January 15, 2025 - "A federal judge has ruled in a precedent-setting case [that] compelling employees to wear a mask at work during the COVID-19 pandemic was unreasonable. Complaints that maskless workplaces pose a danger to employees’ health are frivolous, ruled the judge, per Blacklock’s Reporter. The decision marked the final chapter in pandemic mandates that forced millions to wear masks in public.
"'It is unreasonable,' Justice Benoit Duchesne of the Federal Court ruled in the case of an Elections Canada manager who complained he felt unsafe after the office mask mandate was lifted in 2023. The manager was fully vaccinated and had no particular health issues, the court found.
"Nicolas Juzda, chief of field programs at Elections Canada, said he was put at risk after the agency ordered employees back to work at its Gatineau, QC, headquarters without mandatory masking. 'I must excuse my right to refuse work that constitutes a danger,' wrote Juzda, citing the Canada Labour Code. Section 128.1 of the law states federally regulated staff may refuse work 'that constitutes a danger to the employee'....
"Management dismissed the claim 'The matter is frivolous,' wrote one executive. Duchesne agreed.
"'The applicant’s concern about an unsafe workplace was based on his assessment that a significant number of people would return to the workplace under the return-to-work model, that any of these people may have contracted COVID-19 and that the non-mandatory recommendations and precautions relating to COVID-19 fell short of what he believes would be a safe work environment,' wrote the court. The concerns were unwarranted, it said.
"Cabinet enforced mask mandates from April 20, 2020 to February 14, 2023. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau maintained the mandate was recommended by scientists though the Public Health Agency never made such a recommendation. 'We followed the recommendations of public health experts, doctors and scientists,' Trudeau told reporters in 2022....
"Dr. Howard Njoo, deputy chief public health officer, told reporters earlier in 2022 that mandates were not required. 'We want people to be sort of informed and make that a voluntary choice,' he said. 'It doesn’t have to be because there is a mandate.'
"Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, went further in the first weeks of the pandemic in dismissing masks as pointless. 'There is no need to use a mask for well people,' she told reporters in 2020. 'It hasn’t been proven really to protect you from getting the virus.'"
After reportedly voting to approve new recommendations on masking made by a hand-picked panel of experts, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reversed itself and told the experts to change their advice.
February 6, 2024 - "Two years back, the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)] picked a bunch of science experts and asked them to update the agency’s scientific guidance to hospitals on how to control infections. Hospitals and government agencies use CDC guidance to set their own policies, but the guidance for controlling infections has not been updated since 2007. Last November, the experts sent the CDC a 20-page document, with 4 pages of scientific references, updating the government’s advice for controlling infections. But the process took an odd turn, last week, when the CDC sent a letter back to these experts — again, experts that the CDC picked themselves — that asked the experts to redo their expert advice....
CDE sign with discarded facemasks, Fresno, CA, 2020.
"Last summer one of the CDC’s own scientists gave a presentation at one of the meetings the experts held. She told the experts that she examined whether N95 respirators work better at stopping viruses than masks. Despite people waving around studies and essays saying that N95s respirators work better at stopping viruses than surgical masks, CDC’s scientist reported that the evidence 'suggests no difference' in their effectiveness.'
"The CDC then posted on the agency’s website a 'systematic review' that CDC researcher[s] did to examine whether N95s work better than masks. For those who don’t understand systematic reviews, they are highly structured analyses that rely on the best available evidence, to provide the best available answers.... The CDC’s researchers found there is no difference, meaning respirators don’t seem to work any better than masks..... Complaining about the experts’ guidance in a blog post last week, the CDC warned them they had gotten the science wrong....
"Prior to 2020, hardly anybody recommended masks to stop viruses, because there’s no evidence they do so.... Even the CDC’s own guidance on virus control advised mask[s] only be worn by sick people to prevent them from infecting others, which is known as 'source control.' The masks are important for someone who’s infected, to prevent them from infecting someone else…...But for some reason, a 'masks work' political movement began to grow....
"Four years after the pandemic’s beginning, the CDC now openly cheerleads for masks, despite research the agency has published showing that masks don’t really protect people from catching viruses. And this is why the experts advising the CDC are getting all this pushback: they didn’t tell the CDC what the CDC wanted to hear.... They want the experts to write guidelines that recommends healthy people wear masks, even though research shows masks won’t really stop healthy people from getting sick....
"The CDC’s request for expert to redo their work raises obvious questions: Why does the CDC gather outside experts to provide advice, if the CDC then demands advice they already want? Even more important, Why is the CDC pushing masks after the CDC published a May 2020 policy review in the CDC’s very own journal /Emerging Infectious Diseases/ that did not find a 'substantial effect' for masks stopping transmission of respiratory viruses?...
"Politico first reported that the CDC’s advisors released and voted to approve their draft guidance last November, updating the agency’s 16-year old recommendations on controlling infectious diseases in healthcare settings. 'But some health workers aren’t happy about this,' Politico noted. "During the meeting’s public comment period, patients and providers called for masks to be worn in health care settings.' Following federal rules, the experts’ guidance then went through a CDC review, followed by 60 days of public comment. Under pressure from the nurse lobby, the CDC pivoted last week and demanded the experts make changes and promote masks....
"I’m not really sure what happened or what we do next. But something weird took place in America where liberal elites began messaging among themselves 'masks work.' They then grew this into a crusade. Again, I don’t know why. The future everyone should fear is that the fanatics chanting 'masks work' are going to get someone killed. When a new pandemic happens — and one will — they’ve taught people that a super deadly virus ... worse than COVID, doesn’t really mater. Just put on a mask and go about your business, because 'masks work.' What a horror story that will be."
Dame Jenny Harries, Britain's deputy CMO during the pandemic, has told the UK Covid Inquiry there is no proof masks were effective against Covid, and that they may have increased risk of infection.
November 29, 2023 - "There is no solid proof masks ever slowed the spread of Covid, England's former deputy chief medical officer said today. Professor Dame Jenny Harries, who now heads up the UK Health Security Agency, said the evidence that coverings reduced transmission is 'uncertain' because it is difficult to separate their effect from other Covid curbs....
"She also told the UK's Covid inquiry that government advice on how to make a mask using two pieces of cloth was 'ineffective'. Meanwhile, she warned advice for the public to wear masks during the pandemic may even have given people a 'false sense of security' that they could reduce their risk of becoming infected if they wore one while mixing with others....
"Dame Jenny wrote in her witness statement that the evidence base for using face masks in the community 'was, and still is to some degree, uncertain'. She noted that the evidence for mask wearing varied depending on what materials it was made from. For example, a 'one or two layer cloth covering' is 'not particularly effective', she said. And if someone doesn't wear it properly – fully covering the mouth and nose – 'it won't work', [she] added.
"The inquiry was shown guidance on how people can make their own face masks from the first wave of the pandemic. In response to the proposals in May 2020, Dame Jenny wrote that advice to use one or two pieces of fabric was 'ineffective'. She told the inquiry that the evidence at the time said at least three layers were needed 'to give a positive impact' but even this finding 'was not very strong', so the advice was not effective....
"Asked about a Government document recommending the use of face masks in May 2020, Dame Jenny said: 'We've got all sorts of safety issues here'.... '
One of the problems in May was when there were a lot of discussions about coming out of lockdown and opening up the economy and various other things – and the two metre, one metre (social distancing guidance).... The problem we had there was that there appeared to be a view permeating through, and a real concern and risk, that it was being conceived that if you did one metre and you wore a face covering slung round your cheek, or whatever it might be, that was fine. So, there was a risk that in encouraging face (masks) people would stop doing the thing that was really important, which was distancing and all the other things.
"Asked by inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett whether this led to a risk of a 'false sense of security', Dame Jenny replied: 'Yes, a false sense of security. But it was actually also overlapping with what was economically-driven policy, I think, to try and remove some of the distancing rules'....
"Dame Jenny also revealed that she wrote to cabinet secretary Simon Case in May 2020, when he was No10 permeant secretary, expressing concern that people may believe they 'could go back to normal' wearing face coverings made from t-shirts, when there was no evidence base around the measure.... 'My main concern was it would have been conceived as a safer way of moving about just when we got through the first tragic wave of a pandemic.... The anxiety was that if people just thought they could get a bit of t-shirt, put it around the face and that would solve all the problems and we could go back to normal, that was not going to be a good public health intervention.'
In the middle of Windsor, Ontario, lawyer Antoine d'Ailly's trial for allegedly violating the Reopening Ontario Act by not enforcing a mask mandate in his office, the Crown prosecutor abruptly withdrew all charges.
November 10, 2023 - "The Democracy Fund (TDF) has successfully defended Windsor lawyer Antoine d'Ailly against allegations that he failed to enforce provincial masking requirements in his law office. Mr. d'Ailly was charged in December of 2020 under the Reopening Ontario Act, which required businesses to enforce masking requirements, subject to numerous exemptions.
"During the trial of November 1, 2023, the prosecution withdrew the charge against d'Ailly after a brief cross‐examination of the Crown's sole witness by TDF. The cross‐examination revealed multiple inconsistencies in the evidence of the Windsor‐Essex County Health Unit's (WECHU's) enforcement officer.
"While Mr. d'Ailly implemented a policy of not demanding proof from members of the public who claimed a masking exemption, his policy was in compliance with applicable law at all times. Despite [his] being on the right side of the law, multiple complaints were made against d'Ailly, resulting in surveillance of his law office and other enforcement measures by WECHU officers.
"Mr. d'Ailly was defended at trial by TDF's Litigation Director, Alan Honner, who says the applicable regulation clearly states that a person need not provide proof of an exemption to the masking requirement. Honner insists that his client was legally and morally justified in not demanding proof of exemptions, and it was the enforcement officers who did not understand the law when they charged d'Ailly....
"Prior to the trial, TDF retained local paralegal Kristen Jarvis to bring a motion for particulars to insist that the crown identify the specific provision under which d'Ailly was being charged. Jarvis's success on that motion was critical to TDF's ultimate win at trial.
"TDF believes in standing up for persons who are wrongfully charged with breaching constitutionally‐ suspect masking laws. To help us in this fight, you can make a tax‐deductible donation on this page to support our work....TDF supports an access to justice initiative for Canadians whose civil liberties have been infringed by government lockdowns and other public policy responses to the pandemic."
August 24, 2023 - "This week a handful of American schools, businesses and healthcare facilities re-imposed mask mandates and other Covid safety policies.... This included a small college in Atlanta with 400 students, elementary schools in Texas and Kentucky, an LA Hollywood film studio (responsible for The Hunger Games) and some Kaiser Permanente health facilities in California. Pro-mask mandate scientists and doctors, such as Independent SAGE member Trish Greenhalgh of the University of Oxford and former US surgeon general Jerome Adams took the opportunity to model 'good mask behaviour.
"According to CNN, a number of 'experts' continue to claim that it 'may be time to break out the masks again' since 'the virus is always lurking, waiting for openings,' and 'Covid is just going to be a bit of a roller coaster, probably forever.' The US and UK have seen medical advocacy groups recently call, in the BMJ and Annals of Internal Medicine, for the return of permanent or seasonal medical mask mandates in all healthcare facilities, which has continued in some states and clinics....
"[T]he mandate debate in healthcare facilities does threaten to fundamentally (and literally) change the face of healthcare for years to come. The public is being reintroduced to the moralisation and virtue-signalling of collectivist masking. The risk-framing narrative, use of selective experts and social marketing techniques are all reminiscent of 2020-21 nudge strategies. Yet the exaggerated poetic licence and double-think of the 'long masker' subculture ignores some key facts.
"Before Covid, population-wide medical masks were not viewed as a particularly effective tool for respiratory viruses. In a 2018 address at the National Academy of Medicine, science writer Laurie Garrett stated that 'the major efficacy of a mask is that it causes alarm in a person and so you stay away from each other.' This is roughly consistent with the updated 2023 Cochrane review, which found that mask-wearing made little difference in a community setting. More recent RCT studies of community masking during Covid in Bangladesh and Guinea-Bissau (America forgot to run RCTs on masks) found little to no benefit of community-wide cloth masking, too.
"Pro-mask groups will argue that the Cochrane review did not account for the many observational studies that appear to support mask mandates. But there are major flaws with such studies. The results from a recent high-profile evaluation that found lifting mask mandates at Massachusetts schools was associated with increased Covid cases could also be explained by uncontrolled confounders. Other observational studies in Spanish and American schools show no effect from mandatory mask policies.
"Others will argue that the problem is with people: they simply do not follow the rules. If only we would mask hard enough and long enough, we wouldn’t have any problems, they say. A recent August 2023 US survey found 15% reported to mask at least sometimes in public, compared to 30% in February. However, studies conducted during mask mandate periods have shown substantial differences between self-reported mask usage and actual usage, which falls much lower. This is why mandates are viewed as necessary: you must force people with the mask police and subtle psychological techniques to gain 'optimal' compliance....
"[T]he pro-mask narrative ignores the straightforward idea that covering one’s face may be undesirable. This includes harmful effects on social and emotional cognition, the toxicity of poorly manufactured masks, environmental pollution, psychological and physical discomfort (especially in people with a history of trauma or abuse), as well as increased social conformity to illogical bureaucracy and greater acceptance of mass surveillance technologies.
"Mask mandates strayed from accepted ethical standards during the Covid crisis, notably the need for evidence and proportionality. The sense of urgency and emergency is far behind us now. Yet the media narrative continues, and with it the faux perpetual emergency."
August 29, 2023 - "A protest in Vancouver calling on heath officials to reinstate mask mandates ended with a fight between three people.... 'A fight broke out at a Vancouver, Canada protest demanding the return of Covid masking,' conservative journalist Andy Ngo wrote on X, formerly Twitter, sharing a video of the altercation.
"In the video, supporters of the protest can be seen lined up holding signs outside of BC Minister of Health Adrian Dix's office, calling for mask mandates to be reinstated in the province. As the video continues, three men can be seen fighting near the end of the line of protesters. One of them said that a man not seen wearing a mask attacked another, who is wearing a mask. The altercation ends shortly afterward as one of the men involved is seen running away.... Newsweek reached out to the Vancouver Police Department via email for more information.
[From my own observation of the video: two masked men are seen fighting with an unmasked man who (as identified in later news reports) was a counter-protester calling for defunding the CBC. The two masked protesters knocke him to the ground, where one pinned him, while the other took his sign and ran off with it; at which point the other protester let him up, but held on to him to keep him from chasing after the protester who'd taken his sign. - gd, Sept. 7]
"The fight comes as several places in the U.S. have announced a return to masking requirements amid a slight increase in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of two new variants.... Several hospitals and health care systems such as Auburn Community Hospital, United Health Services and Kaiser Permanente announced that mask mandates were returning for employees, patients and visitors.
"The protest in Vancouver this week was organized by the DoNoHarm advocacy group.... Newsweek reached out to DoNoHarm via email for comment."
Vancouver anti-mask protest turns into fight | The Independent | August 30, 2023: [The Independent's headline is misleading. I have left a comment on their YouTube page - gd]
May 5, 2023 - "Rochelle Walensky is resigning from her post as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She has overseen the agency since the beginning of President Joe Biden's term and greatly expanded the CDC's authority.
"Walensky's reign was chiefly characterized by her extreme reluctance to reverse the CDC's support for ongoing pandemic restrictions. When she took the helm in January 2021, the COVID-19 vaccine rollout was just getting underway, and there was good reason to believe that the most vulnerable people would soon enjoy robust protection from severe disease and death. Walensky, however, was not inclined to let the CDC's influence wane. For instance, she repeatedly extended the CDC's eviction moratorium, a policy that made it extremely difficult for landlords to collect rent; the Supreme Court finally struck down the illegal order in August 2021.
"Walensky firmly believed that CDC guidance on COVID-19 policies should reflect the up-to-date scientific consensus — that is, unless the science had arrived at a conclusion that vexed her. Walensky's CDC put incredible faith in junk studies that purported to prove the importance of mask mandates in schools. When the legitimacy of these studies came into question, she declined to reverse course and admit that ritualistically masking schoolchildren was unnecessary....
"When challenged on her policies, Walensky would demur and claim that CDC guidance on masks was just that — guidance. She sounded a similar note as COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci, who cloaked his enthusiasm for shutting down all of society under the guise of mere suggestion. The fact of the matter is that government policy makers at the local, state, and federal level routinely outsourced their COVID-19 decision making to Walensky and Fauci. They put their thumbs on the scales of lockdowns and mask mandates, and thus the U.S. continued these policies far longer than did our peer countries. The World Health Organization (WHO), in contrast, never recommended masks for children under 6 at all, and many Nordic countries were unwilling to mask kids up to age 11....
"Walensky wasn't necessarily looking to European peer countries.... She was far more inclined to celebrate the alleged success of China's 'really strict lockdowns,' which involved the country's authoritarian government starving some people via mandatory quarantine detention centers and trapping others inside burning buildings. (China eventually succumbed to the inevitable, gave up on its draconian lockdowns, and implicitly admitted that the 'zero-COVID' policy was a fantasy.)
"Walensky's CDC also pursued the questionable strategy of purging so-called misinformation about COVID-19 from social media. Throughout her time in charge, the CDC became the de facto internet speech police. Emails obtained by Reason show that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, routinely deferred moderation decisions to government health authorities. Meta might have thought it had little choice but to seek the CDC's input, as Biden had publicly declared that the social media platform's failure to suppress allegedly misleading content was 'killing people.' In any case, this is a dangerous precedent....
"Walensky's exit from the CDC comes just a few days before the official end of the national COVID-19 pandemic on May 11. Whoever takes over the agency should concentrate on rebalancing its decidedly unhealthy approach to individual liberty."
April 15, 2023 - "Mask mandates are lifting in hospitals, long-term care homes and other health-care facilities across the country, marking an end to some of the last remaining public health restrictions against COVID-19 in Canada. British Columbia and Saskatchewan are the latest provinces to lift universal mask mandates in health-care settings, while most other provinces have either previously removed them, left them up to individual hospitals to decide, or will likely soon follow suit....
"'Clearly masks are important in health-care settings, we've used them always, and I've been a big supporter of mask wearing when it's appropriate,' Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C. provincial health officer and chair of the council of chief medical officers of health, told CBC News. 'Nobody is telling you not to wear a mask, what we're saying is it's no longer mandatory by a provincial health officer order that everybody do it all the time.'
"Canadians can expect many areas of hospitals to still encourage masking in emergency rooms and departments with particularly vulnerable patients, like burn units and cancer wards — and health-care workers will still likely wear them in many patient-facing settings. 'If you want to or your provider wants to, masks will certainly be available. So I think it's going to be a gradual transition,' Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer, told CBC Saskatchewan last week....
"Part of the reasoning behind the shift in policy is to remove the need for health-care workers, who have faced severe burnout throughout the pandemic, to constantly mask in every area of the hospital — while also still allowing them the freedom to continue to do so.... Dr. Alon Vaisman, an infection control physician at Toronto's University Health Network (UHN) and assistant medical professor at the University of Toronto, said removing universal mask mandates in all health-care settings would likely help to ease health-care worker burnout....
"Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, said hospitals should be able to independently set policies on masking depending on local COVID levels and expert advice. 'When you're talking about non-patient facing activities, I don't think that there's much benefit in having masks in place, he said. 'There is benefit in patient-facing activities to having people wear masks, but I think it's something that each hospital needs to make a determination on based on the local metrics and not really something for the government to necessarily be involved in.'
"Alberta is still requiring masks in patient-facing settings, Quebec and Ontario are leaving masking rules up to individual hospitals, while Manitoba has opted to still require masks in health-care settings for the time being....
"Canada avoided a severe winter COVID-19 wave despite a lack of most of public health restrictions, a busy indoor holiday season and a rapidly mutating virus — largely thanks to high levels of hybrid immunity from vaccination and prior infection.... But COVID hospitalization levels still remain stubbornly high in Canada, with 3,268 hospital beds occupied by COVID patients across the country according to the latest federal data, despite continuing to gradually decline since mid-January."
February 2, 2023 - "Masks made 'little to no difference' to Covid infection or death rates, according to one of the most comprehensive meta-analyses of face coverings. The research - carried out by the Cochrane Institute, the 'gold standard' of evidence-based reviews - looked at 78 global studies involving over a million people. Results indicated that surgical masks reduced the risk of catching 'Covid or a flu-like illness' by just five percent - a figure so low it may not be statistically significant. The researchers [also] said harms caused by masks - including hampering children's schooling - were poorly measured in the studies, meaning any small benefit on infection rates may be outweighed....
"While initially viewed as a virus prevention measure, masks have become a prominent symbol of the Covid culture wars in the US. Officials issued mixed messages about their effectiveness at the beginning of the pandemic. Studies that came later failed to show definitively that masks prevented Covid — yet millions of Americans were forced to abide by mandates.
"Some of the researchers involved in the Cochrane review previously analyzed the evidence on masks in November 2020. That review was criticized because it did not include any studies from the Covid pandemic due to limited research at the time. A separate Danish study in the spring of 2020 with over 6,000 participants found that wearing a mask made no statistical difference to whether or not people got Covid. But its researchers struggled to find a prominent journal willing to publish the results.
"The Cochrane researchers updated their review with 11 additional studies involving more than 600,000 people, bringing the total number of studies to 78. The analysis was published this week in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews journal. Some of the additional studies looked at Covid, while others were conducted before the pandemic and looked at flu and other respiratory illnesses. They included Covid pandemic trials - two from Mexico and one each from England, Norway, and Bangladesh, plus the Danish study.... The main outcomes the Cochrane researchers measured were the number of flu- and Covid-like illness cases and any adverse events that came about from the intervention.... The researchers noted a high risk of bias in the studies and a 'relatively low adherence with the interventions', making it difficult to draw firm conclusions....
"To compare the effect of masks on preventing the spread of Covid and flu, the Cochrane researchers looked at 12 trials — two in healthcare workers and 10 in the community. They found that in the community, wearing a face mask reduced the risk of catching either flu or Covid-like illness by five percent. The study suggested that there is actually a one percent increased risk of testing positive if you wore a mask, but the margins are too small to say this for certain. The team said both these results were 'moderate certainty evidence'.
"They also looked the effect of higher grade masks such as N95s compared to standard surgical masks but were less sure of their impact. The CDC only recommended that people wear N95s two years into the pandemic. This part of the analysis looked at five studies — four in healthcare workers and one in households — with 16,000 participants in total. They found that wearing a mask reduced chances of clinical respiratory illness by 30 percent. But Professor Carl Heneghan, of the University of Oxford, who was an unlisted author on the paper, recognized that 'harms were rarely measured and poorly reported', meaning it was 'very low‐certainty evidence'. N95 masks are even more uncomfortable than surgical masks because of their thick material and tight fit. Nurses who wore them for long periods of time during the pandemic reported cuts and scarring on their faces as a result....
"The debate around masks first turned sour in 2020 when health officials flip-flopped on their effectiveness.... The CDC website currently states that masks can help protect the wearer and others from Covid. The agency is still recommending Americans wear masks in places with high transmission levels, such as on public transport."
"Matt Hancock and I have almost nothing in common.... [I]mportantly, we fundamentally disagree over his handling of the pandemic.... How then could I have worked with him on his book about the pandemic? Some of my lockdown confidantes suggested it was a betrayal.... Quite the reverse. I wanted to get to the truth. What better way to find out what really happened – who said what to whom; the driving force and thinking behind key policies and decisions; who (if anyone) dissented; and how they were crushed – than to align myself with the key player?....
"In the event, Hancock shared far more than I could ever have imagined.... Published this week, co-authored by me, Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries are the first insider account from the heart of government of the most seismic political, economic and public health crisis of our times. I am not so naive as to imagine that he told me everything. However, since he still does not believe he did anything wrong, he was surprisingly inclined to disclosure. In an indication of how far he was prepared to go, the Cabinet Office requested almost 300 deletions and amendments to our original manuscript. Under pressure from me and out of his own desire that the book should be both entertaining and revelatory, to his credit, Hancock fought hard to retain as much controversial material as he could.... Here then – based not only on what is in the Pandemic Diaries but on every-thing I saw in the process of putting the book together – are what I consider the key lessons.
"The crusade to vaccinate the entire population against a disease with a low mortality rate among all but the very elderly is one of the most extraordinary cases of mission creep in political history. On 3 January 2021, Hancock told The Spectator that once priority groups had been jabbed (13 million doses) then ‘Cry freedom’. Instead, the government proceeded to attempt to vaccinate every-one, including children, and there was no freedom for another seven months.... Why did the goalposts move so far off the pitch? I believe multiple driving forces combined almost accidentally to create a policy which was never subjected to rigorous cost-benefit analysis.... Given the unprecedented speed at which the vaccine was developed, the government might have been expected to be extra careful about recording and analysing any reported side-effects. While there was much anxiety about potential adverse reactions during clinical trials, once it passed regulatory hurdles, ministers seemed to stop worrying....
"One of the most striking themes to emerge from internal communications is the scale of concern about Scotland.... Throughout the pandemic, far-reaching policy decisions, especially international travel restrictions and the timing of lockdowns, were distorted by what Sturgeon was doing or what No. 10 feared she might do. Hancock describes her move to mandate mask-wearing in secondary schools in late August 2020 as ‘one of her most egregious attempts at one-upmanship to date’, admitting the UK government was left ‘scrabbling around to formulate a response’. The UK government’s own guidance on face coverings had specifically excluded schools. Faced with an unpleasant choice between wheeling out the chief medical or scientific officer to say that the Scots were wrong or performing a U-turn, Downing Street chose the latter. That, rather than any medical reason, is why millions of schoolchildren were forced to spend months with grubby bits of material stuck to their faces....
"As far as Hancock was concerned, anyone who fundamentally disagreed with his approach was mad and dangerous and needed to be shut down.... Such was the fear of ‘anti-vaxxers’ that the Cabinet Office used a team hitherto dedicated to tackling Isis propaganda to curb their influence. The zero-tolerance approach extended to dissenting doctors and academics. The eminent scientists behind the so-called [Great] Barrington Declaration, which argued that public health efforts should focus on protecting the most vulnerable while allowing the g eneral population to build up natural immunity to the virus, were widely vilified: Hancock genuinely considered their views a threat to public health.... Anti-lockdown protests were quickly banned. When, in September 2020, the Cabinet Office tried to exempt demonstrations from the ‘rule of six’, Hancock enlisted Michael Gove to ‘kill it off’, arguing that marches would ‘undermine public confidence in social distancing’. Gove had no qualms about helping.....
"The accusation that he blithely discharged Covid-positive patients from hospitals into care homes, without thinking about how this might seed the virus among the frail elderly, or attempting to stop this happening, upsets and exasperates him. The evidence I have seen is broadly in his favour.... It later emerged that the primary source of new infection in these settings was in any case not hospital discharges, but the movement of staff between care homes.... Hancock knew he would be accused of ‘blaming’ hardworking staff if he emphasised the link (which is exactly what has now happened). He is on less solid ground in relation to the treatment of isolated care-home residents and their increasingly desperate relatives..... Behind the scenes, the then care home minister Helen Whately fought valiantly to persuade him to ease visiting restrictions to allow isolated residents some contact with their loved ones. She did not get very far. Internal communications reveal that the authorities expected to find cases of actual neglect of residents as a result of the suspension of routine care-home inspections.
"Hancock, Whitty and Johnson knew full well that non-medical face masks do very little to prevent transmission of the virus. People were made to wear them anyway because Dominic Cummings was fixated with them; because Nicola Sturgeon liked them; and above all because they were symbolic of the public health emergency. As early as 3 February 2020 – long before anyone outside the Department of Health was taking the prospect of a pandemic seriously – ministers were told the masks make no significant difference. In April 2020, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) reiterated this advice. At the end of that month, the Sage committee said much the same thing, telling ministers that it would be unreasonable to claim a large benefit. An ‘obsessed’ Cummings was the driving force behind mandating mask-wearing in all healthcare settings – and then in retail and hospitality. On 28 June he messaged Hancock to complain that the government was being insufficiently ‘aggressive’ on the issue and demanding that they be compulsory in shops and for restaurant staff....
"There is no doubt that Hancock worked phenomenally hard to do what he felt was best, based on all the information available at the time. Day after day, he was forced to make tremendously difficult judgments, balancing sharply competing interests.... While vast sums of public money were wasted and the collateral damage from lockdowns and other Covid policies was enormous, I do not believe there was any kind of conspiracy, still less any malign intent on the part of our political leaders during the crisis. They may have been misguided; and got some things catastrophically wrong, but mistakes were made in good faith. Whether or not those errors will be forgiven by a public only just beginning to realise the full consequences is another question."
September 28, 2022 - "A Calgary man has filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over the federal government's decision to lift mask requirements on airplanes. The decision, announced Monday, is part of a bundle of changes that come into effect Oct. 1. At that point, travellers will also no longer be required to wear masks on trains, provide proof of vaccination or submit public health information with the ArriveCan app.
David Keegan - CBC pnoto
"'I was frankly dismayed when I heard the news,' said Dr. David Keegan, a family doctor who has a cardiopulmonary condition. Keegan said that while airplanes do have filtration systems, they don't completely eliminate the risk of COVID-19 transmission, especially if people are unmasked.
"He noted people travel for many reasons (he flew to Toronto earlier this year for surgery) and the government has a duty to accommodate those who have disabilities. 'Lifting the mask mandate creates 'an environment that is unwelcoming and unaccommodating to people with compromised immune systems, cardiopulmonary conditions, and so on,' he said. 'So I'm expecting and anticipating that the government will realize the error in this decision and keep the mask mandate in place,' he said.
"In a release issued Monday, the government said it still strongly recommends people wear high-quality, well-fitting masks while travelling.
"Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor in the faculties of law and medicine at the University of Calgary, sees Keegan's complaint as part of a broader trend. Earlier in the pandemic, most litigation around public health measures argued that these measures were too strict. But Hardcastle said that's started to change. '"Since the spring, we're starting to see cases arguing the opposite — where people are saying that public health measures aren't strict enough,' said Hardcastle.
"She pointed to a recent case involving parents of immunocompromised children who've argued that the removal of mask mandates in Alberta schools infringed on their children's charter rights. Hardcastle said human rights law generally requires that service providers — whether they be landlords, shops or airlines — offer their services in a way that doesn't discriminate against people with disabilities. That means they have to provide reasonable accommodations up to a point of 'undue hardship'.... What remains to be seen, she said, is where courts and tribunals decide to draw that line....
"As for Keegan, he said the human rights commission has acknowledged receipt of his complaint, and he is awaiting next steps."
September 18, 2022 - "The ArriveCan app may no longer be mandatory and other remaining travel requirements and restrictions for air travel in Canada could soon be removed. If all goes well, masking could even be made optional within the next few weeks....
"Discussions I’ve had over the past several days with industry, government and other sources point to a fluid situation where final details are still being worked out but, generally speaking, most measures will be gone by the end of September. That’s when the Order in Council that gives the existing restrictions and requirements expires.
"The requirement for being vaccinated to board a domestic flight ended on June 20; now it appears the requirement for foreign travellers to be vaccinated to enter Canada will end on Sept. 30. Mandatory random testing for arrivals will also end at that time.
"The ArriveCan app is expected to become an optional way for Canadians to make their custom declaration, but will no longer be a mandatory requirement for entry. With the ending of vaccine requirements, travellers will no longer be required to upload their proof of vaccination to the glitchy app.
"Masking remains a point of contention inside the government, with many in cabinet ready to drop them. However, Health Minister Jean Yves Duclos wants masking requirements to remain in place until after Thanksgiving to measure the impact of holiday travel on transmission....
"The Trudeau government has clung to COVID-19 restrictions longer than any provincial government in the country. Conservative, NDP and Liberal premiers ended local COVID restrictions months ago as Trudeau kept them in place, often making it look like his decisions were driven by political science rather than medical science.
According to scientists, vaccine efficacy against Covid 19 infection has waned. And so has Canadians' tolerance of Covid vaccine passports and other restrictions, according to a national polling firm. The Angus Reid Institute reported on July 20 that, while "many Canadians continue to be worried about the risk the virus poses to their own and their families’ health," and "while some are taking their own steps to prevent further spread, the appetite for government public health measures is minimal – and a fraction of what it was in previous waves."
"Last September, amid the fourth wave of the pandemic," Angus Reid reminds us, "seven-in-ten Canadians (70%) said they would support a vaccine passport in their community to require residents to show proof of inoculation to enter larger public spaces." That was the month that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won re-election campaigning to bring vax passes in. Health matters, including vaccine passes, constitutionally are not the federal government's business; but Trudeau promised to give provincial governments a billion dollars to mandate them.
By 2022, Canadians' support of Covid restrictions had dropped - a January Angus Reid poll found a majority in favor of "lifting restrictions" in general. However, vaccine passes remained popular. As late as mid-March, the pollster was reporting that 64 per cent - almost two Canadians in three - "supported proof of vaccination at places like restaurants and theatres in their community."
And today, now that we face a reported seventh wave of Covid? According to the latest Angus Reid survey, conducted July 13-17, the vaccine pass "concept is now supported by one-in-four (25%)." Vaccine passes no longer enjoy majority support in any region or among any demographic group.
Public support for mask mandates has taken a similar tumble. The March Angus Reid survey found that "nationally, 73 per cent supported continuing masking requirements in public spaces" - almost three Canadians in four. By mid-July, that support has fallen to a bare majority; just "half say they would support mandating [masks] in public spaces (51%)."
Enthusiasm for renewed mask mandates remains strongest in Atlantic Canada (at 62%), Ontario (55%), and British Columbia (also 55%). It is lowest in Alberta (36%) and Saskatchewan (38%). Support has fallen most among men under 55, of which "Just one-in-three would implement a mask mandate in their community compared to a majority of all other age and gender combinations."
Canadians have not given up on facemasks; or have they? Almost three-quarters (74%) of those polled say that masks are effective "at reducing the spread of COVID-19." Yet just 30% report "wearing a mask when they are inside places like grocery stores, banks or movie theatres 'most' or 'all of the time'." More than half (53%) say that they "rarely" or "never" wear one.
Only 14% of respondents want travel restrictions reinstated. Almost three times as many, 38% – roughly two in five – told Angus Reid that no government action is needed in the event of a seventh wave of Covid.
The Institute surveyed a representative randomized sample of 1,602 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
July 18, 2022 - "Economically-crippling Covid restrictions need to be brought back immediately to save the 'dying' NHS, ministers have been told.... [I]n a scathing editorial demanding action today, the editors of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Health Service Journal (HSJ) — two of the country's leading health publications — accused Boris Johnson's Government of 'gaslighting the public' about Covid's threat. Dr Kamran Abbasi (BMJ) and Alastair McLellan (HSJ) said: 'Now is the time to face the fact that the nation's attempt to "live with Covid" is the straw that is breaking the NHS's back. 'The heart of the problem is the failure to recognise that the pandemic is far from over and that a return to some of the measures taken in the past two years is needed.'
"Examples of curbs needed included a return to wearing masks in healthcare settings and on public transport, the reintroduction of the £2billion-a-month free testing scheme, WFH [working from home] where possible and 'restrictions on some types and sizes of gathering'. They didn't set out what gatherings should be curbed. But previous limits enforced in England saw just six people allowed to meet indoors, weddings limited to a handful of guests and festivals cancelled....
"Britain's Covid cases soared by 800,000 last week with more than one in 20 people infected on any given day — prompting people to cancel plans, stay home and wear masks again. The Office for National Statistics' (ONS) weekly infection survey estimated 3.5million Britons were carrying the virus in the week ending July 6 as cases roses nationally by around a third. Sarah Crofts, chief analyst at the ONS, said infections 'are showing no signs of decreasing' and suggested they could reach pandemic highs this summer — which could throw public services into further chaos. Covid sickness is already wreaking havoc on the NHS, rail operators and airlines, echoing the Christmas wave when there were mass rail cancellations, axed operations, school closures and overflowing rubbish bins.
"While the Government has promised not to reimpose restrictions unless the Covid surge turns deadly, Britons already appear to be tempering their behaviours in response to the rising statistics. An exclusive poll for MailOnline today found three in 10 people have stayed at home to avoid Covid in the last month and 42 per cent have worn a face mask. Almost half observed social distancing rules that have not been in place since February, while two-thirds said they had sanitised their hands. Just 16 per cent of people, around one in six, have not taken any precautions over the last month, according to the survey of 1,500 Britons by Redfield & Wilton Strategies....
"Daily Covid hospital admissions have risen to a near 18-month high, with around 2,000 people currently being hospitalised every day. Yet only a third of 'patients' needing care primarily ill with the virus itself. The rest have incidentally tested positive, NHS figures show. Deaths and ICU rates have remained flat despite the uptick in cases, with fatalities sitting at roughly 30 a day. Top scientists say this is because the variants behind the current wave — BA.4 and BA.5 — are mild, and that sky-high immunity rates from vaccines and previous waves have blunted the virus's threat.
"One Government adviser, who didn't want to be named, insisted there is 'no need for Government measures' anymore. They argued draconian restrictions only worked when the public was scared by the disease itself, and now society isn't so 'worried about catching what's essentially a cross between a cold and flu'. 'The time of mandates and restrictions is finished and won't help,' the top scientist said. 'The last two waves went down without either.' Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert based at the University of East Anglia, said reintroducing curbs now 'is not going to actually achieve much' and would 'cause substantial disruption'....
"But the BMJ and HSJ argue that high infection rates are increasing the number of Covid and long Covid patients it has to care for. It is also pushing up staff absences and crippling its ability to tackle the backlog of routine care the spiralled during the pandemic, the authors said.... Similar warnings from Independent Sage, a panel of experts who pushed for a Chinese-style elimination strategy, called for restrictions when cases were already falling.
"During Omicron's winter resurgence, infections fell. Only rules requiring masks to be worn in indoor venues were brought back in — but they were quickly dropped when it was clear the virus was in retreat. Ministers refused to bring any curbs back during April, when cases soared to pandemic highs."
July 4, 2022 - "More than 100 Sikh security guards who, until very recently, were stationed at City of Toronto properties, have been laid off, relocated or demoted to lower-ranking positions for having too much facial hair. The World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO) issued a release Monday morning calling upon Mayor John Tory and City Council to lift a new clean shave requirement, specifically for Sikh employees 'who maintain uncut hair as a tenet of their faith.'
"'The new City of Toronto mandate requires all security guards to be fitted for N95 respirators that seal directly on the face. Facial hair is not permitted when performing fit tests,' explains the organization, which contends that the policy results in 'the exclusion of Sikh security guards' from city-owned sites.
"Strangely, says the WSO, non-security staff at these same sites have not been asked to shave. The City of Toronto explains this by pointing out that its policy does not apply to city staff, only contractors. Pretty much all of the security guards working at city sites are not actually working for the city, but for private companies that rent out security services...
"'Under City policy, all contractors must agree to abide by the City's Human Rights and Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Policy (HRAP) and applicable human rights legislation, and make a declaration to confirm compliance with these requirements," reads a statement from the city sent to blogTO. 'The City is reviewing the complaint which alleges that certain contractors failed to accommodate their own employees in relation to the City's Shelter, Support and Housing Administration (SSHA) division's requirement for the use of N-95 masks for all staff and contractors who may come into contact with any person who has or is suspected of having COVID-19.'
"The SSHA divison's policy requires that anyone who may have to use an N-95 mask must be clean shaven for fit testing. 'This is consistent with the City's Respirator Protection policy for all City divisions with situations in which respiratory protective devices may be required. SSHA's policy allows for accommodations as per the City's Accommodation policy," notes the city. "Employees of contractors who seek accommodation should have their requests assessed, in accordance with the contractors own human rights policies'.... As for what's next, the city says that it has its own standardized process for addressing complaints about contractors, 'which requires contractors to review and respond to the complaint under the contractor's appropriate internal process.'
"WSO president Tejinder Singh Sidhu doesn't seem keen to wait around for the city to process and review everything — a task which often takes months, if not years. 'It is completely unreasonable that Sikh security guards who served in their positions at the City of Toronto through the height of the pandemic are now being terminated, reassigned, or demoted for not being clean-shaven,' he said in a statement. 'Mayor John Tory and the City of Toronto must find a solution for these Sikh security guards and other affected employees. Those Sikh guards who have been removed must be immediately reinstated."
July 5, 2022 - "Sikh security guards removed from their positions in Toronto due to a conflict over facial hair required by their religion and COVID-19 masking rules will be rehired and compensated for their lost hours. The World Sikh Organization had complained to the city last month on behalf of more than 100 Sikh security guards, who it said were required to wear N95 masks sealed directly to the face — a rule that wouldn’t allow for facial hair.
"The city said Tuesday that it had directed its security contractors to accommodate and rehire Sikh employees who were removed from their positions and appropriately compensate them for any financial impact. 'The city will not accept any contractors failing to accommodate religious freedoms,' it wrote in a statement. The city also said it apologizes to the World Sikh Organization for any delay in addressing the issue....
"Singh said the city also agreed to a suggestion from the organization to introduce a technique called 'under masking' to help accommodate Sikh employees. The technique involves using a cloth or latex mask over facial hair before covering that mask with an N95. 'It’s been scientifically proven to form an effective seal,' Singh said."
June 30, 2022 - "In January this year, a young woman went to the opera.... The woman, known only as M, has a medical mask exemption and arrived with her face uncovered. Soon after, she was violently turned upon by her fellow opera-goers. ‘There were about 400 attendees, about 100 of them were shouting at me (people physically blocking my way to my seats and not letting me through) people telling me not to stand near them and shooing me away,’ she wrote in her Telegram post. ‘A woman hit me on the head. I didn’t speak a single word to all these people, I was literally cowering in place and at no point did I speak or reply or gesture to any of them, after the initial blow up I just went straight to security.’
"Thankfully, the security staff were supportive of M, moving away the more aggressive among the crowd and threatening to evict them. Some of the staff seemed shaken by what they had witnessed. They escorted M to her seat and stood guard at the end of her row throughout the performance. This scene would be shocking enough had it taken place somewhere like Berlin, which has seen this sort of irrational out-group persecution by supposedly enlightened citizens before. It’s all the more disturbing that it actually took place in Tel Aviv, Israel.
"Israel is a country awash with Holocaust memorials.... Yet when Covid struck in March 2020, Israel was among the countries that most enthusiastically embraced the harshest of public health measures. Its citizens suffered months of lockdowns, business closures, school closures, mask mandates and the most insulting policy of all: the ‘green pass’ – a vaccine passport which segregated society into the ‘clean’ and the ‘unclean’. Deckchairs appeared on Tel Aviv beach labelled ‘reserved for vaccinated people only’. The parallels with our history, only eight decades behind us, were striking and alarming, yet astonishingly the majority were content to sit inside warm restaurants during the winter of 2021, watching those who were unwilling or unable to be vaccinated turned away or shivering outside under inadequate patio heaters without a murmur of dissent....
"We know that nearly 400,000 Jews died in the Warsaw Ghetto, but how many of us know why the ghetto was created? That it was a public health policy? When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 and bombed Warsaw, the city’s sewerage system was damaged and typhus quickly spread. German propaganda already blamed Jews for spreading disease, so, although typhus was found throughout the city, it was the Jewish neighbourhoods that became ‘restricted epidemic areas’. Although by the summer of 1940 typhus cases were falling, German doctors persuaded the authorities to create a ghetto to prevent further spread. The creation of the ghetto, where overcrowding and lack of food were rife, caused a spike in cases.
"Fast-forward to 2022, and not everyone was content to go along with the narrative. Some of us wondered how so many could be so blind to the history repeating in front of their eyes. What did those Tel Aviv opera-goers think they were doing when they mobbed M?
"A Belgian psychologist and academic gives us the answer. Mattias Desmet has spent the last few years studying the rise of totalitarian regimes and was already uncomfortable with the direction Western societies were headed in when Covid hit.... In his book The Psychology of Totalitarianism, Desmet explains that societies in which a large number of people have anxious, lonely lives lacking in meaning are ripe for totalitarianism to set in. In those conditions, people are looking for a narrative that creates purpose and a sense of shared endeavour. Many people found exactly that in the Covid era. If left unchecked, the false narrative of mass formation descends into violence and persecution. It descends into the Holocaust.
"Desmet explained what is required to avert this dismal fate. ‘It’s really crucial that the people who are not in the process of mass formation continue to speak out, because if they don’t, the mass hypnosis becomes deeper and deeper, and typically reaches the point where the masses become so fanatically convinced of the narrative they believe in, that they believe it is necessary to eliminate the people who don’t go along with it,’ he said. ‘This is because once someone is in mass formation he feels an overwhelming solidarity, and he’s convinced that people who don’t share the solidarity, who don’t go along with the masses, lack solidarity, lack citizenship. Consequently they are not human any more and have to be destroyed.’
"He added: ‘If dissident voices stop speaking out, then the process that happened in the Soviet Union around 1930 and in Germany around 1935 will typically start to happen [again]. Once the dissident voices, the opposition, stop speaking out within the public space, within a period of six months to one year, the cruelty starts.’
"When I heard about M’s experience, I knew I had to speak out. And I wasn’t the only one. Along with my partner and a few others, most notably historian Andrew Barr, we set about writing a declaration – a warning – from the Jews to the world. We have been here before. We know where division, demonisation and mass psychosis lead. We cannot let it happen again.
"Some have said that we are insulting those who died in the Holocaust by highlighting the clear parallels between Covid policies and the events leading to the Holocaust. We say the opposite: that only by learning from history and ensuring that nothing of the sort ever happens again can the memories of those who died truly be honoured.... Others have said that our declaration has been made redundant by the apparent rollback of Covid policies. Flights are taking off again, people are unmasked, the world is returning to a semblance of normality. To those people I say two things: first, in May, Joe Biden stated frankly: ‘Covid isn’t over.’ Second, our governments have had a taste of absolute power. They now know they can lock us up at the drop of a hat. If they’ve done it once, they will do it again, unless we make it abundantly clear that we won’t be so meek the next time....
" I invite you to sign the Isaiah 62 Declaration here. https://isaiah62declaration.com/" For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent For Jerusalem’s sake I will not be still Isaiah 62:1
June 29, 2022 - "In early June, during an uptick in COVID-19 cases, Alameda County was the only [San Francisco] Bay Area county to bring back an indoor mask mandate. At the time, county Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss said, 'Putting our masks back on gives us the best opportunity to limit the impact of a prolonged wave on our communities.' But regional case data provides no discernible evidence that the rule, which was lifted June 25, succeeded at that goal.
"The graphs below compare Alameda County’s seven-day average case rate from the past two months to rates in neighboring Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties. Contra Costa and Santa Clara, in particular, are natural comparisons to Alameda, because they have similar vaccination rates and demographic data. San Francisco, on the other side of the bay, provides an additional point of reference. All data comes from the California Department of Public Health.
"The case rate curves for Alameda and Contra Costa counties are near-identical. Because the neighboring counties are similar in so many respects, if masking policy had an impact on pandemic outcomes, one would expect to see some sort of discrepancy in the graph.
"San Francisco and Santa Clara had higher case rates than Alameda County throughout the current surge, including pre-mask mandate. Once the mandate was introduced, the three counties all followed the same trend line, casting doubt on whether the mask mandate did anything to curb transmission at the community level.
"SFGATE sent Moss these graphs via email and asked whether he can point to any evidence that his county’s mandate had an impact on reducing caseloads. 'We believe the recent mask order contributed to the improvements we are now observing with COVID-19 in Alameda County,' Moss said in a statement. 'Published evidence shows that high levels of community masking lowers transmission rates and survey data displayed an increase in masking during the recent Order timeframe,' he added. 'In fact, Alameda County observed higher masking rates than anywhere else in the Country at the time.' The Alameda County Health Department did not respond to follow-up questions on ... how, if that statement were true, the graphs wouldn't cut against the claim that 'high levels of community masking lowers transmission rates'....
"After viewing the case rate graphs, UCSF’s Dr. Bob Wachter — one of the region’s more cautious COVID-19 experts and a supporter of mask mandates — echoed many of that article’s sentiments, stating that mandates don’t appear to increase the 'probability of people wearing good masks correctly.... If the mandate came with enforcement of wearing a good (N95 or equivalent) mask correctly, it might demonstrate a significant advantage in preventing cases,' he wrote to SFGATE in an email. 'But there is no real enforcement (certainly not of correct masking using a good mask), which means that the rates of effective masking probably isn’t very different in [the Bay Area counties being compared].'
"If, in order to have an impactful mask mandate, enforcement teams must ensure that people are correctly wearing N95s indoors, it seems like a policy doomed to fail whenever implemented. It also raises questions of whether the costs of such enforcement would exceed the benefits.... Over the past two months, hospitalizations across the Bay Area have come nowhere close to the winter omicron numbers, which may not have accurately reflected the actual impact of the disease on hospitals. Alameda County's hospitalization-per-capita numbers are comparable to Contra Costa's and Santa Clara's....
"Wachter’s UCSF colleague Dr. Jeanne Noble, too, is a proponent of high-risk individuals protecting themselves through careful mask usage. Mandates, she told SFGATE in April, drive people to wear low-quality masks, which are 'not likely to make any measurable difference in viral transmission so it doesn’t matter whether you or others are wearing one.... Mask mandates may create a false sense of reassurance to those who truly need the extra protection,' Noble said in April. “The severely immunocompromised person ... should not opt for a cloth or surgical mask because other people around them are masked and therefore assume it is 'safe enough' to avoid the tight fitting and uncomfortable N95.'"
June 16, 2022 - "The House of Commons has unanimously agreed to suspend
COVID-19 vaccine mandates for MPs [Members of Parliament], staff and visitors starting on Monday.
Government House leader Mark Holland put forward a motion Thursday afternoon
to end the mandate, which has been in place since last fall, after house
leaders from all parties met earlier this week.... This week the federal
government also announced it is suspending vaccine mandates for domestic and
outbound international flights and rail travel starting Monday.
"The Board of Internal Economy, an all-party committee that makes decisions
about Parliament business, voted to bring in a vaccine mandate for anyone
coming to the remainder of the parliamentary precinct beginning last November.
It has also decided to suspend that mandate beginning Monday. Wearing masks is
still mandatory in the House of Commons until June 23, and that rule will stay
in place for the rest of the precinct until then, board chair and House
Speaker Anthony Rota said in a statement.
"Brassard said he expects that on Monday, every MP will be in their seat in
the House of Commons. That hasn’t been the case for every Conservative MP this
sitting, as some have refused to disclose their vaccination status. That
includes
Saskatchewan MP Cathay Wagantall, who recently said she was required to leave the precinct, and that she
hasn’t been able to access her office since the rules took effect.
"Brassard wants another rule change: 'This theatrical mask-wearing thing has
to end.... If somebody wants to wear a mask on Parliament Hill, and they feel
comfortable that they need to wear a mask, then they should wear a mask. If
somebody doesn’t want to wear a mask, then they shouldn’t wear a mask.'
"June 23 is the last scheduled day of the sitting before Parliament takes its
summer break. Negotiations are ongoing between the parties about what will
happen as the fall sitting begins in September. It’s not yet clear if vaccines
will be required, if masks will need to be worn, or if the House will still
have hybrid sittings."
June 7, 2022 - "This weekend The Daily Sceptic published two articles reviewing some studies purported to show Covid-19 vaccines are useful for countering so-called long-covid, lingering symptoms after Covid infection. The conclusion of the author, who is an ex-senior scientist with the UK government, is that the vaccinations do not in fact prevent those symptoms....
"The interesting thing here is how we have, over the course of 18 months, moved from eagerly awaiting vaccines that would eradicate Covid-19 by providing herd immunity, towards failed attempts at showing that at least those vaccines prevent long-term health issues among those who catch the disease and fall ill with it, the disease they wouldn’t have caught, let alone fallen ill with, had the vaccines worked as promised.
"At the same time, more and more data from all over the world show how the vaccine rollout is in fact correlated with a large spike in excess mortality. The only hope seems to be the adenovirus vaccines, the use of which was discontinued in most countries in favour of the mRNA vaccines. That may have been a premature decision, as contrary to the mRNA vaccines, they seem to lower excess mortality.
"To sum it up, no protection against infection, the vaccinated seem to fall ill just as easily as the unvaccinated, ... and despite some short-lived protection against death, the net effect is an increase, not a decrease in excess mortality. The last straw is trying to show that at least the vaccines prevent the rather dubious long-covid. Even this attempt fails according to The Daily Sceptic. Still, I expect we will see a wealth of studies purportedly showing some minor positive effects on all sorts of unrelated conditions; once a believer, there is always one more last straw to cling on to.
"This brings us back to the other goalposts, the three-week flattening of the curve, how lockdowns were supposed to stop the virus in its tracks, how masks were supposed to do the same, and how those goalposts have moved and how there is always another excuse. If the three-week flattening of the curve didn’t work it was because the lockdowns weren’t strict enough or not put in place at the correct point in time. If the masks didn’t work in a real-life setting this was of no consequence; the excuse was they weren’t used correctly.... If the lockdowns plunged hundreds of millions into acute poverty it wasn’t because of the lockdowns; in some mysterious way the virus itself had forbidden those people to work.
"Moving goalposts and after-the-fact justifications are not a new problem. We see this everywhere. Every project manager has experience of targets being changed, of weak excuses, unrealistic plans and budgets. And of course there is always the tendency to try to cover up what happened. But even so, the stakeholders not directly responsible for the execution usually realize failure when it happens.
"But this is not happening now. We, the public, are the most important stakeholder and it is not us who make the decisions or are responsible for the execution. What is new is how we unquestioningly accept every new goal, every justification, how ready we are to forget today what we were convinced of yesterday, how willingly we go for the next booster believing, truly believing the reason the last one failed to protect us was just bad luck.
"We have collectively accepted a parallel world, a parallel set of truths, and however far it is from actual reality does not matter in the least. Our goal is not to eradicate the disease, not to live with it and minimize the harm it causes, our goal is to sustain our belief in the cult leaders, no matter how often they mislead us; with every lie, every shifted target, every excuse, our faith only grows stronger.
"With every excuse we accept, with every denial we echo, every misguided action we support, we entangle ourselves more and more deeply; by each step, we take a higher stake in the narrative, and the higher it gets, the more fiercely we defend our parallel set of truths; the harder it becomes to break away and accept reality."
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