Replies

I copied the below letter to my son who served with Federal Protective Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and went through FLETC training. He said he was issued a respirator and the N-95 masks. He was told cloth masks would be effective against only droplets and should never be used.

When facing hazards, the N-95 mask could be used, but only after ensuring proper seal and negative pressure by following a three-step procedure. Then after a half hour he had to leave the area and reestablish the seal with a new mask. Masks could only prevent receiving and never prevent spreading biological agents

From: Retain Mike Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2021 3:26 PM To: keri.lopez@redmondschools.org Subject: Mask Mandate

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) proclaimed its latest policy about masks and our governor mandated wearing by children as school began.

However, the best science the CDC could provide was uncontrolled studies highlighting first such groups as 139 hairdresser clients, 382 sailors on the U.S.S. Roosevelt, 124 Beijing households, and 839 Thailand residents subject to contact tracing. All results came from observation followed by personal judgement, and none resulted from the mathematical disciplines used to rigorously evaluate complex environments.

In the same article the CDC disparaged the 2020 randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Denmark involving 4,862 participants, which found no benefit to wearing masks to prevent infection. The disciplines of a RCT divides participants into different groups on a randomized basis. Random assignment means that factors not specifically controlled can cancel each other out by appearing equally in both groups. One group receives the treatment (which in this case was the mask) and the other group does not. Researchers can isolate the one variable and are not able to introduce biases to produce a preferred outcome.

RCT’s are considered the highest standard for this type of research. Therefore, the most reasonable approach for the CDC would have been to consider this study as a benchmark against which others would be evaluated, including studies from other countries which found masks ineffective and even harmful.

The above represents an especially valid approach, since the first four combined citations from their May scientific brief had less than half the participants of the Danish study. The proposed approach is especially valid also because the CDC dismissed the study for involving only .001 of Denmark’s population. At the same time polls predicting the decisions of 150,000,000 voters in a national election were determined by less than 1,500 participants or less than .00001.