Doctors, not engineers

Vincent J. Curtis

22 Dec 22

RE: Why students should wear masks.  Op-ed by Catherine Clase, Mariam Georgis, Ingrid Waisgluss, Joanne Witt, and Evan Ubene.  Clase is a professor of medicine at McMaster University.  Georgis is a research affiliate with the University of Manitoba, Waisgluss is a Ph.D. candidate, Witt is a parent of a medically complex child, and Ubene is a MASC candidate

It’s a good thing the authors of this opinion are doctors because they’re failures as engineers.  They don’t understand how the N95 mask works, yet it’s the one they say is best for preventing the spread of COVID in schools.  (Oh, they’re not very good at epidemiology, either.)

The N95 mask does not filter on exhaust.  On exhaust, the mask dumps the breath directly into the atmosphere through a by-pass valve, avoiding a build-up of pressure tending to bread the seal the mask makes with the face.  Hence, it is pointless to put an N95 on a sick person; the mask will not protect the people around the sick person from the viruses that sick person is breathing out, and the sick person is already infected.

After all we know about COVID, it is remarkable that they’re still flinging around those myths that were used to scare people into obedience.  COVID deaths of children are rare, but…Risks of Long COVID; we can’t rely on rapid tests.  And then there’s the canard that ‘when everyone masks, everyone is protected.’

Nonsense.  Pandemic waves 2,3,4,5 and 6 occurred despite mask mandates.

The public lost faith in the medical community because of the extremism like that exhibited in this opinion piece.  Huffing and puffing nonsense, long-discredited old wives’ tales, won’t revive obedience to their authority.  The Wizard of Oz was spotted behind the curtain.

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