The Futility of Masking

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Aug 20

Masking is futile in the midst of the pandemic.  Masking has, however, become a sign of favorable social control by the progressive left, and is accepted by most others - if it provides relief from the oppression of the lockdown.  People want their freedom back, and will mask-up as the price they have to pay to get it.  Surgical masks, however, provide a false sense of security.

There is an upsurge in “cases” since the middle of June both in Canada and in the United States.  This time frame coincides with the incubation period since the first of the George Floyd demonstrations and riots.  Many, if not most, of the demonstrators were masked, and yet spreading occurred – because masking is largely ineffective against transmission of the virus.  Masking with surgical masks and home-brew affairs provide a false sense of security.

Surgical masks are limited in usefulness to when the person wearing it is contagious.  Obviously, if a person is not contagious, the mask wearer has no virus to transmit.  Surgical masks and worse are not effective as dust masks, and it as a kind of dust that the virus is picked up.   Remember the run on N95 masks?  These are respirator-masks that are designed to block the inhalation of dust.  A healthy person wants to block the uptake of dust, and can safely exhale his own, virus-free breath.  The surgical mask blocks the outflow of mist in the breath, and so is suitable for an infected person to wear.

With social distancing of 1 meter or more, mask wearing is reduced to uselessness because an infected person can’t push the mist in their breath farther than 1 m.  With reasonable air circulation, that virus mass that is pushed into the atmosphere is diluted and dispersed.

Large crowds yelling and chanting and not social distancing can challenge the atmosphere’s ability to dilute and disperse airborne virus instantly.  Since surgical masks are not protection against dust, mask-wearing demonstrators only protected their identity, not their health, by wearing them.  Surgical masks gave a false sense of security – against infection.

It is amusing to watch the famous Dr. Fauci break all his own rules on masking: taking it off, putting it back on, fussing with it in his hands, etc.  These things destroy whatever protection a cloth mask can provide from infection.  He once warned against all these things, and he is fast becoming a farce of his old self.

There aren’t enough NIOSH approved respirator masks for everybody, and surgical masks are no substitute.  Luckily, social distancing is quite adequate most of the time, even in the presence of a contagious person.  Surgical masks are suitable for contagious persons to wear in the presence of others, preferably also with good air exchange that dilutes and removes any concentration of virus.  The problem of infection arises when one is trapped in the presence of a concentrated amount of air-borne virus, as can occur in a closed room with poor air exchange.  In this case, a surgical mask only provides a false sense of security.

Surgical masks will continue to be signs of compliance.  They are not a sign of protection, they look ridiculous, and almost always are ridiculous.

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