CNN Medical Analyst Admits Cloth Masks Don’t Work Against COVID

CNN Medical Analyst Admits Cloth Masks Don’t Work Against COVID

Slowly, the establishment media is beginning to admit that COVID is here to stay and has started to question some cherished pandemic policies.

On Wednesday, National Public Radio published a piece that admitted cloth face masks don’t work against COVID.  It blames Omicron for being the magical variant that can bypass all mask protection.

“Cloth masks are not going to cut it with omicron,” says Linsey Marr, a researcher at Virginia Tech who studies how viruses transmit in the air.

Omicron is so much more transmissible than coronavirus variants that have come before it. It spreads at least three times faster than delta. One person is infecting at least three others at a time on average, based on data from other countries.

“It’s very contagious,” says Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “And the kind of encounter that you could have had with prior versions of the virus that would have left you uninfected, there’s now a good chance you will get infected from it.”

I want to point out that there was plenty of evidence that cloth masks were not working in 2020. I used my experience as an environmental health and safety professional to describe all the reasons mask mandates would fail:

The hands are one of the most efficient highways for germs into the body, but how many of us wash our hands (or even put sanitizer) when donning masks? And I can’t tell you how many times I see people with masks that are not covering the nose or chin. And, if you follow the California Office of Governor Guidance, you will be smearing contaminants onto the mask through your meal.

There are numerous other rules for good mask-wearing, including laundering after use. However, how many people actually grab a clean, fresh mask every time they use one? How many people properly launder (i.e., use bleach if washing by hand).

CNN’s medical analyst also admitted masks weren’t working. She and other “experts” are pointing to N95-respiratory protection as the way to go.

“Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron,” [CNN medical analyst Dr. Leanna] Wen told CNN on Monday. “Wear a high-quality mask, at least a three-ply surgical mask.”

While cloth masks may have seemed like a good idea in 2020, they’re not particularly useful in areas of high viral transmission, studies have found. A September 2020 review found that cloth masks may be beneficial for preventing transmission in low-risk public settings but that they offered limited protection in healthcare settings.

However, relying on N95 masking to reduce numbers is doomed to fail like cloth masks…for many of the same reasons. N95 respiratory protection is meant for an occupational setting, with fit-testing done to ensure a good seal.

Additionally, the long-term wearing of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators (FFR) and similar protections can cause health effects, as reported in a study involving healthcare workers (HCWs) published on a CDC blog.

Hypoventilation is a primary cause of significant discomfort while wearing an N95 FFR (Williams 2010). However, studies done by Roberge et al. (2010) indicated that this hypoventilation did not pose a significant risk to healthcare workers over the course of less than one hour of continuous N95 use.

When HCWs are working longer hours without a break while continuously wearing an N95 FFR, blood CO₂ levels may increase past the 1-hour mark, which could have a significant physiological effect on the wearer (Lim et al., 2006)*. Some of the known physiological effects of increased concentrations of CO₂ include:

1. Headache;
2. Increased pressure inside the skull;
3. Nervous system changes (e.g., increased pain threshold, reduction in cognition – altered judgement, decreased situational awareness, difficulty coordinating sensory or cognitive, abilities and motor activity, decreased visual acuity, widespread activation of the sympathetic nervous system that can oppose the direct effects of CO2 on the heart and blood vessels);
4. Increased breathing frequency;
5. Increased “work of breathing”, which is result of breathing through a filter medium;
6. Cardiovascular effects (e.g., diminished cardiac contractility, vasodilation of peripheral blood vessels);
7. Reduced tolerance to lighter workloads.

Just imagine the implications of living a “normal” life while wearing one of these respirators. Failure is inevitable.

However, these news items do offer one helpful bit of data. I predict Omicron will be the excuse the “experts,” media, and the politicians daft enough to believe them will use to jettison all the failed pandemic policies Americans have been forced to endure for two years.

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