Covid Hysteria 2023 / 2024

[GURPS]

Hollywood studio brings back mask mandate amid spike in COVID cases​

Hollywood studio Lionsgate is returning to mask mandates for many of its employees amid rising COVID-19 cases reported in Los Angeles.

In an internal email obtained by Deadline, response manager for Lionsgate/Starz Sommer McElroy said that employees at its flagship office in Santa Monica will be required to wear a medical grade face covering, such as a surgical mask a or a KN95 or N95 mask.

Employees must wear the mask unless they are alone in an office with the door closed, actively eating, actively drinking at their work area, or if they are the only individual present in a large open workspace, according to the emailed memo.

 

[GURPS]

Rising COVID-19 Cases, Revived Mask Mandates Spark Debate Over Response​

Coronavirus, Mask Mandates, Public Health, Coronavirus Testing, Coronavirus Vaccine

AllSides Summary​

With COVID-19 cases reportedly rising across the U.S. and some institutions reinstating mask mandates, the public is again debating how to respond.

The Data and Response: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 12,613 COVID-19-related hospitalizations in the week ending Aug. 12, a 21.6% increase from the previous week. Cases remain roughly 90% lower than their January 2022 peak. Public health officials in New York City and Los Angeles have reported increases in COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks. Several colleges throughout the U.S., as well as some Hollywood studios, have reinstated mask mandates.

Focus on Prevention? Many on the left and elsewhere remain concerned with "long Covid" and public health measures to combat COVID-19's spread. CBS News (Lean Left bias) highlighted the potential for "a so-called 'Tripledemic' of Covid-19, the flu and RSV", and how "health officials are encouraging everyone to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and the flu."

Avoid Social Disruption? A writer for National Review (Right bias) argued that mask mandates and other government-encouraged health measures are pushed by a "cadre of professional meddlers for whom the illusion of safety under Covid restrictions was vastly preferable to all the risks that attend liberty." The writer framed masking as ineffective and "a signifier of tribal identity and cultural tastes," and highlights how "vaccination reduces the severity of illness but does not prevent transmission."

 

[Sneakers]

alone in an office with the door closed

So all your exhaled virus-laden breath is locked up in the room with you. Someone wants to talk to you, so you don a mask and open the door. The visitor walks into a fog of potentially viral air. Sure, the mask will stop it cold.

 

[Kyle]

So all your exhaled virus-laden breath is locked up in the room with you. Someone wants to talk to you, so you don a mask and open the door. The visitor walks into a fog of potentially viral air.

... And a few days later, everybody moves up in rank.

 

[GURPS]

Same Lunacy. Different Year. Mask Mandates Are Officially Back​

If you thought masks were gone forever, think again.

It’s been obvious for several weeks that masks were on their way back, as the media, “experts,” and institutions ramped up the fear and panic over the discovery of new variants.

It’s also been nearly three and a half years since "experts" flip flopped, contradicting years of scientific research with no justification, by deciding to recommend the general public wear masks to stop the spread of COVID. And for a subset of people committed to unblinking compliance with ideologically-aligned authority, it fundamentally and permanently changed their lives.

Masks instantly became an opportunity. Not to prevent the spread of infection, but to signal allegiance to the "correct" set of views and maintain an unearned, inflated sense of self importance.

And there may not be a better description of the Fauci-sycophants in Hollywood than that.

No matter what the data said about masks, no matter how consistently the "experts" were proven wrong. No matter how many evidence reviews confirmed masks didn't work.

The Desperation To Bring Back Masks Intensifies

It's never ending for most major media outlets

ianmsc.substack.com

Los Angeles Times Working Hard To Promote Masks
​

In an article headlined “COVID-19 is ‘heating up all around’ this summer. Should we be wearing masks again?” The Los Angeles Times claimed that there's been an "uptick" in coronavirus transmission this summer, which, according to them, justifies asking whether we should return to so-called “safety measures.”

They frame the discussion as being about lowering “risk.” From COVID. In August 2023.

The “precautions” they want others to follow primarily involve, naturally, encouraging the public to wear masks. Because the years of data, numerous studies and multiple evidence reviews confirming masks don’t work isn’t enough.

Nor is the obvious reality that virtually everyone in the U.S. has already contracted COVID, gaining some level of natural immunity to severe outcomes. Even the CDC has acknowledged that by late 2022, upwards of 96% of the population had some level of immunity.

But no level of immunity, no level of evidence is enough to stop the media from restating its prior positions to avoid acknowledging mistakes. And it’s the latest extension of mask recommendations, some of which inexcusably persist long after any reasonable justification.

 

[Kyle]

 

[Tech]

Biden campaign has kicked off, reason not to hit the trail.

 

[my-thyme]

I will not mask again. TPD, you need to start stocking groceries so I'll have somewhere to shop.

 

[GURPS]

Lockdowns 2.0? Masks, social distancing and more are creeping back as election season builds​

In April, the Biden administration announced it was funneling $5 billion into developing more COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. The announcement never mentioned masks or social distancing, and focused on vaccines. Nonetheless, just the fact that the HHS was focusing on COVID-19 have caused some to fear renewed lockdowns and mandates could be on the horizon

"They’re coming back for round two," said popular conservative figure Ian Miles Cheong on X, (formerly Twitter) accompanied by a clip of Dr. Fauci recently defending pandemic lockdowns as "absolutely justified" despite studies suggesting otherwise.

"I keep hearing whispers of COVID restrictions coming back," said Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who vowed to not comply with them. Kari Lake also tweeted about the rumors, calling it the "Covid-19 Election Variant."

Researchers writing for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the peer-reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences, found "no evidence" in 2021 to suggest that the shelter-in-place orders yielded "substantial reductions" in COVID-19 cases or deaths. A John Hopkins University study conducted last year also deemed lockdowns "ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument."

Other critics of the lockdown pointed to severe emotional and substance-abuse problems caused by the protocols. The popular Instapundit blog cited a SciTech Daily headline noting a "Surge in Severe, Alcohol-Related Liver Injury During COVID Pandemic."

The previously cited measures come amid increased COVID-19 cases, mostly from a variant named EG.5. Another variant, BA.2.86, has also been detected in the US, but with minimal cases thus far.

According to The Washington Times, weekly hospitalizations and deaths from the virus are exorbitantly low compared to the peak of the pandemic. Moreover, it is important to note that the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths is considered by many to be overblown.

CDC data from 2020 clarified that "COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned" for just 6% of deaths at the time, and the other 94% of mortalities had other "health conditions and contributing causes."

 

[Clem72]

I will not mask again. TPD, you need to start stocking groceries so I'll have somewhere to shop.

Are funyuns and beef jerkey not groceries?

 

[Sneakers]

I will not mask again. TPD, you need to start stocking groceries so I'll have somewhere to shop.

I think he talked about a new, bigger store. Maybe set aside an area for staples and some in-season veggies.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Wednesday that the emerging BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant could potentially lead to infections in those who not only had COVID before, but have previously been vaccinated.

“The large number of mutations in this variant raises concerns of greater escape from existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections compared with other recent variants,” the CDC stated in its risk assessment summary for this new lineage of COVID. “For example, one analysis of mutations suggests the difference may be as large as or greater than that between BA.2 and XBB.1.5, which circulated nearly a year apart.”

Are you scared yet? Well, maybe the CDC will just have to try harder.

Americans have largely gotten over COVID at this point, with only a select few still too paranoid to ditch the masks. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone wearing a mask in public. Even the Biden administration quietly admitted the pandemic was over back in April. At this point, most of the population has acquired COVID antibodies. There’s a reason why deaths and hospitalizations are way, way, way down, and people have long resumed living life normally again and are looking back at the lockdowns and the months of masking with disgust. But with an eerie sense of déjà vu, it feels like we’re once again in the thick of the pandemic and being conditioned to believe something terrible is on the horizon and we have to do something about it.

Whew Boy… There’s More Bad News for the Covid-Vaccinated

pjmedia.com

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Top review says COVID lockdowns and masks worked, period

They might not be popular, but a major report shows combining these interventions can keep case numbers low.

www.politico.eu

The report published Thursday by the Royal Society looked at findings from six evidence reviews that analyzed thousands of studies to assess the effect of masks, social distancing and lockdowns, test trace and isolate systems, border controls, environmental controls and communications. It found evidence that each of these measures — which are called "non-pharmaceutical interventions" — were effective, albeit to varying degrees, when looked at individually. However, the evidence in favor of using these tools was stronger when countries combined several measures.

The report could have significant implications for decision-making in future outbreaks, with Mark Walport, chair of the report’s expert working group and foreign secretary of the Royal Society, saying that “having protocols in advance is really important." He said what policymakers should take from the research is “there is evidence that non-pharmaceutical interventions are effective, but ... they have to be applied as packages, and they have to be applied as early as possible.”

The most effective measure, according to the review, was one of the most controversial — restrictions on movement and social interactions through lockdowns, distancing and rules around the size of gatherings. These were repeatedly found to be associated with a “significant reduction” in transmission of the virus, with the more stringent the measure, the greater the effect.

Archive - Unmasked

Full archive of all the posts from Unmasked.

ianmsc.substack.com

 

[Kyle]

 

[GURPS]

Return of the mask: COVID-19 spikes prompt restart of US mandates​

Now, as case counts and hospitalization rates have ticked up for the past five weeks in a row, one major hospital system in San Francisco and two in New York are reinstituting mask mandates for staff and patients due to rising case counts in their areas, as is Morris Brown College in Atlanta. Lionsgate Film Studios in Hollywood is also requiring masks for nearly half of its Santa Monica employees.







A meta-analysis study published in February found that even respirators, such as N95 masks, "probably [made] little to no difference" in catching or transmitting flu, COVID-19, or other respiratory illnesses.

The study reviewed 78 randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy of standard surgical masks to respirators, as well as other physical interventions, such as hand washing and social distancing.

Lack of compliance with proper wearing of face masks, especially N95s that require tight fitting, contributed to the low efficacy results, according to researchers.

N95 masks are the most effective against small particles and are recommended by both the CDC and the Environmental Protection Agency to protect against toxic air pollution, such as that from wildfire smoke.

N95 respirator masks have been found to have 95% filtration efficacy for particles that are 0.1-0.3 microns in size. The size of the average SARS-CoV-2 particle is between 0.07 and 0.09 microns, significantly smaller than particulate matter air pollutants.

The EPA specifically states that cloth or surgical masks are ineffective against particles smaller than 0.3 microns.





Paging @StmarysCity79 your plate of Crow is ready .... you stupid bint

MASKS DO NOT WORK.

 

[Sneakers]

There's a cold and flu spike every year, has been for the known history of the flu. Why just for Covid?