Jared Polis, the Democratic governor of Colorado, thinks those of us who oppose scientifically dubious, constitutionally suspect and dangerously overbroad face mask mandates are "selfish bastards."
I think Polis is a pandering pandemic control freak endangering public health, safety, and sanity.
There. Now that the name-calling is out of the way, let's talk facts.
Contracting COVID can be fatal or debilitating for the elderly, immune-compromised and physically challenged. But there is no catastrophic public health emergency justifying sweeping government orders and ordinances that would force healthy citizens to wear masks in an increasingly oppressive climate of manufactured fear -- completely untethered from pragmatic realities and risk assessments.
According to the federal government's own COVID-19 data, 120,675 deaths in America have been tied to the virus. Tracked weekly by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, fatalities peaked on April 18, 2020, with 16,897 succumbing to the disease. (Keep in mind that many medical whistleblowers have reported that these statistics are inflated by including "COVID"-related deaths uncorroborated by lab results and also by including patients who died with COVID infections, but not necessarily from the virus itself.) In the 12 weeks since April 18, as states have reopened and protests (or riots) of all kinds have brought tens of thousands of people in close contact, deaths have fallen precipitously.
For the week of July 11, 2020, guess how many deaths were attributed to the virus? 181.
The total number of deaths for school-age children between February-July 2020 are 9 (under 1 year of age); 7 (ages 1-4); 14 (age 5-14); and 149 (ages 15-24).
All deaths are tragic, of course. But we haven't banned cars, bikes, swimming pools, aspirin, plastic bags or matches to prevent the tens of thousands of school-age deaths that occur each year due to unintentional accidents involving these items. We don't mandate that all kids wear life vests at bath time because nearly 100 children die in a tub yearly. We don't mandate that all pet owners muzzle their dogs at all times because someone, somewhere, might be attacked upon exposure to Fido.
In a CNN interview this week, infection disease bureaucrat Dr. Anthony Fauci asserted that "I think you can trust me" and other "experts" as nationwide mask mania escalates.
Does he think we all have amnesia? This is the same joker who just four months ago told CBS News, "There's no reason to be walking around with a mask." His fellow experts in the federal public health-industrial complex dismissed surgical masks as inadequate protection from small airborne particles and warned that they did not form adequate seals around the face. And remember this?
"Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus..."
That was our surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, in February.
Or how about this: "There's not much we can do, so we're all walking around feeling rather victimized by this virus. By using a mask, even if it doesn't do a lot, it moves the locus of control to you, away from the virus."
That was Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, quoted in Time magazine in March.
Or how about this from the same article: "'Even if experts are saying it's really not going to make a difference, a little (part of) people's brains is thinking, well, it's not going to hurt. Maybe it'll cut my risk just a little bit, so it's worth it to wear a mask,' she says. In that sense, wearing a mask is a 'superstitious behavior'..."
That was Lynn Bufka, a clinical psychologist and senior director for practice, research and policy at the American Psychological Association.
Reviewing the scientific literature in her upcoming book, "The Case Against Masks" with Kent Heckenlively, former federal research scientist Dr. Judy Mikovits summarizes: "The more effective a mask is at blocking normal air flow, the greater the problem with decreased oxygen and increased carbon dioxide a person is likely to have. The less effective a mask is at blocking normal airflow, the less of a case can be made for using it. And we haven't really dealt with what seems to be the main way that the virus spreads, through coughing and sneezing which spreads respiratory droplets."
Watching young, healthy people jogging or hiking on isolated trails in mid-July around Colorado Springs in cloth and surgical masks drives me nuts. They're not protecting anyone else and are likely making themselves sick. In what sane world is breathing through moist bacteria traps and cutting yourself off from vitally needed oxygen a public health virtue? Vulnerable kids especially are being lied to by panic-mongers and exploited as human shields. Meanwhile, a recent journal article in the New England Journal of Medicine acknowledges: "The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is... minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic."
The evidence does not support broad mask mandates. Yet, now we free-thinkers and free-breathers face jail time and witch hunts for dissenting. It's all about politics, power, and control. "Selfish bastards" who promote superstitious costumery as science threaten us all.