Mandating the Useless

Vincent J. Curtis

9 July 20

Today, the Spectator provided details on the by-law that will mandate masking.  The by-law permits home-made and ad hoc masks without mandating the material out of which the mask is to be made, or the nature of its construction.  These are crucial if air flow is to pass completely through the material and not around it, and the material is such that it can capture the virus.  The conclusion is that Hamilton City Council is going to mandate things that don't work simply to look like they are doing something.  The something they are doing boils down to the enforcement of a new progressive social tic, the wearing of masks in public.  It is a sign of progressive control over society.

The Spec article was informative, and its details show that mandating the wearing of masks has to do with social control and little to do with public health.  The proof of this is found in the details of what passes for a suitable mask: scarves, bandanas, balaclavas, and anything made at home regardless of the material.  There is no concern for the efficacy of the material to block the passage of a virus, making the order useless for public health.  All that’s left is an enforcement of a new social tic, the wearing of a mask in public.

Also telling are the expectations laid on business owners.  If an unmasked person enters a business, the owner is expected to order the customer to comply with the city masking by-law, and if the customer refuses then the owner is expected to order the customer to leave promptly.  The public is conscripted into the enforcement of this law, a kind of social control we’ve read about in an Orwell novel.

There is no scientific basis for ordering mask-wearing, and that is why the public health experts have been so reluctant to recommend the masking of healthy people.  If masking did the trick in preventing transmission, then there was no need for us to suffer a lockdown.  We could have masked everyone and carried on.

The ordering of masking is nothing but the enforcement of a new social tic.  The masks permitted under the by-law have no proven efficacy.

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