EDITOR’S NOTE: Mohave County Newspapers and The Standard firmly supports and encourages the use of mask and social distancing during the pandemic.
Dear Editor,
The science and the facts agree; masks do not work to control viruses. After months of universal mask-wearing in many parts of the country and the world, the virus is still spreading. Japan, Hong Kong, Israel, France, Peru, the Philippines, UK, Spain, Hawaii, Alabama, California, and Miami are just a few examples of places with prolific spread long after very strict mask mandates and high compliance were in place.
We are told to listen to the experts. Dr Russel Blaylock a board-certified neurosurgeon, writes: a recent careful examination of the literature, in which 17 of the best studies were analyzed, concluded that, “None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask use and protection against influenza infection.” No studies have been done with masks and COVID, so we must use the studies on influenza.
Next we turn to Dr Scott Atlas of the White House Coronavirus Task Force who also states that masks do not work to control viruses and are in fact harmful to healthy people. He cites the same real world data I just mentioned, as well as the WHO and CDC, who both until very recently maintained the same position.
On the other hand, our County health director at the Sept 21st board meeting cited “Bill Nye the Science Guy” in support of mask use. I think this is exactly what Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell refers to as “astonishingly weak” evidence in support of masking. And at the Sept 15th Council meeting, she cited the declining cases in Mohave County as a triumph for mask mandates. However, had you looked at the equivalent graph for Yavapai county, which has no mandates in its largest cities, you find the same trend line, but an even lower overall case count then we have. Yavapai County, without mask mandates, has and continues to perform much better in COVID than Mohave.
On Sept 15th Bullhead City abolished their mandate, and Lake Havasu followed suit shortly thereafter. Despite prognostications of doom, they are still doing fine. If they have met the benchmarks for ending this, then so has Kingman.
Universal masking is doing nothing to slow the virus. All it is doing is spreading fear and anxiety in the population and enabling the pretense for endless emergency and the powers that go with it. The CDC has recently admitted that suicides are killing more people than COVID. This endless propagation of fear and endless war on small business is what is killing people, not the 99.9% survivable and treatable Covid-19.
At yesterday’s County board meeting Sheriff Schuster said “We are now seeing the endgame of the lock downs, of the masks. Our suicide rates are extreme compared to where they were this time last year. Our domestic violence is extreme. Our people are not doing well under these mandates.”
If it saves just one life lost to suicide to end the mandates, should we not end them?
If it relieves unneeded stress and fear in just one person to end the mandates, should we not end them?
As the President and his top coronavirus adviser, Dr Scott Atlas, said, the masks and the six-feet rituals don’t work. It’s time we recognize that there is no reason to hide from this virus, nor do we have the ability to do so anyway.
Ethan Benson
Kingman
For leadership to coward underneath the skirts of another is just cowardly. From my leader of Mohave County, Jean Bishop, I expect definition. Mohave County with its one acre minimum lot size has built in social distancing and virus protection. She may have gotten 9 plus million dollars from the federal government, but none of the money was used to benefit the businesses and residents of the county. Why has none of the businesses been reimbursed for there expenses of support for this emergency? State laws state they are entitled to reimbursment.
For leadership to coward underneath the skirts of another is just cowardly. From my leader of Mohave County, Jean Bishop, I expect definition. Mohave County with its one acre minimum lot size has built in social distancing and virus protection. She may have gotten 9 plus million dollars from the federal government, but none of the money was used to benefit the businesses and residents of the county. Why has none of the businesses been reimbursed for there expenses of support for this emergency? State laws state they are entitled to reimbursment.