JAMA: "We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection."

A new article published in The New England Journal of Medicine points out the truth about mass mask wearing, and that the main if not only benefit of masks is that it eases anxiety of some people, which JAMA points out "may not be strictly logical."Please share this article widely and visit NoMask.info which includes a collection of many peer-reviewed medical studies and testimony by many doctors who tell the truth about masks and all the harm that can occur when healthy people wear masks unnecessarily.
You can visit the LibertyFight.com COVID-19 index page here.
Here are some key excerpts from the New JAMA article:

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"We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures.
fear and anxiety are better countered with data and education than with a marginally beneficial mask, particularly in light of the worldwide mask shortage, but it is difficult to get clinicians to hear this message in the heat of the current crisis.
The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.

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https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372 Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era
May 21, 2020
List of authors.
Michael Klompas, M.D., M.P.H., Charles A. Morris, M.D., M.P.H., Julia Sinclair, M.B.A., Madelyn Pearson, D.N.P., R.N., et al
We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.
What is clear, however, is that universal masking alone is not a panacea. A mask will not protect providers caring for a patient with active Covid-19 if it’s not accompanied by meticulous hand hygiene, eye protection, gloves, and a gown. A mask alone will not prevent health care workers with early Covid-19 from contaminating their hands and spreading the virus to patients and colleagues. Focusing on universal masking alone may, paradoxically, lead to more transmission of Covid-19 if it diverts attention from implementing more fundamental infection-control measures.
The calculus may be different, however, in health care settings. First and foremost, a mask is a core component of the personal protective equipment (PPE) clinicians need when caring for symptomatic patients with respiratory viral infections, in conjunction with gown, gloves, and eye protection. Masking in this context is already part of routine operations for most hospitals. What is less clear is whether a mask offers any further protection in health care settings in which the wearer has no direct interactions with symptomatic patients. There are two scenarios in which there may be possible benefits.
The first is during the care of a patient with unrecognized Covid-19. A mask alone in this setting will reduce risk only slightly, however, since it does not provide protection from droplets that may enter the eyes or from fomites on the patient or in the environment that providers may pick up on their hands and carry to their mucous membranes (particularly given the concern that mask wearers may have an increased tendency to touch their faces).
More compelling is the possibility that wearing a mask may reduce the likelihood of transmission from asymptomatic and minimally symptomatic health care workers with Covid-19 to other providers and patients. This concern increases as Covid-19 becomes more widespread in the community. We face a constant risk that a health care worker with early infection may bring the virus into our facilities and transmit it to others. Transmission from people with asymptomatic infection has been well documented, although it is unclear to what extent such transmission contributes to the overall spread of infection.1-3
The extent of marginal benefit of universal masking over and above these foundational measures is debatable. It depends on the prevalence of health care workers with asymptomatic and minimally symptomatic infections as well as the relative contribution of this population to the spread of infection...
And then the potential benefits of universal masking need to be balanced against the future risk of running out of masks and thereby exposing clinicians to the much greater risk of caring for symptomatic patients without a mask. Providing each health care worker with one mask per day for extended use, however, may paradoxically improve inventory control by reducing one-time uses and facilitating centralized workflows for allocating masks without risk assessments at the individual-employee level.
There may be additional benefits to broad masking policies that extend beyond their technical contribution to reducing pathogen transmission. Masks are visible reminders of an otherwise invisible yet widely prevalent pathogen and may remind people of the importance of social distancing and other infection-control measures.
It is also clear that masks serve symbolic roles. Masks are not only tools, they are also talismans that may help increase health care workers’ perceived sense of safety, well-being, and trust in their hospitals. Although such reactions may not be strictly logical, we are all subject to fear and anxiety, especially during times of crisis. One might argue that fear and anxiety are better countered with data and education than with a marginally beneficial mask, particularly in light of the worldwide mask shortage, but it is difficult to get clinicians to hear this message in the heat of the current crisis. Expanded masking protocols’ greatest contribution may be to reduce the transmission of anxiety, over and above whatever role they may play in reducing transmission of Covid-19. The potential value of universal masking in giving health care workers the confidence to absorb and implement the more foundational infection-prevention practices described above may be its greatest contribution.

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Congressman: Only Politicians Need Firearms

For Protection

Published: June 26, 2016
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Authored by Joshua Krause

There are millions of Americans who want to restrict firearm ownership and use by one degree or another. While you may disagree with those people, at least they’re consistent. For the most part, die-hard gun grabbers don’t own firearms, and have probably never even held a gun before. They’re not hypocrites, unlike the handful of politicians and celebrities who often lead them.

It’s been pointed out by Second Amendment supporters for years, that the wealthy and famous liberals who say they hate gun so much, are typically flanked by professionally trained and armed security guards at all times. They tell us that we don’t need firearms to protect ourselves, while they go about their lives constantly surrounded by firearms.

Unfortunately, this hypocrisy is rarely challenged in person. These people are singled out by pro-gun activists over and over again, but nobody with a microphone or a video camera has had the opportunity to question these elites over their blatant hypocrisy. We’ve never seen the right reporter with the right questions, get close enough to one of these high profile anti-gun crusaders. Clearly, having a squad of armed guards has plenty of perks for people who don’t like to explain themselves.

Fortunately, it has finally happened. An anti-gun politician has finally been put on the spot over this matter. Democratic Representative Charlie Rangel spoke to the Daily Caller on Tuesday, in regards to a recent scandal involving four NYPD officials who were arrested for accepting bribes in exchange for police escorts and gun licenses, among other perks.

 

 

When asked by The Daily Caller his thoughts on the difficulty of getting a concealed carry permit in New York City and how rare it is for such permits to be issued by the NYPD, Rangel replied, “I’m glad to hear you say that very few people get it.”

 

“We don’t need that many guns,” he continued. “I didn’t know that briberies were involved in getting a gun, and that is wrong, but overall, if it is difficult to get a concealed weapon permit, I’m glad to hear that.”

Rangel went on to say that his own law-abiding constituents in Harlem shouldn’t have to carry guns for their own protection. However, the same rules don’t apply to the political elite.

 

 

“Law-abiding citizens just shouldn’t have to carry a gun. You’re not gonna push me in that direction,” he said, standing just five feet from a Capitol Police officer, who stood at his post by the House Speaker’s Lobby.

 

TheDC noted to Rangel he and other members of Congress are protected by armed members of the U.S. Capitol Police.

 

“Well that’s a little different.  I think we deserve–I think we need to be protected down here.” Rangel laughingly insisted.

Rangel never bothered to explain why average citizens shouldn’t be armed in public, while members of his protected class are exempted. That’s because there isn’t a good explanation. There’s no way for a politician like Rangel to argue that people don’t need guns without sounding like an out of touch elitist.

You’ve got to love how he says that he ‘deserves’ protection before quickly correcting himself. This is the mindset of the political elite. They deserve to be protected with firearms. The people who have our legal rights in their hands, believe that they are better than the rest of us, who are mere children that can’t be trusted with guns. We all knew that this was the case, but it’s satisfying to hear people like Charlie Rangel admit to that fact in so many words.

 

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Charlie Rangel Found Guilty on 11 of 13 Ethics Violations

Published: June 26, 2016

 

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Charlie_Rangel_Found_Guilty_on_11_of_13_Ethics_Violations/52194/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Blogger's note:  Well what could one suspect of such a hypocrite?

        

20 Congress Members Send Obama Letter

Requesting Protection Of Palestinian Children From Israeli Abuses

Reps. Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison, Barbara Lee and more highlight Israel's systematic abuse of Palestinian kids.

By Ben Norton

June 22, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "Salon" - The lawmakers sent the president a letter on June 20, urging him to appoint a “special envoy for Palestinian youth” in order to monitor the Israeli government’s violation of Palestinian children’s human rights.

The letter (embedded below), notes that Palestinian children are “growing up under military occupation with very few opportunities to improve their lives.”

The letter describes the occupation as “an unimaginably difficult and at times hopeless environment,” where children “live under the constant fear of arrest detention and violence at the hands of the Israeli military.”

Israel’s illegal military occupation marked its 49th anniversary earlier this month. Nearly half, 46 percent, of the roughly 4.7 million Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territories are minors under 18 years of age.

The 20 lawmakers raised concerns about Israel’s frequent imprisonment of Palestinian children as young as 12, sometimes without charge or trial.

UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem and other rights groups have documented Israel’s systematic abuse of Palestinian children.

According to the U.N., Israel has tortured Palestinian children and has even used them as human shields.

An April report by Defense for Children International — Palestine cited by the letter found, after interviewing 429 Palestinian children who had been detained by Israel, that three-quarters experienced some form of violence.

Minors reported being physically and psychologically abused, threatened and forced into solitary confinement. In 42 percent of cases, Israeli soldiers arrested children in their homes in the middle of the night. In 88 percent of cases, Palestinian minors were arrested and were unable to notify their parents.

“Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year,” Defense for Children International — Palestine wrote.

There were 440 Palestinian minors in Israeli military prisons, as of February. An average of 204 children are held in Israeli custody each month, according to the rights group.

The letter was initiated by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat representing Minnesota. Salon spoke with McCollum, who emphasized, “Military prisons for 12-year-old Palestinian children is inhuman. It totally dehumanizes them and it’s an abuse of Palestinian human rights. That needs to stop.”

“I want the Israeli people to have peace and security, but I also want Palestinian children and their parents to have security, dignity, justice and equality,” she added.

McCollum said the letter is an important sign “that my colleagues and I care about Palestinian children and we understand that ensuring their safety and well-being will play an important role in being able to create a more peaceful Middle East.”

The additional 19 congresspeople who endorsed the letter represent states around the country. Among the fellow signees are Reps. Keith Ellison, Barbara Lee, Luis Gutiérrez and more.

Ellison, a Democrat also representing Minnesota, has been particularly outspoken in support of Palestinian human rights. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders appointed Rep. Ellison to the drafting committee of the Democratic Party in May.

Rep. McCollum said she and the other congresspeople imagine that the role of the special envoy for Palestinian youth would be to “shine a bright light on how Palestinian children are held in military in detention, sometimes in solitary confinement, on how they don’t have access to their parents, let alone an attorney.”

“That’s just abuse that needs to come to an end,” McCollum stressed. She warned that, when children are abused in this way, they grow up to feel hopeless, and that leads them to desperation.

In the letter, the lawmakers argue that the increase in violent attacks in the past year “must be examined and understood within” this context: “a life of utter hopelessness and the collective psychological trauma associated with the Palestinian people living for decades under Israeli military occupation.”

McCollum told Salon that she hopes the conflict can resolve with a two-state solution. “Many people say it’s too late, but I remain hopeful,” she said.

Hard-line right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected on the promise that there will never be a Palestinian state (although he later tried to walk back this claim, just after winning the election). McCollum said she does not have much confidence that the current Israeli government, which is very far to the right, is interested in pursuing peace with the Palestinians.

“It is very alarming,” McCollum lamented, noting that the defense minister recently resigned in protest of the Israeli cabinet’s increasing extremism.

In May, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, a fellow member of the prime minister’s staunchly right-wing Likud party, stepped down early after Netanyahu offered the defense minister position to Avigdor Lieberman, one of the most extreme figures in Israeli politics. Ya’alon warned that “extremist and dangerous elements have taken over Israel.”

McCollum said she hopes that the next U.S. presidential administration works together with Israelis and Palestinians in order to bring an end to the occupation.

“This is about the right for Israeli and Palestinian children, and children throughout the Middle East, to grow up with an opportunity of having a safe and secure childhood, and opportunities for success,” she explained.

“We need to work together to make sure that Israeli and Palestinian children don’t see another 40 years of unrest and violence in their lives.”

The idea for the letter was a joint project, Rep. McCollum recalled. Several lawmakers, particularly those who have traveled to Israel-Palestine and other parts of the Middle East, expressed interest in trying to help contribute to peace.

In the letter, the congresspeople also called on the U.S. State Department to elevate the human rights of Palestinian children to a priority status in its negotiations.

“These children deserve to grow up with dignity, human rights and a future free of repression,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter was supported by the No Way To Treat a Child campaign, a joint project of the rights groups Defense for Children International — Palestine and the American Friends Service Committee.

The other lawmakers who signed the letter are Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Andre Carson, John Conyers, Earl Blumenauer, Donald Beyer, Hank Johnson, Bobby Rush, Marcy Kaptur, Chellie Pingree, Danny Davis, Peter Defazio, Raul Grijalva, Sam Farr, Jim McDermott, Yvette Clarke and Mark Pocan.

The letter can be read below.

Rep. McCollum letter to Obama, urging special envoy for Palestinian youth

Ben Norton is a politics staff writer at Salon. You can find him on Twitter at @BenjaminNorton.

 

Source:  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44940.htm