Why Mask Mandates Are Not Just Nonsense, But Dangerous by Russell L. Blaylock, MD

A lot has taken place since I first reported on the CCP-virus (Chinese Communist Party-Virus, also known as COVID-19). Early in my newsletters on the subject, I made the statement that one cannot tell the death rate from an infection, until one can determine just how many people are infected. This has now been extensively documented by a number of experts in epidemiology and infectious disease. This is of course common sense to even a moderately intelligent novice, which excludes most of the media, both national and regional. It also seemed to have escaped a large number of public health bureaucrats, especially in Democratic-held states. 

My state of Mississippi has a Republican governor, but our Chief of Public Health, in my opinion, can only be described as an idiot or a lair, based on his endless illiterate and scientifically unsound pronouncements to the press. He is rabid about mask wearing, social distancing (should be called anti-social distancing) and reducing church attendance. Each day he releases terrifying claims that COVID-19 cases are increasing in the state at an alarming rate. He doesn’t explain how this increase could happen when virtually everyone is wearing their masks, just as when he was claiming the decline in cases several months ago was due to universal mask mandates. He can’t have it both ways — at least intellectually. Of course, the media will never catch on, especially the local media that just reports everything our chief health bureaucrat says as if it were gospel. The gullible public hangs onto every word the media talking heads vomit out.

But then we learn that this so-called increase is based on “proposed cases.” These “proposed cases” weren’t determined by testing but only because they shared three basic symptoms, a fever, shortness of breath and a dry cough. Those symptoms are common with a great number of other respiratory infections (bacterial as well as viral) and also common in non-infectious conditions, such as congestive heart failure, obesity, poorly controlled diabetes, and most importantly, anxiety.

Even worse, we have now discovered that hospitals are encouraged to report every death as a COVID death by rewarding the compliant hospitals with a 20% higher reimbursement rate if they classify the death as due to the CCP-virus. The doctors go along with this charade because they are either told the hospital faces bankruptcy if they do not comply or the doctor will not get the new piece of equipment they want unless they comply.

Despite his claim of increasing case numbers, the death rate continues to remain very low, as we see all over the world. One would expect increases in death rates with increasing case numbers, but then that would require a rational mind. If one assumes the increases are based on testing, then over 95% of positive cases never require hospitalization. And we must also take into account that the New York Times announced that studies have shown that up to 90% of positive cases are actually false positives. The RT-PCR test was not designed to diagnose active infections and is positive with any of the species of coronavirus, including the common cold strains, which is suspected to have infected a large percentage of the population. In fact, it has been known for a long time that 10% of cases of seasonal influenza also have coronavirus infections (the common cold strains). This is the basis for the conclusion by several experts that the reason for the very low number of serious cases of COVID-19 is that most of the population have cross-reacting antibodies with the common cold strains of coronavirus.

I am convinced that many public health bureaucrats have dreams of getting such extensive national attention that they will be appointed to the position as head of the CDC. People naturally enjoy widespread attention. Many mayors have also gotten into the act by mandating mask wearing in all stores, and in many cases, even when outside, despite massive evidence that mask-wearing by the public does not significantly reduce transmission. It makes the politician look like they really care about contributing to the defeat of the “invisible enemy” — good for their re-election campaigns. More frightening is that what we are seeing in those states with the most draconian measures demonstrates the brilliance of the quote by Lord Acton that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Overnight otherwise benign governors and mayors have become vicious totalitarians — having people arrested for not wearing a mask, failure to social distance and for daring to take their small children to a local, mostly abandoned, playground. Small businesses are closed down by force and the owners are slapped with heavy fines for defying the tyrannical orders of the government.

Governor Gavin Newsom of California, one of the worst of the new totalitarians, is now attempting to destroy the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Nothing is more dangerous than an arrogant idiot with political power. Everyday our country more and more resembles the old Soviet Union — government encouraging neighbors to spy on each other, establishing forced re-education sessions for resisters, police turned into enforcers of the personal whims of the politicians, closing of churches, keeping children and grandchildren from visiting elderly relatives, forcing dying elderly into hospitals to die alone, forcing people to wear masks despite the harm they are causing, and a thousand other abuses. Most disconcerting is how the majority of people are compliant, acting like frightened sheep.

When Governor Tate Reeves ended the mask mandate in Mississippi, I was relieved and expected to see very few people still wearing mask in public. Much to my surprise it was as if the mandate was still in effect. Mask wearers were everywhere — in stores, in restaurants, outdoors, while driving, and most surprising or all, while jogging along trails in the national forest — all alone. I suppose they were afraid the trees were infected or maybe the squirrels.

Before I get into the scientific breakthroughs, I would like to share a few of my personal observations as to why mask wearing is foolish, dangerous, and has the potential of spreading the virus to a far greater extent than individuals in the general public who choose to avoid wearing a face diaper.

When this all began, I was shocked to see how fast virtually every store and business had arrows on their floors, painted foot designs for where you were to stand, warning signs posted at entrances for face mask wearing as well as threats to violators of these draconian measures. Several stores had very expensive, illuminated signs instructing their patrons to wear a mask and to practice “social distancing.”

All of this despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that mask-wearing within communities, according to the best prospective, carefully analyzed studies, demonstrated no ability to reduce respiratory viral transmission among the public at large. Some experts, in fact, concluded it may actually have an opposite effect — that is, increase transmission. These negative studies also included those in Asian counties, where wearing masks is a social custom during respiratory viral outbreaks.

Since our public health stooge continues to insist that the fall in the number of Covid cases, occurring several months ago, was due to people wearing masks like good little regimented sheep, I started to pay closer attention to how people were wearing their masks and other behaviors that would prove him wrong, behaviors that would instead lead to an increased spread of the virus.

I noticed that a significant number of people had their entire nose exposed, with some wearing the diaper on their chin only and some with it hanging off one ear. Virtually everyone constantly touched his or her mask, especially around the bridge of the nose. Every study strongly condemned such a practice as one explanation accounting for failure of the mask to reduce transmission. It should be noted that the highest viral load is within the nose and not the mouth.

I also noticed that when people talked, especially common with waiters, their masks tended to ride down below the nose, which necessitates pushing it back up, over and over, causing them to repeatedly touch the most contaminated part of the mask — i.e., the nose area.

Restaurants were informed that the benevolent government controllers would allow them to open, but people must wear the masks when entering and when leaving the restaurant. They could sit at their table for hours with up to six people, talking, laughing and even having the waiters sing, in an ear-shattering, off key, chorus of happy birthday. Do the government controllers seriously believe the virus only concentrates at the entrances and exits to restaurants, waiting to pounce, but somehow avoids tables?

Multiple studies have shown that the greatest production of fine aerosols was with loud talking, singing and laughing — all allowed by our intrepid public health minister, as long as one wears his or her mask. (The large droplets are not a significant source of infection, as 70% of these droplets contained no viable virus, according to a carefully conduced study. Some studies found no viable virus in these large droplets.) According to one study, no mask, even the N95 masks, can filter out this virus. It has been estimated that the highest percentage of viable virus resides in the fine aerosols, and not the large droplets, which can penetrate all mask types.

As I watched people enter a particular popular restaurant, I saw one man take off his mask as he neared his table, tuck it in under his shirt below the collar and proceed as if he was being a good citizen. Another intrepid viral warrior-citizen tucked his waded-up mask under his belt, down in his pants. Most people, once they reached the safe zone of their table, removed their mask, carefully folded it up, placed it on the table next to their plate and placed their cell phone on top of it — unaware that they just contaminated the table top, their cell phone, and their hands. Another common procedure with the men is to take off the mask, wad it up in a ball and jam it into a side pocket — usually where they keep their car keys and cell phone. The women either place it on the table or put it in their purse, which contaminates everything in their purse.

One of my favorite behaviors occurred at a table next to ours, at which four elderly men sat. Most removed their mask and followed the procedure outlined above. But one old fella, took off his mask, passed his hand through one of the ear loops and slid the nasty thing up his forearm, almost to his elbow. Of interest, as he ate, the inside of the mask was pressed up against the part of the tablecloth hanging over the edge of the table. Of course, when the table busser comes around, he quickly wipes the top of the table — not the part of the tablecloth hanging over the edge of the table. I could image a small child, or even a highly vulnerable elderly person, coming into contact with the contaminated tablecloth. So much for the magic mask.

Other individuals like to have the mask hang from one ear. This is especially common with women, which allows the mask to contaminate their hair and release any microbe contamination into the surrounding air. Another observation, especially with those I know are obsessed with their mask, is that they will quickly slip their mask on to retrieve their eating utensils, napkins and other incidentals. Of course, if they are infected, their hands are now seriously contaminated. I watch in amazement as they shuffle through a container full of plastic utensils, straws, and handle the small cups for their sauces. By the time they are finished, everything on the shelf is contaminated — despite the magic mask. Yet, their chest is bursting with pride, knowing that they are being good warriors against the “invisible enemy” by wearing their magic mask.

Another especially puzzling procedure for infection control within a restaurant was of special, if not intriguing, interest. If you entered without a mask, they took your temperature with an electronic device that measured your wrist temperature. If you were wearing a mask, your temperature wasn’t taken. What that means is that a fully infected person could enter the restaurant undetected, as long as they wore a mask — as if the mask would protect the other patrons, as all studies have shown is false. This is the kind of idiocy that now infects our society.

Of note, our waiter wore a mask, but his entire nose was exposed throughout the time he waited on us. I noticed the same situation among other waiters.

When approached by store personnel, they usually give you a prepared spiel about the importance of wearing your mask for the protection of others, which is shear nonsense. If the mask is so protective what difference does it make to another patron who chooses not to wear a face gag? The person wearing the mask is protected, according to their wisdom. So, if I choose not to gag myself, what should they care — they are protected.

In one store, I was subjected to this bit of bureaucratic wisdom by a woman who worked there, and I informed her that it was her mask that endangered me. Coincidently, I was the oldest person in the store, which made me the most vulnerable customer in the almost empty store. Generally, no one in the South will confront another person for not wearing a mask. It violates good manners, and it might lead to a fat lip if you confront the wrong person. She smiled weakly and wandered off, confused by my challenge to her newfound wisdom.

My wife and I attempted to enter a Kroger supermarket without a face diaper and were told by an employee that we had to don a face gag or we would have to leave. I told him that the governor had recently rescinded the mask mandate. He informed me that didn’t matter as the Kroger store had its own policy. I then informed him that I had a medical condition that prevented me from wearing a mask. He said Kroger made no exceptions; everyone had to wear a gag. I responded, “Are you telling me that Kroger would endanger a customer’s health just to enforce a ridiculous mandate?” He responded in the affirmative. We left the store, but I wrote a review on their website explaining in the strongest of terms my anger that they would endanger their customer’s health when there was no scientific evidence that the mask prevented transmission of the virus. To my surprise I quickly had 86 positive responses to my angry post. A number of these stores are acting as sovereign countries, making their own laws. Of note, almost all of the bag boys had their noses fully exposed, as did several other employees in the store. I see this in most places having strict mask rules, such as Sam’s Club, Walmart, and Cosco. Keep in mind that the nose is the most infected part of the anatomy. In essence, to expose one’s nose is no different than not wearing a mask at all, proving this is all a charade — all for political effect.

We were also asked to leave a Sam’s Club in a very rude, insulting, and confrontational manner by a young, KGB-wannabe guard for a refusal to wear a mask for medical reasons. He insisted I needed a doctor’s excuse. Needless to say, we canceled our Sam’s Club membership and will not enter another Walmart, even after this insanity is over. 

I really think that a number of people have a sense that they are “heroes” in this so-called war if they fully comply with all the mandates and rules. Some must think they will receive a medal from the government or maybe even have a statue constructed in their likeness (which the left-wing justice warriors can later tear down.) From my conversations with people, far too many are actually scared to death that if they don’t wear their face diaper they will surely die. Worse, they also believe you must be made to wear a face diaper as well, which makes little sense, as noted above. But then, this is all within the power of brainwashing, as noted by Gustove Le Bon in The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind and by Edward Bernays in Propaganda. Crowds do not think rationally, they are moved by emotions and trust positions of societal mob authority, which includes political creatures and bureaucrats. They are not influenced by rational arguments or clear thinking.

I am also convinced that society has been prepped for this overreaction by a number of movies about pandemics, depicting millions of dead bodies in the streets, hospitals filled with the dead and dying, doctors and nurses working frantically to save as many patients as possible, streets littered with wrecked vehicles and the dead hanging out of open doors, as well as houses filled with the decaying bodies of entire families.

In his 2016 article titled, “The Surgical Mask is a Bad Fit For Risk Reduction,” Dr. Shane Neilson noted that during the phony H1N1 pandemic some of his patients began to wear masks in the waiting room. Ironically, the television there was playing the movie Contagion, which depicted the mass death scenes alluded to above. These pandemic movies, he concluded, were having a tremendous impact on the public. They could not differentiate reality from a movie.

Neilson further observed that what the masks communicate is risk — a real and present danger to each one personally. I know people who have rarely exited their homes or apartments since this all started. They are terrified they will die if they step out into the public. I see families come into restaurants accompanied by several small children, all wearing their face gags, looking like a row of little ducks. I even saw a baby with a mask on. Even the CDC warns people not to put mask on small children. Pregnant women should never wear one of these masks, as it can potentially harm the baby’s development.

In one of our favorite restaurants one of the supervisors approached our table. I notice that she was in an advanced stage of her pregnancy and she was wearing a face gag. I discussed with her the potential risk the mask possessed for her baby. She laughed and told me that her obstetrician told her the same thing, but her boss makes all employees wear a mask — no exceptions. This is the dangerous idiocy gripping our society.

What is also being ignored, both by most public health bureaucrats and parents, is the dangerous impact this is having on the children’s psychological wellbeing and development. Children see their parents literally terrified to death, and, as a result, the child becomes paranoid as well, afraid to step out doors without a mask. Several child psychiatrists have expressed concern that children seeing masses of people wearing masks, as well as on their schoolmates, will severely impact their interpersonal social development. We need to see faces to develop what has been termed “theory of mind” — that is, an ability to look at another person’s face so as to develop a psychological understanding of their emotions and state of mind. This is the basis of empathy. Are they angry, friendly, grieving, sad, peaceful, frightening or engaged in dozens of other emotional states? Facial expressions convey that information to the developing child’s brain. The mask literally masks this information. A loss of the “theory of mind” capability is commonly seen in the autistic child, something that severely impairs their social development.

The anti-social distancing has a similar psychological effect. Children cannot touch each other, play together, sit close, or engage in any other normal social displays. This is criminal. Some schools even draw separation circles to keep children apart, despite children being for the most part, immune from this virus, and recent studies have even shown they do not transmit the virus to adults. But then, real science has never had anything to do with this virus — everything is derived from politicians, political bureaucrats, and their handmaidens in the media. 

The use of masks by the general public to control transmitted infections has been examined scientifically since the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Attempts at controlling this deadly virus by utilizing mask wearing failed everywhere it was tried. In more recent studies, mainly attempts to control seasonal influenza epidemics through mask wearing by the community have all shown no significant effect, even though the participants were told to wear their mask all day and even during sleep.

As we have seen, attempting to get the public at large to wear their mask properly never works and never has worked, even when attempted by special public service instructions. This has been confirmed by most of the better-conducted, larger studies of mask wearing by the public. Sterile technique is beyond most people’s ability to comprehend or follow throughout a busy day. It would be hard even for those of us trained in sterile technique. We do things unconsciously.

More recent evidence strongly indicates that mask wearing actually helps spread the virus, especially when combined with directional arrows in stores. This is because all the better, more recent studies indicate that the major mode of transmission, as with the influenza virus, is by fine aerosols (not filtered by any mask type). The mask, especially the surgical mask, does not fit the face tightly, and on most people, has wide opening along the sides and less on the bottom of the mask. Studies have shown that there is a jetting effect from the gaps in the sides of the mask that produce very large turbulent clouds of these fine particles in a posterolateral direction. This means that the person dutifully walking 6 feet behind an infected, masked person is enveloped in a cloud of infected particles, which easily penetrates his or her mask as well. In addition, this fine aerosol contaminates all items on the shelves on both sides of the aisle. Studies have shown that fine aerosols can travel 27 to 30 feet from a coughing or sneezing person.

In addition, because of the easy penetration of the mask material by the fine aerosol and the leakage around the mask, the infected person’s face, eyes, entire front and hands are all contaminated. If they are standing in front of an open vegetable bin, they will contaminate all the produce or fruits. Watch this video by Dr. Ted Noel, demonstrating the penetration of various mask types by vapor from vaping. These moisture droplets were intermediate or large in size. Fine aerosols are invisible.

What we have seen is that the masking of the gullible public plays no part in containing this rather benign virus — that is, benign for 95% of the public. For the frail, sick, elderly and younger individuals with multiple chronic illnesses or obesity, it can be deadly. The survival rate of those over age 70 having the infection is 95%. Remember, the cold virus has been shown to kill 8% of the population residing in a nursing home, significantly higher mortality than the 5% for this virus.

On the next installment, we can look at acts of treason by our government agencies, and the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Written by Russell L. Blaylock, MD

Dr. Russell L. Blaylock is President of Advanced Nutritional Concepts and Theoretical Neurosciences in Jackson, Mississippi. He has written numerous path-blazing scientific papers and many books, including Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills (1994), Bioterrorism: How You Can Survive (2001), Health and Nutrition Secrets (2002), and Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients (2003). He is Associate Editor-in-Chief, neuroinflammatory section, and Consulting Editor in Basic Neuroscience for Surgical Neurology International (SNI).

This article may be cited as: Blaylock RL. Why Mask Mandates Are Not Just Nonsense, But Dangerous. HaciendaPublishing.com, November 3, 2020. Available from: https://haciendapublishing.com/why-mask-mandates-are-not-just-nonsense-but-dangerous-by-russell-l-blaylock-md/.

The illustrations that appear in this article came from a variety of sources and were added for the enjoyment of our readers at HaciendaPublishing.com.

Copyright ©2020 Russell L. Blaylock, MD