The media has been telling us for over a year and a half that masks are awesome, just wear a mask. Any mask. Once in a while they’ll do a study that shows the effectiveness of most masks is barely better than not wearing a mask at all, but, those are minimized. And now NPR is really letting the cat out of the bag

If you're still using a cloth mask, it's time to up your game. Experts say to block omicron, you should upgrade to an N95 or similar high-filtration mask.

Here's how to find a good one — and when to wear it.https://t.co/UpfUTTdcRG

— NPR (@NPR) December 23, 2021

From the screed

With another coronavirus variant racing across the U.S., once again health authorities are urging people to mask up indoors. Yes, you’ve heard it all before. But given how contagious omicron is, experts say, it’s seriously time to upgrade to an N95 or similar high-filtration respirator when you’re in public indoor spaces.

“Cloth masks are not going to cut it with omicron,” says Linsey Marr, a researcher at Virginia Tech who studies how viruses transmit in the air.

Omicron is so much more transmissible than coronavirus variants that have come before it. It spreads at least three times faster than delta. One person is infecting at least three others at a time on average, based on data from other countries. (snip)

True, a cloth mask can be a “marginally OK to maybe a decent filter,” Marr says. But with something as highly transmissible as omicron, just “OK” isn’t good enough. (snip)

Given all this, you want a mask that means business when it comes to blocking viral particles. Unlike cloth masks, N95, KN95 and KF94 respirators are all made out of material with an electrostatic charge, which “actually pulls these particles in as they’re floating around and prevents you from inhaling those particles,” Karan notes. “And that really is key” — because if you don’t inhale virus particles, they can’t multiply in your respiratory tract.

The material in surgical masks also has an electrostatic charge. But surgical masks tend to fit loosely, and a snug fit — with no gaps around nose, cheeks or chin — “really makes a big difference,” says Marr, who has studied mask efficacy.

Omicron may be more transmittable, but, it is also way less dangerous, way less deadly, than previous variants, especially Delta. But, we already knew that cloth masks had around a 10% effectiveness rate at stopping any version last year. Now they want everyone to wear higher end masks, which are not in abundance. All while few areas and states are requiring masks. It is very weird being in NJ and there is no mask mandate, most people are walking around without one in stores.

Wachter says he’s also covering up indoors with small groups of friends and family unless everyone is vaccinated and boosted. If they’re not boosted, he says, “I consider them to be somewhere between vaccinated and unvaccinated, and I act appropriately if I’m going to be around them.” That means he either has everyone mask up, or he has everyone take a rapid test to make sure no one is infectious at that moment. “One or the other.” This is especially important if anyone attending is high-risk.

And then it’ll be “if you haven’t had a second booster, you’re somewhere between vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Marr says that with omicron surging, she’d have kids wear respirators if possible when they’re indoors in public spaces. Parents searching for good respirator options for their children can check out the work of Aaron Collins, aka “Mask Nerd,” a mechanical engineer with a background in aerosol science. He’s been testing the filtration efficiencies of hundreds of masks and respirators on the market. You can find his reviews on his YouTube channel. (This spreadsheet on kids’ masks may also be helpful.)

And they want to drag kids into their mask hysteria.

Sometimes Dr. Doom is correct, sometimes he’s not. Sometimes he’s political…OK, most of the time he’s political. And a mask hypocrite. But, he’s probably 80% correct on this

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Expect ‘a flood’ of COVID-19 vaccine mandates after full FDA approval

As soon as the Food and Drug Administration issues a full approval for a COVID-19 vaccine, there will be “a flood” of vaccine mandates at businesses and schools across the nation, Dr. Anthony Fauci told USA TODAY’s editorial board on Friday.

Mandates aren’t going to happen at the federal level, but vaccine approval will embolden many groups, he predicted.

“Organizations, enterprises, universities, colleges that have been reluctant to mandate at the local level will feel much more confident,” he said.

“They can say, ‘If you want to come to this college or this university, you’ve got to get vaccinated. If you want to work in this plant, you have to get vaccinated. If you want to work in this enterprise, you’ve got to get vaccinated. If you want to work in this hospital, you’ve got to get vaccinated.'”

He is surely correct on this. There will be lots of companies and private entities which will look towards vaccine mandates once the EPA approves the vaccines. Whether that will be be straight up “get it or you’re out” or “get it or be subject to week/bi-weekly testing” remains to be seen. I know of several companies, including mine, where the upper levels have discussed or are discussing mandates. They are legally allowed to do so now, but, there could be issues, legally, with the vaccines being in emergency use status. That’s where lots of educational institutions of all levels, local, county, and state mandates, and the potential Department of Defense, mandates get in trouble: emergency use. Even requiring visitors to show vaccination can be tricky due to emergency use status.

Once you get EPA approval, all that ends. Fauci is wrong regarding the federal level, since the DOD is already considering, and the White House requires all visitors to be vaccinated. They’ve also required international travelers to be vaccinated or be tested. The feds, from the White House to Congressional Dems to the CDC and more will surely push hard for schools and private entities to instituted a vaccine mandate of some sort.

Because in the current political environment that won’t happen, Fauci said masks are the next best thing. Schools are crucial for children’s mental health and intellectual, physical and social development, so it’s important they stay open.

“I would rather have a child be a little bit uncomfortable with a mask on and be healthy than a comfortable child without a mask in an ICU,” he said. “It just doesn’t make any sense to me why you would want to not protect the children.”

And how many times have we seen Fauci without a mask in violation of his beliefs? And, heck, Joe Biden’s executive order. Same with Biden, Jen Psaki, and other Biden admin members?

The epidemic in the United States could be ended once and for all if everyone would get vaccinated, Fauci said. Barring that, he worries we’re in it for the long term.

Even if 100% are vaccinated, COVID19 will still be here. And people will still get it, as the Delta variant has broken through. And the vaccines were only around 94-96% effective in stopping infection. You just do not get full on COVID symptoms. They’re working on developing oral pills, which would be great. But, yeah, mandates are coming.

Should everyone who can get vaccinated get vaccinated? In my opinion, yes. But, this is America, and we have freedom. And the vaccines are not FDA approved. And we still have a Constitution and laws written by a duly elected Congress, signed into law by the President. Dementia Joe and his people do not seem to care

Exclusive– Rep. Mark Green: Mandatory Vaccines for Troops Before FDA Approval Is ‘Against the Law’

It would be against the law if Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made coronavirus vaccines mandatory for American troops before they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Friday afternoon, after he sent a letter to Austin warning him against the move.

“I wrote the letter because of a concern that the executive branch is somehow going to operate outside of the laws written by Congress. And they can’t just decide that they’re going to disregard the law,” said Green, an Army combat veteran and a physician.

“It’s time for Congress to stand up to the executive branch’s abuse and violation of the law. And so I wrote the letter basically to say this is an illegal act and the courts have supported the law,” he added.

With all due respect, a letter means nothing to Biden and progressives. Zero. They do what they want regardless of the law and Constitution. If Trump had done this, the Democrat run House would already be drafting articles of impeachment.

As far as receiving a presidential waiver to mandate the vaccine before it is FDA approved, Green said the president can do so only in connection with service members’ participation in a “particular military operation.” He cited 10 U.S. Code § 1107, which states:

(3)The Secretary of Defense may request the President to waive the prior consent requirement with respect to the administration of an investigational new drug or a drug unapproved for its applied use to a member of the armed forces in connection with the member’s participation in a particular military operation.

“Right now what they’re talking about — a blanket mandate for all of DOD — is not in accordance with the law,” he said. “If you just excuse the executive branch breaking the law, then what’s next?”

Now, perhaps Lloyd missed that part when he decided to make the mandate. Did no military lawyers step up and look at the laws on the books regarding medical decisions? The title of the aforementioned law is “Notice of use of an investigational new drug or a drug unapproved for its applied use”, which is under “Title 10. ARMED FORCES Subtitle A. General Military Law Part II. PERSONNEL Chapter 55. MEDICAL AND DENTAL CARE.” You’d think someone would look and go “oh, wait a minute.”

Both CNN and Fox News reported on Wednesday that Austin would send a recommendation to President Joe Biden to make the vaccines mandatory for members of the military, in addition to other mandatory vaccines. The administration could announce it as early as this week. Fox News reported it will come on Friday.

Green sent his letter to Austin on Friday morning in hopes of heading off the move. If the reports are accurate, it may have worked. He said as of Friday afternoon, no order from the president had been given to military commanders.

Maybe it did. I doubt it. We’ll have to see what happens next week. Does the order come or not? Because I doubt the China Joe admin cares about the law. And it’s a great way to force lots of right leaning folks out of the military, making it even more leftist. That a lot of blacks and Latinos would be booted, being that their populations have high rates of non-vaccination, will be ignored by the Credentialed Media. Perhaps they’ll include a provision for weekly testing for those who refuse to get the shot. Or maybe not. Power hungry people will do their thing. And even with vaccination, they’ll look for ways to impose their tyranny.

California had already mandated that all state workers and those in health care field, even private businesses, either get the vaccine or be subjected to weekly/bi-weekly tests. Now

California first in nation to mandate vaccinations for health care workers

California today issued the first order in the nation that requires COVID-19 vaccinations for health care workers, allowing only for religious or rare medical exemptions.

Employees of hospitals, nursing homes, doctors’ offices, clinics and other medical facilities have until Sept. 30 to get at least one dose of the vaccination, under the new order issued by Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, California’s public health officer. In the meantime, they must either be vaccinated or undergo mandatory weekly testing, under the state’s previous order issued last week.

California also ordered visitors to hospitals, skilled nursing homes and facilities for the developmentally disabled to be fully vaccinated or show a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours. The order applies only to indoor visits and goes into effect on Wednesday.

The new requirement for medical workers tightens Gov. Gavin Newsom’s move last week to require health care workers and state employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

State health officials were not immediately available to explain why the requirements for health care workers won’t go into effect until the end of September.

That’s a good question: if this is so important, why the end of September, especially when this is just about one simple dose. How does that help? Unless it is the Johnson and Johnson, you need two doses. One dose of Pfizer or Moderna means nothing. If they get it on Sept 30th, they’ll have to wait weeks to get the 2nd, then 14 days before considered fully vaccinated. The difference here, to be clear, is that all healthcare workers must be vaccinated. No testing. Vaccinated. Reports say around 23% of healthcare employees are refusing to get vaccinated. I wonder why people who understand healthcare are resistant? I wonder what happens when lots of healthcare workers, in a system that is already shortstaffed, leave.

But, hey, SEIU is protesting

(SacBee) SEIU Local 1000 filed an unfair labor practice charge against CalHR this week with the Public Employment Relations Board, alleging that Newsom’s administration failed to meet and confer with the union prior to implementing the new rule.

“We’re still protesting the fact that they’re violating our contract,” said Richard Louis Brown, the president. “That’s what the State of California is doing, and that is what the State of California has done under the leadership of this governor.”

The unfair labor practice charge states that CalHR “dodged its legal obligations by unilaterally imposing a deadline.”

Well, that’s interesting. The State can impose all sorts of mandates on citizens, but, not SEIU members, unless they renegotiate the contract? Piss off. You’re government workers. Most of you voted for this. Suck it up.

Elko County rejects governor’s mask mandate

Elko County Commissioners voted Wednesday against complying with Gov. Steve Sisolak’s latest mask mandate and for blocking door-to-door vaccine solicitations, but their actions don’t cover the incorporated cities of Elko, Carlin, Wells and West Wendover.

On the mask mandate, Commissioner Rex Steninger said that the “county must refuse to comply this time. Our local businesses depend upon us refusing. Our emotional and physical well-being of our residents depends on us refusing.”

His motion directed county offices and agents to refuse to enforce the mandate, but he said that those who want to wear masks should feel comfortable doing so.

Could this be the start of a movement, similar to areas declaring themselves 2nd Amendment sanctuaries? Especially since the vast majority of masks do not work.

Gotta keep the Fear Porn going, you know. Have to provide reasons to keep the government control high

A Doomsday COVID Variant Worse Than Delta and Lambda May Be Coming, Scientists Say

Scientists keep underestimating the coronavirus. In the beginning of the pandemic, they said mutated versions of the virus wouldn’t be much of a problem—until the more-infectious Alpha caused a spike in cases last fall. Then Beta made young people sicker and Gamma reinfected those who’d already recovered from COVID-19. Still, by March, as the winter surge in the U.S. receded, some epidemiologists were cautiously optimistic that the rapid vaccine rollout would soon tame the variants and cause the pandemic to wind down. (snip)

Delta, like most of the other variants, blindsided us, worsening and extending the pandemic. When the damage from Delta starts to subside, what other variants will be lurking just behind it to pull us back down again? The World Health Organization is already keeping an eye on several: Eta, which is now in several countries; Kappa, which arose in India; Iota, which first popped up in New York City—and especially Lambda, which has torn through Peru and shows signs of having unusual success in infecting fully vaccinated people, according to one early study. It has already spread to Argentina, Chile, Ecuador as well as Texas and South Carolina.

It’s too soon to say whether Lambda will turn out to be the next big, bad thing that COVID-19 unleashes on us. But it’s a good time to wonder: Just how destructive can these variants get? Will future variants expand their attack from the lungs to the brain, the heart and other organs? Will they take a page from HIV and trick people into thinking they’ve recovered, only to make them sick later? Is there a Doomsday variant out there that shrugs off vaccines, spreads like wildfire and leaves more of its victims much sicker than anything we’ve yet seen?

And wondering allows government to implement all sorts of draconian restrictions and controls on citizens. Oh, hey, perhaps we should be looking hard at the work done at the Wuhan institute, which was provided lots of support, and cover, by Fauci. Does a normal virus act like this, creating so many variants so quickly?

If we do not all get vaccinated, the next Covid-19 variant is just around the corner, expert says

Efforts to get more Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 are growing more urgent as an expert warns that if vaccination rates don’t increase, the dangerous Delta variant could continue to evolve.

“The next variant is just around the corner, if we do not all get vaccinated,” Adm. Brett Giroir, the former coronavirus testing czar under Pres. Trump, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

Fear Porn Theater. Speaking of theater

AOC masks up for a photo-op, then removes it afterwards. pic.twitter.com/JPrnINLkyl

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 4, 2021

Here in North Carolina

Cooper: NC focused on vaccinations, not new pandemic-related mandates

Gov. Roy Cooper dismissed questions Wednesday about the possibility of a new state mask mandate or business shutdowns amid a surge in coronavirus cases statewide.

Cooper probably realizes that there a lot of people who will no longer abide by restrictions, and, just as important, instituting all sorts of mandates and restrictions will harm the push to get North Carolinians vaccinated.

Meanwhile, 19% of small business say they will require the vaccine. I’d expect that number to grow. The Pentagon is going to mandate that all service personnel be vaccinated. How many will refuse and leave the military? How many will refuse to sign up? Los Angeles is considering a mandate requiring all people to be vaccinated for indoors activity. 19 Democrats are demanding the Capitol physician to mandate vaccination for Congress. And more and more and more.