or benefits of medical masks. The
numerous systematic reviews that have been recently
published all include the same evidence base so
unsurprisingly broadly reach the same conclusions.” |
32) Transmission
of COVID-19 in 282 clusters in Catalonia, Spain: a
cohort study, Marks, 2021 |
“We observed no association of risk of
transmission with reported mask usage by contacts,
with the age or sex of the index case, or with the
presence of respiratory symptoms in the index case
at the initial study visit.” |
33) Non-pharmaceutical
public health measures for mitigating the risk and
impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza,
WHO, 2020 |
“Ten RCTs were included in the meta-analysis, and
there was no evidence that face masks are effective
in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed
influenza.” |
34) The
Strangely Unscientific Masking of America,
Younes, 2020 |
“One report reached its conclusion based on
observations of a “dummy
head attached to a breathing simulator.” Another analyzed
use of surgical masks on people experiencing at
least two symptoms of acute respiratory
illness. Incidentally, not
one of these studies involved cloth masks
or accounted for real-world mask usage (or misusage)
among lay people, and none established efficacy of
widespread mask-wearing by people not exhibiting
symptoms. There was simply no evidence
whatsoever that healthy people ought to wear masks
when going about their lives, especially outdoors.” |
35) Facemasks
and similar barriers to prevent respiratory
illness such as COVID-19: A rapid systematic
review, Brainard, 2020 |
“31 eligible studies (including 12 RCTs).
Narrative synthesis and random-effects meta-analysis
of attack rates for primary and secondary prevention
in 28 studies were performed. Based on the RCTs we
would conclude that wearing facemasks can be very
slightly protective against primary infection from
casual community contact, and modestly protective
against household infections when both infected and
uninfected members wear facemasks. However, the RCTs
often suffered from poor compliance and controls
using facemasks.” |
36) The
Year of Disguises, Koops, 2020 |
“The healthy people in our society should not be
punished for being healthy, which is exactly what
lockdowns, distancing, mask mandates, etc.
do…Children should not be wearing face coverings. We
all need constant interaction with our environments
and that is especially true for children. This is
how their immune system develops. They are the
lowest of the low-risk groups. Let them be kids and
let them develop their immune systems… The
“Mask Mandate” idea is a truly ridiculous, knee-jerk
reaction and needs to be withdrawn and thrown in the
waste bin of disastrous policy, along with lockdowns
and school closures. You can vote for a person
without blindly supporting all of their proposals!” |
37) Open
Schools, Covid-19, and Child and Teacher Morbidity
in Sweden, Ludvigsson, 2020 |
“1,951,905 children in Sweden (as of December 31,
2019) who were 1 to 16 years of age, were
examined…social distancing was encouraged in Sweden,
but wearing face masks was not…No child with
Covid-19 died.” |
38) Double-Masking
Benefits Are Limited, Japan Supercomputer Finds,
Reidy, 2021 |
“Wearing two masks offers limited benefits in
preventing the spread of droplets that could carry
the coronavirus compared to one well-fitted
disposable mask, according to a Japanese study that
modeled the dispersal of droplets on a
supercomputer.” |
39) Physical
interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of
respiratory viruses. Part 1 – Face masks, eye
protection and person distancing: systematic
review and meta-analysis, Jefferson, 2020 |
“There was insufficient evidence to provide a
recommendation on the use of facial barriers without
other measures. We found insufficient evidence for a
difference between surgical masks and N95
respirators and limited evidence to support
effectiveness of quarantine.” |
40) Should
individuals in the community without respiratory
symptoms wear facemasks to reduce the spread of
COVID-19?, NIPH, 2020 |
“Non-medical facemasks include a variety of
products. There is no reliable evidence of the
effectiveness of non-medical facemasks in community
settings. There is likely to be substantial
variation in effectiveness between products.
However, there is only limited evidence from
laboratory studies of potential differences in
effectiveness when different products are used in
the community.” |
41) Is
a mask necessary in the operating theatre?,
Orr, 1981 |
“It would appear that minimum contamination can
best be achieved by not wearing a mask at all but
operating in silence. Whatever its relation to
contamination, bacterial counts, or the
dissemination of squames, there is no direct
evidence that the wearing of masks reduces wound
infection.” |
42) The
surgical mask is a bad fit for risk reduction,
Neilson, 2016 |
“As recently as 2010, the US National Academy of
Sciences declared that, in the community setting,
“face masks are not designed or certified to protect
the wearer from exposure to respiratory hazards.” A
number of studies have shown the inefficacy of the
surgical mask in household settings to prevent
transmission of the influenza virus.” |
43) Facemask
versus No Facemask in Preventing Viral Respiratory
Infections During Hajj: A Cluster Randomised Open
Label Trial, Alfelali, 2019 |
“Facemask use does not prevent clinical or
laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections
among Hajj pilgrims.” |
44) Facemasks
in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis, Vainshelboim,
2021 |
“The existing scientific evidences challenge the
safety and efficacy of wearing facemask as
preventive intervention for COVID-19. The data
suggest that both medical and non-medical facemasks
are ineffective to block human-to-human transmission
of viral and infectious disease such SARS-CoV-2 and
COVID-19, supporting against the usage of facemasks.
Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have
substantial adverse physiological and psychological
effects. These include hypoxia, hypercapnia,
shortness of breath, increased acidity and toxicity,
activation of fear and stress response, rise in
stress hormones, immunosuppression, fatigue,
headaches, decline in cognitive performance,
predisposition for viral and infectious illnesses,
chronic stress, anxiety and depression.” |
45) The
use of masks and respirators to prevent
transmission of influenza: a systematic review of
the scientific evidence, Bin-Reza,
2011 |
“None of the studies established a conclusive
relationship between mask/respirator use and
protection against influenza infection. Some
evidence suggests that mask use is best undertaken
as part of a package of personal protection
especially hand hygiene.” |
46) Are
Face Masks Effective? The Evidence., Swiss
Policy Research, 2021 |
“Most studies found little to no evidence for the
effectiveness of face masks in the general
population, neither as personal protective equipment
nor as a source control.” |
47) Postoperative
wound infections and surgical face masks: A
controlled study, Tunevall,
1991 |
“These results indicate that the use of face masks
might be reconsidered. Masks may be used to protect
the operating team from drops of infected blood and
from airborne infections, but have not been proven
to protect the patient operated by a healthy
operating team.” |
48) Mask
mandate and use efficacy in state-level COVID-19
containment, Guerra, 2021 |
“Mask mandates and use are not associated with
slower state-level COVID-19 spread during COVID-19
growth surges.” |
49) Twenty
Reasons Mandatory Face Masks are Unsafe,
Ineffective and Immoral, Manley, 2021 |
“A CDC-funded
review on masking in May 2020 came to the
conclusion: “Although mechanistic studies support
the potential effect of hand hygiene or face masks,
evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of
these measures did not support a substantial effect
on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza…
None of the household studies reported a significant
reduction in secondary laboratory-confirmed
influenza virus infections in the face mask group.”
If masks can’t stop the regular flu, how can they
stop SAR-CoV-2?” |
50) A
cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared
with medical masks in healthcare workers, MacIntyre,
2015 |
“First RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution
against the use of cloth masks. This is an important
finding to inform occupational health and safety.
Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor
filtration may result in increased risk of
infection…the rates of all infection outcomes were
highest in the cloth mask arm, with the rate of ILI
statistically significantly higher in the cloth mask
arm (relative risk (RR)=13.00, 95% CI 1.69 to
100.07) compared with the medical mask arm. Cloth
masks also had significantly higher rates of ILI
compared with the control arm. An analysis by mask
use showed ILI (RR=6.64, 95% CI 1.45 to 28.65) and
laboratory-confirmed virus (RR=1.72, 95% CI 1.01 to
2.94) were significantly higher in the cloth masks
group compared with the medical masks group.
Penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost
97% and medical masks 44%.” |
51) Horowitz:
Data from India continues to blow up the ‘Delta’
fear narrative, Blazemedia, 2021 |
“Rather than proving the need to sow more panic,
fear, and control over people, the story from India
— the source of the “Delta” variant — continues to
refute every current premise of COVID fascism…Masks
failed to stop the spread there.” |
52) An
outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant
(B.1.617.2) in a secondary care hospital in
Finland, May 2021, Hetemäki,
2021 |
Reporting on a nosocomial
hospital outbreak in Finland, Hetemäli et
al. observed that “both symptomatic and asymptomatic
infections were found among vaccinated health care
workers, and secondary transmission occurred from
those with symptomatic infections despite use of
personal protective equipment.” |
53) Nosocomial
outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in
a highly vaccinated population, Israel, July 2021,
Shitrit, 2021 |
In a hospital
outbreak investigation in Israel, Shitrit
et al. observed “high transmissibility of the
SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant among twice vaccinated and
masked individuals.” They added that “this suggests
some waning of immunity, albeit still providing
protection for individuals without comorbidities.”
Again, despite use of personal protective equipment. |
54) 47
studies confirm ineffectiveness of masks for COVID
and 32 more confirm their negative health effects,
Lifesite news staff, 2021 |
“No studies were needed to justify this practice
since most understood viruses were far too small to
be stopped by the wearing of most masks, other than
sophisticated ones designed for that task and which
were too costly and complicated for the general
public to properly wear and keep changing or
cleaning. It was also understood that long mask
wearing was unhealthy for wearers for common sense
and basic science reasons.” |
55) Are
EUA Face Masks Effective in Slowing the Spread of
a Viral Infection?, Dopp, 2021 |
The vast evidence shows that masks are
ineffective. |
56) CDC
Study finds overwhelming majority of people
getting coronavirus wore masks,
Boyd/Federalist, 2021 |
“A Centers for Disease Control report released
in September shows that masks and face coverings are
not effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19,
even for those people who consistently wear them.” |
57) Most
Mask Studies Are Garbage, Eugyppius, 2021 |
“The other kind of study, the proper kind, would
be a randomised controlled trial. You compare the
rates of infection in a masked cohort against rates
of infection in an unmasked cohort. Here things have
gone much, much worse for mask brigade. They spent
months trying to prevent the publication of the
Danish randomised controlled trial, which
found that masks do zero. When that paper finally
squeaked into print, they spent more months trying
desperately to poke holes in it. You could feel
their boundless relief when the
Bangladesh study finally appeared to save
them in early September. Every last Twitter
blue-check could now proclaim that Science Shows
Masks Work. Such was their hunger for any scrap of
evidence to prop up their prior convictions, that
none of them noticed the sad nature of the Science
in question. The study found a mere 10% reduction in
seroprevalence among the masked cohort, an effect so
small that it fell within the confidence interval.
Even the study authors couldn’t exclude the
possibility that masks in fact do zero.” |
58) Using
face masks in the community: first update,
ECDC, 2021 |
“No high-quality evidence in favor of face masks
and recommended their use only based on the ‘precautionary
principle.” |
59) Do
physical measures such as hand-washing or wearing
masks stop or slow down the spread of respiratory
viruses?, Cochrane, 2020 |
“Seven studies took place in the community, and
two studies in healthcare workers. Compared with
wearing no mask, wearing a mask may make little to
no difference in how many people caught a flu-like
illness (9 studies; 3507 people); and probably makes
no difference in how many people have flu confirmed
by a laboratory test (6 studies; 3005 people).
Unwanted effects were rarely reported, but included
discomfort.” |
60) Mouth-nose
protection in public: No evidence of effectiveness,
Thieme/ Kappstein, 2020 |
“The use of masks in public spaces is questionable
simply because of the lack of scientific data. If
one also considers the necessary precautions, masks
must even be considered a risk of infection in
public spaces according to the rules known from
hospitals… If masks are worn by the population, the
risk of infection is potentially increased,
regardless of whether they are medical masks or
whether they are so-called community masks designed
in any way. If one considers the precautionary
measures that the RKI as well as the international
health authorities have pronounced, all authorities
would even have to inform the population that masks
should not be worn in public spaces at all. Because
no matter whether it is a duty for all citizens or
voluntarily borne by the citizens who want it for
whatever reason, it remains a fact that masks can do
more harm than good in public.” |
61) US
mask guidance for kids is the strictest across the
world, Skelding,
2021 |
“Kids need to see faces,” Jay Bhattacharya, a
professor of medicine at Stanford University, told
The Post. Youngsters watch people’s mouths to learn
to speak, read and understand emotions, he said.“We
have this idea that this disease is so bad that we
must adopt any means necessary to stop it from
spreading,” he said. “It’s not that masks in schools
have no costs. They actually do have substantial
costs.” |
62) Masking
young children in school harms language
acquisition, Walsh, 2021 |
“This is important because children and/or
students do not have the speech or language ability
that adults have — they are not equally able and
the ability to see the face and especially the
mouth is critical to language acquisition which
children and/or students are engaged in at all
times. Furthermore, the ability to see the mouth is
not only essential to communication but also
essential to brain development.” |
63) The
Case Against Masks for Children, Makary, 2021 |
“It’s abusive to force kids who struggle with them
to sacrifice for the sake of unvaccinated adults… Do
masks reduce Covid transmission in children? Believe
it or not, we could find only a single retrospective
study on the question, and its results were
inconclusive. Yet two weeks ago the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention sternly decreed that
56 million U.S. children and adolescents, vaccinated
or not, should cover their faces regardless of the
prevalence of infection in their community.
Authorities in many places took the cue to impose
mandates in schools and elsewhere, on the theory
that masks can’t do any harm. That isn’t true. Some
children are fine wearing a mask, but others
struggle. Those who have myopia can have difficulty
seeing because the mask fogs their glasses. (This
has long been a problem for medical students in the
operating room.) Masks can cause severe acne and
other skin problems. The discomfort of a mask
distracts some children from learning. By increasing
airway resistance during exhalation, masks can lead
to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood.
And masks can be vectors
for pathogens if they become moist or are
used for too long.” |
64) Face
Covering Mandates, Peavey, 2021 |
“Face Covering Mandates And Why They AREN’T
Effective.” |
65) Do
masks work? A
Review of the evidence, Anderson, 2021 |
“In truth, the CDC’s, U.K.’s, and WHO’s earlier
guidance was much more consistent with the best
medical research on masks’ effectiveness in
preventing the spread of viruses. That research
suggests that Americans’ many months of mask-wearing
has likely provided little to no health benefit and
might even have been counterproductive in preventing
the spread of the novel coronavirus.” |
66) Most
face masks won’t stop COVID-19 indoors, study
warns, Anderer, 2021 |
“New research reveals that cloth masks filter just
10% of exhaled aerosols, with many people not
wearing coverings that fit their face properly.” |
67) How
face masks and lockdowns failed/the face mask
folly in retrospect, Swiss Policy Research, 2021 |
“Mask mandates and lockdowns have had no
discernible impact.” |
68) CDC
Releases School COVID Transmission Study But
Buries One of the Most Damning Parts, Davis,
2021 |
“The 21% lower incidence in schools that required
mask use among students was not statistically
significant compared with schools where mask use was
optional… With tens of millions of American kids
headed back to school in the fall, their parents and
political leaders owe it to them to have a
clear-sighted, scientifically rigorous discussion
about which anti-COVID measures actually work and
which might put an extra burden on vulnerable young
people without meaningfully or demonstrably slowing
the spread of the virus…that a masking requirement
of students failed to show independent benefit is a
finding of consequence and great interest.” |
69) World
Health Organization internal meeting, COVID-19 –
virtual press conference – 30 March 2020, 2020 |
“This is a question on Austria. The Austrian
Government has a desire to make everyone wear a mask
who’s going into the shops. I understood from our
previous briefings with you that the general public
should not wear masks because they are in short
supply. What do you say about the new Austrian
measures?… I’m not specifically aware of that
measure in Austria. I would assume that it’s aimed
at people who potentially have the disease not
passing it to others. In general WHO recommends that
the wearing of a mask by a member of the public is
to prevent that individual giving the disease to
somebody else. We don’t generally recommend the
wearing to masks in public by otherwise well
individuals because it has not been up to now
associated with any particular benefit.” |
70) Face
masks to prevent transmission of influenza virus:
a systematic review, Cowling, 2010 |
“Review highlights the limited evidence base
supporting the efficacy or effectiveness of face
masks to reduce influenza virus transmission.”“None
of the studies reviewed showed a benefit from
wearing a mask, in either HCW or community members
in households
(H).” |
71) Effectiveness
of N95 respirators versus surgical masks in
protecting health care workers from acute
respiratory infection: a systematic review and
meta-analysis, Smith, 2016 |
“Although N95 respirators appeared to have a
protective advantage over surgical masks in
laboratory settings, our meta-analysis showed that
there were insufficient data to determine
definitively whether N95 respirators are superior to
surgical masks in protecting health care workers
against transmissible acute respiratory infections
in clinical settings.” |
72) Effectiveness
of Masks and Respirators Against Respiratory
Infections in Healthcare Workers: A Systematic
Review and Meta-Analysis, Offeddu, 2017 |
“We found evidence to support universal medical
mask use in hospital settings as part of infection
control measures to reduce the risk of CRI and ILI
among HCWs. Overall, N95 respirators may convey
greater protection, but universal use throughout a
work shift is likely to be less acceptable due to
greater discomfort…Our analysis confirms the
effectiveness of medical masks and respirators
against SARS. Disposable, cotton, or paper masks are
not recommended. The confirmed effectiveness of
medical masks is crucially important for
lower-resource and emergency settings lacking access
to N95 respirators. In such cases, single-use
medical masks are preferable to cloth masks, for
which there is no evidence of protection and which
might facilitate transmission of pathogens when used
repeatedly without adequate sterilization…We found
no clear benefit of either medical masks or N95
respirators against pH1N1…Overall, the evidence to
inform policies on mask use in HCWs is poor, with a
small number of studies that is prone to reporting
biases and lack of statistical power.” |
73) N95
Respirators vs Medical Masks for Preventing
Influenza Among Health Care Personnel,
Radonovich, 2019 |
“Use of N95 respirators, compared with medical
masks, in the outpatient setting resulted in no
significant difference in the rates of
laboratory-confirmed influenza.” |
74) Masks
Don’t Work: A Review of Science Relevant to
COVID-19 Social Policy, Rancourt, 2020 |
“The use of N95 respirators compared with surgical
masks is not associated with alower risk of
laboratory-confirmed influenza. It suggests that N95
respirators should not be rec-ommended for general
public and non high-risk medical staff those are not
in close contact withinfluenza patients or suspected
patients. “No RCT study with verified outcome shows
a benefit for HCW or community members in households
to wearing a mask or respirator. There is no such
study. There are no exceptions. Likewise, no study
exists that shows a benefit from a broad policy to
wear masks in public (more on this below).
Furthermore, if there were any benefit to wearing a
mask, because of the blocking power against droplets
and aerosol particles, then there should be more
benefit from wearing a respirator (N95) compared to
a surgical mask, yet several large meta-analyses,
and all the RCT, prove that there is no such
relative benefit.” |
75) More
Than a Dozen Credible Medical Studies Prove Face
Masks Do Not Work Even In Hospitals!,
Firstenberg, 2020 |
“Mandating masks has not kept death rates down
anywhere. The 20 U.S. states that have never ordered
people to wear face masks indoors and out have
dramatically lower COVID-19 death rates than the 30
states that have mandated masks. Most of the no-mask
states have COVID-19 death rates below 20 per
100,000 population, and none have a death rate
higher than 55. All 13 states that have death rates
higher 55 are states that have required the wearing
of masks in all public places. It has not protected
them.” |
76) Does
evidence based medicine support the effectiveness
of surgical facemasks in preventing postoperative
wound infections in elective surgery?, Bahli,
2009 |
“From the limited randomized trials it is still
not clear that whether wearing surgical face masks
harms or benefit the patients undergoing elective
surgery.” |
77) Peritonitis
prevention in CAPD: to mask or not?, Figueiredo,
2000 |
“The current study suggests that routine use of
face masks during CAPD bag exchanges may be
unnecessary and could be discontinued.” |
78) The
operating room environment as affected by people
and the surgical face mask, Ritter, 1975 |
“The wearing of a surgical face mask had no effect
upon the overall operating room environmental
contamination and probably work only to redirect the
projectile effect of talking and breathing. People
are the major source of environmental contamination
in the operating room.” |
79) The
efficacy of standard surgical face masks: an
investigation using “tracer particles, Ha’eri,
1980 |
“Particle contamination of the wound was
demonstrated in all experiments. Since the
microspheres were not identified on the exterior of
these face masks, they must have escaped around the
mask edges and found their way into the wound.” |
80) Wearing
of caps and masks not necessary during cardiac
catheterization, Laslett, 1989 |
“Prospectively evaluated the experience of 504
patients undergoing percutaneous left heart
catheterization, seeking evidence of a relationship
between whether caps and/or masks were worn by the
operators and the incidence of infection. No
infections were found in any patient, regardless of
whether a cap or mask was used. Thus, we found no
evidence that caps or masks need to be worn during
percutaneous cardiac catheterization.” |
81) Do
anaesthetists need to wear surgical masks in the
operating theatre? A literature review with
evidence-based recommendations, Skinner, 2001 |
“A questionnaire-based survey, undertaken by
Leyland’ in 1993 to assess attitudes to the use of
masks, showed that 20% of surgeons discarded
surgical masks for endoscopic work. Less than 50%
did not wear the mask as recommended by the Medical
Research Council. Equal numbers of surgeons wore the
mask in the belief they were protecting themselves
and the patient, with 20% of these admitting that
tradition was the only reason for wearing them.” |
82) Mask
mandates for children are not backed by data,
Faria, 2021 |
“Even if you want to use the 2018-19 flu season to
avoid overlap with the start of the COVID-19
pandemic, the CDC paints a similar picture: It estimated 480
flu deaths among children during that period, with
46,000 hospitalizations. COVID-19, mercifully, is
simply not as deadly for children. According to the
American Academy of Pediatrics, preliminary data
from 45 states show that
between 0.00%-0.03% of child COVID-19 cases resulted
in death. When you combine these numbers with the
CDC study that
found mask mandates for students — along with hybrid
models, social distancing, and classroom barriers —
did not have a statistically significant benefit in
preventing the spread of COVID-19 in schools, the
insistence that we force students to jump through
these hoops for their own protection makes no
sense.” |
83) The
Downsides of Masking Young Students Are Real,
Prasad, 2021 |
“The benefits of mask requirements in schools
might seem self-evident—they have to help
contain the coronavirus, right?—but that may
not be so. In Spain, masks are used in kids ages 6
and older. The authors of one study there examined
the risk of viral spread at all ages. If masks
provided a large benefit, then the transmission rate
among 5-year-olds would be far higher than the rate
among 6-year-olds. The results
don’t show that. Instead, they show that
transmission rates, which were low among the
youngest kids, steadily increased with age—rather
than dropping sharply for older children subject to
the face-covering requirement. This suggests that
masking kids in school does not provide a major
benefit and might provide none at all. And yet many
officials prefer to double down on masking mandates,
as if the fundamental policy were sound and only the
people have failed.” |
84) Masks
In Schools: Scientific American Fumbles Report On
Childhood COVID Transmission, English/ACSH,
2021 |
“Masking is a low-risk, inexpensive intervention.
If we want to recommend it as a precautionary
measure, especially in situations where vaccination
isn’t an option, great. But that’s not what the
public has been told. “Florida governor Ron DeSantis
and politicians in Texas say research does not
support mask mandates,” SciAm’s sub-headline
bellowed. “Many studies show they are wrong.”If
that’s the case, demonstrate that the intervention
works before you mandate its use in schools. If you
can’t, acknowledged what UC San Francisco
hematologist-oncologist and Associate Professor of
Epidemiology Vinay Prasad wrote over at
the Atlantic:“No scientific consensus
exists about the wisdom of mandatory-masking rules
for schoolchildren … In mid-March 2020, few could
argue against erring on the side of caution. But
nearly 18 months later, we owe it to children and
their parents to answer the question properly: Do
the benefits of masking kids in school outweigh
the downsides? The honest answer in 2021 remains
that we don’t know for sure.” |
85) Masks
‘don’t work,’ are damaging health and are being
used to control population: Doctors panel,
Haynes, 2021 |
“The only randomized control studies that have
ever been done on masks show that they don’t work,”
began Dr. Nepute. He referred to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s
“noble lie,” in which Fauci “changed his tune,” from
his March 2020 comments,
where he downplayed the need and efficacy of mask
wearing, before urging Americans to use masks later
in the year. “Well, he lied to us. So if he
lied about that, what else has he lied to you
about?” questioned Nepute.Masks have become
commonplace in almost every setting, whether indoors
or outdoors, but Dr. Popper mentioned how there have
been “no studies” which actually examine the “effect
of wearing a mask during all your waking
hours.”“There’s no science to back any of this and
particularly no science to back the fact that
wearing a mask twenty four-seven or every waking
minute, is health promoting,” added Popper.” |
86) Aerosol
penetration through surgical masks, Chen, 1992 |
“The mask that has the highest collection
efficiency is not necessarily the best mask from the
perspective of the filter-quality factor, which
considers not only the capture efficiency but also
the air resistance. Although surgical mask media may
be adequate to remove bacteria exhaled or expelled
by health care workers, they may not be sufficient
to remove the sub-micrometer-sized aerosols
containing pathogens to which these health care
workers are potentially exposed.” |
87) CDC:
Schools With Mask Mandates Didn’t See
Statistically Significant Different Rates of COVID
Transmission From Schools With Optional Policies,
Miltimore, 2021 |
“The CDC did not include its finding that
“required mask use among students was not
statistically significant compared with schools
where mask use was optional” in the summary of its
report.” |
88) Horowitz:
Data from India continues to blow up the ‘Delta’
fear narrative, Howorwitz, 2021 |
“Rather than proving the need to sow more panic,
fear, and control over people, the story from India
— the source of the “Delta” variant — continues to
refute every current premise of COVID fascism…Unless
we do that, we must return to the very effective
lockdowns and masks. In reality, India’s experience
proves the opposite true; namely:1) Delta is largely
an attenuated version, with a much lower fatality
rate, that for most people is akin to a cold.2)
Masks failed to stop the spread there.3) The country
has come close to the herd immunity threshold with
just 3% vaccinated. |
89) Transmission
of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Among Vaccinated
Healthcare Workers, Vietnam, Chau, 2021 |
While not definitive in the LANCET publication, it
can be inferred that the nurses were all masked up
and had PPE etc. as was the case in Finland and
Israel nosocomial outbreaks, indicating the failure
of PPE and masks to constrain Delta spread. |
90) Aerosol
penetration through surgical masks, Willeke,
1992 |
“The mask that has the highest collection
efficiency is not necessarily the best mask from the
perspective of the filter-quality factor, which
considers not only the capture efficiency but also
the air resistance. Although surgical mask media may
be adequate to remove bacteria exhaled or expelled
by health care workers, they may not be sufficient
to remove the submicrometer-size aerosols containing
pathogens to which these health care workers are
potentially exposed.” |
91) The
efficacy of standard surgical face masks: an
investigation using “tracer particles”, Wiley,
1980 |
“Particle contamination of the wound was
demonstrated in all experiments. Since the
microspheres were not identified on the exterior of
these face masks, they must have escaped around the
mask edges and found their way into the wound. The
wearing of the mask beneath the headgear curtails
this route of contamination.” |
92) An
Evidence Based Scientific Analysis of Why Masks
are Ineffective, Unnecessary, and Harmful,
Meehan, 2020 |
“Decades of the highest-level scientific evidence
(meta-analyses of multiple randomized controlled
trials) overwhelmingly conclude that medical masks
are ineffective at preventing the transmission of
respiratory viruses, including SAR-CoV-2…those
arguing for masks are relying on low-level evidence
(observational retrospective trials and mechanistic
theories), none of which are powered to counter the
evidence, arguments, and risks of mask mandates.” |
93) Open
Letter from Medical Doctors and Health
Professionals to All Belgian Authorities and All
Belgian Media, AIER, 2020 |
“Oral masks in healthy individuals are ineffective
against the spread of viral infections.” |
94) Effectiveness
of N95 respirators versus surgical masks against
influenza: A systematic review and meta-analysis,
Long, 2020 |
“The use of N95 respirators compared with surgical
masks is not associated with a lower risk of
laboratory-confirmed influenza. It suggests that N95
respirators should not be recommended for general
public and non high-risk medical staff those are not
in close contact with influenza patients or
suspected patients.” |
95) Advice
on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19,
WHO, 2020 |
“However, the use of a mask alone is insufficient
to provide an adequate level of protection or source
control, and other personal and community level
measures should also be adopted to suppress
transmission of respiratory viruses.” |
96) Farce
mask: it’s safe for only 20 minutes, The
Sydney Morning Herald, 2003 |
“Health authorities have warned that surgical
masks may not be an effective protection against the
virus.”Those masks are only effective so long as
they are dry,” said Professor Yvonne Cossart of the
Department of Infectious Diseases at the University
of Sydney.”As soon as they become saturated with the
moisture in your breath they stop doing their job
and pass on the droplets.”Professor Cossart said
that could take as little as 15 or 20 minutes, after
which the mask would need to be changed. But those
warnings haven’t stopped people snapping up the
masks, with retailers reporting they are having
trouble keeping up with demand.” |
97) Study:
Wearing A Used Mask Is Potentially Riskier Than No
Mask At All, Boyd, 2020
Effects
of mask-wearing on the inhalability and deposition
of airborne SARS-CoV-2 aerosols in human upper
airway |
“According to researchers from the University of
Massachusetts Lowell and California Baptist
University, a three-layer surgical mask is 65
percent efficient in filtering particles in the air.
That effectiveness, however, falls to 25 percent
once it is used.“It is natural to think that wearing
a mask, no matter new or old, should always be
better than nothing,” said author
Jinxiang Xi.“Our results show that this belief is
only true for particles larger than 5 micrometers,
but not for fine particles smaller than 2.5
micrometers,” he continued.” |
MASK MANDATES |
1) Mask
mandate and use efficacy for COVID-19 containment
in US States, Guerra, 2021 |
“Calculated total COVID-19 case growth and mask
use for the continental United States with data from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. We
estimated post-mask mandate case growth in
non-mandate states using median issuance dates of
neighboring states with mandates…did not observe
association between mask mandates or use and reduced
COVID-19 spread in US states.” |
2) These
12 Graphs Show Mask Mandates Do Nothing To Stop
COVID, Weiss, 2020 |
“Masks can work well when they’re fully sealed,
properly fitted, changed often, and have a filter
designed for virus-sized particles. This represents
none of the common masks available on the consumer
market, making universal masking much more of a
confidence trick than a medical solution…Our
universal use of unscientific face coverings is
therefore closer to medieval superstition than it is
to science, but many powerful institutions have too
much political capital invested in the mask
narrative at this point, so the dogma is
perpetuated. The narrative says that if cases go
down it’s because masks succeeded. It says that if
cases go up it’s because masks succeeded in
preventing more cases. The narrative simply assumes
rather than proves that masks work, despite
overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.” |
3) Mask
Mandates Seem to Make CCP Virus Infection Rates
Climb, Study Says, Vadum, 2020 |
“Protective-mask mandates aimed at combating the
spread of the CCP
virus that causes the disease COVID-19 appear
to promote its spread, according to a report from
RationalGround.com, a clearinghouse of COVID-19 data
trends that’s run by a grassroots group of data
analysts, computer scientists, and actuaries.” |
4) Horowitz:
Comprehensive analysis of 50 states shows greater
spread with mask mandates, Howorwitz, 2020
Justin
Hart |
“How long do our politicians get to ignore the
results?… The results: When comparing states with
mandates vs. those without, or periods of times
within a state with a mandate vs. without, there is
absolutely no evidence the mask mandate worked to
slow the spread one iota. In total, in the states
that had a mandate in effect, there were 9,605,256
confirmed COVID cases over 5,907 total days, an
average of 27 cases per
100,000 per day. When states did not have
a statewide order (which includes the states that
never had them and the period of time masking states
did not have the mandate in place) there were
5,781,716 cases over 5,772 total
days, averaging 17 cases per 100,000 people per
day.” |
5) The
CDC’s Mask Mandate Study: Debunked, Alexander,
2021 |
“Thus, it is not surprising that the CDC’s own
recent conclusion on the use of nonpharmaceutical
measures such as face masks in pandemic influenza,
warned that scientific “evidence from 14 randomized
controlled trials of these measures did not support
a substantial effect on transmission…” Moreover, in
the WHO’s
2019 guidance document on
nonpharmaceutical public health measures in a
pandemic, they reported as to face masks that “there
is no evidence that this is effective in reducing
transmission…” Similarly, in the fine print to a
recent double-blind, double-masking simulation the
CDC stated that “The findings of these
simulations [supporting mask usage] should neither
be generalized to the effectiveness …nor interpreted
as being representative of the effectiveness of
these masks when worn in real-world settings.” |
6) Phil
Kerpin, tweet, 2021
The
Spectator |
“The first ecological study of state mask mandates
and use to include winter data: “Case growth was
independent of mandates at low and high rates of
community spread, and mask use did not predict case
growth during the Summer or Fall-Winter waves.” |
7) How
face masks and lockdowns failed, SPR, 2021 |
“Infections have been driven primarily by seasonal
and endemic factors, whereas mask mandates and
lockdowns have had no discernible impact” |
8) Analysis
of the Effects of COVID-19 Mask Mandates on
Hospital Resource Consumption and Mortality at the
County Level, Schauer, 2021 |
“There was no reduction in per-population daily
mortality, hospital bed, ICU bed, or ventilator
occupancy of COVID-19-positive patients attributable
to the implementation of a mask-wearing mandate.” |
9) Do
we need mask mandates, Harris, 2021 |
“But masks proved far less useful in the
subsequent 1918 Spanish flu, a viral disease spread
by pathogens smaller than bacteria. California’s
Department of Health, for instance, reported that
the cities of Stockton, which required masks, and
Boston, which did not, had scarcely different death
rates, and so advised against mask mandates except
for a few high-risk professions such as
barbers….Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on mask
use, generally more reliable than observational
studies, though not infallible, typically show that
cloth and surgical masks offer little protection. A
few RCTs suggest that perfect adherence to an
exacting mask protocol may guard against influenza,
but meta-analyses find little on the whole to
suggest that masks offer meaningful
protection. WHO
guidelines from 2019 on influenza say
that despite “mechanistic plausibility for the
potential effectiveness” of masks, studies showed a
benefit too small to be established with any
certainty. Another literature
review by researchers from the University
of Hong Kong agrees. Its best estimate for the
protective effect of surgical masks against
influenza, based on ten RCTs published through 2018,
was just 22 percent, and it could not rule out zero
effect.” |
MASK HARMS |
1) Corona
children studies: Co-Ki: First results of a
German-wide registry on mouth and nose covering
(mask) in children, Schwarz, 2021 |
“The average wearing time of the mask was 270
minutes per day. Impairments caused by wearing
the mask were reported by 68% of the parents. These
included irritability (60%), headache (53%),
difficulty concentrating (50%), less happiness
(49%), reluctance to go to school/kindergarten
(44%), malaise (42%) impaired learning (38%) and
drowsiness or fatigue (37%).” |
2) Dangerous
pathogens found on children’s face masks,
Cabrera, 2021 |
“Masks were contaminated with
bacteria, parasites, and fungi, including three with
dangerous pathogenic and pneumonia-causing
bacteria.” |
3) Masks,
false safety and real dangers, Part 2: Microbial
challenges from masks, Borovoy, 2020/2021 |
“Laboratory testing of used masks
from 20 train commuters revealed that 11 of the 20
masks tested contained over 100,000 bacterial
colonies. Molds and yeasts were also found. Three of
the masks contained more than one million bacterial
colonies… The outside surfaces of surgical masks
were found to have high levels of the following
microbes, even in hospitals, more concentrated on
the outside of masks than in the environment.
Staphylococcus species (57%) and Pseudomonas spp
(38%) were predominant among bacteria, and
Penicillium spp (39%) and Aspergillus spp. (31%)
were the predominant fungi.” |
4) Preliminary
report on surgical mask induced deoxygenation
during major surgery, Beder, 2008 |
“Considering our findings, pulse rates of the
surgeon’s increase and SpO2 decrease after the first
hour. This early change in SpO2 may be either due to
the facial mask or the operational stress. Since a
very small decrease in saturation at this level,
reflects a large decrease in PaO2, our findings may
have a clinical value for the health workers and the
surgeons.” |
5) Mask
mandates may affect a child’s emotional,
intellectual development, Gillis, 2020 |
“The thing is we really don’t
know for sure what the effect may or may not be. But
what we do know is that children, especially in
early childhood, they use the mouth as part of the
entire face to get a sense of what’s going on around
them in terms of adults and other people in their
environment as far as their emotions. It also has a
role in language development as well… If you think
about an infant, when you interact with them you use
part of your mouth. They are interested in your
facial expressions. And if you think about that part
of the face being covered up, there is that
possibility that it could have an effect. But we
don’t know because this is really an unprecedented
time. What we wonder about is if this could play a
role and how can we stop it if it would affect child
development.” |
6) Headaches
and the N95 face-mask amongst healthcare providers,
Lim, 2006 |
“Healthcare providers may develop headaches
following the use of the N95 face-mask.” |
7) Maximizing
Fit for Cloth and Medical Procedure Masks to
Improve Performance and Reduce SARS-CoV-2
Transmission and Exposure, 2021, Brooks, 2021 |
“Although use of double masking or knotting and
tucking are two of many options that can optimize
fit and enhance mask performance for source control
and for wearer protection, double masking might
impede breathing or obstruct peripheral vision for
some wearers, and knotting and tucking can change
the shape of the mask such that it no longer covers
fully both the nose and the mouth of persons with
larger faces.” |
8) Facemasks
in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis, Vainshelboim,
2021 |
“Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have
substantial adverse physiological and psychological
effects. These include hypoxia, hypercapnia,
shortness of breath, increased acidity and toxicity,
activation of fear and stress response, rise in
stress hormones, immunosuppression, fatigue,
headaches, decline in cognitive performance,
predisposition for viral and infectious illnesses,
chronic stress, anxiety and depression.” |
9) Wearing
a mask can expose children to dangerous levels of
carbon dioxide in just THREE MINUTES, study finds,
Shaheen/Daily Mail, 2021 |
“European study found that children wearing masks
for only minutes could be exposed to dangerous
carbon dioxide levels…Forty-five children were
exposed to carbon dioxide levels between three to
twelve times healthy levels.” |
10) How
many children must die? Shilhavy,
2020 |
“How long are parents going to continue masking
their children causing great harm to them, even to
the point of risking their lives? Dr.
Eric Nepute in St. Louis took time to
record a video rant that he wants everyone to share,
after the 4-year-old child of one of his patients
almost died from a bacterial lung infection caused
by prolonged mask use.” |
11) Medical
Doctor Warns that “Bacterial Pneumonias Are on the
Rise” from Mask Wearing, Meehan, 2021 |
“I’m seeing patients that have facial rashes,
fungal infections, bacterial infections. Reports
coming from my colleagues, all over the world, are
suggesting that the bacterial pneumonias are on the
rise…Why might that be? Because untrained members of
the public are wearing medical masks, repeatedly… in
a non-sterile fashion… They’re becoming
contaminated. They’re pulling them off of their car
seat, off the rear-view mirror, out of their pocket,
from their countertop, and they’re reapplying a mask
that should be worn fresh and sterile every single
time.” |
12) Open
Letter from Medical Doctors and Health
Professionals to All Belgian Authorities and All
Belgian Media, AIER, 2020 |
“Wearing a mask is not without
side effects. Oxygen deficiency (headache, nausea,
fatigue, loss of concentration) occurs fairly
quickly, an effect similar to altitude sickness.
Every day we now see patients complaining of
headaches, sinus problems, respiratory problems and
hyperventilation due to wearing masks. In addition,
the accumulated CO2 leads to a toxic acidification
of the organism which affects our immunity. Some
experts even warn of an increased transmission of
the virus in case of inappropriate use of the mask.” |
13) Face
coverings for covid-19: from medical intervention
to social practice, Peters, 2020 |
“At present, there is no direct evidence (from
studies on Covid19 and in healthy people in the
community) on the effectiveness of universal masking
of healthy people in the community to prevent
infection with respiratory viruses, including
Covid19. Contamination of the upper respiratory
tract by viruses and bacteria on the outside of
medical face masks has been detected in several
hospitals. Another research shows that a moist mask
is a breeding ground for (antibiotic resistant)
bacteria and fungi, which can undermine mucosal
viral immunity. This research advocates the use of
medical / surgical masks (instead of homemade cotton
masks) that are used once and replaced after a few
hours.” |
14) Face
masks for the public during the covid-19 crisis,
Lazzarino, 2020 |
“The two potential side effects that have already
been acknowledged are: (1) Wearing a face mask may
give a false sense of security and make people adopt
a reduction in compliance with other infection
control measures, including social distancing and
hands washing. (2) Inappropriate use of face mask:
people must not touch their masks, must change their
single-use masks frequently or wash them regularly,
dispose them correctly and adopt other management
measures, otherwise their risks and those of others
may increase. Other potential side effects that we
must consider are: (3) The quality and the volume of
speech between two people wearing masks is
considerably compromised and they may unconsciously
come closer. While one may be trained to counteract
side effect n.1, this side effect may be more
difficult to tackle. (4) Wearing a face mask makes
the exhaled air go into the eyes. This generates an
uncomfortable feeling and an impulse to touch your
eyes. If your hands are contaminated, you are
infecting yourself.” |
15) Contamination
by respiratory viruses on outer surface of medical
masks used by hospital healthcare workers,
Chughtai, 2019 |
“Respiratory pathogens on the outer surface of the
used medical masks may result in self-contamination.
The risk is higher with longer duration of mask use
(> 6 h) and with higher rates of clinical
contact. Protocols on duration of mask use should
specify a maximum time of continuous use, and should
consider guidance in high contact settings.” |
16) Reusability
of Facemasks During an Influenza Pandemic,
Bailar, 2006 |
“After considering all the testimony and other
information we received, the committee concluded
that there is currently no simple, reliable way to
decontaminate these devices and enable people to use
them safely more than once. There is relatively
little data available about how effective these
devices are against flu even the first time they are
used. To the extent they can help at all, they must
be used correctly, and the best respirator or mask
will do little to protect a person who uses it
incorrectly. Substantial research must be done to
increase our understanding of how flu spreads, to
develop better masks and respirators, and to make it
easier to decontaminate them. Finally, the use of
face coverings is only one of many strategies that
will be needed to slow or halt a pandemic, and
people should not engage in activities that would
increase their risk of exposure to flu just because
they have a mask or respirator.” |
17) Exhalation of
respiratory viruses by breathing, coughing, and
talking, Stelzer-Braid,
2009 |
“The exhaled aerosols generated by coughing,
talking, and breathing were sampled in 50 subjects
using a novel mask, and analyzed using PCR for nine
respiratory viruses. The exhaled samples from a
subset of 10 subjects who were PCR positive for
rhinovirus were also examined by cell culture for
this virus. Of the 50 subjects, among the 33 with
symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, 21
had at least one virus detected by PCR, while
amongst the 17 asymptomatic subjects, 4 had a virus
detected by PCR. Overall, rhinovirus was detected in
19 subjects, influenza in 4 subjects, parainfluenza
in 2 subjects, and human metapneumovirus in 1
subject. Two subjects were co-infected. Of the 25
subjects who had virus-positive nasal mucus, the
same virus type was detected in 12 breathing
samples, 8 talking samples, and in 2 coughing
samples. In the subset of exhaled samples from 10
subjects examined by culture, infective rhinovirus
was detected in 2.” |
18) [Effect
of a surgical mask on six minute walking distance],
Person, 2018 |
“Wearing a surgical mask modifies significantly
and clinically dyspnea without influencing walked
distance.” |
19) Protective
masks reduce resilience, Science ORF, 2020 |
“The German researchers used two types of face
masks for their study – surgical masks and so-called
FFP2 masks, which are mainly used by medical
personnel. The measurements were carried out with
the help of spiroergometry, in which patients or in
this case the test persons exert themselves
physically on a stationary bicycle – a so-called
ergometer – or a treadmill. The subjects were
examined without a mask, with surgical masks and
with FFP2 masks. The masks therefore impair
breathing, especially the volume and the highest
possible speed of the air when exhaling. The maximum
possible force on the ergometer was significantly
reduced.” |
20) Wearing
masks even more unhealthy than expected,
Coronoa transition, 2020 |
“They contain microplastics – and they exacerbate
the waste problem…”Many of them are made of
polyester and so you have a microplastic problem.”
Many of the face masks would contain polyester with
chlorine compounds: “If I have the mask in front of
my face, then of course I breathe in the
microplastic directly and these substances are much
more toxic than if you swallow them, as they get
directly into the nervous system,” Braungart
continues.” |
21) Masking
Children: Tragic, Unscientific, and Damaging,
Alexander, 2021 |
“Children do not readily acquire SARS-CoV-2 (very
low risk), spread it to other children or teachers,
or endanger parents or others at home. This is the
settled science. In the rare cases where a child
contracts Covid virus it is very unusual for the
child to get severely ill or die. Masking can do
positive harm to children – as it can to some
adults. But the cost benefit analysis is entirely
different for adults and children – particularly
younger children. Whatever arguments there may be
for consenting adults – children should not be
required to wear masks to prevent the spread of
Covid-19. Of course, zero risk is not attainable –
with or without masks, vaccines, therapeutics,
distancing or anything else medicine may develop or
government agencies may impose.” |
22) The
Dangers of Masks, Alexander, 2021 |
“With that clarion call, we pivot and refer here
to another looming concern and this is the potential
danger of the chlorine, polyester, and microplastic
components of the face masks (surgical principally
but any of the mass-produced masks) that have become
part of our daily lives due to the Covid-19
pandemic. We hope those with persuasive power in the
government will listen to this plea. We hope that
the necessary decisions will be made to reduce the
risk to our populations.” |
23) 13-year-old
mask wearer dies for inexplicable reasons,
Corona Transition, 2020 |
“The case is not only causing speculation in
Germany about possible poisoning with carbon
dioxide. Because the student “was wearing a corona
protective mask when she suddenly collapsed and died
a little later in the hospital,” writes Wochenblick.Editor’s
Review: The fact that no cause of death was
communicated nearly three weeks after the girl’s
death is indeed unusual. The carbon dioxide content
of the air is usually about 0.04 percent. From a
proportion of four percent, the first symptoms of
hypercapnia, i.e. carbon dioxide poisoning, appear.
If the proportion of the gas rises to more than 20
percent, there is a risk of deadly carbon dioxide
poisoning. However, this does not come without alarm
signals from the body. According to the medical
portal netdoktor, these include “sweating,
accelerated breathing, accelerated heartbeat,
headaches, confusion, loss of consciousness”. The
unconsciousness of the girl could therefore be an
indication of such poisoning.” |
24) Student
Deaths Lead Chinese Schools to Change Mask Rules,
that’s, 2020 |
“During the month of April, three cases of
students suffering sudden cardiac death (SCD) while
running during gym class have been reported in
Zhejiang, Henan and Hunan provinces. Beijing
Evening News noted that all three
students were wearing masks at the time of their
deaths, igniting a critical discussion over school
rules on when students should wear masks.” |
25) Blaylock:
Face Masks Pose Serious Risks To The Healthy,
2020 |
“As for the scientific support for the use of face
mask, a recent careful examination of the
literature, in which 17 of the best studies were
analyzed, concluded that, “ None of the studies
established a conclusive relationship between
mask/respirator use and protection against influenza
infection.”1 Keep in mind, no
studies have been done to demonstrate that either a
cloth mask or the N95 mask has any effect on
transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Any
recommendations, therefore, have to be based on
studies of influenza virus transmission. And, as you
have seen, there is no conclusive evidence of their
efficiency in controlling flu virus transmission.” |
26) The
mask requirement is responsible for severe
psychological damage and the weakening of the
immune system, Coronoa Transition, 2020 |
“In fact, the mask has the potential to “trigger
strong psychovegetative stress reactions via
emerging aggression, which correlate significantly
with the degree of stressful after-effects”.
Prousa is not alone in her opinion. Several
psychologists dealt with the mask problem — and most
came to devastating results. Ignoring them would be
fatal, according to Prousa.” |
27) The
physiological impact of wearing an N95 mask during
hemodialysis as a precaution against SARS in
patients with end-stage renal disease, Kao,
2004 |
“Wearing an N95 mask for 4 hours during HD
significantly reduced PaO2 and increased respiratory
adverse effects in ESRD patients.” |
28) Is
a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from
Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free
of Potential Hazards?, Kisielinski,
2021 |
“We objectified evaluation evidenced changes in
respiratory physiology of mask wearers with
significant correlation of O2 drop
and fatigue (p < 0.05), a clustered
co-occurrence of respiratory impairment and O2 drop
(67%), N95 mask and CO2 rise (82%),
N95 mask and O2 drop (72%), N95 mask
and headache (60%), respiratory impairment and
temperature rise (88%), but also temperature rise
and moisture (100%) under the masks. Extended
mask-wearing by the general population could lead to
relevant effects and consequences in many medical
fields.”“Here are the pathophysiological changes and
subjective complaints: 1) Increase in blood carbon
dioxide 2) Increase in breathing resistance 3)
Decrease in blood oxygen saturation 4) Increase in
heart rate 5) Decrease in cardiopulmonary capacity
6) Feeling of exhaustion 7) Increase in respiratory
rate 8) Difficulty breathing and shortness of breath
9) Headache 10) Dizziness 11) Feeling of dampness
and heat 12) Drowsiness (qualitative neurological
deficits) 13) Decrease in empathy perception 14)
Impaired skin barrier function with acne, itching
and skin lesions” |
29) Is
N95 face mask linked to dizziness and headache?,
Ipek, 2021 |
“Respiratory alkalosis and hypocarbia were
detected after the use of N95. Acute respiratory
alkalosis can cause headache, anxiety, tremor,
muscle cramps. In this study, it was quantitatively
shown that the participants’ symptoms were due to
respiratory alkalosis and hypocarbia.” |
30) COVID-19
prompts a team of engineers to rethink the humble
face mask, Myers, 2020 |
“But in filtering those particles, the mask also
makes it harder to breathe. N95 masks are estimated
to reduce oxygen intake by anywhere from 5 to 20
percent. That’s significant, even for a healthy
person. It can cause dizziness and lightheadedness.
If you wear a mask long enough, it can damage the
lungs. For a patient in respiratory distress, it can
even be life threatening.” |
31) 70
doctors in open letter to Ben Weyts: ‘Abolish
mandatory mouth mask at school’ – Belgium,
World Today News, 2020 |
“In an open letter to the Flemish Minister of
Education Ben Weyts (N-VA), 70 doctors ask to
abolish the mandatory mouth mask at school, both for
the teachers and for the students. Weyts does not
intend to change course. The doctors ask that
Minister Ben Weyts immediately reverses his working
method: no mouth mask obligation at school, only
protect the risk group and only the advice that
people with a possible risk profile should consult
their doctor.” |
32) Face
masks pose dangers for babies, toddlers during
COVID-19 pandemic, UC Davis Health, 2020 |
“Masks may present a choking hazard for young
children. Also, depending on the mask and the fit,
the child may have trouble breathing. If this
happens, they need to be able to take it off,” said
UC Davis pediatrician Lena
van der List. “Children less than 2 years of
age will not reliably be able to remove a face mask
and could suffocate. Therefore, masks should not
routinely be used for young children…“The younger
the child, the more likely they will be to not wear
the mask properly, reach under the mask and touch
potentially contaminated masks,” said Dean
Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious
diseases at UC Davis
Children’s Hospital. “Of course, this depends
on the developmental level of the individual child.
But I think masks are not likely to provide much
potential benefit over risk until the teen years.” |
33) Covid-19:
Important potential side effects of wearing face
masks that we should bear in mind, Lazzarino,
2020 |
“Other potential side effects that we must
consider, however, are 1) The quality and volume of
speech between people wearing masks is considerably
compromised and they may unconsciously come closer2)
Wearing a mask makes the exhaled air go into the
eyes. This generates an impulse to touch the eyes.
3) If your hands are contaminated, you are infecting
yourself, 4) Face masks make breathing more
difficult. Moreover, a fraction of carbon dioxide
previously exhaled is inhaled at each respiratory
cycle. Those phenomena increase breathing frequency
and deepness, and they may worsen the burden of
covid-19 if infected people wearing masks spread
more contaminated air. This may also worsen the
clinical condition of infected people if the
enhanced breathing pushes the viral load down into
their lungs, 5) The innate immunity’s efficacy is
highly dependent on the viral load. If masks
determine a humid habitat where SARS-CoV-2 can
remain active because of the water vapour
continuously provided by breathing and captured by
the mask fabric, they determine an increase in viral
load (by re-inhaling exhaled viruses) and therefore
they can cause a defeat of the innate immunity and
an increase in infections.” |
34) Risks
of N95 Face Mask Use in Subjects With COPD,
Kyung, 2020 |
“Of the 97 subjects, 7 with COPD did not wear the
N95 for the entire test duration. This mask-failure
group showed higher British modified Medical
Research Council dyspnea scale scores and lower FEV1 percent
of predicted values than did the successful mask use
group. A modified Medical Research Council dyspnea
scale score ≥ 3 (odds ratio 167, 95% CI 8.4 to
>999.9; P = .008) or a FEV1 <
30% predicted (odds ratio 163, 95% CI 7.4 to
>999.9; P = .001) was
associated with a risk of failure to wear the N95.
Breathing frequency, blood oxygen saturation, and
exhaled carbon dioxide levels also showed
significant differences before and after N95 use.” |
35) Masks
too dangerous for children under 2, medical group
warns, The Japan Times, 2020 |
“Children under the age of 2 shouldn’t wear masks
because they can make breathing difficult and
increase the risk of choking, a medical group has
said, launching an urgent appeal to parents as the
nation reopens from the coronavirus crisis…Masks can
make breathing difficult because infants have narrow
air passages,” which increases the burden on their
hearts, the association said, adding that masks also
raise the risk of heat stroke for them.” |
36) Face
masks can be problematic, dangerous to health of
some Canadians: advocates, Spenser, 2020 |
“Face
masks are dangerous to the health of some
Canadians and problematic for some others…Asthma
Canada president and CEO Vanessa Foran said simply
wearing a mask could create risk of an asthma
attack.” |
37) COVID-19 Masks
Are a Crime Against Humanity and Child Abuse,
Griesz-Brisson,
2020 |
“The rebreathing of our exhaled air will without a
doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding of
carbon dioxide. We know that the human brain is very
sensitive to oxygen depravation. There are nerve
cells for example in the hippocampus, that can’t be
longer than 3 minutes without oxygen – they cannot
survive. The acute warning symptoms are
headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, issues in
concentration, slowing down of the reaction time –
reactions of the cognitive system. However, when you
have chronic oxygen depravation, all of those
symptoms disappear, because you get used to it. But
your efficiency will remain impaired and the
undersupply of oxygen in your brain continues to
progress. We know that neurodegenerative
diseases take years to decades to develop.
If today you forget your phone number, the breakdown
in your brain would have already started 20 or 30
years ago…The child needs the brain to learn, and
the brain needs oxygen to function. We don’t
need a clinical study for that. This is simple,
indisputable physiology. Conscious and purposely
induced oxygen deficiency is an absolutely
deliberate health hazard, and an absolute medical
contraindication.” |
38) Study
shows how masks are harming children, Mercola,
2021 |
“Data from the first registry to record children’s
experiences with masks show physical, psychological
and behavioral issues including irritability,
difficulty concentrating and impaired learning.Since
school shutdowns in spring 2020, an increasing
number of parents are seeking drug treatment for
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for
their children.Evidence from the U.K. shows schools
are not the super spreaders health officials said
they were; measured rates of infection in schools
were the same as the community, not higher.A large
randomized controlled trial showed wearing masks
does not reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2.” |
39) New
Study Finds Masks Hurt Schoolchildren Physically,
Psychologically, and Behaviorally, Hall, 2021
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-124394/v2 |
“A new study,
involving over 25,000 school-aged children, shows
that masks are harming schoolchildren physically,
psychologically, and behaviorally, revealing 24
distinct health issues associated with wearing
masks…Though these results are concerning, the study
also found that 29.7% of children experienced
shortness of breath, 26.4% experienced dizziness,
and hundreds of the participants experiencing
accelerated respiration, tightness in chest,
weakness, and short-term impairment of
consciousness.” |
40) Protective
Face Masks: Effect on the Oxygenation and Heart
Rate Status of Oral Surgeons during Surgery,
Scarano, 2021 |
“In all 20 surgeons wearing
FFP2 covered by surgical masks, a reduction in
arterial O2 saturation from around
97.5% before surgery to 94% after surgery was
recorded with increase of heart rates. A shortness
of breath and light-headedness/headaches were also
noted.” |
41) Effects
of surgical and FFP2/N95 face masks on
cardiopulmonary exercise capacity, Fikenzer,
2020 |
“Ventilation, cardiopulmonary exercise capacity
and comfort are reduced by surgical masks and highly
impaired by FFP2/N95 face masks in healthy
individuals. These data are important for
recommendations on wearing face masks at work or
during physical exercise.” |
42) Headaches
Associated With Personal Protective Equipment – A
Cross-Sectional Study Among Frontline Healthcare
Workers During COVID-19, Ong, 2020 |
“Most healthcare workers develop de novo
PPE-associated headaches or exacerbation of their
pre-existing headache disorders.” |
43) Open
letter from medical doctors and health
professionals to all Belgian authorities and all
Belgian media, The
American Institute of Stress, 2020 |
“Wearing a mask is not without side effects.
Oxygen deficiency (headache, nausea, fatigue, loss
of concentration) occurs fairly quickly, an effect
similar to altitude sickness. Every day we now see
patients complaining of headaches, sinus problems,
respiratory problems, and hyperventilation due to
wearing masks. In addition, the accumulated CO2
leads to a toxic acidification of the organism which
affects our immunity. Some experts even warn of
increased transmission of the virus in case of
inappropriate use of the mask.” |
44) Reusing
masks may increase your risk of coronavirus
infection, expert says, Laguipo, 2020 |
“For the public, they should not wear facemasks
unless they are sick, and if a healthcare worker
advised them.”For the average member of the public
walking down a street, it is not a good idea,” Dr.
Harries said.”What tends to happen is people will
have one mask. They won’t wear it all the time, they
will take it off when they get home, they will put
it down on a surface they haven’t cleaned,” she
added.Further, she added that behavioral issues
could adversely put themselves at more risk of
getting the infection. For instance, people go out
and don’t wash their hands, they touch parts of the
mask or their face, and they get infected.” |
45) What’s
Going On Under the Masks?, Wright,
2021 |
“Americans today have pretty good chompers on
average, at least relative to most other people,
past and present. Nevertheless, we do not think
enough about oral health as evidenced by the almost
complete lack of discussion regarding the effect of
lockdowns and mandatory masking on our mouths.” |
46) Experimental
Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Content in Inhaled
Air With or Without Face Masks in Healthy
ChildrenA Randomized Clinical Trial, Walach,
2021 |
“A large-scale survey in Germany of
adverse effects in parents and children using data
of 25 930 children has shown that 68% of the
participating children had problems when wearing
nose and mouth coverings.” |
47) NM
Kids forced to wear masks while running in
100-degree heat; Parents are striking back,
Smith, 2021 |
“Nationally, children have a 99.997% survival rate
from COVID-19. In New Mexico, only 0.7% of
child COVID-19 cases have resulted in hospitalization.
It is clear that children have an extremely low
risk of severe illness or death from
COVID-19, and mask mandates are placing a burden
upon kids which is detrimental to their own health
and well-being.” |
48) Health
Canada issues advisory for disposable masks with
graphene, CBC, 2021 |
“Health Canada is advising Canadians not to use
disposable face masks that contain graphene.
Health Canada issued
the notice on Friday and said wearers
could inhale graphene, a single layer of carbon
atoms. Masks containing the toxic particles may
have been distributed in some health-care
facilities.” |
49) COVID-19:
Performance study of microplastic inhalation risk
posed by wearing masks, Li, 2021
Is
graphene
safe?
|
“Wearing masks considerably reduces the inhalation
risk of particles (e.g., granular microplastics and
unknown particles) even when they are worn
continuously for 720 h. Surgical, cotton,
fashion, and activated carbon masks wearing pose
higher fiber-like microplastic inhalation risk,
while all masks generally reduced exposure when used
under their supposed time (<4 h). N95 poses
less fiber-like microplastic inhalation risk.
Reusing masks after they underwent different
disinfection pre-treatment processes can increase
the risk of particle (e.g., granular microplastics)
and fiber-like microplastic inhalation. Ultraviolet
disinfection exerts a relatively weak effect on
fiber-like microplastic inhalation, and thus, it can
be recommended as a treatment process for reusing
masks if proven effective from microbiological
standpoint. Wearing an N95 mask reduces the
inhalation risk of spherical-type microplastics by
25.5 times compared with not wearing a mask.” |
50) Manufacturers
have been using nanotechnology-derived graphene in
face masks — now there are safety concerns,
Maynard, 2021 |
“Early concerns around graphene were sparked by
previous research on another form of carbon — carbon
nanotubes. It turns out that some forms of
these fiber-like materials can cause serious harm if
inhaled. And following on from research here, a
natural next-question to ask is whether carbon
nanotubes’ close cousin graphene comes with similar
concerns.Because graphene lacks many of the physical
and chemical aspects of carbon nanotubes that make
them harmful (such as being long, thin,
and hard for the body to get rid of), the
indications are that the material is safer than its
nanotube cousins. But safer doesn’t mean safe. And
current research indicates that this is not a
material that should be used where it could
potentially be inhaled, without a good amount of
safety testing first…As a general rule of thumb,
engineered nanomaterials should not be
used in products where they might inadvertently be
inhaled and reach the sensitive lower regions of
the lungs.” |
51) Masking
young children in school harms language
acquisition, Walsh, 2021 |
“This is important because children and/or
students do not have the speech or language ability
that adults have — they are not equally able and
the ability to see the face and especially the
mouth is critical to language acquisition which
children and/or students are engaged in at all
times. Furthermore, the ability to see the mouth is
not only essential to communication but also
essential to brain development.“Studies show that by
age four, kids from low-income households will hear
30 million less words than their more affluent
counterparts, who get more quality face-time with
caretakers.” (https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/november/language-toddlers-fernald-110514.html).” |
52) Dangerous
pathogens found on children’s face masks,
Rational Ground, 2021 |
“A group of parents in Gainesville, FL, sent 6
face masks to a lab at the University of Florida,
requesting an analysis of contaminants found on the
masks after they had been worn. The resulting report
found that five masks were contaminated with
bacteria, parasites, and fungi, including three with
dangerous pathogenic and pneumonia-causing bacteria.
Although the test is capable of detecting viruses,
including SARS-CoV-2, only one virus was found on
one mask (alcelaphine herpesvirus 1)…Half
of the masks were contaminated with one or more
strains of pneumonia-causing bacteria. One-third
were contaminated with one or more strains of
meningitis-causing bacteria. One-third were
contaminated with dangerous, antibiotic-resistant
bacterial pathogens. In addition, less dangerous
pathogens were identified, including pathogens that
can cause fever, ulcers, acne, yeast infections,
strep throat, periodontal disease, Rocky Mountain
Spotted Fever, and more.” |
53) Face
mask dermatitis” due to compulsory facial masks
during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: data from 550
health care and non-health care workers in Germany,
Niesert, 2021 |
“The duration of wearing masks showed a
significant impact on the prevalence of symptoms (p
< 0.001). Type IV hypersensitivity was
significantly more likely in participants with
symptoms compared to those without symptoms (p =
0.001), whereas no increase in symptoms was observed
in participants with atopic diathesis. HCWs used
facial skin care products significantly more often
than non-HCWs (p = 0.001).” |
54) Effect
of Wearing Face Masks on the Carbon Dioxide
Concentration in the Breathing Zone,
AAQR/Geiss, 2020 |
“Detected carbon dioxide concentrations ranged
from 2150 ± 192 to 2875 ± 323 ppm. The
concentrations of carbon dioxide while not wearing a
face mask varied from 500–900 ppm. Doing office work
and standing still on the treadmill each resulted in
carbon dioxide concentrations of around 2200 ppm. A
small increase could be observed when walking at a
speed of 3 km h–1 (leisurely walking
pace)…concentrations in the detected range can cause
undesirable symptoms, such as fatigue, headache, and
loss of concentration.” |
55) Surgical
masks as source of bacterial contamination during
operative procedures, Zhiqing,
2018 |
“The source of bacterial contamination in SMs was
the body surface of the surgeons rather than the OR
environment. Moreover, we recommend that surgeons
should change the mask after each operation,
especially those beyond 2 hours.” |
56) The
Damage of Masking Children Could be Irreparable,
Hussey, 2021 |
“When we surround children with mask-wearers for a
year at a time, are we impairing their face barcode
recognition during a period of hot neural
development, thus putting full development of the
FFA at risk? Does the demand for separation from
others, reducing social interaction, add to the
potential consequences as it might in autism? When
can we be sure that we won’t interfere with visual
input to the face recognition visual neurology so we
don’t interfere with brain development? How much
time with stimulus interference can we allow without
consequences? Those are all questions currently
without answers; we don’t know. Unfortunately, the
science implies that if we mess up brain development
for faces, we may not currently have therapies to
undo everything we’ve done.” |
57) Masks
can be Murder, Grossman, 2021 |
“Wearing masks can create a sense of anonymity for
an aggressor, while also dehumanizing the
victim. This prevents empathy, empowering
violence, and murder.” Masking helps remove
empathy and compassion, allowing others to commit
unspeakable acts on the masked person.” |
58) London
high school teacher calls face masks an ‘egregious
and unforgivable form of child abuse, Butler,
2020 |
“In his email, Farquharson called the
campaign to legislate mask wearing a “shameful
farce, a charade, an act of political theatre”
that’s more about enforcing “obedience and
compliance” than it is about public health. He
also likened children wearing masks to “involuntary
self-torture,” calling it “an egregious and
unforgivable form of child abuse and physical
assault.” |
59) UK
Government Advisor Admits Masks Are Just “Comfort
Blankets” That Do Virtually Nothing,
ZeroHedge, 2021 |
“As the UK Government heralds “freedom day” today,
which is anything
but, a prominent government scientific advisor
has admitted that face masks do very little to
protect from coronavirus and are basically just
“comfort blankets…the professor noted that “those
aerosols escape masks and will render the mask
ineffective,” adding “The public were demanding
something must be done, they got masks, it is just a
comfort blanket. But now it is entrenched, and we
are entrenching bad behaviour…all around the world
you can look at mask mandates and superimpose on
infection rates, you cannot see that mask mandates
made any effect whatsoever,” Axon further noted,
adding that “The best thing you can say about any
mask is that any positive effect they do have is too
small to be measured.” |
60) Masks,
false safety and real dangers, Part 1: Friable
mask particulate and lung vulnerability,
Borovoy, 2020 |
“Surgical personnel are trained to never touch any
part of a mask, except the loops and the nose
bridge. Otherwise, the mask is considered useless
and is to be replaced. Surgical personnel are
strictly trained not to touch their masks otherwise.
However, the general public may be seen touching
various parts of their masks. Even the masks just
removed from manufacturer packaging have been shown
in the above photos to contain particulate and fiber
that would not be optimal to inhale… Further
concerns of macrophage response and other immune and
inflammatory and fibroblast response to such inhaled
particles specifically from facemasks should be the
subject of more research. If widespread masking
continues, then the potential for inhaling mask
fibers and environmental and biological debris
continues on a daily basis for hundreds of millions
of people. This should be alarming for physicians
and epidemiologists knowledgeable in occupational
hazards.” |
61) Medical
Masks, Desai, 2020 |
“Face masks should be used only by individuals who
have symptoms of respiratory infection such as
coughing, sneezing, or, in some cases, fever. Face
masks should also be worn by health care workers, by
individuals who are taking care of or are in close
contact with people who have respiratory infections,
or otherwise as directed by a doctor. Face masks
should not be worn by healthy individuals to protect
themselves from acquiring respiratory infection
because there is no evidence to suggest that face
masks worn by healthy individuals are effective in
preventing people from becoming ill.” |