Another COVID freak-out

I detect a pattern. Hysteria poses as science in order to exert control. It’s happened over and over again in this country, and many of the same people still fall for it. Are you deliberately misleading people when you spout off about how humans are destroying the planet with CO2? Most are not. Most have just fallen for the line that there’s a ‘scientific consensus.’ Of course, there is no such thing. Even if there were, consensus doesn’t equal science. Ask for people who believe in manmade global warming to provide proof and they can’t. They just fall back on the line of ‘scientific consensus.’

We saw the same thing with the ozone scare several decades ago. The world came together to sign the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to ban CFCs. However, in 1991, long before most countries phased in their bans, the thinning of the ozone miraculously stopped. We now know that things like volcanos are far more responsible than humans for any hole in the ozone. In fact, CFC gases are four times heavier than air, so it’s unlikely that anything humans have emitted from their air conditioners ever made it the nine to eighteen miles to the ozone layer. But we certainly freaked out.

We’re seeing the same thing with face masks. Masks are the new global warming. I remember when health officials told us under no circumstances were we to wear a mask. Mask Nazis were caught on camera screaming at mask-wearers in grocery stores. How quickly times changed. Suddenly the mask Nazis were screaming at people for not wearing masks.

Recently, a man claiming to have COVID spit at two ladies hiking outdoors in the mountains because they weren’t wearing masks. I know. It’s getting crazy. Do masks protect you from COVID? There’s no evidence of that. Do they keep you from spreading it if you have it? Little evidence of that either. A new Danish study showed that people wearing masks contracted COVID at a rate of about 2 percent. People without masks contracted COVID at a rate of about 2 percent.

We’ve seen COVID cases surging across the country in the expected second wave. We knew it was coming because we could see what was happening in Europe. The interesting thing is the surge is happening everywhere, regardless of mask mandates. Proponents of masks will pick and choose data to show mask-mandated areas are dealing with the second wave better, but that data changes daily, and it’s easy to freeze-frame your window of choice to make your case.

The state of Tennessee is buying ad time to run a PSA urging people to wear a mask. The ad features an elderly farmer who talks about never missing a harvest and never missing a Sunday church service. He also has high blood pressure and diabetes. He says he chooses to live his life, and that’s why he wears a mask. A more irresponsible public health message in the COVID era could not have been conceived. We all know that the people who are dying are the elderly and those with underlying health issues. This man checks all the boxes, yet he’s encouraging people like himself to continue to live their lives, but just wear a mask. Evidence shows a mask will do nothing to protect him from COVID.

A recent CDC study found 85 percent of people with COVID were wearing masks. Use your common sense. If you’re at risk of dying from COVID, stay away from others until this thing is gone. That’s the only thing that will protect you.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show, on SuperTalk 99.7WTN in Nashville. He's also co-host of The PodGOATs podcast and I'm Calling Bovine Scatology.