Study on Mask Mandates Will Have the Hysterics Seething – Opinion

National Pulse reports on an entirely new Kansas study that contradicts all the existing wisdom about COVID-19 and mask mandates.

Study found fatalities to be 50% higher in mandated areas than they were without mandats. This is a surprising finding, but there are some reasons.

The observational study – “The Foegen Effect: A Mechanism by Which Facemasks Contribute to the COVID-19 Case Fatality Rate” – was published in Medicine in February 2022, authored by German doctor Zacharias Fögen.

The paper analyzed “whether mandatory mask use influenced the case fatality rate in Kansas” during the time period of August 1st, 2020 to October 15th. Kansas was used as an example because it allowed all 105 of the state’s counties to make decisions about whether or not they wanted to implement mandatory mask use. Only 81 counties opposed the law.

“The most important finding from this study is that contrary to the accepted thought that fewer people are dying because infection rates are reduced by masks, this was not the case,” summarized the paper.

“Results from this study strongly suggest that mask mandates actually caused about 1.5 times the number of deaths or ∼50% more deaths compared to no mask mandates.”

I’ve written extensively (see here, here, and here) on the lack of efficacy of masks, specifically regarding mandates, noting that time and again, real-world data has shown no correlation between mandates and infection rates. When you compare countries that strictly enforced such mandates and then looked at those that didn’t, it was clear the masking was simply not working. This is true for US states and even US counties. While some could blame non-compliance for this, statistical differences are not significant.

This is why the latest study might have revealed what it did. It doesn’t take a doctor to theorize that people wearing dirty masks all day and re-inhaling droplets that may get caught is probably not the healthiest thing. Further, it’s not exactly speculatory to suggest that many people absconded from social distancing because they were given a false sense of protection from all the hysteria over wearing masks. How many times have you seen someone in an N95 right on someone’s backside in a line, thinking they are protected?

You can also expect people who see masks as religious ritual to keep pushing them. It is unlikely that their rage will end soon. Still, this should serve as a lesson going forward that just because the government proclaims something, that doesn’t make it true. Municipalities that continue to use mask mandates ignore the objective data.