April 2020 — Ontario Civil Liberties Association – D. G. Rancourt
KN95 Mask
Summary / Abstract: MASKS AND RESPIRATORS DO NOT WORK.
There have been extensive randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies, and meta-analysis reviews of RCT studies, which all show that masks and respirators do not work to prevent respiratory influenza-like illnesses, or respiratory illnesses believed to be transmitted by droplets and aerosol particles.
Furthermore, the relevant known physics and biology, which I review, are such that masks and respirators should not work. It would be a paradox if masks and respirators worked, given what we know about viral respiratory diseases: The main transmission path is long-residence-time aerosol particles (< 2.5μm), which are too fine to be blocked, and the minimum-infective-dose is smaller than one aerosol particle. Continue reading
Medical: Learning From the COVID-19 Failure — Before the Next Outbreak Arrives
Chronicle of a Pandemic Foretold –
“Time is running out to prepare for the next pandemic. We must act now with decisiveness and purpose. Someday, after the next pandemic has come and gone, a commission much like the 9/11 Commission will be charged with determining how well government, business, and public health leaders prepared the world for the catastrophe when they had clear warning. WHAT WILL BE THE VERDICT?”
That is from the concluding paragraph of an essay entitled “Preparing for the Next Pandemic” that one of us, Michael Osterholm, published in Foreign Affairs in 2005. The next pandemic has now come, and even though COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus that emerged in late 2019, is far from gone, it is not too soon to reach a verdict on the world’s collective preparation. THAT VERDICT IS A DAMNING ONE. Continue reading →
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