by Travis Mateer
On this Valentine’s day Missoula is proving its love for the mask because wearing one shows how big and virtuous your heart is. Also, science. And if you dare deviate from loving the mask and the scientific protection you think it gives you, well, who am I to disabuse you of the feels you get strapping on that thin layer of whatever across your face?
To bolster the conception of how amazingly caring Missoula is, our corporate newspaper has a very loving and scientific news article about Missoula’s deep and abiding love for the mask, which we will be wearing until enough people have been vaccinated to stop transmission. From the link:
“We still have vulnerable community members left to vaccinate and we still have transmission (of Covid-19 infections),” Farr said. “We do still intend to enforce the mask mandate in Missoula County.”
Yes, Missoula is still deeply in love with mask wearing. And science. Especially from places like Kansas, where they are known for their science. Farr references some study that happened in Kansas, but for some reason our corporate newspaper doesn’t offer a link. Here is the quote:
Farr said a recent study of Kansas counties that did and didn’t maintain mask protocols showed those that didn’t support face covering had significant increases in COVID infections. Another study in the January Journal of the American Medical Association found that 59% of infections come from someone who is not currently experiencing symptoms of their own infection.
Since the Missoulian and their new teenage-looking city editor don’t include links, here is one from NPR about the Kansas study. Clearly, according to their data, counties that didn’t enforce mask wearing saw higher infection rates.
What is NOT being reported is the type of tests that are being conducted. Why is this important? Because if it’s the PCR test, the cycle threshold of the test is significant, since a higher cycle threshold increases the chances of a false positive.
But that might create vaccine hesitancy, and if enough people don’t take the vaccine, then we don’t reach herd immunity (based on the NEW definition by the WHO). Here’s more from the Missoulian:
“We don’t know how long this is going to continue,” Farr said. “The vaccine is in short supply. Until we get a large majority vaccinated–until we get herd immunity and no longer see large amounts of the disease in the community–until that happens we continue with the mask mandate.”
Our non-elected health czar is being a good puppet for Big Pharma and parroting the line about herd immunity being dependent on vaccination rates. Here is the Big Pharma logic our unelected health czar is operating on:
When will the pandemic end? This is the question hanging over just about everything since Covid-19 took over the world last year.
The answer lies in the rate of vaccinations.
Bloomberg built the largest database of Covid-19 inoculations given around the world, which showed that more than 119 million doses were administered in 67 countries by February 5.
US health officials such as Anthony Fauci suggested it will take 70 per cent to 85 per cent coverage of the population for things to return to normal.
On a global scale, that is a daunting level of vaccination. Shots are being delivered at an average rate of 4.54 million a day. At this rate, it would take years to achieve a significant level of global immunity.
Do you see what is going on here? People who refuse to be vaccinated are being set up as the scapegoats for why we are never returning to any semblance of normality. This couldn’t be achieved if the old definition of herd immunity was being used.
Don’t worry, fragile Missoulians, I won’t be putting my mask skepticism into practice for the beleaguered service sector workers I interact with. I got a new hoodie from my favorite boutique and it has a button-on mask that attaches to the hood.
On the outside I’ll look just like you, but on the inside I will preserve the knowledge that this isn’t about keeping humans safe, it’s about keeping sociopaths in power and centralizing MORE control for them over our lives.
JC
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
A quick google search brings up how Kansas tests and reports its COVID numbers. While PCR cycle thresholds are important, as even Dr. Fauci has said, it is irrelevant what they are in the Missoulian’s cited NPR report. What is important is that there is a state standard and it is used equally across all the different counties. So the actual level of positives (false or not) isn’t as important as the comparative levels between masked and unmasked counties, which is the study showed to be significant.
So, just like here in Eastern Montana, tests can be conducted by hospitals, counties, universities or the state. If they all adhere to the same standard — and there’s no evidence to believe that either in Montana or in Kansas they don’t, then the study maintains its relevance. Make of it what you will, but as science obviously is not your forte, stick to the facts as you can find them, not what your opinion, the conspiracy theorists or bad reporters make of them. Policy makers (at least not political ones like the Governor) are doing the best they can to protect community health and save lives. I’d rather have an independent, intelligent and college educated professional making health care policy any day instead of a bunch of political hacks just looking to open the bars back up.
For what its worth, KHEL (Kansas Health and Environmental Laboratories) used a PCR cutoff value of 42 as of Oct. 5, 2020 — well after the studies were done. And since then KHEL and most other testing labs have lowered their PCR thresholds as more information became available. KHEL lowered them to 36 recently. Sure, it would be nice for the Missoulian to do a better job. What do you expect with a reporter with just a few years experience out of school under her belt? We get the same bad reporting in the Gazette.
And I have no love for mask wearing. I wear one at work to help prevent me from contracting the virus. And I wear one when in public, or around other people to keep from potentially passing on the virus them. And I absolutely wear one around my family so as to not be responsible for killing my parents or grandparents, and my extended family of aunts and uncles and cousins, many of whom are elderly and/or have potentially deadly pre-existing conditions. Almost a half million people have died from COVID related morbidity in this country. To sneer at that is to sneer at your own relatives should they ever contract the virus.
https://www.communitycareks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SARS-CoV-2_COVID-19-virus-PCR-Ct-Cutoff-Values100520.pdf