Column #288    March 12, 2021Virus Particles Escaping from a Mask

A team of Japanese scientists used the world’s fastest super computer to evaluate the advantages of double masking. It’s been in the news. Even if you’ve already heard about it, it deserves more attention for a variety of reasons. First off. It’s an actual scientific approach to answering a basic question.

We’ve all seen the videos of Dr. Fauci saying it only makes sense that two masks are better than one. Immediately, to set a proper example, our new president started wearing two masks. Now there are quite a few people wearing two masks these days because they believe “it only makes sense.”

After explaining how the Japanese study came out, I’ll introduce Scott W. Atlas, MD, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Late last year he also served, for a few months, as a Special Adviser to the President and was a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He explains why the CDC’s seat-of-the-pants approach to advising bureaucrats how to order their subjects citizens around is more destructive than constructive. I’ll then provide a short analysis of the harm the bureaucrats have caused then explain what they should have been doing.

Bottom line. The Japanese supercomputer’s mannequins showed us that one mask is sufficient. For their tests there were two heads facing each other in a box. The masked head exhaled air with the COVID-19 virus and the other head (masked or unmasked) breathes in the air. The Japanese tested the effectiveness of an assortment of face masks and proved unequivocally that double-masking isn’t much different from a properly-worn surgical masks in stopping the transmission of COVID-19 virus particles.1Japan Mask Testing Dummies

When it comes to masks, Makoto Tsubokura, a professor of computational science at Kobe College, summed up the research by saying, “Carrying one non-woven mask is sufficient, and ensure it’s placed on correctly without leaving a niche between the material and the nostril.” As can be seen in the image of virus particles escaping from a mask, masks cannot stop the transmission of the virus. Some particles will get out.

By using the new Fugaku supercomputer, Tsubokura was able to model numerous situations for two heads wearing face masks (in a box) for mask effectiveness in trapping small droplets from a coughing maneuver. Many virus-type illnesses are spread by being carried in droplets which are produced by expelling air from the lungs. In Tsubokura’s tests a urethane mask worn over a non-woven one, such as a standard medical mask, trapped 89% of the droplets throughout the simulation. A loosely worn medical mask trapped 69% of the particles. However, when fitted correctly to the face with the nostril wire, the medical mask’s stopping energy was 85%. The difference between two masks and one was 89% to 85%.2Japans Fugaku Supercomputer

The tests undermined the rationale for double-masking. The data also indicated that the virus spread could be decreased by 95.9% if both the coughing individual and the recipient each put on a mask. Consequently, if both parties wore a mask about 4.1% of the virus particles expelled into the box could be transmitted from one individual to another. Tsubokura said a complete strategy, which incorporates washing arms, wearing face masks, air flow, social distancing, and different measures, is critical for efficient prevention of airborne illnesses. An earlier study by the Fugaku supercomputer showed that face shields are ineffective.

What good are masks? If face coverings are worn correctly by someone who is suffering from COVID-19, but not showing symptoms, they provide some protection to others which reduces the spread of the disease. But they are not absolute by any means.

The infectious nature of COVID-19 is such that as few as ten COVID-19 virus particles can cause an infection. Some studies say it takes 200 particles. A sneeze can carry 26 feet! A cough or a sneeze from an infected person can produce 200 million particles that can quickly spread throughout a room. If all parties in the room have masks on, and 4.1% of the particles can be transmitted into the room, that’s 8.2 million particles that will get through or around the masks. Just breathing can produce 20 particles per minute, so a masked person in close contact to an infected person wearing an N95 mask could expose a person to 10 particles in ten minutes. A person speaking exhales 200 particles per minute, meaning in close contact it would take only one minute to infect the other person when both parties are masked.

The computerized tests used properly-fitted, fresh masks. Research demonstrates that masks, as the public generally uses them, cannot prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Much of the recent research claiming to support masks is weak and poorly designed in that it doesn’t take into account the real world. Alarmingly, frequent mask use by the general population increases bacteria and dust in our mouth and airways. A government mandating that everyone wear a mask based on such low-quality evidence is reckless and potentially harmful.3

Scott Atlas makes many valid points about the government’s response to the pandemic.4
●    The Coronavirus pandemic has been a great tragedy. But it has also exposed profound issues in America.
●    He’s shocked by the enormous power of the government, to unilaterally decree, to simply close businesses and schools by edict, restrict personal movement, mandate behavior, and eliminate our most basic freedoms, without any end and little accountability.
●    He’s surprised at the acceptance by the American people of draconian rules, restrictions, and unprecedented mandates, even those that are arbitrary, destructive, and wholly unscientific.
●    Separate from their limited value in containing the virus—efficacy that has often been “grossly exaggerated” in scientific journals, as documented by epidemiologists and biostatisticians Chin, Ioannidis, Tanner, and Cripps—lockdown policies have been extraordinarily harmful.
●    The harms to children of closing in-person schooling are dramatic, including poor learning, increased school dropouts, and social isolation, most of which are far worse for lower income groups.
●    The health disaster has compounded because of missed critical surgeries, chemotherapy, organ transplants, presentations of pediatric illnesses, heart attack and stroke patients too afraid to call emergency services, and others, all well documented.
●    CDC reported fourfold increases in depression, threefold increases in anxiety symptoms, and a doubling of suicidal ideation, particularly among young adults—college age—after the first few months of lockdowns, echoing the AMA reports of drug overdoses and suicides.
●    Domestic abuse and child abuse have been skyrocketing due to the isolation and specifically to the loss of jobs, particularly in the strictest lockdowns.
●    We should all remember the phrase attributed to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels—“A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth”—and pray to God that it never becomes true in these United States of America.

It’s all really simple. That’s why I generally agree with Lisa Mair who has a Master’s of Science in Food Science and Nutrition and has been an advocate for natural health for decades. She says, “For now, let’s stick with the measures that do help: social distancing, hand hygiene, and avoiding chronic disease. Only don a fresh, clean N95 mask for short periods of time when you’re unavoidably close to others indoors.”

Personally, I’d only use a mask if I was knowingly close to someone who is infected. The odds of contracting COVID-19 in a regular community setting such as a restaurant or sporting event are very low these days since our country has almost reached herd immunity. In addition I’m very focused on my health, especially in keeping my immunity in tip top shape.5 6

What Lisa has pointed out is what I claim is the most important factor that the CDC refuses to address. We’ve been through a full year of pandemic scaremongering by the bureaucrats, yet during that entire time they have not spent even 1% of their time emphasizing the fact that people must improve their own immunity. The CDC never discusses the importance of Omega-3 in immune system function. The CDC never breathes a word about how to determine your Omega-3 deficiency which is a function of the balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs). It does not explain that obesity, or even being just a little fat, can turn a case of COVID-19 into a death sentence. Nor do they tell folks that they must stop eating sugars and carbohydrates, and how to do that, in order to lose weight.7 8

So, instead of using the pandemic as an incentive to improve health across the board for all Americans, the CDC spent a full year crippling the entire country with bogus, seat-of-the-pants dictates based on opinions. They did it by telling lies. “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” We deserve better. I highly recommend that everyone read the links by Dr. Scott Atlas and Lisa Mair.

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don’t miss these links for additional reading:

1. Japan Researchers Show Masks Block Coronavirus, but Not Perfectly from The Japan Times

2. Fugaku: the Fastest Supercomputer in the World Is Finally at Full Operational Status by Brandon Vigliarolo from TechRepublic

3. Many Studies Find That Cloth Masks Do Not Stop Viruses Like COVID by Lisa Mair from the Federalist

4. Scott Atlas: The Last Word by Dr. Scott Atlas from The Stanford Review

5. Ted Slanker’s Omega-3 Blood Test

6. Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases by Artemis Simopoulos, M.D.

7. Get Your Own Omega-3 Blood Test and use slanker as a code for a discount

8. Food Analysis: GI, GL, Fat Ratio, Nutrient Load by Ted Slanker