Masks and vaccines

Mr. Jim Thomas was looking for a response, so I will honor one. The question posed is simple. Why not wear a mask or get a vaccine? The answer to certain questions is not always as simple as the question itself due, mostly, to variances in ideology. I will make my best effort to leave my ideology out of the discussion.

I’ll pick on surgical masks first because they appear to be the most common. On a historical basis, everything we have been told or led to believe about wearing a mask is contradictory to decades of research prior to 2020. In the 1980s, three randomized, controlled trials were conducted to determine if surgical masks reduced surgical wound infection in the operating room. Dr. McIntyre of the University of South Wales concluded the research by saying, “The surgeon might as well wear nothing on their face.” Until 2020, the CDC only recommended surgical masks to protect the wearer from splashes of blood and other bodily fluids. I’m supposed to believe these surgical masks now have the ability to protect people from a virus? Someone might have a better chance of getting me to believe that it’s OK to pee in a pool full of people because your swimming trunks will hold it in.

In March 2020, we were told that the N95 mask should only be worn by those people who are directly coming into contact with individuals who were infected with COVID. Soon after, the tune was changed and now we are supposed to believe that we should wear an N95 (or any mask) in order to protect “others.” Simultaneously, the CDC stated that masks that did provide certain levels of filtration must be fit tested in order to be considered effective. I would throw out a bet that no non-health care professional has been fit tested for any sort of face covering.

I find the vaccine to be much easier to deny myself. Up until COVID, the first step in testing took years to accomplish. For COVID, Moderna did it in 63 days. That is terrifying. I will also point out that two companies released 15 million doses of the vaccine that had the wrong amounts of certain ingredients. Hopefully none of those came to North Idaho. Let’s also not forget that people with the vaccine are still getting COVID. News headline for Aug. 22 stated the Rev. Jesse Jackson has COVID after being fully vaccinated. Why would I inject something into my body that nobody really knows what it is, was pushed out almost magically in 63 days and doesn’t actually protect me from what it’s supposed to protect me from?

Why not wear a mask or get a vaccine? I don’t because my long-term memory hasn’t been fried by the echo chamber of a society who has learned to simply do as it’s told. The 20th century saw millions of people die who simply did as they were told in the name of public safety.

DAVID CARLILE

Kingston