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<p>Hi Allan</p>
<p>We discussed Visionary City Planning last Saturday. Lots of
interesting things to discuss on this topic. I have long been a
fan of Buckminster Fuller who presents some interesting insights
on this matter. <br>
</p>
<p>I myself, prefer not to live in "the darkness" of blind
faith.(lol) I went to Check the source of this graph but could
not find it. This graph would be more valuable to me if it was
compared to increases in all cause mortality. Increases in all
cause mortality of circa 16% reported in Europe and the USA are
highly correlated to the rollout of the vaccine in those countries
and not to the virus. International science reviews are generally
suspect of statistical reporting from Canadian government Sources
for many documented reasons. So i wanted to dig deeper into this
statistical reporting. If you want I can provide sources. <br>
</p>
<p>Naomi Wolfe was at one time a respected leftist writer until she
started reporting on Global empire and the military industrial
complex. The article below is how she recently reported on the
masking issue and this particular study from The Cochrane view.</p>
<p>I am not trying to convince you, Allan. I am only presenting
factual information to people highly propagandized by a narrative
controlled by big Pharma and the billionaire oligarchs who own the
media. <br>
</p>
<p>Resurrection is Transcendence. <br>
</p>
<p>Art<br>
</p>
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Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI
Symbol'; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600;
letter-spacing: -0.15px; line-height: 20px;"><a
href="https://naomiwolf.substack.com"
style="color: #808080; text-decoration:
underline;">Outspoken with Dr Naomi Wolf</a>
cross-posted a post from <a
href="https://michaelpsenger.substack.com?utm_source=cross-post&utm_campaign=676930"
style="color: #808080; text-decoration:
underline;">The New Normal</a></span></td>
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<div class="user-head" style="font-size: 16px;
line-height: 26px;"><a
href="https://substack.com/profile/28216063-dr-naomi-wolf">
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style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
position: relative;"><img
src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_80,h_80,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fffec7fa5-ee27-4aa2-b603-cd7ab2b23492_600x600.jpeg"
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<div class="email-text-base restacker-name"
style="color: #404040; font-family: 'SF Pro
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font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;"><span
style="display: block; font-weight: 600;">Dr
Naomi Wolf</span><span class="email-text-b4"
style="color: #808080; display: block;
font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.15px;
line-height: 20px;">Mar 26 · Outspoken with Dr
Naomi Wolf</span></div>
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<p class="email-text-base email-text-b3 intro-text"
style="color: #404040; font-family: 'SF Pro Text',
-apple-system, ui-sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe
UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color
Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size:
16px; letter-spacing: -0.45px; line-height: 22px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-top: 0;"><span>Incredibly
important expose of how we in the free world were
brutalized by scientifically nonsensical forced
masking. </span></p>
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Slab',sans-serif; font-size: 32px; font-weight: 700;
line-height: 36px; margin: 0;"><a
href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=834349&post_id=108714591&utm_source=cross-post&isFreemail=true&utm_campaign=676930&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo3MTY0Mjg5OCwicG9zdF9pZCI6MTA4NzE0NTkxLCJpYXQiOjE2Nzk4NDYyMDYsImV4cCI6MTY4MjQzODIwNiwiaXNzIjoicHViLTgzNDM0OSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.C23faIxXYrzDwKzireNiI0P-kc8gn-Y6fB9nbS0meGM"
style="color: #404040; text-decoration: none;">How Zeynep
Tufekci and Jeremy Howard Masked America</a></h1>
<h3 class="subtitle" style="-moz-osx-font-smoothing:
subpixel-antialiased; -webkit-font-smoothing:
subpixel-antialiased; color: #808080; font-family: 'SF Compact
Display', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI',
Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji',
'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 18px;
font-weight: normal; line-height: 24px; margin: 4px 0 0;
margin-top: 12px;">Zeynep Tufekci and Jeremy Howard played a
decisive role in shifting CDC guidance and ushering in mask
mandates across America. Zeynep’s role in the COVID story goes
far deeper than most realize.</h3>
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12px; font-weight: 500;
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unset; text-transform: uppercase;"><a
href="https://substack.com/profile/82753189-michael-p-senger"
style="color: #404040; font-family:
'SF Compact Text','SF Pro
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class="frontend-pencraft-Text-module__reset--20JLV
frontend-pencraft-Text-module__size-12--2onFT
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frontend-pencraft-Text-module__font-meta--2i-cR
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P Senger</a></div>
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style="color: #808080; font-family:
'SF Compact Text','SF Pro
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Emoji','Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size:
12px; font-weight: 500;
letter-spacing: .2px; line-height:
20px; margin: 0; text-decoration:
unset; text-transform: uppercase;"><time
datetime="2023-03-26T15:56:37.961Z">Mar
26</time></div>
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<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>After three years of speculation, an
authoritative study has finally </span><a
href="https://www.city-journal.org/new-cochrane-study-on-masks-and-covid"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">confirmed</a><span>
what humanity gained from all those mask advisories during
COVID: approximately Zero. That was the verdict of a recent </span><a
href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Cochrane
review</a><span>, often referred to as the “gold standard” in
evidence-based medicine, which included results from 78
peer-reviewed RCTs with over 6,000 participants. Across the
populations studied, masks, regardless of type, had made “little
to no difference” in preventing COVID or flu.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>The Cochrane review seemed to settle
the matter once and for all. Mask opponents had their trump
card. But alas, the pro-mask establishment responded with a
trump card of their own: a New York Times op-ed by sociologist
Zeynep Tufekci, </span><em><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/opinion/masks-work-cochrane-study.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Here’s
Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work</a></em><span>,
highlighting a </span><a
href="https://www.cochrane.org/news/statement-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses-review"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">statement</a><span>
of clarification from Cochrane’s editor-in-chief, Karla
Soares-Weiser, that the review’s conclusion had been “open to
misinterpretation, for which we apologize.”</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">This new trump card was a disaster for mask
opponents—the proverbial queen of spades—and it quickly went viral
among mask devotees, newly reassured in the righteousness of their
talismans. Though the title was a lie—and contradicted by the text
of the op-ed itself—as was widely known in the age of “the
science,” an op-ed from Zeynep, with her preternatural charisma,
was worth decades of scientific evidence. Soon, news about the
Cochrane review, and the years of meticulously-collected data and
evidence it represented, was drowned out by mainstream headlines
about Soares-Weiser’s little statement of clarification.</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">Yet Zeynep’s op-ed brought new attention to a
question that’s been a bit of a mystery since COVID began. Where
exactly did all these mask mandates come from? Why did the US CDC
suddenly reverse its longstanding guidance and begin recommending
masks for the first time in modern history in April 2020?</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">As it turns out, in a role that Zeynep failed
to disclose in her op-ed, it was Zeynep herself and her colleague
Jeremy Howard who’d been the deciding factor in initiating that
reversal in the CDC’s longstanding guidance on masking. The story
of how they did it, and of Zeynep’s larger role in the COVID saga,
goes much deeper than her recent op-ed.</p>
<h3 class="header-with-anchor-widget"
style="-moz-osx-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;
-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; color: #404040;
font-family: 'SF Compact Display', -apple-system,
BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI
Symbol'; font-size: 1.375em; font-weight: bold; line-height:
1.16em; margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0; position: relative;">Background</h3>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Jeremy Howard is a computer scientist
and artificial intelligence expert. Something of a Sinophile,
Howard is proficient in Chinese and </span><a
href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1240366575871504387"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">repeatedly</a><span>
</span><a
href="https://www.fast.ai/posts/2020-03-09-coronavirus.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">advocated</a><span>
</span><a
href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1252948919228813312"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">for</a><span>
</span><a
href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1246845276524077059"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">the</a><span>
</span><a
href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1274059240257155073"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">use</a><span>
of </span><a
href="https://www.fast.ai/posts/2020-03-09-coronavirus.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">information</a><span>
and expertise from China during COVID. Howard was </span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230325033915/https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardjeremy/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">part</a><span>
of the China-friendly WEF Young Global Leaders program for six
years and a member of the WEF’s Global AI Council for three
years.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Zeynep Tufekci was born and raised and
worked as a programmer in Turkey before beginning an academic </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/business/media/how-zeynep-tufekci-keeps-getting-the-big-things-right.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">career</a><span>
in the United States, where she soon became something of a
celebrity writer in the fields of sociology and technology.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Zeynep was consistently ahead on the
hot-button topics among the global elite. When Donald Trump won
the election in 2016 and the American political class became
terrified of Russian disinformation online, Zeynep had already
been writing on that topic for years; long before COVID, Zeynep
had also been writing about </span><a
href="https://medium.com/message/ebola-the-real-reason-everyone-should-panic-889f32740e3e"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">pandemics</a><span>.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Pandemics and censorship—those were
Zeynep’s fields. Both involved tough questions about the
suspension of citizens’ rights, a subject from which Zeynep
didn’t shy. As she wrote in Wired in 2018, “</span><em><a
href="https://www.wired.com/story/free-speech-issue-tech-turmoil-new-censorship/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">It's
the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age of Free Speech</a></em><span>.”
In Zeynep’s view, social media “invalidates much of what we
think about free speech—conceptually, legally, and ethically”:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>The most
effective forms of censorship today involve meddling with
trust and attention, not muzzling speech itself.</strong><span>
As a result, they don’t look much like the old forms of
censorship at all. They look like viral or coordinated
harassment campaigns…</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>Even when the
big platforms themselves suspend or boot someone</strong><span>
off their networks for violating “community standards”</span><strong>—an
act that </strong><em><strong>does</strong></em><strong> look
to many people like old-fashioned censorship—it’s not
technically an infringement on free speech,</strong><span>
even if it is a display of immense platform power. </span><strong>Anyone
in the world can still read what the far-right troll Tim
“Baked Alaska” Gionet has to say on the internet.</strong><span>
What Twitter has denied him, by kicking him off, is attention.
</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>This idea that foreign disinformation
justified the censorship of American citizens was always an
intellectual sleight of hand. “Putin’s regime helped Trump in
the 2016 election. Therefore, we need to censor Tim, a
‘far-right’ American citizen.” This conclusion does not
logically follow from the premise. Yet we saw this logical
fallacy driving the federal government’s “anti-disinformation”
activities increasingly in the coming years, and especially
during COVID, as has now been evidenced extensively in </span><em><a
href="https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/faucis-red-guards-lawsuit-reveals"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Missouri
v. Biden</a></em><span> and the </span><a
href="https://mobile.twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729166631432195"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Twitter
Files</a><span>. Commentators have generally attributed this
domestic censorship regime to groupthink and bureaucratic
excess. It’s thus somewhat rare to see someone spell out this
Orwellian sleight of hand so clearly and in so few words, as
early as 2018, as Zeynep did here.</span></p>
<h3 class="header-with-anchor-widget"
style="-moz-osx-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;
-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; color: #404040;
font-family: 'SF Compact Display', -apple-system,
BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI
Symbol'; font-size: 1.375em; font-weight: bold; line-height:
1.16em; margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0; position: relative;">#Masks4All</h3>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Like </span><a
href="https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/deborah-birxs-silent-invasion-a-guide"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Deborah
Birx</a><span>, Zeynep </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1365864995049926658"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">says</a><span>
she first became alarmed about the new coronavirus when she saw
Xi Jinping shut down Wuhan, China. Zeynep’s first </span><a
href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/preparing-for-coronavirus-to-strike-the-u-s/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">article</a><span>
on COVID appeared on February 27, 2020, in which she stressed
the importance of getting ready for major disruptions during
COVID in order to “flatten the curve.” She was among the first
individuals to ever use the term “flatten the curve” with regard
to COVID, though the term had occasionally been used during
prior virus scares. At the time, Zeynep’s advice on masks
followed that of the public health establishment:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><span>However, </span><strong>don’t
worry if you cannot find masks; those are most important for
health care workers…</strong><span> For non–health care
people, washing your hands often, using alcohol-based
hand-sanitizer liberally and learning not to touch your face
are the most important clinically-proven interventions there
are.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Over the next few days, Zeynep’s views
on masking appear to have changed quite dramatically, and this
seemingly whimsical about-face would have a profound impact on
the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans and their
children for the next three years. As the New York Times later </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/business/media/how-zeynep-tufekci-keeps-getting-the-big-things-right.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">wrote</a><span>:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>Dr. Tufekci, </strong><span>an
associate professor at the University of North Carolina’s
School of Information and Library Science </span><strong><span>with
no obvious qualifications in epidemiology, came out against
the C.D.C. recommendation in a March 1 </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1234113514354225152"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">tweetstorm</a><span>
before expanding on her criticism in a March 17 </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Op-Ed
article for The New York Times</a><span>.</span></strong></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>The CDC changed
its tune in April, advising all Americans above the age of 2
to wear masks </strong><span>to slow the spread of the
coronavirus. Michael Basso, a senior health scientist at the
agency who had been pushing internally to recommend masks,
told me </span><strong>Dr. Tufekci’s public criticism of the
agency was the “tipping point.”</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">Around this time, Zeynep began working with
Howard, who founded the American branch of the movement
#Masks4All.</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>It’s not entirely clear how Zeynep and
Howard began working together. There’s no evidence of their
publicly deliberating these subjects, though they’d interacted
in prior years. Zeynep and Howard’s first public interaction
with regard to COVID was when Howard </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1237135957620482049"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">cited
Zeynep as a contributor</a><span> to his viral March 9, 2020
article, in which he encouraged readers to shut down their
institutions and cancel events based on China’s apparent success
“flattening the curve” in Wuhan.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>But as Howard </span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200803070708/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1283505175206916096.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">tells</a><span>
the story of his initial foray into the subject of masking:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>We had a new
deep learning course to teach. I needed a case study for how
to interpret complex evidence, and on a whim, I picked masks.</strong><span>
I had no interest in masks, and assumed the evidence wouldn't
show anything much. In Feb, no-one was wearing masks in the
West, except for a few Asian expat communities. We were told
clearly that they didn’t work and weren’t recommended. </span><strong>When
I started studying the data on masks, I was absolutely
stunned. It seemed that masks could be our best tool </strong><span>to
slow the spread of COVID-19 </span><strong>- but no-one was
talking about it! … except for zeynep, who wrote a brilliant
piece in the NYTimes [on March 17].</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Howard says he’d been inspired by a </span><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5xy2n941jM" rel=""
style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">viral video</a><span>
posted on March 14, 2020, by Petr Ludwig, a founder of the
original #Masks4All movement in the Czech Republic, in which
Ludwig encouraged everyone to wear homemade masks.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>The internationalization of the
#Masks4All movement was based on the story that the universal
adoption of homemade masks in the Czech Republic had “slowed the
spread” of COVID cases there, preventing them from “growing
exponentially” as they had in the rest of the world. This story
was always false, if not a lie—COVID cases </span><a
href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/" rel=""
style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">continued to
rise</a><span> throughout this period in the Czech Republic.
Today, the Czech Republic is among the 10 worst countries in the
world in terms of its recorded number of “COVID deaths.”</span></p>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhNo_IOPOtU"
target="_blank" class="youtube-wrap" style="display: block;
margin: 1.6em 0;"><img
src="https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_550,c_limit/l_youtube_play_qyqt8q,w_120/HhNo_IOPOtU"
style="-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; border: none !important;
display: block; height: auto; margin: 0 auto; max-width: 100%;
vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;"></a>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">Yet this falsehood, that masks had stopped
the spread in the Czech Republic, became the original impetus for
the global #Masks4All movement and soon a basis for the imposition
of mask mandates across the world.</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Howard posted his own #Masks4All </span><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoDwXwZXsDI" rel=""
style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">video</a><span>.
According to Howard, he was then </span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200803070708/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1283505175206916096.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">contacted</a><span>
by an editor at the Washington Post: “Imagine my surprise when a
washingtonpost editor contacted me, told me they’d seen the
video, and wanted me to write an article about it for them!” The
WEF Young Global Leaders helped Howard edit the article, which
was titled </span><em><a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/03/28/masks-all-coronavirus/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Simple
DIY masks could help flatten the curve. We should all wear
them in public</a><span>.</span></em></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>In the article, Howard urged Americans
to ignore current CDC guidance and to instead adopt universal
masking. Howard gushed about a new law in the Czech Republic
“making it illegal to go out in public without a mask,” and he
cited Chinese CDC Director George Gao—a </span><a
href="https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/the-prophetic-monkeypox-simulation"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">participant</a><span>
at Event 201—who’d advocated masks to stop COVID based on the
prevention of “droplets”:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>George Gao,
director general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, stated, “Many people have asymptomatic or
presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it
can prevent droplets</strong><span> that carry the virus from
escaping and infecting others.”…</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>The most
important message shared in the Czech Republic has been this:
“My mask protects you; your mask protects me.” Wearing a mask
there is now considered a prosocial behavior.</strong><span>
Going outside without one is frowned on as an antisocial
action that puts your community at risk. In fact, the
community reaction has been so strong that the government has
responded by </span><a
href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/24/coronavirus-czechs-facing-up-to-covid-19-crisis-by-making-masks-mandatory"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">making
it illegal</a><span> to go out in public without a mask…</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;">Given the weight of
evidence, it seems likely that universal mask wearing should be
a part of the solution. Every single one of us can make it
happen — starting today.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>We see Gao’s emphasis on “droplets”
reflected throughout Howard and Zeynep’s work. For example, the
“</span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210427223919/https://masks4all.org/sources"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">sources</a><span>”
section of the official #Masks4All website prominently features
another quote on droplets from Gao:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>The big mistake
in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t
wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets</strong><span>
and close contact. </span><strong>Droplets play a very
important role—you’ve got to wear a mask,</strong><span>
because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out
of your mouth. </span><strong>Many people have asymptomatic
or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks,
it can prevent droplets</strong><span> that carry the virus
from escaping and infecting others. </span><strong>– George
Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease
Control and Prevention</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>This emphasis on “droplets” is later
reiterated in Howard’s falsely-titled article </span><em><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/04/why-wear-a-mask-may-be-our-best-weapon-to-stop-coronavirus"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">To
help stop coronavirus, everyone should be wearing face masks.
The science is clear</a></em><span> in the Guardian, as well
as Zeynep and Howard’s article </span><em><a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/dont-wear-mask-yourself/610336/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Don’t
Wear a Mask for Yourself</a></em><span> in the Atlantic.
Howard then went on a media blitz similar to that of </span><a
href="https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/tomas-pueyo-returns-the-mba-who-shut"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Tomás
Pueyo</a><span>, and he was booked on ABC’s Good Morning
America.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>As Howard </span><a
href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1283505203082170368"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">tells
it</a><span>, this GMA interview, in which he was joined by
NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, was monumental in that it was the
first time Fauci had ever come to advise mask use by the
American public. GMA also repeated the quote on masks’ utility
in preventing “droplets” from Chinese CDC Director George Gao.</span></p>
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auto; margin-bottom: 0; max-width: 100% !important;
vertical-align: middle; width: auto !important;"
width="550" height="599.9054820415879"></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</figure>
</div>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Howard then </span><a
href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1283505216378134528"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">discussed</a><span>
masking with Senator Pat Toomey, who briefed the CDC and
President Trump. The next day, Trump announced that universal
masking might be needed.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Howard then began making </span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200803070708/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1283505175206916096.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">inroads</a><span>
at the CDC, which was still reluctant to reverse its
longstanding guidance on masks because “the science wasn’t
strong enough.” So Howard “tried to ratchet up the public
pressure.” </span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><span>I realized that </span><strong>the
biggest thing stopping progress on community mask use in the
US was the CDC wasn’t recommending them. So I focused on that,
and tried to ratchet up the public pressure.</strong><span> I
was lucky enough to know folks that had first hand knowledge
of what was happening in the CDC, and was told there was a
concern that </span><strong>the science wasn’t strong enough.</strong><span>
So I reached out to some of the world's top scientists &
asked for help reviewing the evidence. They said yes!</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Zeynep, Howard, and their coauthors
then </span><a
href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1283505232886902784"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">submitted</a><span>
their preprint, an “</span><a
href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118" rel=""
style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">interdisciplinary
narrative review of the literature on the role of face masks in
reducing COVID-19 transmission</a><span>,” which quickly became
the most-viewed paper of all time on preprints.org. Their
narrative review begins:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>Wu Lien Teh’s
work to control the 1910 Manchurian Plague has been acclaimed
as “a milestone in the systematic practice of epidemiological
principles in disease control,” in which Wu identified the
cloth mask as “the principal means of personal protection.”</strong><span>…
Masks have continued to be widely used to control transmission
of respiratory infections in East Asia through to the present
day, including for the COVID-19 pandemic.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">In their paper, Zeynep and Howard argued that
“everyone, adults and children, should wear masks,” citing as a
major benefit masks’ potential to “shape new societal behaviors”
as “symbols of altruism and solidarity” serving as “a visible
signal and reminder of the pandemic.”</p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>Creating New
Symbolism around Wearing a Mask.</strong></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>Ritual and
solidarity are important in human societies and can combine
with visible signals to shape new societal behaviors</strong><span>.
Universal mask wearing could serve as </span><strong>a
visible signal and reminder of the pandemic.</strong><span>
Signaling participation in health behaviors by wearing a mask
as well as </span><strong>visible enforcement can increase
compliance with public mask wearing,</strong><span> but also
other important preventative behaviors. Historically,
epidemics are a time of fear, confusion, and helplessness.
Mask wearing, and even mask making or distribution, can
provide feelings of empowerment and self-efficacy. Health is a
form of public good in that everyone else’s health behaviors
improve the health odds of everyone else. </span><strong>This
can make masks symbols of altruism and solidarity.</strong><span>
Viewing masks as a social practice, governed by sociocultural
norms, instead of a medical intervention, has also been
proposed to enhance longer-term uptake.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">Zeynep and Howard conclude their paper by
recommending mask “mandates” as a means of “shaping new societal
norms.”</p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><span>During the
COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have utilized mask mandates
as implementation strategy… Although </span><strong>the use
of mandates</strong><span> has been a polarizing measure, it </span><strong>appears
to be highly effective in shaping new societal norms.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>The CDC officially reversed its masking
guidance on April 3, 2020, and insiders </span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200803070708/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1283505175206916096.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">reported</a><span>
that Zeynep and Howard’s preprint had been a factor.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Having laid the foundation for shaping
these “new societal norms,” Zeynep and Howard then turned their
focus toward getting governments to mandate them. As Howard </span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200803070708/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1283505175206916096.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">recalls</a><span>:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><span>Meanwhile, in the
US, </span><strong>it was clear that CDCgov just
“recommending” masks wasn’t enough. People still weren’t
wearing them… We decided to try and write a letter and get
lots of scientists to sign it.</strong><span> I wrote the
first draft of the letter, and Vincent got to work finding
signatories. He knows just about everyone, so he quickly had
sent a request off to nearly a hundred medical experts to sign
our letter. About 95% of the recipients said YES right away! </span><strong>We
wanted to make sure that people actually saw this letter, so
zeynep and I decided to write an OpEd about it. USATODAY were
kind enough to agree to run it.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>USA Today published Zeynep and Howard’s
op-ed, titled </span><em><a
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/05/14/require-masks-stop-coronavirus-spread-over-100-health-leaders-column/5182076002/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Over
100 health leaders to governors: Require masks to help contain
the coronavirus</a></em><span>, in which they wrote that it
was necessary to have “80% of the population wearing masks to
stop the spread of the virus,” and in order to make that happen,
masks had to be mandated:</span></p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #7e2310; margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;">
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><span>Getting acceptance
for public health actions has historically been difficult. For
example, </span><strong>during the 1910 Manchurian Plague,
Dr. Wu Lien Teh realized the microbe spread by air and that a
simple cotton mask could reduce transmission. </strong><span>But
many doctors didn't believe him…</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>But to be truly
effective, they need to be worn by almost everyone. Recent
modeling suggests that we need at least 80% of the population
wearing masks to stop the spread of the virus.</strong></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0; margin-left: 20px;"><strong>To make that
happen, just “urging” their use is not enough.</strong><span>
We can see this in recent survey results showing that </span><strong>in
the majority of states that do not require masks, fewer than
half the population are using them.</strong><span> </span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">Over the next three years, mask use exceeded
80% of the population in countless states and countries, but in no
instance did it “stop the spread” of COVID.</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Throughout his advocacy, Howard didn’t
merely convince governments to mandate masks; he proclaimed the
“</span><a
href="https://www.fast.ai/posts/2020-04-13-masks-summary.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">science</a><span>”
on masking to be </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/04/why-wear-a-mask-may-be-our-best-weapon-to-stop-coronavirus"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">clear</a><span>—and
this false </span><a
href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/the-mask-debacle"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">claim</a><span>
was repeated by pundits. Further, given Howard had no relevant
credentials in the field, he was forceful. When virologist
Angela Rasmussen questioned his analysis, Howard went so far as
to </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1254957405432975360"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">email</a><span>
her boss to demand a “public retraction” of her critique.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>In July 2020, Zeynep and Howard were </span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200803070708/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1283505175206916096.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">invited</a><span>
to present their masking preprint and to advise the World Health
Organization; after this point, Howard largely retired from
COVID advocacy. When WHO officials expressed concern that people
wearing masks might start behaving recklessly, Zeynep </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/business/media/how-zeynep-tufekci-keeps-getting-the-big-things-right.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">advised</a><span>
them, “No, listen, I’m a sociologist, I know that’s not true.”</span></p>
<h3 class="header-with-anchor-widget"
style="-moz-osx-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;
-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; color: #404040;
font-family: 'SF Compact Display', -apple-system,
BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI
Symbol'; font-size: 1.375em; font-weight: bold; line-height:
1.16em; margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0; position: relative;">Zeynep’s
COVID Career</h3>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Throughout Zeynep’s work, we see this
repeated </span><a
href="https://kelleyk.substack.com/p/where-us-mask-rhetoric-went-wrong"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">insistence</a><span>
that masks have no “plausible” downsides, harms, or risks.
Zeynep </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1269264469793935362?t=xEj6AZYpf81thWf0D6AFVg"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">claimed</a><span>
that the WHO’s list of potential downsides to masking was “not a
good list” and </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1269264815412916224"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">argued</a><span>
that the WHO “just went out of their way to inflate a harms
list.” In a </span><a
href="https://www.theinsight.org/p/on-randomized-trials-and-medicine"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">later
article</a><span>, she complained that people were “looking for
harms and finding them even when no major ones plausibly exist,”
and decried doctors who were focused on “all sorts of alleged
‘harms’ from masks” which she believed to be “nonsense” and
“ridiculous.” She </span><a
href="https://kelleyk.substack.com/p/where-us-mask-rhetoric-went-wrong"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">boasted</a><span>
multiple times about being credited with changing the CDC’s
masking guidance.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Though it’s been well known since
COVID’s earliest days that the virus poses </span><a
href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/04/19/what-sweden-got-right-about-covid/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">virtually
no risk</a><span> to schoolchildren, Zeynep repeatedly advocated
child masking, arguing in her </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">original
op-ed</a><span> which was the “tipping point” in changing CDC
guidance that “everyone should use masks” due to “increasing
evidence of asymptomatic transmission, especially through
younger people.” In their </span><a
href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118" rel=""
style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">preprint</a><span>,
Zeynep and Howard argued that “everyone, adults and children,
should wear masks.”</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Later, once vaccines were introduced,
Zeynep again </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/opinion/coronavius-vaccine-masks.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">advocated</a><span>
in the New York Times for schools to “mandate masks for all
elementary school children” on the false basis that “even the
vaccinated may pose a danger to unvaccinated children.”</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>In three </span><a
href="https://kelleyk.substack.com/p/where-us-mask-rhetoric-went-wrong"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">obscure
tweets</a><span>, Zeynep opposed masking toddlers, a practice
the CDC advised and which became mandatory in some states. But
it’s hard to square her argument that masks have no “plausible”
downsides with this stance against masking toddlers. And for
someone who’s written about masks frequently in America’s most
prestigious media outlets, one might expect a bit more vocal
opposition to toddler masking, especially given her decisive
role in the CDC’s guidance.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Zeynep’s indifference to harms during
the response to COVID wasn’t limited to masking. Though the
policy had no </span><a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-lockdowns-were-a-chinese-import-changchun-shenzhen-mandate-public-health-pandemic-11648045191"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">precedent</a><span>
in the modern western world until Xi Jinping’s lockdown of Wuhan
and wasn’t part of any democratic country’s </span><a
href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/masked-ball-cowardice"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">pandemic
plan</a><span>, in a </span><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200530034646/https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1253679362488090625"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">since-deleted
tweet</a><span>, Zeynep argued that the United States “should be
in full lockdown” in spring 2020.</span></p>
<div class="captioned-image-container-static" style="font-size:
16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 32px auto;">
<figure style="margin: 0 auto; width: 100%;">
<table class="image-wrapper" style="mso-padding-alt: 1em 0
1.6em;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><br>
</td>
<td class="content" style="text-align: center;"
width="565" align="left"><a class="image-link"
target="_blank"
href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1998662-e018-4b44-98c0-e4e329aaeda9_541x334.png"
rel="" style="align-items: center; border: none;
display: block; flex-direction: column; height: auto;
margin: 0; padding: 0; position: relative;
text-decoration: none; width: auto;"><img
data-attrs="{"src":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e1998662-e018-4b44-98c0-e4e329aaeda9_541x334.png","fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":334,"width":541,"resizeWidth":565,"bytes":null,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"internalRedirect":null}"
alt="" class="wide-image"
src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1130,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1998662-e018-4b44-98c0-e4e329aaeda9_541x334.png"
style="-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; border: none
!important; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0
auto; margin-bottom: 0; max-width: 100% !important;
vertical-align: middle; width: auto !important;"
width="550" height="339.55637707948244"></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</figure>
</div>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Later, Zeynep wrote in the Atlantic
about </span><em><a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/03/three-ways-pandemic-has-bettered-world/618320/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Three
Ways the Pandemic Has Made the World Better</a><span>, </span></em><span>citing
“mRNA vaccines,” new “digital infrastructure,” and the fact that
we’d “unleashed the true spirit of peer review and open science”
as reasons to be thankful for COVID.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Like </span><a
href="https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/matt-pottinger-the-intelligence-agent"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Matt
Pottinger</a><span>, Zeynep pushed for more COVID interventions
in part based on information from China, though she
simultaneously fashions herself as something of a China hawk and
supports the “lab leak theory” of COVID’s origins. In debating
the lab leak theory, Zeynep </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1628741722107772928"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">noted</a><span>,
“No journalist or scientist in China can operate truly freely,”
</span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1534532828985171968"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">and</a><span>
“We know people are compelled in China on sensitive topics,
including threats to family,” and she </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1534534826249834500"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">joked</a><span>
darkly that Chinese scientists face a risk their “loved ones
will be jailed for a decade on trumped up charges.”</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Yet despite knowing that “no scientist
in China can operate truly freely,” when it came to arguing in
favor of more COVID interventions, Zeynep repeatedly advocated
the </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1244631341544738817"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">use</a><span>
of </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1277291016370954243"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">information</a><span>
</span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1222662053329924098"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">from</a><span>
Chinese scientists, apparently without questioning any of it.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>For example, Zeynep advocated for
increased ventilator use in early March 2020 based on
information from Chinese scientists, </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1237852375181737984"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">noting</a><span>
in a widely-shared tweet that “Chinese scientists” had advised
“many COVID-19 patients need to stay on mechanical ventilators
as long as four weeks.”</span></p>
<div class="captioned-image-container-static" style="font-size:
16px; line-height: 26px; margin: 32px auto;">
<figure style="margin: 0 auto; width: 100%;">
<table class="image-wrapper" style="mso-padding-alt: 1em 0
1.6em;" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><br>
</td>
<td class="content" style="text-align: center;"
width="566" align="left"><a class="image-link"
target="_blank"
href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc9b2d8cd-10c6-4460-baa8-535cf71996de_470x535.png"
rel="" style="align-items: center; border: none;
display: block; flex-direction: column; height: auto;
margin: 0; padding: 0; position: relative;
text-decoration: none; width: auto;"><img
data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c9b2d8cd-10c6-4460-baa8-535cf71996de_470x535.png","fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":535,"width":470,"resizeWidth":566,"bytes":282381,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"internalRedirect":null}"
alt="" class="wide-image"
src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1132,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc9b2d8cd-10c6-4460-baa8-535cf71996de_470x535.png"
style="-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; border: none
!important; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0
auto; margin-bottom: 0; max-width: 100% !important;
vertical-align: middle; width: auto !important;"
width="550" height="626.063829787234"></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</figure>
</div>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Indeed, in journal articles, “Chinese
expert consensus” had </span><a
href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162773/"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">advised</a><span>
ventilators as the “first choice” for COVID patients with
respiratory distress. This advice was slurped up by the WHO and
spat out all over the world in the WHO’s initial </span><a
href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/clinical-management-of-novel-cov.pdf"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">guidance</a><span>
on ventilators for COVID patients.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>As one doctor later </span><a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/hospitals-retreat-from-early-covid-treatment-and-return-to-basics-11608491436"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">told</a><span>
the Wall Street Journal, “We were intubating sick patients very
early. Not for the patients’ benefit, but in order to control
the epidemic… That felt awful.”</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>This guidance proved extremely deadly.
A study in JAMA later </span><a
href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765184"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">revealed</a><span>
a 97.2% mortality rate among those over age 65 who’d been put on
mechanical ventilators in accordance with this initial </span><a
href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/clinical-management-of-novel-cov.pdf"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">guidance</a><span>
before the practice was largely stopped after spring 2020. To
put these results in perspective, patients over age 65 were more
than </span><em>26 times</em><span> as likely to survive if
they were </span><em>not</em><span> placed on mechanical
ventilators. Overall, mortality among COVID patients in New York
hospitals </span><a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/hospitals-retreat-from-early-covid-treatment-and-return-to-basics-11608491436"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">fell</a><span>
by over two-thirds between spring 2020 and summer 2020.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">The initial guidance from Chinese scientists
advising early intubation led to the deaths of countless thousands
of COVID patients. Yet despite having specifically advised that
“many COVID-19 patients need to stay on mechanical ventilators as
long as four weeks” based on information from “Chinese
scientists”—and despite her knowing that “no scientist in China
can operate truly freely”—no apology or admission of error was
ever forthcoming from Zeynep Tufekci.</p>
<h3 class="header-with-anchor-widget"
style="-moz-osx-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;
-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; color: #404040;
font-family: 'SF Compact Display', -apple-system,
BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI
Symbol'; font-size: 1.375em; font-weight: bold; line-height:
1.16em; margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0; position: relative;"><strong>The
Cochrane Review</strong></h3>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">So far, not so good. Despite having no
relevant epidemiological expertise, Zeynep had played a decisive
role in railroading the CDC and the WHO into changing their
longstanding guidance on masking; convinced state governments to
mandate masks for “everyone, adults and children,” in part as a
means of “shaping new societal norms”; advocated the
“old-fashioned censorship” of American citizens for legal speech;
encouraged doctors to downplay potential harms of masking; argued
that America “should be in full lockdown” when the policy had no
precedent other than Xi’s lockdown of Wuhan; wrote falsely that
schoolchildren were at risk from vaccinated adults; celebrated
“ways the pandemic made the world better”; and explicitly advised
early mechanical intubation based on information from Chinese
scientists, despite knowing Chinese scientists cannot “operate
truly freely,” with no acknowledgment or apology after this
guidance proved extremely deadly. It’s like she was just so darn
charismatic that no one paid attention to what she was actually
doing.</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">Nonetheless, we were ready to let bygones by
bygones. “Mistakes were made” as they say. But then, after
scientists spent years meticulously collecting data on masking
from countless RCTs all over the world, Zeynep wrote her op-ed on
the Cochrane review.</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>The op-ed is about what one might
expect. The title, </span><em><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/opinion/masks-work-cochrane-study.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Here’s
Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work</a></em><span>, is a
lie; Zeynep calls for scientists to “continue to collect data on
mask wearing,” which wouldn’t be necessary if the science were
in fact clear that masks worked. Zeynep relies on a selection of
clinical studies, none of which are RCTs; this same level of
evidence would show that any number of silly things work against
COVID, from ginseng to magnesium to melatonin to fish oil.
Zeynep cites a trial from Bangladesh which found an 11%
reduction in COVID cases when villagers were given masks,
without disclosing a </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/VPrasadMDMPH/status/1570588117090041856"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">re-analysis</a><span>
that found no benefit and attributed that finding to bias.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Zeynep specifically names the Cochrane
review’s lead author, Tom Jefferson, several times. But in an
email, Cochrane’s editor-in-chief, Karla Soares-Weiser, with
whom Zeynep spoke, </span><a
href="https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/unmasking-the-new-york-times-zeynep"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">said</a><span>
she specifically took personal responsibility for the wording of
the conclusion and that she’d been “blindsided” by Zeynep.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>Perhaps most glaringly, Zeynep appears
not to have disclosed her own conflicting </span><a
href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118" rel=""
style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">narrative
review</a><span> which concluded that “everyone, adults and
children,” should wear masks—or her past advocacy for mask
mandates—when she contacted Soares-Weiser, eliciting
Soares-Weiser’s clarification statement about the wording of the
review’s conclusion. In short, Zeynep’s op-ed may have been an
exercise in disinformation.</span></p>
<h3 class="header-with-anchor-widget"
style="-moz-osx-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;
-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; color: #404040;
font-family: 'SF Compact Display', -apple-system,
BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI
Symbol'; font-size: 1.375em; font-weight: bold; line-height:
1.16em; margin: 1em 0 0.625em 0; position: relative;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></h3>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">With regard to Zeynep and Howard’s masking of
America, there are only two possibilities—neither good—and the
truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. The first is that
their advocacy was essentially scripted theater, a pretext for
seemingly-spontaneous actions that a network of institutional
leaders was actually planning to take anyway, unbeknownst to the
public. In that case, the existence of such a “script” is
antithetical to our democratic principles, and it’s imperative
that we determine how such a plan came to be and who was behind
it.</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">The second possibility is that it really was
this easy for ambitious activists with no relevant expertise to
convince institutional leaders to reverse longstanding public
health guidance in the early days of COVID—these being the same
leaders who then spent years closing their eyes and ears to any
evidence that their interventions weren’t working, even from some
of the world’s most-qualified scientists. For example, years
later, when asked if the CDC would consider revising its guidance
to mandate masks in schools in light of the Cochrane review, CDC
Director Walensky told Congress, astonishingly, that the CDC’s
“masking guidance doesn’t really change with time.”</p>
<div class="tweet static" style="-webkit-font-smoothing:
subpixel-antialiased; background: #ffffff; border: 1px solid
#e0e0e0; border-radius: 8px; box-sizing: border-box; color:
#404040; direction: ltr; display: block; flex-direction: column;
font-family: -apple-system, -system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe
UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji',
'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 14px; font-weight:
400; gap: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 32px auto; max-width:
550px; padding: 16px 16px 12px; transition: color .25s
cubic-bezier(.16, 1, .3, 1), background-color .25s
cubic-bezier(.16, 1, .3, 1), box-shadow .25s cubic-bezier(.16, 1,
.3, 1), opacity .25s cubic-bezier(.16, 1, .3, 1), filter .25s
cubic-bezier(.16, 1, .3, 1), stroke .25s cubic-bezier(.16, 1, .3,
1);"><a class="tweet-link-top" href="https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1625643023882403840" target="_blank" rel="" style="color: #404040; display: block; flex-direction: column; gap: 12px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="tweet-header" style="align-items: center; display: block; flex-direction: row; font-size: 16px; gap: 12px; height: 48px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 12px;"><img class="tweet-header-avatar" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/MichaelPSenger.jpg" alt="Twitter avatar for @MichaelPSenger" style="-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; border: none !important; border-radius: 50%; display: block; float: left; height: 48px; margin: 0; margin-right: 12px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 48px;"><div class="tweet-header-text" style="display: block; flex-direction: column; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding-top: 4px;"><span class="tweet-author-name" style="display: block; font-weight: 600;">Michael P Senger </span><span class="tweet-author-handle" style="color: #808080; display: block;">@MichaelPSenger</span></div></div><div class="tweet-text" style="font-size: 20px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px;">When asked if the CDC will revise its guidance to mandate masks in schools in light of the Cochrane review showing masks do not curb COVID, CDC Director Walensky tells Congress its advice on child masking will never change. “Our masking guidance doesn’t really change with time.” </div><div class="tweet-photos-container one" style="border: 1px solid #e0e0e0; border-radius: 8px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; gap: 2px; line-height: 26px; overflow: hidden;"><div class="tweet-photo-wrapper " style="font-size: 16px; height: 100%; line-height: 26px; width: 100%;"><img class="tweet-photo" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/upload/w_1028,c_limit,q_auto:best/l_twitter_play_button_rvaygk,w_88/tccpznhbjpfy0cy6iofx" alt="Image" style="-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; border: none !important; display: block; height: 100%; margin: 0 auto; max-height: 550px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;"></div></div></a><a class="tweet-link-bottom" href="https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1625643023882403840" target="_blank" rel="" style="color: #404040; display: block; flex-direction: column; gap: 12px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="tweet-footer" style="align-items: flex-start; display: block; flex-direction: column; font-size: 14px; gap: 8px; line-height: 20px; margin-top: 12px;"><span class="tweet-date" style="color: #808080; flex: 1;">11:47 PM ∙ Feb 14, 2023</span><hr style="background: #e0e0e0; border: none; height: 1px; margin: 12px 0; padding: 0; width: 100%;"><div class="tweet-ufi" style="align-items: center; display: block; font-size: 16px; gap: 24px; height: 20px; line-height: 26px;"><span href="https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1625643023882403840/likes" class="likes" style="color: #808080; display: block; float: left; font-size: 14px; gap: 4px; line-height: 20px; margin-right: 24px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="like-count" style="color: #404040; font-weight: 600; margin-right: 4px;">9,925</span><span>Likes</span></span><span href="https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1625643023882403840/retweets" class="retweets" style="color: #808080; display: block; float: left; font-size: 14px; gap: 4px; line-height: 20px; margin-right: 24px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="rt-count" style="color: #404040; font-weight: 600; margin-right: 4px;">4,068</span><span>Retweets</span></span></div></div></a></div>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;"><span>The CDC arguably bears the lion’s share
of the blame in this story for being so malleable. Furthermore,
Zeynep and Howard were not the only ones advocating for masks in
the initial weeks of COVID. </span><a
href="https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/matt-pottinger-the-intelligence-agent"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">Matt
Pottinger</a><span> had simultaneously launched his own pro-mask
crusade in the White House based on information from his
connections in China; </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/health/masks-coronavirus-cdc.html"
rel="" style="color: #404040; text-decoration: underline;">others</a><span>
such as Scott Gottlieb and academics and affiliates of the
#Masks4All movement had pushed for universal masking as well.</span></p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">Nonetheless, Zeynep and Howard played a
decisive role in affecting this vast shift in scientific guidance
that so intimately affected the lives of every American, which the
Cochrane review has now shown to have afforded no benefit at the
population level, for dubious reasons such as “shaping new
societal norms.” Throughout COVID, Zeynep pushed false information
and harmful policies that were far afield of her expertise based
on information from China, despite knowing such information was
unreliable, without ever admitting or apologizing for the errors
once the harms became manifest.</p>
<p style="color: #404040; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;
margin: 0 0 20px 0;">Innocent in the ways of information warfare,
Soares-Weiser may have issued her clarification statement as an
attempt to appease opponents of the Cochrane review. But as the
above record makes clear, these are not the kinds of people one
should ever try to appease. History teaches that this kind of
moral cowardice by institutional leaders can indelibly affect
millions of lives.</p>
<p></p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/25/23 12:53 p.m., Allan Baker
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:7ECEFEE3-45F8-4DE5-A251-B30A64E3AB21@gmail.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Hi Art;
My mask fits well, and I wear it daily when I’m not at home.
I’m also waiting (impatiently) for my sixth injection.
No need to try to convince me of the error of my ways - I prefer to live in what some people would call “the darkness”.
Just thought you might be interested in a graph of how many people are dying of COVID here in Ontario each week. The MSM infrequently publish this data.
The pandemic is still with us - and maybe COVID will become endemic.
</pre>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
Stay hopeful;
Allan
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">On Mar 25, 2023, at 11:49 AM, Arthur Blomme via craic <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:craic@lists.integralshift.ca"><craic@lists.integralshift.ca></a> wrote:
Hi all
Dr. Paul asked for this study on the effectiveness of masking. I had touble sending it to him. so i AM sending the study to the group to see if it works.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full">https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full</a>
art
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
</pre>
</blockquote>
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