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Governor Mills is NOT Following the Science in her COVID Response
New CDC Report Reveals Face Masks Reduced COVID-19 Cases and Death Growth Rates an
Average of Only 1.32 Percent
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, March 10, 2021
AUGUSTA, Maine - While the mantra of the left with regard to COVID-19 has been to “follow the science,” what the science actually shows is that the crown jewel of the Democrats’ COVID strategy - mandatory face masks in a community setting - simply does not work.
Maine’s Democrat governor, Janet “Big Sister” Mills has mandated face coverings in public with no exceptions since mid-December but there was still a massive surge in cases. Now, the U.S. CDC has released a report that says what we already knew: those mask mandates only reduced cases and deaths growth by an average of 1.32 percent. Yet, Big Sister plans on continuing her face mask mandate in perpetuity; the science be damned.
In their March 12, 2021 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the U.S. CDC published the findings of a study conducted on state-issued mask mandates and allowing on-premises dining with regard to COVID-19 case and death growth rates.1
The CDC researchers found that during March 1 - December 31, 2020, state-issued mask mandates applied in 2,313 of the 3,142 U.S. counties. The report noted, “Mask mandates were associated with a 0.5 percentage point decrease in daily COVID-19 case growth rates 1-20 days after implementation and decreases of 1.1, 1.5, 1.7 and 1.8 percentage points 21-40, 41-60, 61-80 and 81-100 days, respectively, after implementation.”
This averages out to a 1.32 percent decrease in COVID-19 “positive” case growth rates over the time periods studied.
They also studied the growth rate of COVID-19 deaths, which perhaps is impossible to do since the death numbers are so jiggled with errors and inconsistencies. However, the authors of the report noted, “Mask mandates were associated with a 0.7 percentage point decrease in daily COVID-19 death growth rates 1-20 days after implementation and decreases of 1.0, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.9 percentage points 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, and 81-100 days, respectively, after implementation.”
Curiously, the death growth rate averaged out to exactly the case growth rate of 1.32 percent. In both situations, the 1.32 percent is not statistically significant. It’s also important to note that the CDC was merely looking at the rate cases and deaths decreased without mentioning what they were compared to.
“The real figure probably is even lower than 1.32% because Covid statistics are unreliable,” said G. Edward Griffin, from NeedtoKnow.news. “It is highly more likely that seasonal flu has been mislabeled as Covid. The CDC reported that influenza cases in the United States dropped from 50-million to nearly zero in the 2020-2021 flu season. Mainstream media are claiming that wearing masks are to be credited but, as previously mentioned, masking accounts for an improvement of only 1.32% which cannot explain the disappearance of 50-million flu cases.”
Also, flu numbers in Maine are down for the current season, but there was a similar lull in flu numbers five years ago, in 2016 when there were no mask mandates or social distancing requirements in effect (see chart on page 3).
The CDC report admits it did not control for other policies that might affect case and death rates; compliance with the mask mandates and enforcement of policies was not measured; and the analysis did not differentiate between indoor and outdoor dining, adequacy of ventilation and adherence to physical distancing and occupancy requirements.
In other words, the report is essentially useless as a scientific study to support the existence of face mask mandates at the community level. Yet, the report concludes that the CDC will continue to support face mask mandates and prohibition of on-premises dining because they “have the potential to slow the spread of COVID-19…” By using the word, “potential” the CDC is admitting it is merely an opinion that face masks work, not an objective, proven scientific fact.
With that said, the US CDC has published real scientific reports in the past. One looked at respiratory viruses in general and found no evidence face masks stopped or slowed the spread of viruses.2 The CDC also published a MMWR last Fall that showed 18 times as many people caught COVID-19 while wearing a face mask “often” or “always” compared to people who “never” wore a face mask before catching the virus.3
While it’s increasingly clear the science does not support community level face mask mandates, the politicization of this virus, which has a fatality rate similar to seasonal flu, will continue to empower hard left Democrats to continue to bully and boss around the general public with feel good, virtue signaling measures like wearing face masks when the reality is those masks -and the improper use of them by the general public - offer little to no actual protection from respiratory viruses at the end of the day. Face masks have essentially become iconic religious symbols in the left’s cult of COVID worshippers.
Notes:
1. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7010e3-H.pdf
2. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
3. https://cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6936a5-H.pdf