Orthodox Christians care about other people. Being made in the image and likeness of God – people matter. So couching the current lock downs, mask orders, and social distancing in the language of love and compassion has dampened opposition to moves that would otherwise have elicited a much stouter response. While shutting churches was definitely controversial, most parishes outside places like California are back open, but with many restrictions. Chief among these in many jurisdictions is the mandatory wearing of face masks during Divine Liturgy, even in states and localities which do not have mandatory mask orders in effect.
If you try to question the masks during liturgy, you will quickly find yourself being told, “It is worth it if masks save even one life.”
But is your church mask going to save even one life?
Let’s explore that, shall we? First, let’s assume you have the virus. The odds of getting the virus have been estimated by researchers as approximately 1 in 3,836. Better than the lottery for sure, though not exactly a given either. But in this case, your number has come up, you have the virus. Beyond just having it, we have to assume you are asymptomatic or at least pre-symptomatic. If you were actually feeling sick, then we assume that you would stay home instead of relying on a mask to protect others at church.
So you feel perfectly healthy, in fact you are healthy, yet you have enough of a viral load to be infectious to others without your knowledge. That is no easy feat, by the way. To infect another person but not realize you even have the virus, you have to reach a sort of “sweet spot” where your body is replicating enough virus to to be contagious, but not enough that you develop symptoms. So you are healthy, but contagious. There is a lot of controversy over “asymptomatic” and “pre-symptomatic” transmission, but for our purposes, let’s assume you have the virus with enough viral load to be contagious, but you feel completely healthy so there you are at the Divine Liturgy.
Now to infect someone else, you are going to need to have close contact with that person for a sustained period of time. A minimum of 10 minutes, but likely more like 30 minutes or more. The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space has been characterized as “minimal.” So you will need to find a person at liturgy, and really get up close and personal to have a shot at infecting him or her. And that is not guaranteed, of course, as only about 1 in 5 people who live with a Covid-19 patient even get the disease. That means even in the same house, 4 out of 5 people don’t.
Okay, you have a really long, long interaction with someone at liturgy, you have a high viral load, but no symptoms ( no fever, coughing or sneezing), so your mask will protect him or her from you exhaling aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 with a diameter between 60 nanometers (nm) and 140 nm, or 0.06 to 0.14 microns (micrometers), right?
Yeah, no.
In fact, there is absolutely no scientific evidence that your mask will help protect anyone from Covid-19, including yourself:
Masks and respirators do not work.
There have been extensive randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies, and meta-analysis reviews of RCT studies, which all show that masks and respirators do not work to prevent respiratory influenza-like illnesses, or respiratory illnesses believed to be transmitted by droplets and aerosol particles.
Furthermore, the relevant known physics and biology, which I review, are such that masks and respirators should not work. It would be a paradox if masks and respirators worked, given what we know about viral respiratory diseases: The main transmission path is long-residence-time aerosol particles (< 2.5 μm), which are too fine to be blocked, and the minimum-infective dose is smaller than one aerosol particle.
Here’s another meta-analysis of existing studies:
In our systematic review, we identified 10 RCTs that reported estimates of the effectiveness of face masks in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the community from literature published during 1946–July 27, 2018. In pooled analysis, we found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks.
The mask may let you down, but even if you infect someone else, the odds are definitely on his or her side. Well over 80% or better of infections produce either no or very mild symptoms. Research indicates that even an older person in the range of 50 to 64 has only a 1 in 852,000 of being hospitalized as a result of Covid-19. And what people seem to forget is that Covid-19 has a survival rate estimated at over 99.7%, though it can be harder on people with certain pre-existing conditions and the elderly. In the United States, so far, the average age of those dying from Covid-19 is 78.5 years of age.
So no, your mask isn’t helping, and the truth is it could really be hurting you and others.
We listed some of the most prevalent problems with masks at the top of this article, with links to supporting documentation. For now there are two things we want to focus on – masks as a way of spreading Covid-19 and the harm to children.
Masks, the way most people use them, are petri dishes strapped to their faces. The warm, dirty, moist, contaminated material is a perfect environment to grown and sustain bacteria, viruses, and fungi. People constantly touch the contaminated surfaces of their masks, then touch their eyes and spread disease to themselves and possibly to others.
As doctors from the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, Australia, concluded in arguing against even health care workers wearing surgical masks when treating low‐risk patients:
There is no good evidence that facemasks protect the public against infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID‐19.
One danger of doing this is the illusion of protection. Surgical facemasks are designed to be discarded after single use. As they become moist they become porous and no longer protect. Indeed, experiments have shown that surgical and cotton masks do not trap the SARS‐CoV‐2 (COVID‐19) virus, which can be detected on the outer surface of the masks for up to 7 days. Thus, a pre‐symptomatic or mildly infected person wearing a facemask for hours without changing it and without washing hands every time they touched the mask could paradoxically increase the risk of infecting others.
Isn’t that ironic? Wearing a face mask out of Christian love to “protect” others can actually increase the risk you will infect them.
And what about kids? Well, one pediatrician we know personally has stated that making young children breathe through filthy, contaminated facial coverings is the “worst form of child abuse ever widely accepted by any society.”
Congratulations to all the bishops, priests, and parish councils demanding masks – your actions are actually increasing the risks to your people’s health. The damage of dirty and improperly used masks is probably why suddenly Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx are recommending face shields and/or eye goggles in addition to masks. Face mask mandates have been in place for months in places like California, yet the spread of the Corona virus has not been arrested. Rather than admitting the inability of masks to do much good, the powers-that-be are instead doubling-down and recommending even more protective equipment just to go to church or get your groceries.
Kind of makes you wonder how this will end? Or even if it will?
So if healthy people wearing masks doesn’t work, how did we get here?
In a word – politics.
At one point back in far away March 2020, the CDC, Fauci, the WHO, basically everyone, was against widespread community masking.
For example, Dr. Fauci said on March 8, “No, right now, people should not be wearing — there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet. But it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And often there are unintended consequences; people keep fiddling with the mask, and they keep touching their face.”
By May, the CDC and Fauci had flipped on the issue, and mask mandates have sprouted across the country like daisies in Spring. Did the science change between March and May? No, the studies (even from the CDC) that had found no efficacy and much potential harm had not changed. The political environment changed, not the science.
Peter Hitchens gives a great insight into the process by which politics dictates science in the case of the WHO which recently reversed its advice on mandatory masking:
On July 12, Deborah Cohen, the medical correspondent of BBC2’s Newsnight, revealed an astonishing thing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had reversed its advice on face masks, from ‘don’t wear them’ to ‘do wear them’.
But the key fact was that it had not done so because of scientific information – the evidence had not backed the wearing of face coverings – but because of political lobbying.
She revealed on Twitter that: ‘We had been told by various sources [that the] WHO committee reviewing the evidence had not backed masks but they recommended them due to political lobbying.’ She said the BBC had then put this to the WHO, which did not deny it.
Why did masks suddenly become such an article of faith and a mandate of the ruling class? For a variety of reasons. Mandating masks might help churches and businesses in the legal realm by giving them a “we’re doing everything we can” defense against Covid lawsuits. That reason seems to loom large with Orthodox jurisdictions, especially the Greek Archdiocese that makes you accept a legal waiver to attend liturgy. Politicians are always interested in looking like they are “doing something” in the face of a perceived crisis. Medical professionals who buck the CDC, which many of them denigrate in private, can find themselves out of a job or even out of medicine. Of course, there is real and genuine hysteria among some people who want to feel any sense of control in the face of an unseen threat to their health. And let’s not forget that some people, Christian and secular, want to feel virtuous and included among society’s elect. Masks are a moral statement to such people.
There could be more nefarious reasons, of course. Masks keep a sense of panic alive in advance of the election. Masks could also promote eventual acceptance of a rushed, unproven and possibly unsafe vaccine to protect against a virus with a 99.7% survival rate. Regardless of the reasons why any one supports the mask, “science” cannot be counted among them.
Dr. Fauci has already indicated that he believes masks should be used in the future for every Flu Season forever. Unless community leaders such as priests and bishops stand up to this unscientific assault on our freedom and health, it is very likely to become permanent in one form or another.
For those who want more information about issues surrounding the novel Corona Virus, we highly recommend this video of a trauma physician giving the truth about the virus, the real risks it poses, and how out-of-proportion our response has been.
Your mask will not save a life in church, or anywhere else. Wearing it is not a mark of your moral superiority or even your own common sense. Forcing this practice on young children who are practically immune from Covid-19 is socially-enabled child abuse. Bishops and parish councils need to immediately re-evaluate mask requirements, with an eye towards abandoning them altogether in the interest of health and safety.
My husband said someone told him there is a video showing the Chinese putting those throw-away masks rubbing them on their body and private parts and sending them to the US. This was caught on video. I don’t know why people trust atheist Communists.
I really appreciate your article here. Thanks for the good work, look forward to more on this topic as this stuff seems to be getting crazier by the hour, and it pains me how many Orthodox are playing into this garbage.
Evidence does not matter to those who do not want to believe you.
Well, the trauma surgeon video referenced in the article must have been telling the truth, since it has been removed from YouTube for “violating community standards”. Any other source?
Oh for the love of Pete. I will see if I can track it down again elsewhere. Great video.
How refreshing that someone within the Church has the courage to speak the truth boldly and directly. But be careful Alex, you will likely be banished from the Internet and social media platforms for being politically incorrect.
I am disappointed that Alek makes a personal attack, rather than deal with the issue. Alek, you took a cheap shot, a personal attack, and you put down the person, rather than dealing with the issue. I want to believe that you are right, but I am turned off by your lack of charity, under the guise of the Orthodox Church
We approved the comment so that we could comment on that attitude ourselves. Thanks for the feedback.
You should be ashamed for spreading false information. Our Priests daughter had Covid, my son and a friend had Covid for 2 month’s and an elderly lady in our Parish died.
There are too many at risk people of all ages in our Parish’s and healthy people who get Covid too.
I went to church and a man who thinks like you took off his mask and gave me a big hug.
I’m 72 and live in a Senior building with people who have cancer, COPD etc. I was very upset!
It’s not safe for me to go to Church because people like you think you know more than the CDC and top experts.
Would you let a doctor operate on you if he went all day without a mask?
Your attitude is selfish and lacks love for your brothers and sister’s.
Bonnie, you are ridiculous and i feel sorry for you. May God help us in this madness!
Personally Alek, though we agree with that Bonnie’s feelings are over-the-top, we can’t really blame her. We saw one poll this morning that indicated a majority of Americans surveyed thought the Covid Death Toll in the United States was over 29 million. Even if you believe a number that includes gunshot wounds to the head and car crashes, the tolls is in the 150,000’s. So we are not at all surprised that an elderly Orthodox woman would be so terrified of the situation. Our goal should be to, over time, try to help these people over come their fears. It may require some tough love here or there, but it needs to be kept in check by our love for our fellow man. They’re afraid, and fearful people do things that are hard to understand.
Hi Bonnie –
I will start with your last question first. I would not allow a doctor to operate on me if I knew that he/she was wearing a dirty, contaminated mask that had been worn with other patients. A surgical mask is a single-use item that is discarded immediately after a case in the OR is finished. Surgical masks do not filter viruses. They are worn primarily to keep bacteria in our breath from contaminating a surgical cavity. The surgical masks we use clinically even come in boxes that explicitly state they do not provide any protection whatsoever from Covid-19. In the OR, we have many more techniques for reducing infection than the mask including special air purifiers, colder than normal temps, etc. The mask itself is only a small part of what is done, and then it must be clean to work, which is why in a long case OR staff may swap out their masks after they are saturated.
Outside of clinical setting, untrained people tend to wear any mask (surgical or simple cloth) for hours and hours, repeatedly, totally and completely contaminating it and increasing the risk of passing on or contracting multiple types of infectious disease.
If you read the article, then you are aware that we linked to multiple scientific studies that indicate how little masks provide in the way of protection against a virus. Here is a relevant article from the New England Journal of Medicine (link below):
We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372
The article of course linked to multiple studies that confirm. What I will do now is link to a typical pro-face mask statement:
Dr James Rubin, from the King’s College London’s department of psychological medicine and the paper’s co-author, said: “Many public health bodies are coming to the conclusion that wearing a face covering might help reduce the spread of Sars-CoV-2, and the limited evidence available suggests their use doesn’t have a negative effect on hand hygiene.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/27/face-masks-can-boost-hand-washing-increase-perception-risk/
Please note the phraseology – “might help reduce the spread”
Now, in your response to the article, Bonnie, it looks like you believe that wearing a mask provides a lot more benefit than even those who advocate for mandatory masking are willing to say. The studies just aren’t there to back up this assertion. And even if masks could help reduce the spread, notice that the doctor did not say “stop” or “arrest” the spread, because as we see everyday, despite mask orders and the practical death of our economy, the virus keeps on spreading. In fact, the virus spreads even during lock downs. That is the nature of these things.
The major things said in favor of masks are that 1) they might do some good, 2) they will make vulnerable people feel better and help re-opening efforts 3) what’s the harm?
We believe we have answered point number 1 – the science does not indicate any benefit. Some public health officials are simply ignoring that science for other reasons. Concerning Point 2, it is very clear that you, Bonnie, like many people rely on masking as an emotional crutch to help feel more secure. The fact is that you really shouldn’t. The truth is that even at 72, your chances of survival are very, very high. You should really consider talking to your doctor about ways to boost your immune system, as the virus is widespread and will continue to spread until Herd Immunity is reached. At no point did medical science say we could stop the spread, only (possibly) slow it at the cost of our economy and maybe even our sanity. So point number 2 is no reason to force people to wear dirty pieces of cloth over their faces.
Point 3 – In the article and in other articles on this site, we have detailed the harm that can be done from wearing a dirty, contaminated, wet, disgusting piece of cloth over your face for hours at a time. Many jurisdictions and now school districts are making children wear these things, knowing full well that the kids will basically mop the floor with their masks, put them back on, swap them with friends, etc. Can you imagine the dangers to young lungs of making children breath through dirty fabric day-after-day? Can you imagine the memories of young children forced to attend liturgy in a dirty mask? Are those opposed to mask mandates the selfish ones, or are the people who need ineffective masks forced on everyone else to feel safe? A feeling of safety that is itself illusory?
Love you, Bonnie. But you need to face the facts, including the extremely high survival rate of this virus, and you need to put yourself into the place of parents with young children, those whose health makes it hard to wear a mask, and in the place of those poor employees who are forced to wear dirty, contaminated masks that harm their lungs and ruin their work days. These people wear masks that probably help no one, but which make you feel more comfortable, and for that reason they are forced to compromise their own health for no more than making you and other frightened senior citizens feel safer.
Please think of others.
If it’s not safe for you to go places, you should stay home. Let healthy people resume their lives. Where is the evidence for “asymptomatic transmission”? Please cite specifics. Also, doctors are fitted specifically w/high-caliber masks, to keep them from contaminating a wound during surgery.
“Serious question to mask wearers…” Wow what a pompous piece. No I’m not a scientist but I have friends who are and they tell me wear the mask. So what exactly are the credentials of the author of this piece? We’re doing the best we can out here.
Did you skip the entire piece and only look at the meme used to decorate it? The piece was co-written by three contributors – a clinical educator with 26 years health care experience, a senior statistical analyst for a top 5 global financial institution, and an MD with over 40 years of practice. Now, what does any of that actually matter? The article does not merely assert its point, there are multiple direct quotations from studies as well as links to the sources. The intention of articles on this site is for them to stand alone, not somehow be exercises in credentialed lecturing. Even experts should use data to under gird any claims they make. Your friends who are scientists still need actual data that indicate not only are masks helpful, but that they are not harmful. This article focused on church, which is only two hours long or so at most. But keep in mind that mandatory masking (not voluntary) primarily affects workers who wear masks for 8 – 12 hours. Workers and, especially children, wear filthy disease-contaminated cloth on their faces for hours. This is an open invitation to disease. In a clinical environment, one mask per case. In the real world, the waitress wearing a mask has dragged it through a cesspool and is then breathing through that mask onto your plate of food. The science tells us that such as situation is worse for her and you. If you want to dispute the linked studies and commentary with counter arguments, please do feel free to do so.
As a physician-scientist, I agree with you completely. I know plenty of physicians and non-physicians who seem quite ignorant outside their fields of expertise. I highly recommend studying the COVID-19 work of John P. A. Ioannidis, MD, a mathematician, epidemiologist and internist.
It is an awfully good meme, though. While chuckling over it, I kept thinking that I probably shouldn’t be, as it seems that there is something sinister about how all this has developed.