What Happened: Some Quebec residents aren’t happy as a certain model of mask distributed to schools and daycares in Quebec may be harmful for the lungs. This is because they may contain a toxic material, according to the provincial government who recently disclosed this information. According to CBC news, “Radio-Canada has obtained documents showing Health Canada warned of the potential for “early pulmonary toxicity” from the SNN200642 masks which are made in China.” These masks have been sold and distributed by a Quebec-based manufacturer.
The provincial government put out a notice stating, “if you have this type of mask in stock, we ask that you stop distributing them and keep them in a safe place now.” The Canadian government conducted an assessment on the mask which showed a potential for lung damage associated with the inhalation of “microscopic graphene particles.” Apparently it can cause long term health problems. This makes one wonder about all of the other masks people are wearing, what particles are breathed in from those and whether or not there are any long term health consequences associated with those?
This is also not the first time it’s happened in Quebec. Back in December, the Quebec government revealed that masks it had been distributing for months to more than 15,000 daycares across the province did not meet safety standards, and daycare staff were ordered to stop using them. Between May and November, the ministry distributed 31.1 million MC9501 masks throughout the network to protect staff from COVID-19, but they were determined to be unfit for use.
Addressing A Question on The Minds of Many: A question many people have is, are masks safe and are they even effective? According to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a doctor and medical professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.
The evidence that mask mandates work to slow the spread of the disease is very weak. The only randomised evaluation of mask efficacy in preventing Covid infection found very small, statistically insignificant effects [Danish mask study]. And masks are deleterious to the social and educational development of children, especially young children. They are not needed to address the epidemic. In Sweden, for instance, children have been in school maskless almost the whole of the epidemic, with no child Covid deaths and teachers contracting Covid at rates that are lower than the average of other workers.
According to a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine:
We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 a face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.
A study published in 2015 found that cloth masks can increase healthcare workers risk of infection. It also called into question the efficacy of medical masks. You can read more about that and access it here.
The physiological effects of breathing elevated inhaled CO2 may include changes in visual performance, modified exercise endurance, headaches and dyspnea. The psychological effects include decreased reasoning and alertness, increased irritability, severe dyspnea, headache, dizziness, perspiration, and short-term memory loss. (source)
Keep in mind, there are studies out there that do suggests masks may be effective.
The Takeaway: The point is, it’s extremely debatable, and what we are seeing right now when it comes to mask wearing, and other covid related issues, is any scientific discussion calling into question the effectiveness of government recommendations with regards to preventing covid has been heavily censored. This censorship alone and the complete unacknowledgement of evidence on the “other side” as well as the muzzling of many scientists, as well as ridicule, has people even more suspicious.
There are many examples. One I recently wrote about was Jonas F Ludvigsson, a paediatrician at Örebro University Hospital and professor of clinical epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute. He is quitting his work on covid-19 because of harassment from people who dislike what he discovered. He discovered that despite no lockdown, school closings and mask mandates during the first wave, no school children died from covid.
Even the information in this article, and the tone it takes calling into question the effectiveness of masks will most likely punish our website, put restrictions on our domain, and result in a reduced reach and algorithm changes on Facebook which all lead to demonitization. This is why we started CETV by the way. THIS is the real issue, not whether or not masks are effective, but the shut down of any sort of discussion while pushing one narrative while, again, completely ridiculing the other.
This is why I believe recommendations would be far better than mandates. What do you think?
I’ll leave you with a quote NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden once said, that, “The Problem with fake news isn’t solved by hoping for a referee. But rather because we, as participants, as citizens, as users of these services, (need to) help each other…We point out what is fake, we point out what is true – the answer to bad speech is not censorship, the answer is more speech. We have to exercise and spread the idea that critical thinking matters, now more than ever, given the fact that lies seem to be getting more popular.”
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