Masked Scamdemic

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

A friend of mine, who used to talk to me until his Christian Conservative self decided to go off the deep end regarding President Trump and believe he was something worse than Hillary emailed me recently because I used the word “scamdemic,” to tell me: “The pandemic was real.”

When I use the word “scamdemic,” I am not saying that the COVID virus was completely a lie.  The virus was out there, for sure, but it wasn’t what they made it out to be, and the hysteria surrounding it was a big scam.  Did you notice that the deadly virus never left any dead bodies in the streets, or inside homes?  People died in the hospitals, from the treatments, rather than the disease.  And, if indeed the virus was floating around in the air when we breathed, six feet was not going to do it.  Viruses move through the air like smoke, they don’t suddenly plunge to their death at the six feet mark.  Then, there’s the mask thing.  Big pores, little viruses.  I lost friends telling people that the masks did nothing to protect anyone.  It was like trying to stop mosquitoes with chain-link fences.

Then, a few months ago, I had a very enlightening conversation with one of my hard left sisters-in-law.  She said, “Doug, you and Virginia didn’t wear masks, right?”

I responded, “I didn’t, except maybe on five occasions in total in the beginning.  She had to for work, and did a few times in stores, but for the most part neither did Virginia.”

“Hmm,” she said.  “And you guys didn’t get the vaccine?”

“No,” I told her.  “Neither one of us did.”

“And you never got COVID?”

“I had a flu,” I said, “In December of 2020 that might possibly have been, but I never checked, and I got over it in four days.  Virginia never got sick at all with anything.  So, no, I don’t believe we ever got COVID.”

“I see.  Curious,” she said.  “Mom and me and my sisters all wore masks faithfully, got the shots, and the boosters, and we got COVID three times each.”

Now, the following headline has been provided to me:

Masks Caused Increase in Covid Infections, Major Study Finds

Excuse me?  Are we saying that a major peer-reviewed study has concluded what I knew all along simply using common sense?  Is it true that face masks not only did not work, but may have been a component in spreading Covid infections?

The cross-sectional study, titled “Association between Face Mask Use and Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection,” was conducted by a team of Norwegian researchers.

According to the paper, published in the renowned British Cambridge University journal, the researchers conducted an “observational study that analyses data from a population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time.”

In this case, the point in time they analyzed was data from early 2022.

They examined a cross-section of data for people who reported testing positive for Covid and revealed how often they wore a mask.

According to their research, “We examined the association between face masks and the risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 using cross-sectional data from 3,209 participants in a randomized trial of using glasses to reduce the risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2.”

“Face mask use was based on participants’ responses to the end-of-follow-up survey.

“We found that the incidence of self-reported COVID-19 was 33% (aRR 1.33; 95% CI 1.03 – 1.72) higher in those wearing face masks often or sometimes, and 40% (aRR 1.40; 95% CI 1.08 – 1.82) higher in those wearing face masks almost always or always, compared to participants who reported wearing face masks never or almost never.”

In the raw data, regular mask-wearers had a 74-75% higher risk of testing positive for Covid.

“The crude estimates show a higher incidence of testing positive for COVID-19 in the groups that used face masks more frequently, with 8.6% of participants who never or almost never used masks, 15.0% of participants who sometimes used masks, and 15.1% of participants who almost always or always used masks reporting a positive test result,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

“The risk was 1.74 (1.38 to 2.18) times higher in those who wore face masks often or sometimes and 1.75 (1.39 to 2.21) times higher in those who wore face masks almost always or always, compared to participants who reported never or almost never wore masks.”

Covid infections were more prevalent among those who wore masks more often.

Personally, I always believed the mask wearing thing was a) tyrannical…how dare governments force people to wear masks in the first place, and b) demonic.  To hide one’s true self, and be possessed by the demon depicted on the mask.  That’s history.  It’s not something we should ignore.

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