YouTube, the Google-owned video platform, removed a roundtable discussion on COVID-19 attended by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis due to portions of the video containing what the company called “misinformation” on the virus that “contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities.”
The Tampa Bay Times reported that others in attendance at the roundtable included health experts who seemed likely to support DeSantis’ approach to the outbreak, which his detractors say has been reckless. His defenders use Florida as an example that mask mandates and lockdowns are unnecessary, economy-killing, and ineffective.
At one point during the conversation, DeSantis asked if children need to wear masks while attending school. Harvard’s Dr. Martin Kulldorff responded, “Children should not wear face masks… No. They don’t need it for their own protection and they don’t need it for protecting other people, either.”
The paper pointed to the policy endorsed by the CDC that says anyone over the age of two should wear masks in public when around people from outside their households.
YouTube issued a statement to the media website, The Wrap, which said the company has “clear policies around COVID-19 medical misinformation.” The website reported that the WHO’s guidance says masks are not required for children under five. The WHO says children between six and 11 should only be required to wear masks if they are in an area of “widespread transmission.”
The company said the information in the video on children and face masks “contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities.”
TRENDPOST: That a tech company determines a “consensus” of “health authorities,” i.e., one side of a complex equation, should be the sole arbiter of what is scientific fact or fiction has become the new ABnormal. No other voices of reason are permitted. We The Geeks are in charge. There is no Freedom of Speech. Those who do not buy what they are selling are denounced as radicals, conspiracy theorists, and/or terrorists… domestic or otherwise.
Since last spring, the Trends Journal has been reporting on the lack of hard scientific data supporting the wearing of masks. And just a short year ago, the U.S. surgeon general tweeted:
“Seriously people – STOP BUYING MASKS… They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus.”
(See our 21 April article, “TREND TRACKING LESSON: ‘THINK FOR YOURSELF.’”)
We have detailed extensively since the COVID War was launched last year the infectiveness and danger of wearing masks to stop the spread of the virus.
Some of our articles on the ineffectiveness of wearing masks include:
5 January: DANISH STUDY: MASKS OFFER VERY LIMITED PROTECTION
9 March: DOUBLE MASK? DOUBLE-DOWN FAILURE
3 November: FACING THE TRUTH, PART I: THE GREAT MASK-QUERADE
3 November: FACING THE TRUTH, PART II: MORE EVIDENCE MASKS ARE INEFFECTIVE
3 November: MASK MADNESS
27 October: GERMAN DOC: MANDATORY MASK-WEARING IS “CRIMINAL”
20 October: “MASKS ARE A POLITICAL AGENDA”
20 October: DOCTORS: WEAR MASKS, GET SICK
20 October: MORE EVIDENCE: MASKS OFFER “LITTLE, IF ANY, PROTECTION”
6 October: FACE MASKS: POLITICS COUNTS, SCIENCE DOESN’T
29 September: EUROPEAN HEALTH OFFICIALS AGREE: MASKS DON’T WORK
TREND FORECAST: We maintain our forecast for the emergence of new anti-vax, anti-tax political movements of which an estimated 36 percent of the populations will support. Thus, on these issues alone, we forecast that Ron DeSantis will be the top Republican challenger to President Biden in 2024.
Having resisted lockdowns and face mask mandates, The New York Times described him as the “political heir to former President Donald J. Trump.” The paper quoted one of his allies referring to his libertarianism as “competent Trumpism.”
DeSantis made headlines on 2 April after signing an executive order that banned COVID-19 passports in the Sunshine State. The order said, “So-called COVID-19 vaccine passports reduce individual freedom and will harm patient privacy.”
DeSantis was praised for calling the passport initiative “completely unacceptable.”
