In this episode of "It Feels Like Déjà Vu All Over Again"...
Despite multiple extensive and conclusive reports that mask mandates and other ridiculous COVID pandemic mandates were sometimes worse than worthless (more, later) hospitals in multiple blue states are bringing back mask mandates as "experts" fear a coming "quad-demic." Scary sounding, huh?
The so-called "quad-demic" consists of the flu, COVID, RSV, and Norovirus.
According to a Daily Mail report, the incidence of COVID is "low" nationally but on the rise, with 4 percent infections in early November rising to 5.4 percent during the week of December 7, with hospital admissions for flu-like respiratory illnesses increasing 14 percent in the two-week period through the week of December 7.
Dr. Joe Bresee, an infectious diseases expert, told Daily Mail:
We know these viruses are coming. We see them increase every year. We are in store for increases in circulation in these four over the next couple of months and that would cause what we call epidemics [outbreaks].
Got it. But here's something else we also know (emphasis, mine):
Despite overwhelming evidence that mask mandates do not prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Biden administration forced Americans to wear masks while using public transportation systems, such as airlines.
It also required masks for many federal workers and for citizens entering government buildings. This continued until 2022 — two years after the pandemic began and long after government health data had shown mask mandates do not work.
Again, as New York Yankee great Yogi Berra liked to say, it feels like déjà vu, all over again.
READ MORE:
COVID hysteria during the so-called "pandemic" led to mandates that not only had zero or little effect on the transmission of the coronavirus, but also led to adverse unintended consequences, caused by "experts" who either lied or didn't have a clue about what they pushed. School lockdowns come to mind as a prime example.
Despite the realities we learned from the pandemic, as Daily Mail reported:
- RWJBarnabas Health, New Jersey's largest hospital system, announced Monday anyone walking through their doors needs a mask, possibly a hospital-supplied covering.
- Several counties in San Franciso began mask mandates last month that run through April 30, 2025.
- New York City officials last month recommended masks on public transportation.
One conclusive report, published by the Cochrane Institute in January 2023, found "uncertainty about the effects of face masks." Cochrane analyzed 78 global studies involving more than one million people.
The pooled results … did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection.
Moreover, top scientists in Holland reported in August 2020 that there was no solid evidence that masks and other face coverings were effective against the virus and could even damage the fight against COVID:
"Face masks in public places are not necessary, based on all the current evidence," said Coen Berends, spokesman for the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. "There is no benefit and there may even be negative impact."
In another study, researchers at the University of East Anglia in May found that masks' protective effect seemed to disappear in February 2022.
Yet here we — make that "they," as in Democrat-dominated states — go again. The question is how many rational people will comply.
Here's more from Daily Mail's piece, linked above:
[RWJBarnabas Health], which which treats 3 million patients per year, said Monday that staff will provide new masks for everyone who walks in the door and '"may ask you to replace your own mask with a hospital-supplied mask" as part of the mandate.
RWJBarnabas Health said masks at outpatient facilities like doctors' offices are not currently required but are "strongly encouraged."
Meanwhile, hospitals in New York have also urged patients, staff and visitors to mask while indoors and get vaccinated against Covid and the flu as rates have "really plummeted."
And last month, New York City health officials recommended masking up on public transport as winter temperatures set in.
It's hard to imagine that tens of millions of Americans would put up with another round of mask mandates or any other virus related mandates, which reminds me of the old admonition about "the boy who cried wolf."
Yeah, let's not go back there.
