Mask Phobia

 

 

I recently visited my Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor (ENT) because of sinus related symptoms. He did a test and the results showed that I had a staph infection. Although staph infections can be severe, mine was not. He prescribed an inexpensive anti-biotic that did the trick. He said that he was treating an above average number of staph infections this year.

 

I asked him if he thought the increase could be related to the masks that everyone is wearing to protect against the coronavirus. “Definitely,” he answered. He went on to explain that most of the staph infections he treated were in the mouth and nasal passages. Could it be that the masks are causing more harm than good?

 

Recently, my local newspaper contained an editorial with this banner headline: “Wear a mask for the sake of strangers.” It went on to explain that “anyone whose face is now uncovered in public is truly unmasked as a nonconformist…. But by scorning masks many outliers express disregard for the rest of humanity.” The editorial went on to complain that there will always be people who resist social norms and laws, and applauded the Governor’s intention to impose monetary fines on non-compliers. 

 

However, there was not one bit of science in the paper’s editorial. Why are we wearing masks? At the beginning of summer my local state representative in her regular newsletter urged all of her constituents to wear masks, and she provided a link to a scientific study. 

 

I went to the link and discovered that it was a study of the efficacy of wearing masks in a hospital environment. Well, duh! Who would doubt the value of doctors and nurses wearing masks in an operating room? The masks are worn to protect patients whose defenses are breached in the course of surgery. Any open wound is prone to infection. Moreover, medical professionals are trained in the proper use of masks, and usually discard them after one use. Even so, many patients still develop infections while in hospital settings.

 

But what about the general public? Just last week the same state representative sent out a mask update warning people to use the masks properly. She wrote,

Use the loops to take your mask on and off.

Do not touch your mask while you are wearing it.

Be sure your mask covers your nose, mouth and chin.

I love advice like this that is almost impossible to follow for ordinary people. Just look at people adjusting their masks while putting them on or taking them off. Imagine not touching your mask inadvertently. Also, how many times do you see people with their masks only covering their chin? Ordinarily, our skin protects us from germs of all kinds even when they land on our chins but when you move the mask from your chin to cover your nose and mouth, you are potentially bringing all sorts of bacteria into your mouth and nasal passages.

 

Although politicians and media commentators continue to urge people to wear masks in public, I have seen no study that would indicate that they are effective in keeping ordinary people from infecting others, or being infected by others. Social distancing and frequent washing makes more sense to me. Fortunately, the coronavirus has largely disappeared in Connecticut. 

 

In my town of Fairfield there are about 62000 residents. In its weekly update the town informed us that so far 808 of us have tested positive for the coronavirus and that 145 have died. Of those who have died 107 were over 80, 22 were between 70 and 79, and 13 were between 60 and 69. About 92% of those who have died were already in nursing homes.

 

Under the age of 60 only three people have died and not one school age child has died. In the last three months there have been only 144 new positives despite greatly increased testing. The so-called “positivity” rate (positive results as a percentage of tests) is almost zero. Only seven deaths have been attributed to the coronavirus since June 19.

 

Nevertheless, it is now regarded as a kind of crime against humanity to appear in public without a mask. Although there is no scientific study that children can infect others, all children must wear masks in school. Does anyone remember the many diseases that children brought home from school last year? Why weren't masks needed then?

 

On a somewhat related note, my local newspaper ran a front page story today with the headline: “Doctors drop use of lead X-ray aprons.” Apparently, doctors at Yale Hospital are abandoning the lead shields because they have found that they actually do more harm than good. 

 

Describing it as a monumental shift in medical practice, the radiology director at Yale explained that over the past 50 years “they were taught over and over again to shield, to shield, to shield … to protect the patient. However, research has found that the lead shield not only does little if anything to protect the gonads from radiation that might cause genetic defects or cancer, but that it may result in an increase.”

 

Fifty years of science out the window. It will be interesting to read the final scientific verdict on the wearing of masks.

 

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Hatred of President Trump

 

 

Shortly after President Trump’s election an old friend told me that I ought to be “sick to my stomach” at Trump’s behavior. I replied that my stomach was fine, and asked him to please list a couple of things that Trump has done as President that he found objectionable. He declined to provide anything except to say that it was Trump’s personality and behavior that disgusted him. Like many he played the amateur psychologist and claimed that Trump was “narcissistically self-aggrandizing.” In other words, he didn't like the President and it won’t matter what he does.

I suspect that this attitude is shared by most of those who today literally hate the President despite lawn signs proclaiming that “Hate Has No Home Here.” They vehemently dislike the man and everything about him including his family. From the beginning his detractors have complained of every word and gesture. 

One acquaintance recently told me that the President was totally evil and responsible for everything that has gone wrong in the country. He is responsible for the 200000 coronavirus deaths as well as the fires raging in California. When I asked her if she could think of one good thing the President had done, she could not name one. 

Unfortunately, relentless hatred against Trump has meant that too few have bothered to discuss or assess what he has actually done in office so far. There has been a steady flow of vitriolic venom directed against his person, his words and even gestures, but no real discussion or evaluation of his public policies or actions. It should be possible to have a rational discussion of these policies without descending into invective against Trump. Even though actions are supposed to speak louder than words, words travel faster and fake news travels even faster.

Perhaps the President’s greatest achievement so far is the fact that he is still in office after more than three years. When the President took office, there were many who believed that he was unfit for the office and would not be able to govern or even form an administration. They predicted that his Presidency would not last 4 weeks much less four years. We know that at the beginning there were those in high places in government who even conspired to remove him from office. The Mueller investigation was part of this effort.

Now despite continued opposition from Democrats that sought to constantly obstruct the President, and even led to a highly partisan attempt at impeachment, the President is still in office and can point to a number of real achievements. 

Just recently his administration brokered an unprecedented deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that led these two long-time enemies to establish relations. A few days later the President announced that a similar agreement had been reached between Serbia and Kosovo. Efforts of precious administrations had come to nothing.

When I mention these achievements to people, they express disbelief probably due to the fact that a Trump-hating media is censoring any news that would reflect credit on the President.  One person I know dismissed the news and claimed that these peace deals would not last.

Some people have noticed. Recently, a Norwegian parliamentarian nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize because of his role in the Israel/UAR settlement. That was followed by another nomination for his role in the Serbia/Kosovo agreement. Most people have not heard this news, and when they do they dismiss it and claim that the nomination process is flawed. Headlines and lead articles on Yahoo news are mainly negative.

You have to dig deep to find that the Norwegian, characterized as far-right, who nominated the President claimed that the Nobel committee “should look at the facts and judge him on the facts—not on the way he behaves sometimes.” He concluded, “I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other peace prize nominees.”

I wonder what the President’s critics thought of the Nobel process when President Obama won the Peace prize after only one year in office, and with no foreign policy successes. 

It used to be an axiom in American politics that while the parties could disagree vehemently on domestic issues, they would come together and support the President in his dealings with foreign countries. Nevertheless, President Trump has never been able to count on the support of the Democratic party in his dealings with foreign powers, whether friend or foe.

He tried, for example, to broker a deal between North and South Korea that had the potential to end the North Korean nuclear arms program. Who knows what success he might have had if the Democrats had stood behind him on this vital issue? Instead, by constantly seeking to de-legitimize him and even remove him from office, they obviously weakened his negotiating position. What a shame.

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Coronavirus Science or Blame

By the end of August, the number of reported coronavirus cases worldwide exceeded 25,000,000 and total deaths had reached 846961. In the USA the number of reported cases has reached 6,000,000 and deaths totaled 187232, about 22% of the worldwide total. Critics of President Trump blame him for the death toll in the USA which they say is excessive given the fact that we only have 4% of the world’s population.

 Nevertheless, if we look at the death toll in other industrialized countries we find they have fared about the same. In the USA 187232 deaths out of a population of 328 Million, is almost the same percentage as the United Kingdom, with 41586 deaths out of a population of 66 Million, and Italy with 35477 deaths out of a population of 60 Million. Actually in both the UK and Italy the relationship of those who have died to the number of reported cases is over 4 times the USA’s 3% figure. 

 Another way to look at the distribution of blame is to examine the various state results in the USA. If President Trump is to blame, why have there been such uneven results in the various states? For example, New York, the fourth most populous state, leads the nation with 33021 deaths, or 1697 deaths per million, while California, the most populous state, has only 12938 deaths or 327 per million, even after the July surge. Moreover, why did the coronavirus peak in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in the Spring and come to a virtual halt thereafter? Why were states like California, Florida, and Texas spared in the beginning but then surge later on? How could President Trump be blamed for such disparate results?

 Despite terrible results in New York, Governor Cuomo is regarded as a hero by the media for his lockdown efforts. Yet, the lockdown efforts of Democratic Governor Newsome of California were just as severe but could not prevent the summer surge that effected his state. Is it really a matter of politics? Red states in the sunshine belt like Texas. and Florida still have numbers closer to California’s and far better than New York and New Jersey. 

 In a September 1 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Donald Luskin discussed the statistical research that his firm, TrendMacro, has been doing on the coronavirus since its inception. He argued that the findings, although counter-intuitive, indicate that lockdowns have had little effect and may have even caused more harm than good. 

 “The lesson is not that lockdowns made the spread of Covid-19 worse—although the raw evidence might suggest that—but that lockdowns probably didn’t help, and opening up didn’t hurt. This defies common sense. In theory, the spread of an infectious disease ought to be controllable by quarantine. Evidently not in practice, though we are aware of no researcher who understands why not… 

 But there’s no escaping the evidence that, at minimum, heavy lockdowns were no more effective than light ones, and that opening up a lot was no more harmful than opening up a little. So where’s the science that would justify the heavy lockdowns many public health officials are still demanding?” 

Where is the science? That is a good question. Let’s take a look at my home town of Fairfield, CT, a town of about 62000. As of last’s week’s report from the town’s First Selectwoman, there have been 751 reported cases of coronavirus and 141 deaths. Of those who have died 106 were over 80, 22 were over 70, and 13 were over 60. Only three deaths were recorded among those under age 60, and not one death was recorded for a school age child. Of those who died 92.4% were in elder care facilities. 

 In April when testing was done primarily on those with active symptoms, 40% of the tests had positive results. At the end of August with tests being done on practically anyone, only 1.2% were positive, and most of those were in nursing homes. In Fairfield county hospitalizations for the coronavirus peaked in April at around 2000 but between June and August they had declined dramatically to practically zero. 

 To be consistent if people in Fairfield and elsewhere want to blame President Trump for the coronavirus, shouldn’t they also credit him with its disappearance? Or if they want to credit Governor Lamont of Connecticut for his efforts to combat the virus, shouldn’t they also blame him for the deaths in the Spring when Connecticut racked up one of the highest death rates in the country? Things were so bad, the Governor even fired his health director, a black woman who is now planning to sue him. ###