Face masks must be worn in England on public transport (at least to begin with) by order of the State. We will explore the reasons why people might comply or resist this diktat. What reasons are there to wear a face mask, do they make sense and what does our compliance or resistance say about us?
The State Is A State Of Mind
The State is a belief system. It is a faith, rather like a religion. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with faith. It doesn’t necessarily mean the belief itself is “wrong.” Faith can be a powerful force for good. It all depend upon what the belief is.
If your faith dictates that you treat all with love, compassion and respect then your belief is “right.” If you live in accordance with your faith then you are living in the truth, regardless of which deity you follow.
However, if your faith teaches you that you are better than “non believers,” that yours in the only true way and that those who don’t follow your beliefs, or your deity, deserve to be punished, you are “wrong.” You are not living in harmony with the truth.
People who believe in the State are called statists. Those who don’t, broadly come under the umbrella term anarchists. For statists, the anarchist is despised. Life without their State is unimaginable, therefore those who wish to live without it must be evil. The anarchist has long been reviled by statists as the dangerous subversive.
Despite the perpetual myth that “anarchy” is synonymous with “chaos,” that is not what anarchy means. Anarchy encompasses a broad range of political, economic and sociological perspectives with one commonality. The State is considered both harmful and unnecessary.
For statists an absence of the State must mean “chaos.” A free for all with no law, no social security, no healthcare, no infrastructure and mob rule. This is the opposite of anarchy. Anarchy is not society without rules. It is society without rulers.
All religions have their representatives. There are cardinals, bishops, imams and and rabbi’s etc. They are perhaps the leading voices, but they aren’t the only representatives. There are envoys, missionaries, TV evangelists, religious correspondents and so on.
The State is no different. We have politicians and governmental advisers, as the leading voices, but there are also NGO spokespersons, union officials, the academic & scientific orthodoxy, lords and ladies, multinational CEO’s, central bankers, business leaders and more. Of these, the most powerful, in terms of their ability to shape public opinion are the mainstream media (MSM.)
The core tenet of the statist’s faith is that a small group of people are best placed to tell all the other people what to do. This is a belief in absolute hierarchical authority.
There’s nothing wrong with hierarchical authority. It is difficult to see how we could ever organise anything more than a barbecue without it. It is over the issue of how we authorise it where the statists and the anarchists diverge.
When you need to see a doctor you temporarily cede your authority to them. You trust that they know more about medical science than you do, so you allow them to make decisions about your health and follow their advice. However, outside of your healthcare, you don’t permanently give your authority away to your doctor. When you buy a car you don’t phone your GP to ask their permission.
Generally in life we cede our authority to others on a case by case basis. Our authority, in all other decisions, remains otherwise intact. We retain our individual sovereignty.
Most people understand this. We can become defensive, even aggressive, if we feel someone else is telling us what to do when we haven’t given them our specific authority to do so.
Yet for some reason, when it comes to the State, statists give this group of people absolute authority over every aspect of, not only their own, but everyone’s lives. Just as religion is often based upon a belief in supreme beings, who have power or influence over the devotee’s life, so statism accepts that special “selected” people have power and influence over the every aspect of the statist’s life.
In most religions you offer prayers to your deity, acknowledging your faith. Statists offer votes to cede their individual sovereignty and autonomy to the State. This isn’t a temporary arrangement. Whoever you vote for you get the permanent State.
The State’s authority comes entirely from the statist. Without their belief it would be nothing. Regardless of any other competing ideologies statists may follow, a trust in the legitimacy of absolute hierarchical authority is universal.
This trust is not shared by the anarchist. Power corrupts absolutely, in the anarchists view, and history demonstrates it. Much better to retain your own sovereignty and temporarily devolve authority, depending upon your needs at the time. Just as we do nearly every day.
Anarchy is already the way we order society in our day to day lives. We don’t need an overarching State to control who we meet, where we go, who we work for, trade with or take advice from. We can and do order our society despite interference from the State, not because of it.
The State takes money from us by force so that it can spend it on its priorities. If we need to build a road, the State uses our money to employ a private contractor to build it. Why do we need the middle men, ask the anarchists. So they can take their cut?
The State doesn’t just take our money to build roads and hospitals. Absolute hierarchical authority over everything leads to nothing but corruption, oppression and war. We know this, history teaches us this fact. Yet we still persist with the idea that if we just vote harder next time it won’t happen again.
It is beyond ironic that the statist will often chide the anarchist for, what they see as, their naive perception of human nature. Statists claim that it is inevitable that the corrupt, the violent and the unworthy will seek and exploit power. Precisely the point made by anarchists, who suggest that not freely giving away your authority to the power crazed might therefore be a good idea.
The British like to think their modern democratic society has evolved to produce some sort of egalitarian meritocracy. It hasn’t.
Relative inequality is as bad as it’s ever been while, at the same time, a tiny clique of carefully selected people rule us. We never escaped the rule of the aristocracy. It’s just that we now think we elect them. We don’t. We just elect their representatives.
Why Are You Really Wearing A Face Mask
And so we come to the State’s decree that we should all wear face masks on public transport (initially.) Ostensibly, both to protect others from our own transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and to stop us catching the deadly virus. It is perhaps worth noting, according to official statistics, despite the UK Lockdown regime producing one of the worst infection and mortality rates in the world, we are talking about a disease that has supposedly affected 0.45% and led to the deaths of 0.06% of the UK population.
If there are health risks associated with wearing face masks, and there are, this notion of protection rapidly becomes a nonsense. However, people must have their reasons to wear a face mask. So what are they?
The first could be that you are a statist. You believe that the state representatives (government officials) know more about reality than you do. You trust them to tell you what to do. You accept their claim that they have special knowledge and have your best interests, and those of your fellow citizens, at heart.
You gave them your authority to control your life, and the lives of everyone else, when you participated in the ordination ritual. You did this by putting a cross on a piece of paper some time ago.
In all likelihood you didn’t actually vote for your nominal rulers. The 2019 UK general election turnout was 67.25% of the eligible vote. Boris Johnson’s Conservatives received 43.6% of that total. Just over 29.3% of the British electorate voted for their representative government. Nearly 71% didn’t.
Seventy percent of the British people do not want Boris Johnson or the Conservatives to force them to obey their rules. However, all conform because we think we live in a democracy. For statists this is how it should be.
It doesn’t matter that by using the supposed democratic system, less than a third of the population determine what more than two thirds can do and say. It’s the principle that matters. The principle appears to be mob rule.
The second reason, one shared by many statists and anarchists alike, is that you are forced to do as you are told. With a monopoly on the use of force, the State is the only body in society that can initiate force and get away with it.
While nearly everyone in the UK would say it is morally indefensible to use physical force to make someone do whatever you tell them, it is surprising how many think it’s OK for a tiny group of people in Westminster, Holyrood, The Senned and Stormont to use physical force, or the threat of it, to control millions. Cognitive dissonance exemplified.
Nonetheless, it is what it is. If you need to take the bus or the train to work you are now forced to wear a face mask. Not because you believe there’s any point to it, but because you won’t be able to get to work and feed your family otherwise.
So, if we are honest with ourselves, unless convinced by the science, we will wear a face mask on public transport for two reasons. We are either happy to accept that special people we’ve never met have sole authority to tell us what to do, as a slave owner would command a willing slave, or we are scared that they will use force to punish or harm us if we don’t comply. We call this a free and open democratic State.
The Science Behind Wearing A Face Mask.
The final reason you might elect to wear a face mask is that you are convinced by the scientific evidence. You believe that donning a cheap or homemade face mask will protect you and others from a disease which you have a 0.45% chance of contracting and a 99.94% chance of surviving.
Why you would imagine that the science shows that wearing a crappy face mask will stave off the minuscule threat of infection is difficult to say. For many, perhaps it is because that is what the mainstream media (an organ of the State) told them. However, the State has said other things at other times.
On the 4th March the State’s Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, said:
“In terms of wearing a mask our advice is clear, that wearing a mask if you don’t have an infection really reduces the risk almost not at all.”
On the 23rd April the State’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Patrick Vallance said:
“The evidence on face masks has always been quite variable, quite weak. It’s quite difficult to know exactly, there’s no real trials on it.”
On the 24th April the State’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said:
“The evidence around the use of masks by the general public, especially outdoors, is extremely weak.”
On the 28th April the State’s Ministry of Defence Chief Scientific Adviser, Dame Angela McLean, representing the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said:
“The recommendation from SAGE is completely clear, which is there is weak evidence of a small effect in which a face mask can prevent a source of infection going from somebody who is infected to the people around them.”
An unusually clear and consistent message from the State. On the 4th of June the UK State’s Secretary of Transport, Grant Shapps, told the English that we did have to wear face-masks on public transport? Shapps said:
“That doesn’t mean surgical masks, which we must keep for clinical settings. It means the kind of face covering you can easily make at home….wearing a face covering offers some – albeit limited – protection against the spread of the virus.”
Wearing a clinical N95 face mask is frowned upon by the State. Better to wrap a scalf around your head, a bandanna, old handkerchief or one of those paper face masks you used to be able to buy from the market before the State put all the stall holders out of business.
Begging the question, what new scientific breakthrough emerged between the 29th April and 4th June to convince the State that wearing a torn T shirt on your face will save you and others from COVID 19? Albeit limited.
Obviously N95 standard face masks are better suited to the task than a bit of rag. So what is the scientific evidence that N95 masks could protect you, or someone else, from a viral respiratory infection.
Jacobs, J. L. et al. (2009) concluded:
“N95-masked health-care workers (HCW) were significantly more likely to experience headaches. Face mask use in HCW was not demonstrated to provide benefit in terms of cold symptoms or getting colds.”
Cowling, B. et al. (2010) found:
“None of the studies reviewed showed a benefit from wearing a mask, in either HCW or community members in households (H).”
bin-Reza et al. (2012) meta analysis discovered:
“There were 17 eligible studies. … None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask ⁄ respirator use and protection against influenza infection.”
Smith, J.D. et al. (2016) undertook further meta analysis of the available studies on face masks. They stated:
“We identified 6 clinical studies … In the meta-analysis of the clinical studies, we found no significant difference between N95 respirators and surgical masks in associated risk of (a) laboratory-confirmed respiratory infection, (b) influenza-like illness, or (c) reported work-place absenteeism.”
Radonovich, L.J. et al. (2019) undertook a study of healthcare workers to assess the relative effectiveness of face masks and respirators:
“Among 2862 randomized participants, 2371 completed the study and accounted for 5180 HCW-seasons. … Among outpatient health care personnel, N95 respirators vs medical masks as worn by participants in this trial resulted in no significant difference in the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
Long, Y. et al. (2020) looked at six randomised clinical trials (RCT’s) of face masks to ascertain if they protected either the wearer or others around them from any viral respiratory illness. They didn’t:
“A total of six RCTs involving 9171 participants were included. There were no statistically significant differences in preventing laboratory-confirmed influenza, laboratory-confirmed respiratory viral infections, laboratory-confirmed respiratory infection and influenza-like illness using N95 respirators and surgical masks….The 4 use of N95 respirators compared with surgical masks is not associated with a lower risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”
Face masks work well for surgeons who want to avoid dribbling or sneezing into their patients, but are useless when it comes to stopping viral infections. In terms of preventing the spread of COVID 19 there is no evidence that they achieve anything at all.
As far as anyone knows viruses spread through tiny long residence time aerosol particles. The virions – the spiky ball we are all now familiar with – are much, much, smaller than the weave in the fabric, even of N95 clinical face masks.
If your hope is to protect yourself against a viral respiratory infection, covering your face with with a face mask you bought online is about as useful as concrete lifebuoy. So how do the State justify their silly policy? It seems analysis released by the Royal Society DELVE Initiative on 4th May, convinced SAGE to change their advice.
There are no RCT studies anywhere in the analysis which show any protective benefit of face masks for stopping viral respiratory infections. This is because there aren’t any.
However, it does cite some MSM articles, a number of studies about water droplets spread when you exhale, which are obviously stopped when you cover your face, and some statements from the U.S. Center for Disease Control. None of which is relevant to demonstrating that face masks protect against viral respiratory infections.
It also cites some studies which again found no benefit from face masks.
Brainard et al. (2020) stated:
“The evidence is not sufficiently strong to support widespread use of face masks as a protective measure against COVID-19.”
The Royal DELVE also cite studies with no conclusions:
Canini et al. (2010)
“The lack of statistical power prevents us to draw formal conclusion regarding effectiveness of face masks in the context of a seasonal epidemic.”
It is impossible to see how the Royal Society concluded from their analysis that face masks should be widely worn. Which is probably why they didn’t. Ultimately they offered no conclusion at all:
“Face masks could offer an important tool for contributing to the management of community transmission of Covid19.”
They could, but they almost certainly don’t. Nor is there any reason to think they will.
Wearing A Face Mask Because Reasons
If you find yourself sat on a bus struggling to breath through your mum’s tea towel, please take a moment to rationalise why you are doing it. Are you doing it because you believe the State’s Transport Secretary has some special insight into ‘da science?’
Less than a third of your fellow citizens devolved their authority to him. Whether you were among that number or not, if you voted at all, you only have yourself to blame. By doing so you legitimised his power and now you are suffering the consequences.
Are you wearing it because you recognise that not doing so could result in a fine, non payment of which could potentially place you behind bars? If so, perhaps it’s time to acknowledge that you are doing it under duress. The threat of violence is clear and you have acquiesced. It’s an offer you can’t refuse because you need to go to work. They’ve got you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Remember that next time they ask you to vote for your wannabe ruler.
Are you wearing it because you have been told that the policy is led by the science? The mainstream media said the science was settled and you believed it? This would suggest that you mistakenly believe it will protect you from a disease that not only presents virtually no threat to you at all (if you are of working age) it is disappearing so quickly vaccine developers are running out of test subjects (not that they need any.)
From your perspective maybe you should accept that you are wearing a face mask because reasons. There really isn’t any more to it than that.
The State, on the other hand, has some very clear ambitions and ordering you to muzzle yourself is an important part of your operant conditioning. By wearing your face mask for no reason, you are demonstrating your obedience to the State. If you behave correctly some aspects of the lockdown may be lifted. If you don’t, well…..
As the State forges ahead with the Great Reset, there is going to be significant economic disruption. As usual, times are going to be tough for the majority but multinational corporations are going to do very well out of it. If you think about it, this might make you angry. Therefore, your blind faith in your representative leaders matters a great deal to the State.
As the situation deteriorates, through necessity, people are going to resist. Controlling the statist majority, through fear, is vital for the high priesthood of the State to maintain their illegitimate claims to the moral high ground.
Comically, the MSM propaganda machine insist all this devastation is due to the impact of coronavirus. Of course it isn’t. It is entirely a result of the State’s deliberate lockdown policy decisions. These are intended to create the permanent, abnormal future State being sold to you as the new normal. Ripe for the Great Reset.
The deliberate destruction of the economy, the implosion of local communities, the removal of civil liberties, termination of small businesses, eradication of the high street and establishing deterrents to stop you socialising and interacting with others, would not have been possible had we not all been scared witless. Something which SAGE were clear about from the outset.
In their discussion on March 23rd, SAGE’s behavioural science sub-group SPI-B presented a paper which has clearly influenced the State’s lockdown policy agenda. This appears to be the only policy aspect that has been led by the science. But it isn’t virology or epidemiology, it’s behavioural science aimed at your behaviour modification. SPI-B stated.
“A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened…The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent.”
Complacency, as far is the State is concerned, is not unquestioningly believing everything they tell you. If you don’t accept their narrative, if you reject their edicts and have no faith in their authority, then you are ‘complacent.’ The State’s way is the only way. This is not a tolerant religion.
Instilling fear in millions of people, to ensure they comply, requires a mass propaganda campaign. SAGE were clear on the MSM’s role. One they have dutifully fulfilled.
In Appendix B of the paper, SPI-B recommended the following:
“Use media to increase sense of personal threat.”
Your sense of personal threat is key for the State to get you to accept the Great Reset. What better way to convince you than to cover everyone’s face?
Fearful of disease, mistrusting and confused, the State is showing you a glimpse of hell. Only total supplication will deliver your salvation in the form of a vaccine, immunity passports and universal basic income in a cashless society. Everything your are, everything you do and everything you believe controlled by the State.
Not everyone wants this, though it seems the majority do. So the next time you see someone refusing to wear a face mask, don’t assume that you are doing the right thing and they’re not, simply because you are the one wearing the mask. If they resist the call to be afraid, if they refuse to social distance and reject the behaviour change that does not mean they don’t care about you or vulnerable people.
In all likelihood they care deeply. Perhaps you should ask them why they refuse to wear the State’s face mask.
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An excellent article Ian.
Introducing face covering on the public transport is just a first step to make them mandatory at all times. We all know this is going to happen when (promised) ‘second wave’ arrives. I have personally sorted out for myself Journey Assistance Card which enables me to travel without face covering. So far, I have never witnessed anyone else without the mask.
Sadly, I do not believe UK can be saved from total collapse and globalist take over. The more I learn from people like you, UK Column, James Corbett and many more the less I believe in positive outcome. With time I have realised that population is so dumb down, brainwashed and engineered that only some kind of coup or civil war might wake them up.
Today, while having coffee I witnessed a surreal picture…a massive queue of people outside the Primark; all muzzled, 2 metres apart and scrolling their ‘slave devices’. Instead of being angry I sad and powerless…
I am grateful that I have been exposed to the truth as it helps me to be prepare for potential challenges.
Thanks for the comment Hank. The globalist takeover has been underway for more than a century. Unfortunately the destruction of national sovereignty, a process that markedly picked up pace after WWII, does now seem inevitable. I think you are right. Those of us who can see the geopolitical trends need to think about how we will live in this centrally controlled global society.
Well said Hank and a good reply Iain
I’m 70 this year and I’ve never seen such a dumbed down compliant UK population as we’ve got now. Not only had national sovereignty been destroyed [witness the obviously globalist Covid psyop] but individual sovereignty has also been eroded drastically by the fat controllers. Mainly by use of their legal fiction scam
But I am not as pessimistic as you Hank. Our individual sovereignty is inviolable I think and the controllers know that. They still want our consent at elections and they need our consent for their actions to be lawful in their legal fiction; I’m sure that they are acutely aware of that.
So each individual is important and each individual has far more power than most of them realise. Doing the right thing is always best. We all need to refuse to comply in whichever way we can. Easy for an old retired giffer like me to say but still true nonetheless. We are not a collective, we are individuals and we are sovereign
Thanks Pete. I agree our consent is still required, although perhaps we should note that parliamentary democracy is currently suspended. With an inevitable “second wave” in the autumn I am not entirely convinced it will return. Though, as you say, this is probably too pessimistic. More of a niggle than a concern. I think you are spot on about our individual sovereignty and nothing the State do will ever change that. It is inviolable. The question is how to we exercise it. For me, I refuse to vote. I will not support the State in any form. I accept this is not something most would agree with but I think other forms of resistance are possible. Mass civil disobedience for one. However, for this to work, it must be lawful. Sadly recent events have also convinced me that people are too quick to take to the streets for poorly defined reasons. Violence must be opposed at all costs. Not only is it morally reprehensible it serves no practical purpose and merely bolsters the States claim that a “crack down” is justified.
Thanks Iain, yes I agree
It took me nearly 50 years to realise that I should not vote. Anthony Charles Lynton Blair blew up the left/right fallacy for me in 1997. I actually voted for him and I soon realised that he was a charlatan and that there was a much bigger game afoot. I never voted again
I have always abhorred violence too and that has never changed. I agree that it must be opposed at all costs. Anyhow I think that it is guaranteed to fail against the power of the state.
The key for me is mass consciousness, and that is not beyond us, I live in hope.
Finally, in respect of the legal matrix that ensnares us all I saw this earlier:
“We all have our demons to conquer. Here we can help each other overcome them without judgement.
Ignorance of the highest, foundational law is our collective demon. We may never be free and never defeat our dependence on the man-made legal matrix to control us without understanding the highest (moral) law. The right to self-govern our own actions must be earned, “fought for,” learned and shared. If we cannot/will not do this we then continue to consent (silence is consent) to the increasingly degrading life of a (voluntary) debt slave under the control of the small group of destructive, elite man-gods we ourselves have created. To be clear, the enemy is not the man but his false title and imaginary false standing over us and nature. The enemy is belief of artificial things created by nothing more than word magic. It is our own delusion that empower the conundrums and contrarian beliefs that lead us away from what is self-evident and true.”
On the money I think. Source is the penultimate comment here:
https://pieceofmindful.com/2020/06/19/covid-19-a-new-superimposed-reality-part-2-moving-forward/#comment-129617
Feeling pretty despondent at the latest development to make muzzles “mandatory” in shops in England. I live in Wales where the first minister is holding out against it, but I expect he’ll cave before long.
I’ve been trying to find the “resistance” regarding compulsory muzzling, I feel there must be something out there, but Google is not obliging. I did, however, track down the legislation, and it looks like you can use literally any “reasonable excuse” on health grounds to not wear one. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/592/regulation/4/made
So, I wonder if a shop displaying a sign saying “No mask, no service” would be in breach of the disability discrimination act…? Just a thought.
Hi Fran I think the mandating of masks in shops is reason for hope. Obviously there is no scientific justification for doing it, so this is a control test for mandatory vaccines in my view. The point being to condition people to obey meaningless diktats in order to prepare them to obey more meaningful, from an agenda perspective, ones.
However, because this is such an easy order to debunk I get the sense that people are starting to realise this is all about control. Certainly not the majority, but a growing number. I have family who work in the NHS and can report anecdotally that there is growing resistance within the medical profession, with many saying they will refuse a vaccine. If more than 20% of the population refuse to comply then I think it’s game on.
Pete: Voted for Bliar? How do you sleep at night?
Hi Ian, I’ve read several of your articles on CV-19(84) and would like to print them out to hand off to others. can you provide a “print button” to stripe away graphics and side-bar content? thanks so much for the work you are doing.
Hi Ian, here is follow-up. I did find a print button under “other choices” in your social media share buttons. but when selected it gave 18-pages of blank content! also it this seems to be the same number of pages as browser print function which preserved graphics and side-bar content. there is no need to publish these comments as they really are for your eyes. best regards.
News to me 321Eric. I didn’t even know there was a print button on the plug in. It has never occurred to me before but I will look into it. Thanks for raising this. It would be a good feature to have.
The image of “the slave mask punishment” perfectly conveys the essence of nonsensical mask mandates. It has always pained me to see muzzled dogs led on a leash. Now,I see muzzled human
beings, without smiles, with muffled voices, being led to a doom few can imagine. We are being silenced, stripped of our rights, ruled by arbitrary decree. If this tyranny is allowed to persist, what can humans become but slaves at the feet of their masters? The more I ponder this plot,the more I am convinced that abject slavery on the grandest scale is the explicit goal.
So, “the slave mask punishment” is truly the image of the day. Spreading that image far and wide to the various internet venues will help to break the fear spell. Perhaps tee-shirts and posters
could be employed by enterprising people. A truth at a glance.
Good idea Richard.
beautifully written. I’d share it to Instagram and Twitter if I hadn’t left those platforms today after their complicity in sabotaging Trump’s re-election !
Thanks George. As an English man (and voluntarist) I haven’t been following the U.S. so closely. However, I am interested to see some firm evidence of claimed voter fraud. Can you suggest any good resources?
Yes Ian. I’ve collected the evidence of election fraud and saved it into this folder. Feel free to browse.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n2zfethnt0ivhk6/AADmzim-11b97zdOvaamA0dAa?raw=1
Many thanks. I will take a look.
I’m a bit confused with some of your quotes for some of these papers, from the bin-Reza et al. paper you end the quote with “None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask ⁄ respirator use and protection against influenza infection” however the next sentence of the article is “Some useful clues, however, could be gleaned. Subanalyses performed for one of the larger randomised controlled studies in a household setting found evidence of reduced rates of influenza-like illness if household contacts consistently wore the mask or respirator.”
Your quoting seems to be a bit of a selection bias to reach a contradictory conclusion to the linked material? As it seems to generally favor wearing a mask in at least several other instances. For instance limiting the article to just the … that your quote omits we can see at least 3 examples where mask wearing is viewed favorably to reducing the spread of influenza.
Is that due to your misunderstanding of the presented material, where conclusively here likely meant with certainty or do you have any other reason for editorializing the quote as such.
Thanks Chris for taking the time to read the quoted papers. That is why I link to them. I hope all readers will research themselves and come to their own conclusions.
You make a good point and a number of studies have shown some benefits and there probably was a 10% transmission reduction to be gained if we were all wearing clinical N95 respirators. However, as pointed out in the article, people were actively discouraged from wearing high quality medical masks (and few could afford to do so for long) so the cited papers relate to what can best be judged in terms of wearing non-clinical, knock off masks bought in Poundland (a truer reflection of reality.)
For example bin-Reza et al was a meta-analysis of 17 studies and some showed some limited benefits from medical masks and others not. However, with regard to low quality cloth masks (and even better quality medical masks for that matter) they found that “none of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask ⁄ respirator use and protection against influenza infection.” That is, there was no conclusive evidence for the use of masks, though some appeared to work to a limited degree, while others didn’t. Given the context of the article I think this was a fair and reasonable quote to use.
Many thanks Chris for your question.