[awakened53]

Are Brits ALREADY turning to masks? Pictures show commuters wearing coverings after moronic ‘expert’ plea to ‘protect the NHS’ – HOLD THE LINE – we’ve seen it all before

Commuters today were seen wearing face coverings after health bosses urged Britons to protect the NHS amid record pressures and a new Covid variant.
More than a dozen trusts have declared critical incidents amid rising rates of Covid and flu, staff shortages and too few beds. The unprecedented pressure is expected to last until Easter — with hours-long ambulance queues and thousands of operations getting cancelled.
Meanwhile, a highly infectious Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.5, nicknamed ‘the Kraken’, is expected to pile even more pressure on the NHS in the coming weeks. Data shows the strain already makes up one in 25 cases in the UK.
Some scientists have said the unfolding situation warrants pandemic-era curbs, such as wearing masks, in a bid to limit demand for NHS care. Hospitals, GP practices and care homes have pleaded with visitors to return to wearing coverings.
Other experts have called for people to avoid crowds and for ministers to widen the booster roll-out to under-50s.
Commuters on the London Underground and bus network were seen wearing face masks during rush hour this morning amid warnings from experts to ‘ratchet up precautions’.
Officials issued fresh calls for the public to stay home if they are ill and wear masks if they must go out.
However, a poll by MailOnline revealed that almost 60 per cent of readers don’t think masks should be brought back. Readers said they were ‘disappointed’ that ‘so many still think a mask is of any benefit’ and warned they would ‘never ever wear one again’.

Read More: Are Brits ALREADY turning to masks?

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Return of the Masks: Health Chiefs Say Face Coverings Should Be Brought Back and Anyone Feeling Ill Should ‘Stay at Home’

Unwell adults should stay at home and wear a mask if they have to go outside, health chiefs said today amid warnings the NHS is facing more pressure than it did during the peak of the pandemic. The Mail has more.
The advice, issued by the U.K. Health Security Agency, also urges parents to keep their child out of school or nursery if they are ill and have a high temperature — classed as 38°C or more.
The actions will help minimise the spread of Covid, flu and scarlet fever which are “circulating at high levels” and are “likely” to keep rising in the coming weeks, it said.
It comes amid stark warnings that the delays for care caused by the NHS crisis are killing 500 patients every week, with top doctors telling Britons that the situation is “much worse” than the darkest days of the Covid pandemic.
Professor Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Adviser at UKHSA, said adults should “try to stay home when unwell”.

Those that do have to go out should “wear a face covering”, she said.
Sick Britons were also told not to visit healthcare setting “unless urgent” and avoid vulnerable people.
Professor Hopkins said: “It’s important to minimise the spread of infection in schools and other education and childcare settings as much as possible.”
The ‘back-to-school advice’ also told parents to keep their child out of school or nursery if they have a high temperature.
Professor Hopkins said: “If your child is unwell and has a fever, they should stay home from school or nursery until they feel better and the fever has resolved.”
She also urged parents to teach youngsters good hand hygiene by practising regular handwashing at home with soap and warm water.
Children should also be told to catch coughs and sneezes in tissues and then bin them to help stop illness from spreading, Professor Hopkins said.

It’s also being reported that schools across the U.S. are bringing back mask policies this week.
It comes amid warnings that the NHS is on a “knife edge” and is facing its worst ever winter due to an A&E crisis that is “killing hundreds of patients every week“.

Read More: Return of the Masks: Health Chiefs Say Face Coverings Should Be Brought Back and Anyone Feeling Ill Should ‘Stay at Home’

[awakened53]

Here we go … Government Ministers Draw Up Plans for Social Distancing, Face Masks and WFH to ‘Save the NHS’ (which they have systematically destroyed)

Mask wearing, social distancing and working from home could be introduced by ministers to ease pressures on the NHS, as some experts call for Britons to start adopting Covid-era measures. The Mail has more.
The NHS is facing record winter pressures due to rising rates of Covid and flu, staff shortages and too few beds, while experts fear an Omicron sub-variant will drive a surge in infections, piling even more pressure on the already-crippled health service.
Health chiefs and scientists have already advised adults and pupils to stay at home if they are unwell, don masks if they must go outside when sick and called for the booster rollout to be widened in a bid to ease NHS demand.
Now, ministers are said to be considering issuing fresh guidance to wear masks on public transport, work-from-home and socially distance if the health service “is at risk of collapse”. Hospital bosses have already warned the crisis will continue to Easter but said measures used in the darkest days of the pandemic are not yet needed.
Some experts are advising Britons to already start limiting their contacts, socially distance and not go into the office to limit the spread of winter viruses.
However, others have hit out at the response, warning the the NHS’s “annual winter crisis to be used as an excuse to reintroduce Covid-era restrictions”.
Official sources have suggested that the Government could issue fresh advice for the public to wear face masks on public transport and work from home.
A “well-placed” source told the i that there is a “list of potential measures” under consideration. However, lockdowns and school closures are not among them and no advice is expected to be mandatory or legally enforceable.
They said: “Softer, less intrusive measures could soon be introduced if the NHS is at risk of collapse. While the guidance is for people who are ill to wear face masks if they leave their homes already, it may well be that the wearing of a mask could again be the guidance for all those using public transport.”
A separate Government source told the news website: “We’re not there yet, but guidance for everyone, ill or not, to wear face masks on public transport is not really going to inconvenience people. It would also make perfect sense to ask people who can work from home to do so if the NHS need us all to support them through this busy period of the year.’”
Officials have also drawn up social distancing guidance which advises people to avoid crowded indoor spaces, according to the i.
Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia (and Daily Sceptic contributor), told MailOnline that the public are currently more vulnerable to viruses due to prior Covid restrictions and it is a “period we have to pass through”.

Read More: Government Ministers Draw Up Plans for Social Distancing

[awakened53]

More NHS Mask Shenanigans – Will It Ever End?

For some time now it has been crystal clear that the existence of so-called ‘mask mandates’ within the NHS is a postcode lottery.
Whether you are expected to ‘mask up’ in your GP surgery or hospital is often entirely due to the personal whims of local managers and bureaucrats. Ever since June of last year, when NHS management changed its ‘guidance’ to remove the mandatory requirement to wear face coverings as a default across the entire health service, decision-making has been left to local institutions.
As previous investigations have shown, one group of usual suspects responsible for the imposition of ineffectual masks are those who are part of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) departments. However, as The Covid Physician describes in the Hallowe’en 2022 section of his ‘end of year’ missive, anyone who has the mojo for imposing restrictions can be part of the mask police; from junior GP receptionists to senior trust managers. All it seems to take to rekindle fear amongst the public and colleagues is an unshakeable belief in one’s ‘right think’ and virtue, combined with a total unwillingness to consider any other information or perspective.

Read more: More NHS Mask Shenanigans – Will It Ever End?

[awakened53]

Why I Won’t Talk to ‘Fact Checkers’ About Our Mask Study

In my recent post, I gave reasons why I am very wary of talking to the media. I thank those who sent messages of support. While I do not give two Hancocks for what the establishment thinks, I do care about what our supporters think and am deeply grateful for the responses.
So I have more for you. We, the co-authors of the Cochrane review on “physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses” (such as masks and PPE), known for short as A122, have received several requests described in my previous post: “Can I please check the main facts and, by the way, tell me what your review says because I cannot be bothered to do my job” type of messages.
However, we recently got another query which underlines the points made in the previous posts. This request comes from a very powerful press syndicate:

I’m reaching out because I’ve been seeing some posts [links redacted by TJ] spreading widely on social media that seem to be misrepresenting the conclusions of your recently published study on physical interventions and respiratory viruses.
Do you think it is a misrepresentation to claim (as the tweets I link to above do) that your study definitively proves that masks don’t work in preventing the spread of viruses such as COVID-19 and the flu? If so, I’d be interested in debunking these claims to set the record straight and would love to speak with you more about the study.

The disturbing aspect of this request is as follows: the stringer is making contact with one of us. After exchanging pleasantries, he or she will ask a few superfluous questions.
We have an abstract, a plain language summary, Trust the Evidence posts and a podcast and Carl and I have written a Spectator piece covering the review. If you are a real masochist, you can read all the 300-plus pages of the review. I even gave the interview I mentioned previously, but I am not planning any more outings. So there is nothing to explain or fact-check. But the stringer is not really interested in checking facts. What they want to do is to write truthfully that they have spoken to one of us and then put the spin required in the release to ensure the ‘misinterpretation’ of twitterati is set straight. ‘Debunking’ is the term used, and it will be actioned if the stringer thinks the twitterati have ‘misinterpreted’ our findings.
I am not on Twitter, never have been and never will be. I have no idea what these folk have written (I redacted the links without opening them). What disturbs me, though, is the idea of ‘debunking’ or ‘normalisation’ of the information flow.
We have done the tough work over two decades, reporting results separately from our interpretation, as in all Cochrane reviews. The studies’ results are the results reported by the authors of the single studies included in the reviews. Our interpretation is one you can – and should if you want – challenge.

Read More: Why I Won’t Talk to ‘Fact Checkers’ About Our Mask Study

[awakened53]

My NHS Employer Wouldn’t Recognise My Mask Exemption and Made My Life Misery


Viewed from the vantage point of the latest additions to the mountain of evidence about the lack of efficacy of face masks and their harm to wearers, that anyone – let alone a health trust – would mandate their usage to patients and staff beggars belief. But even in the early days of the COVID-19 ‘emergency’ it was clearly visible from the flipflopping guidance of ‘The Science [TM]’ that, except as a means of coercion and control, they didn’t work.

Looking back, it is quite clear that when it came to their mask policies, my employer, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, had little interest in patient care and staff welfare. I struggled and I was bullied, as, to my knowledge, were other staff; and I know that there were clients who missed out on the care they needed. In my view, Mersey Care was all about corporate image; it had to be seen to be doing the right thing, so it could look good in front of healthcare chiefs.

I am an experienced clinical psychologist, specialising in psychodynamic psychotherapy. I am aware of the importance of relationships and the need to see a person’s face, allowing a vast amount of information to be exchanged and for patients to feel warm and comfortable.

In July 2020, I started work for Mersey Care as a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist and was part of a community mental health team (CMHT). At the beginning, the relationship with my line manager, also a clinical psychologist, was a very good one.

In what was to become a running theme for Mersey Care’s mask policy, when asked about masks the response was ambiguous: some were wearing them, others weren’t.

For example, as part of Mersey Care’s standard employee induction, I attended conflict resolution training. During the classroom session, mask wearing was unnecessary. But, during the practical part, masks wererequired. Wishing to be flexible and amenable for my new employer, I donned one, but really struggled and felt distressed.

Thereafter, in August 2020, I had a consultation with my GP and we discussed the distress I experienced whilst wearing a mask. We agreed, given some past traumas, that I should be mask exempt. My GP explained that practices had been instructed by the Government not to issue personalised letters to people who were mask exempt, but to direct them to a Government website where people could download or print off an exemption card, which I did.

I informed my line manager about my exemption and she shared this with other managers at my hub. And for a while, there was no problem. However, in late October, the hub manager began to badger me about not wearing a mask. He seemed anxious about Covid. He implemented convoluted and restrictive rules at the hub. For example, in the staff canteen no one was permitted to eat in the company of anyone else; surplus chairs were piled in a corner and then, in an attempt to maintain this rule, sellotaped together.

Read More: My NHS Employer Wouldn’t Recognise My Mask Exemption and Made My Life Misery

[Steve]

The harms from wearing masks are real

Download PDF
[url=https://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/Public/2023/April/PDF/long-term-effects-of-wearing-face-masks-pdf.pdf][/url]

Story at-a-glance

• Researchers found a robust relationship between mask wearing, low levels of blood oxygen, and increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), heart rate, humidity and systolic blood pressure
  
  
• Clinical symptoms included headache, fatigue, shortness of breath and dizziness. High levels of CO2 reduce blood pH and may be associated with protein misfolding and altered interactions with nucleic acids, which is hypothesized to lead to diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer and neurological disorders
  
  
• In 2020, national experts on respiratory protection and infectious diseases said that while there was limited evidence of effectiveness, they still supported wearing masks in public. However, people should "not count on or expect" face coverings to protect them
  
  
• There is a cost for ignorance, which may be paid for decades. Although population-wide mask mandates never made sense, the massive censorship and shutdown of healthy scientific debate was perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this masking debacle
  

Mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic were an exercise in scientific insanity and evidence is mounting that the long-term physical consequences may not be evident for some time.1 It started with recommendations to wear a mask in public and quickly deteriorated to questionable advice ranging from head scratching and mildly amusing to the outright laughable…



https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/health...-are-real/

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic...masks.aspx

[Steve]

We told them so! COVID face masks linked to seizures, cancer

 - mask study published by NIH suggests N95 Covid masks may expose wearers to dangerous level of toxic compounds linked to seizures & cancer
 - study published in April found disposable masks can have toxic chemicals Experts said this could make newly instated mask mandates ineffective; masks raise risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction

DR. PAUL ALEXANDER


‘Face masks may raise the risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction and cognitive decline in children, an 'explosive' new study has claimed.
 A review of dozens of studies on face coverings suggested they can cause mild carbon dioxide poisoning when worn over long periods.
The German academics who carried out the research believe masks create a pocket of dead space between the mouth and mask, which traps the toxic gas.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic...-says.html



The surgical N95 mask has been held up as the gold standard when it comes to protecting against [b]Covid[/b]. 
But a study quietly re-shared by the National Institutes of Health in spring suggests the tight-fitting mask may expose users to dangerous levels of toxic chemicals.

Researchers from Jeonbuk National University in [b]South Korea[/b] looked at two types of disposable medical-grade masks, as well as several reusable cotton masks. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic...ancer.html



https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/health...s-cancer/k