Mask mandates are slowly becoming a part of our recent past. Heck, even in the wannabe police state of New York, the mask mandates for public places and even schools have been lifted in response to the updated CDC guidelines.
So, maybe (hopefully) we can finally start talking about how masks weren’t nearly as effective as we were told they were by our government overlords, and maybe we can have that discussion without being banned on social media or shunned by friends and family?
According to a new study by researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, cloth masks allow 90% of particles to get through. In case you were wondering, that leftover 10% wasn’t necessary for you to catch COVID-19.
“Masks are air filters, and woven fabrics, such as cotton, make for good jeans, shirts, and other apparel, but they are lousy air filters,” Surrey University physicist and co-author of the study Richard Sear said in a statement.
“The filtering layer of an N95 mask is made from much smaller, 5-micrometer fibers with gaps that are 10 times smaller, making it much better for filtering nasty particles from the air, such as those containing virus,” Sear added.
Related: Prominent Doctors Argue Masks for Kids Should Be Optional: ‘Give Them Their Childhood Back’
While N95 and KN95 masks are better, proper fitting is crucial to their efficacy, as gaps around the nose and mouth allow for particles to escape easily.
These results match the findings of a study by the University of Waterloo in Canada last summer, which found that the common blue surgical masks only “filter about 10 percent of exhaled aerosol droplets,” while the remaining aerosols “are redirected, mostly out the top of the mask where it fits over the nose, and escape into the ambient air unfiltered.”
That study also found that the N95 and KN95 masks, which were all the rage several weeks ago, only filter just over 50% of exhaled aerosols and that proper ventilation systems can be just as effective as the best masks.
But, if you’re a regular reader at PJ Media, particularly a VIP subscriber, you knew all this already, because we and others in conservative media have been pointing this out for nearly two years — even at the risk of being censored. The chances are excellent that those who don’t follow conservative media are unaware that mask mandates haven’t worked as planned or that studies have been telling us for a long while now that masks aren’t all that effective at protecting you from COVID. The left is only changing their tune now because public opinion has shifted, and the government has given them “permission” to ditch the masks because Biden’s poll numbers are down.
Sadly, I don’t think we’re done with the mask hysteria yet. The media had a real hissy fit after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told high school students at the University of South Florida, before delivering a speech on cybersecurity education, “You do not have to wear those masks. I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything, and we’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater. So if you wanna wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”
So, I don’t think we’re quite at the point where we can openly talk about how ineffective cloth face masks were, but maybe we will be someday … if the left ever gives up their obsession with fear. If Biden’s poll numbers fail to recover before the midterms, perhaps they will.
