As frustration grows with year-long lockdown impositions, more states in the U.S. are ending mask-wearing mandates.
While 36 states still have official mask-wearing requirements, last Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbot announced, “It’s time to open Texas 100 percent and end the statewide mask order.” The same day, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves stated, “Starting tomorrow, we are lifting all of our county mask mandates, and businesses will be able to operate at full capacity without any state-imposed rules.” Montana, Iowa, and North Dakota previously lifted mask-wearing edicts.
The two governors made it clear they and the majority of their citizens have had enough with lockdowns and masks. Governor Abbott added, “We are ensuring that all businesses and families in Texas have the freedom to determine their own destiny.” Governor Reeves declared, “We are getting out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do.”
On 5 February, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa removed the mask requirement as well as all coronavirus restrictions on indoor and outdoor activities.
Eleven states had never imposed mask mandates: Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee.
Biden Backlash
Angry over Texas and Mississippi ending statewide mask mandates, President Biden declared last Wednesday, “The last thing—the last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask.”
While the president refers to mask-wearing resistance as “Neanderthal thinking,” as an ABC News report on 11 February noted, the president continues to use military language when discussing COVID-19: “President Joe Biden’s team is styling itself on war footing as it attacks the coronavirus pandemic.”
The media and Biden administration continues to promote mask mandates as a necessary sacrifice for fighting the COVID war.
Christal Hayes wrote in USA Today last Thursday that the rolling back of mask mandates in five states is “leaving many to wonder whether other states will join the tide and alter how the country is dealing with COVID-19 at a crucial moment in the fight against the disease.”
The Biden administration is scrambling to dissuade other states from relaxing COVID restrictions. Governor Abbott of Texas came under particular fire from White House senior COVID-19 advisor Andy Slavitt:
“We think it’s a mistake to lift these mandates too early. Masks are saving a lot of lives. The president has been clear about the fact that in the first 100 days of this administration, we could save 50,000 lives if we stick to this. I’m hoping that the businesses, and the community and people in Texas, the mayors, the county, will rethink this. I hope the governor rethinks this. It’s only a small piece of cloth that’s needed.”
TRENDPOST: The statement from the White House that “it’s only a small piece of cloth that’s needed” is factually false. As regularly covered in the Trends Journal, there is no substantial scientific proof that masks are effective at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Here are just a few of our articles about this:
UNMASKING THE TRUTH (PART I)
EUROPEAN HEALTH OFFICIALS AGREE: MASKS DON’T WORK
MASK UP AND DIE?
DANISH STUDY: MASKS OFFER VERY LIMITED PROTECTION
Make it Up
The patchwork of confusing, varied restrictions in different states continues across the country. While the majority of Republican political figures favor more freedom and fewer restrictions, last Thursday, Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey stated, “There’s no question that wearing masks has been one of my greatest tools in combatting the spread of the virus.”
In Alabama, the governor’s order requires people to wear masks anywhere in public where a six-foot distance can’t be maintained. Masks are also mandated in schools from second grade through college.
While Governor Ivey stated she will finally lift the mask mandate on 9 April, she added, “Even when we lift the mask order, I will continue to wear my mask while I’m around others and strongly urge my fellow citizens to use common sense and do the same thing.”
TRENDPOST: Indeed, for a person such as Governor Ivey to wear a mask, considering she is 76 years old and a lung cancer victim, her decision to “wear a mask when around others” may make sense for her, but it does not hold true in general.
Indeed, the Danish study cited in our above article proves the ineffectiveness of mask wearing, facts the governor and others across the world ignore. Instead, they sell her pitch that “There’s no question that wearing masks has been one of my greatest tools in combatting the spread of the virus.”
We have reported on this in the Trends Journal and our Trends in The News broadcasts and we will continue to do so since Presstitutes and politicians ignore the facts and continually promote the must-wear-mask masquerade.
We reported on the 18 November Danish study that showed after one month, the difference in infection rates between those regularly wearing masks (1.8 percent) was only 0.3 percent less than those who never put on a mask (2.1 percent).
According to the authors of the study, conducted by the Copenhagen University Hospital, “The study does not confirm the expected halving of the risk of infection for people wearing face masks.”
In an article from 18 November, regarding the results of the Danish study, even Reuters reported: “The findings are consistent with previous research. Health experts have long said a mask provides only limited protection for the person wearing it.”
While most governments and political leaders strongly advocate mandatory mask-wearing, the Danish study confirms what a Japanese study revealed last July. Research conducted by Kazunari Onishi, associate professor at St. Luke’s International University in Tokyo, showed that with the typical cloth mask worn by the majority of the Japanese public, there was “a 100-percent rate in terms of airborne particles penetrating the fabric and through the gap between masks and faces, substantially raising the risk of infection.”
TRENDPOST: The following are just a few of the past articles from the Trends Journal that detail the ineffectiveness and dangers of constant mask wearing:
FACING THE TRUTH, PART III: MASKS CAUSE HEALTH PROBLEMS
GERMAN DOC: MANDATORY MASK-WEARING IS “CRIMINAL”
MASK UP AND DIE?
EUROPEAN HEALTH OFFICIALS AGREE: MASKS DON’T WORK
TRENDPOST: In an opinion piece entitled, “Neanderthal Thinking Wasn’t That Bad: Biden Should Apologize to Them,” the Chronogram Magazine noted:
“Despite common misconceptions, Fred H. Smith, a physical anthropologist at Loyola University in Chicago, cited [Neanderthals] to be ‘highly intelligent, able to adapt to a variety of ecological zones, and capable of developing high functioning tools to help them do so. They were quite accomplished.’”
