Could Face Masks Be Spreading the Coronavirus?

Commentary from J.H. Capron on American Thinker.com (July 29):

I used to wonder how the Salem Witch Trials could have happened.  I don't anymore.

With the "Karens" (male and female) going hysterical in this viral panic, I clearly understand now why it's said, "if you think education is expensive, try ignorance."  Ignorance, or maybe better put, a lack of knowledge, sets up the American people to be exploited by their own politicians and government officials.  But, relative to a pathogen, it also sets them up to become disease transport agents via a mandated fomite: the face mask.

For those not familiar with the term "fomite," it's a non-biological object contaminated with a pathogen, making the article a source for spreading the pathogen.  For me, this viral panic has made it evident that most people have no understanding of viruses, their life cycles, and how they propagate.  The fear of the unknown is the outgrowth of this lack of knowledge.  It leads people to take irrational actions that will spread a pathogen.

Here we are in the 21st century, and the general public is no smarter than the general public was in the 17th century when it comes to dealing with the unknown.  So let's look at a pathogenic event in the early 20th century.

In 1918, we had the Spanish Flu (also known as the Spanish Fever).  The medical world was in the initial discovery phase of viruses...as a theory.  The ability to actually see a virus would not come about until the invention of the electron microscope in the late 1930s.  Viruses are at least 100 times smaller than bacteria.  I suspect that the medical profession believed that this outbreak was the result of an unknown, tiny bacterium that could not be seen with a microscope.  After all, the Bubonic Plague was bacterial.

So what were people asked to do?  Wear cloth face masks with five to six layers of gauze.

Let's think about that period in our history.  A large number of children died before the age of five.  The average age of death for adults was much lower than it is today.  The education of the general population was minimal.  Sanitation and personal hygiene also left a lot to be desired.  With face mask hygiene not defined, I have a deep suspicion that contaminated face masks helped spread the virus. [read more]

Something to think about. I suggest removing a face mask by the straps that go around the ears—not the mask itself. Now Dr. Fauci is telling people to wear goggles. Then again he was against face masks before he was for them. Scientists shouldn’t be inconsistent with their advice. If they don’t what the answer is then say that. It’s okay to be humble. Even for scientists.