The Center for Military Readiness, Concerned Women for America, Heritage Action for America, American Principles Project, Independent Women's Voice, Citizens for Renewing America, Family Research Council and many other respected organizations join Eagle Forum in recognizing that this is a matter of national security - not "women's rights," "men's rights," or civilian volunteer service. You can click on the link below and make your voice heard.
TUESDAY NIGHT the Metro Council will hold the final vote on: An ordinance to require masks be worn by all individuals in public spaces, as further described herein.
The information below will be helpful for ALL the 'mask debates'!
POLICY BRIEF: COVID MASK MANDATES PROVE BOTH INEFFECTIVE AND UNSUPPORTED BY THE EVIDENCE
SEPTEMBER 17, 2021
Efforts to seize power through unscientific mandates and authoritarian policies must be resisted. There is simply no justification for implementing or adhering to such measures.
Synopsis
Amid the latest surge of COVID-19 cases, elected officials and policymakers are once again imposing new restrictions and mandatory mask mandates. Many of these policies do not aim to mitigate the virus, but to reclaim social control over vast swaths of the American people. The data is clear that current and previous masking measures do little to mitigate the short-term transmission of the virus, do nothing to mitigate the long-term transmission of the virus, but in all cases result in educational and social harm, as well as present an extreme inconvenience to many who want to live their lives as close to normal as possible.
Background: Masks and the Spread of COVID-19
In March 2020, as COVID-19 began its spread across the United States, initial commentary from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci suggested Americans did not need to wear masks. Fauci went so far as to state, "When you're in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better [...] but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is." Less than three months later, Fauci completely reversed this position and said that the benefits of masks essentially compel people to wear them.
During the initial outbreak, guidance from former Surgeon General Jerome Adams suggested that, "you can increase your risk of getting [COVID-19] by wearing a mask if you are not a health care provider." Adams even went so far as to tell people to stop buying masks and tweeted that they were "NOT effective" at preventing public transmission of COVID-19. Adams has recently claimed that these statements were misleading and harmful. Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said last July, "If we all wore face coverings for the next four, six, eight, 12 weeks across the nation, this virus transmission would stop." Public health officials have sent contradictory messages to the American people from the beginning.
The initial recommendations from public health and political leaders suggested that masks were an unnecessary and ineffective means of reducing the transmission of COVID-19. As outlined above, public officials have repeatedly contradicted these recommendations since then. And the contradictions have not ceased, as Dr. Fauci in just the last two months stated that the CDC would not alter its guidance about mask-wearing among vaccinated Americans. It turns out this claim only held up for a few weeks because CDC guidance as of August 2021 now recommends vaccinated Americans wear a mask indoors.
On August 2, 2021, Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota went on CNN and stated that many of the masks Americans are wearing are simply not very effective, a finding backed up by a recent study out of the University of Waterloo in Canada. Osterholm elaborated that N95 masks offer a higher degree of protection than cloth and surgical masks. However, official CDC guidance instructs Americans not to buy N95 masks so that healthcare workers can maintain access to this kind of equipment. The CDC says this despite former director Redfield saying in 2020 that cloth masks "are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus."
While there was considerable concern early on in the pandemic about the virus being transmitted by droplets and coarse aerosols-thereby supporting the argument for surgical masks-a study released in August 2021 from Oxford University found that 85 percent of COVID-19's viral load is transmitted via fine aerosols, which would likely undercut the efficacy of masks. This revelation explains why mask measures up to this point have seemingly provided only marginal protection for virus mitigation.
Indeed, even the FDA points out that surgical masks are "meant to help block large-particle droplets, splashes, sprays, or splatter that may contain germs (viruses and bacteria)." The FDA's own guidance states, "While a surgical mask may be effective in blocking splashes and large-particle droplets, a face mask, by design, does not filter or block very small particles in the air that may be transmitted by coughs, sneezes, or certain medical procedures."
It is the FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER. Do you know what that means? The 2021-2022 session of the US Supreme Court begins.
Abortion, guns, religion top a big Supreme Court term
By MARK SHERMAN October 2, 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) - The future of abortion rights is in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court that is beginning a new term Monday that also includes major cases on gun rights and religion.
The court's credibility with the public also could be on the line, especially if a divided court were to overrule the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973 that established a woman's right to an abortion nationwide.
Trump and Republicans who controlled the Senate moved quickly to fill the seat shortly before the 2020 presidential election, bringing about a dramatic change in the court's lineup that has set the stage for a potentially law-changing term on several high-profile issues.
With abortion, guns and religion already on the agenda, and a challenge to affirmative action waiting in the wings, the court will answer a key question over the next year, said University of Chicago law professor David Strauss. "Is this the term in which the culture wars return to the Supreme Court in a big way?" Strauss said.
Mississippi is taking what conservative commentator Carrie Severino called a "rip-the-Band-Aid-off" approach to the case by asking the court to abandon its support of abortion rights that was laid out in Roe and the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
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