Mask Madness: Why Won't The Public Obey Bad Science?

It takes a lot for an NHL owner to break from his busy schedule of hammering the NHL Players Association to announce personnel moves online. But there was Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini taking to Twitter to give one of the long-standing members of his hockey team a very public heave-ho. 

“Hey @VancouverSun change the headline to "Former Canucks anthem singer.” What had Mark Donnelly, the singing voice of Aquilini’s shinny team, done to warrant such a public pink slip? Rob a bank? Steal from the Salvation Army Xmas kettle? Forget to file taxes?

Uh, no. Donnelly’s sin was to perform at a rally of citizens who think that a tiny piece of paper mask is not only useless against a virus but that forcing people to wear one is a breach of civil liberties as well. In this stance against compulsory behaviour Donnelly (whom I don’t know personally) seems to have the weight of evidence on his side. He also is now a pariah in the fashionable virus salons of the Lower Mainland.

Until Covid-19 struck early in 2020, the World Health Organization and just about every other research body looking at masks as a viable method to fight virus the past 40 years had come to the conclusion that they were of no tangible benefit.  Canada’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Theresa Tam, echoed the WHO sentiments as late as June 5. “At the present time, the widespread use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidence ...” (she also said we didn’t need to shut down travel to/ from China. But I digress.)

Then Covid-19 got out of control, and panicky politicians like the prime minister  cast about for ways to cease the spread (which probably had touched most of Canada by May) and calm the nation. And, in doing so, cover their butts for getting just about everything wrong when the virus exploded.

They proposed social distancing, a smart piece of hygiene. They then created draconian lockdowns (a mistake of epic proportion). And, as the cherry on the sundae, they flipped all the known science on masks to pronounce them indispensable. CDC head Robert Redfield went to so far as to dangle a mask at a presser, pronouncing it the most indispensable weapon against the virus— more effective than any future vaccine. 

The noise you heard was medical personnel— who know exactly what masks can and, most crucially, can’t do— laughing their asses off. They know that, outside of the N95 versions,  a mask’s efficiency lasts about 20 minutes. They know that people wear them improperly. They know bacteria grow in them. They know that the virus also enters through the eyes— which get no protection from the paper plate on your face.

And they know that people have been going into risky situations wearing this imperfect device after having been assured by the scientific geniuses on CBC and CNN that they’re safe. Good luck with that.

Since the point at which masks suddenly became our friends there has been only one peer-reviewed scientific study in the world done on the efficacy of masks. This review in Denmark found, as had previous studies, that masks made no virtually difference in the study groups wearing and not wearing masks. Okay, maybe they’re a fashion statement.

For those of you new to Science®, peer-reviewed studies are the only ones given credence in the world of labs coats and petri dishes. Peer review is why the vaccines now being produced take time, and why, frankly, many are anxious that enough time has elapsed to evaluate them. 

In most cases the lack of approved science about masks would have stopped things right there. But you underestimate the Church Ladies of the Left. They’re made of sterner stuff. They doubled down, creating a new, lower threshold for scientific approval. In response to a challenge to produce a peer-reviewed study that says face diapers are effective, a friend told me:

“There is scientific consensus, and frankly it makes good horse sense.  It is very difficult to have the pure studies you are insisting.” Of course it’s difficult. Difficult is what makes it trustworthy. Difficult is what makes it science, not scienc-y. If “good horse sense” was the barometer then science would all be Jenny McCarthy types running the CDC. 

But the Friends of Mask believe that “scientific consensus” (which is neither scientific nor as consensus) is the standard needed to meet political expediency. They have lots of supporters from the PMO on down on this idea of good horse sense. When you wouldn’t even try this experimentation on a horse.

What Donnelly and his colleague would point out to the virtue-signalling Canucks owner is that, since the B.C. public has been forced to adopt the masks in mid-summer, the number of positive PCR tests has skyrocketed. The same across the continent. Shouldn’t this blind acceptance have produced the opposite effect? Major U.S. cities have over 95 percent compliance in wearing masks— some as high as 99 percent compliance— to no recognizable effect on virus spread..

Shouldn’t numbers be plunging thanks to good-ol’ Mike The Mask? Don’t look to the media to point his out, either. They’re too busy shunning weddings and funerals as “super spreader” events.

Caught in this reverse whammy, the politicians and their blundering heath advisors have started to blame the public, not their own ineptitude. They’ve insisted the fault lies with recalcitrant people like Donnelly living their public lives, having Thanksgiving dinners with family. We are not trying hard enough, the Tams and Bonnie Henrys yell. Do better!

The grandees are supported and amplified by a media that has found a new low in rooting against the public. When Donnelly’s sacking was announced a number of B.C. media slappies were up on their hind legs, applauding Aquilini instead of asking why a person’s right to dissent on this mutable story is suddenly seditious. (For the record, Aquilini can fire whomever he wants for whatever reasons he wants. It’s his business.)

In Toronto the Good, where virtue signalling is an Olympic event, they’re pursuing the owner of a rib joint who insists on staying open. Their criticism? The guy is from a rich family. Because, even if they handcuff you and lock up your business, having means is a disqualifier for the support of the Toronto Star.

The mask fiasco has been vintage 2020: The cable-news consensus says it’s the public’s fault ignoring the evidence presented to them. Evidence that changes weekly. Call it what it is. Just don’t call it science.

As a postscript, Mark Donnelly took to Twitter hours after Aquilini’s missive. Seems that, since the Canucks action, his account has been choked with the bile stirred up by end-of-world fanatics,  wishing him a lingering death from Covid-19. Trouble is that it’s the wrong Mark Donnelly they’re scourging. Not the singer. 

Oops. Well, sometimes you’ve got to break a few eggs to make a big mess on the floor.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx