"Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations" - Leana Wen
"Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations" - Leana Wen
Former president of Planned Parenthood turned CNN pundit, Leana Wen, let the cat out of the bag this week when she told viewers to not wear cloth masks to public events, due to their utter ineffectiveness.
I would say that, if you choose to go, that you’re vaccinated and boosted. Make sure that you’re wearing a mask. Even though it’s outdoors, if there are lots of people packed around you, wearing a three-ply surgical mask - don’t wear a cloth mask. Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There's no place for them in light of Omicron.
Wen is known for her extreme, authoritarian stances on COVID policy, such as using freedom as “a carrot” to drive vaccination1 and banning the unvaccinated from going out in public at all2. With this statement, she has effectively categorized every municipal mask mandate in the country, all of which have allowed for cloth masks for nearly two years, as nothing more than safety theater.
Assuming that it was not an intentionally timed moving of the goal posts to drive fear, how will the establishment narrative that “cloth masks are fine” survive this news? In comes The Independent, who has framed Wen’s statement in a way that, to headline readers, paints cloth masks as specifically innefective against Omicron3. Given that the only differences between Omicron and other variants are on the microscopic level, it is a sentiment so ridiculous that it can only be believed by the scientifically illiterate and those who have decided to blindly accept Trusted Science™.
Buried towards the end of the article, where most people will not reach, it is admitted that cloth masks have long been regarded as a highly ineffective option.
An infectious disease fellow at Stanford University, Ashley Styczynski, told Bloomberg in October that “there are very few real-world studies examining the impact of cloth face coverings”.
“Various laboratories have measured the filtration efficiency of different cloth materials used in masks. Cloth materials typically block 10-30 per cent of aerosol-sized particles that contribute to [the] airborne spread of SARS-CoV-2,” she added.
Lab studies have shown that surgical masks, such as N95’s, block around 95 per cent of aerosol-sized particles.
I am left with many questions:
Why are there “very few real-world studies examining the impact of cloth face coverings”?
Should the varying efficacy of masks not have been one of the first group of studies commissioned by the CDC or NIH in 2020?
When peer-reviewed studies showing the ineffectiveness of cloth masks appeared as early as this summer4, why did it take CNN half a year to inform their viewers of information that could actually save lives?
How long has CNN medical analyst, Leana Wen, known this and chosen not to inform viewers of something that could save their lives?
If the pharmaceuticals cannot stop the spread of COVID, and the only mitigation strategy with 95 percent efficacy is a N95 mask, why is the White House attempting to mandate the pharmaceutical and not N95 masks?
Why is the White House purchasing 500 million at-home COVID tests5, to be freely distributed to Americans, but not doing the same with a 95 percent efficacious mitigation strategy?
How much of this is incompetence versus maliciousness?
The Blaze CNN analyst urges Biden administration to tie vaccinations to Americans' 'freedoms' https://www.theblaze.com/news/cnn-analyst-urges-biden-administration-to-tie-vaccinations-to-americans-freedoms
Reason CNN's Leana Wen: The Unvaccinated Should Not Be Allowed To Leave Their Homes https://reason.com/2021/09/10/cnn-leana-wen-unvaccinated-travel-outdoor-ban/
Independent Cloth masks are useless in fight against Omicron, expert warns https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cloth-masks-useless-omicron-expert-b1980394.html
National Center for Biotechnology Information: Experimental investigation of indoor aerosol dispersion and accumulation in the context of COVID-19: Effects of masks and ventilation https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8320385/
The Wall Street Journal Biden Administration to Combat Omicron by Distributing 500 Million At-Home Covid-19 Test Kits https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-to-distribute-500-million-at-home-covid-19-test-kits-11640080802