No, Masks Did Not Stop the Flu

It takes a special kind of childish superstitionism to believe that the statistical decline of influenza cases and deaths was due to mandated mask usage. The belief in masks as a flu stopper is held by those who want to find a silver lining for the massive damage that bad COVID-19 policy has brought to their lives – especially since the people willingly allowed it. Some even plan to wear masks forever.

Forcing people to wear non-sealed, fabric coverings over their faces (which simply redirects exhaled air) is what’s known as a non-pharmaceutical intervention. That is, a medical protection a person uses that does not involve taking medication. Masks are a physical intervention, supposedly intended to interrupt or reduce the physical movement of the virus from one person to another. Yet mountains of data demonstrate that increases or decreases of the spread of COVID-19 cannot be linked to mask policies.

To believe that mask use resulted in a massive reduction in influenza cases presumes that masks actually physically stop the spread of airborne pathogens and that the masks were magically effective against the influenza virus but powerless against the similarly transmitted novel coronavirus.

The simple question: Why did masks stop the flu but not COVID-19?

Answer: they didn’t.

Because the symptoms of severe flu and those of COVID-19 are similar and because hospitals are still financially incentivized to label a patient as COVID-19 rather than the flu, it is far more likely that those who would have been considered influenza patients in any other year are simply being called coronavirus patients (or perhaps have the coronavirus in their system as well). Remember, influenza infection statistics are simply estimates – most people who get the flu are never seen by a medical practitioner. Flu estimates are made based on prior research and flu cases – that is, those who have gone to the doctor or the hospital with the flu.

The disincentive for anyone other than severe COVID patients to go to the hospital, as well as the fact that COVID is worth thousands more than the flu creates a situation where the flu disappears statistically but is still very much present in reality. Not only do masks not stop the transmission of infectious pathogens (they even put this disclaimer on the box), the missed medical appointments, and general societal stress caused by COVID-based government intervention will almost certainly produce many more long-term medical consequences for people than any potential help from wearing a fabric face covering.

Accept that you have been lied to, accept that the “experts” have gotten it wrong due to incompetence and for political purposes, and stop trying to spin what they did as positive in any way.