Why Masked, Unmasked Have Disdain for Each Other. By Dennis Prager.

Among the many unbridgeable divides between Americans is a completely antithetical view of mask wearing.

On one side are those who wear masks almost everywhere outside their homes and who demand that others do so, including young children in class and on outdoor playgrounds, and 2-year-olds on airplanes. On the other side are those who only wear a mask where they are punished for not doing so (most obviously, airplanes). They regard masks as essentially pacifiers for adults.

Generally speaking, these two groups have disdain for each other.

Pro-mask point of view:

Why the pro-mask half of America holds the anti-mask half in contempt needs little explanation. They believe anti-mask Americans are putting others in grave danger. Pro-maskers believe that even children who do not wear masks put their own lives and the lives of other children and teachers at risk.

Consequently, pro-mask Americans regard those who do not wear masks, let alone those who actively oppose mask wearing, as selfish, anti-science potential killers.

Anti-mask point of view:

What may be less obvious is why anti-maskers hold pro-maskers in equal contempt….

First, anti-maskers regard the charges made against them by pro-maskers as baseless. Therefore, as odd as it sounds, anti-maskers have contempt for the pro-maskers’ contempt.

To wrongly charge people with causing mass death is, to understate the case, immoral. And if this charge is demonstrably wrong, the people who level it are the ones who are anti-science. …

There is, however, abundant scientific evidence that masks are worthless vis-a-vis viruses … As far as I could determine, the only randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of masks against COVID-19 was a 2020 study led by Henning Bundgaard of the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. Published in the March 2021 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, it found that 1.8% of those in the masked group and 2.1% of those in the control group became infected with COVID-19 within a month. The 0.3-point difference is statistically insignificant. …

And what about surgical masks? They are not designed to prevent the spread of viruses, but to prevent medical personnel from accidentally infecting the open wounds of patients on the operating table, and to prevent body fluids from patients spraying up into the mouths and noses of the surgical team.

Dr. Colin Axon, a COVID-19 adviser to the British government, made this point clear: Medics were “unable to comprehend” the minuscule elements involved: “A Covid viral particle is around 100 nanometers, material gaps in blue surgical masks are up to 1,000 times that size, cloth mask gaps can be 5,000 times the size.”

Only N95 masks or similar stop covid

While most studies conclude that masks are essentially useless against COVID-19, not all do. Probably the most widely cited study on behalf of mask efficacy was published in the British Medical Journal in October 2021. But it’s hardly a ringing endorsement. As the authors note, “The quality of current evidence would be graded as low or very low, as it consists of observational studies with poor methods.”