offguardian--2020-06-15--Do Masks and Respirators Prevent Viral Respiratory Illnesses?

A health professional told me back in March that face masks were ineffective but that respirators ( the N95 ) were .
Because of the source , I thought there must be validity to this .
However , it seemed counterintuitive .
I reasoned that there would be differentials between using any type of mask versus no mask because no mask usage would allow aerosols to penetrate unabated , whereas a mask should capture much of the aerosol and reduce risk of spread to others and presumably should also function to mitigate breathing in viral-laden droplets .
Because of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prophylactic would be reasoned to be greater .
However , what I had not considered was how extremely small the virion was in relation to the porosity of the material in the masks and respirators .
I also had not looked at the scientific literature on the subject…until now .
Denis Rancourt , an eminent physics professor , former anarchist , and author , examined the scientific evidence for using face masks and respirators as preventative of contracting respiratory influenza-like disease , or respiratory illnesses believed to be transmitted by minuscule droplets .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ is wedded to the evidence , and he is unafraid to make known his conclusion even though it goes against the mainstream consensus .
His article , “ Masks Don ’ t Work : A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy , ” is Rancourt at his iconoclastic finest .
He concludes , The virions are super tiny , tinier than the pores in the respirators .
Rancourt writes , Rancourt ’ s article is fascinating and anyone curious abut the efficacy of masks should read it .
Kim Petersen : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ criticized for walking around the Mayo clinic accompanied by mask-wearing staff although he did not wear a mask .
He excused his refusal to don a mask based on the frequent testing he undergoes , so presumably he would not be a danger to others .
Given what the science reveals on mask wearing , how do you view the reaction to Pence ’ s refusal to wear a mask ?
Denis Rancourt : In my article “ Masks Don ’ t Work : A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been many randomized controlled trials ( RCTs ) and meta-analyses of RCTs , which were designed to detect any benefit from wearing a mask , in terms of reducing the risk of being infected by a viral respiratory disease .
In the many studies , in which the known bias of self-reporting is eliminated by using laboratory-confirmed infection detection , no statistically meaningful advantage is ever found , in either health-care or community settings , with either surgical masks or N95 respirators .
No study , and there have been many , has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wearing a mask or respirator , with viral respiratory diseases .
This means that , even in controlled professional health-care settings , any benefit is too small to be detected by science , and that other factors must be overwhelmingly more important .
Regarding all viral respiratory diseases — which are both known to be transmitted by small aerosol particles ( i.e.
, “ droplets ” of less than a few microns in diameter ) and known to be highly infectious in terms of the so-called minimum-infective-dose ( i.e.
, the number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cause illness or detectable infection ) — in plain language , this means “ masks don ’ t work ” .
( A “ virion ” is a single virus unit , the RNA and its shell . )
Therefore , any societal debate about the virtue or responsibility of wearing a mask to reduce the risk of infection , whether it involves Pence or anyone else , is occurring in a science vacuum .
It is a political and psychological debate , not one that is science-based .
Likewise , no unbiased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a confirmed-infected person to be less likely to transmit a viral-respiratory-disease infection to susceptible ( i.e.
, not immune ) persons if the infected person wears a mask .
Studies that show that cough and sneeze droplets are physically intercepted by masks are irrelevant in this regard , because they do not represent the reality of actual person to person transmission , nor do they measure actual transmission .
In my article , which has been read more than 70 K times on Research Gate , I also review what is known about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this class of diseases .
I argue that , on this basis , one should not expect masks to work .
Likewise , if masks can not stop inward transmission ( into the lung ) , then , by the same physics , they can not stop outward transmission .
However , it is important to distinguish a RCT that evaluates risk of actual person-to-person transmission of confirmed infection , as one class of study , and the necessarily simplistic arguments based on hypothetical scenarios using physics and biology .
And the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the relevant context .
Masks intended to stop a surgeon ’ s spit from impacting an incision area are a completely different question .
Coming back to Pence , a face mask is a powerful psychological symbol of submission ( to both the invisible disease and any State policy directives ) , such that it is understandable that many political leaders would not want to wear masks in front of media cameras .
KP : You write that there has been no randomized controlled trial that shows a benefit for anyone ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ et al . )
wearing a mask or respirator .
The reason proffered is because the mask/respirator material is too porous for virion particles .
The N95 respirator blocks at least 95 percent of very small ( 0.3 μm ) test particles , but the virion particles ( from 0.06 μm to 0.14 μm ) ( See Na Zhu et al.
, “ A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China , ” 20 February 2020 , NEJM , 382:727-733 . )
can pass through .
I am trying to visualize this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kick a soccer ball at a chain-link fence , all soccer balls will be blocked .
But if I throw a handful of sand at the chain-link fence , almost all grains of sand will pass through .
Is this an apt analogy for the mask and the virion ?
DR : The many RCTs show no statistically valid benefit from wearing a mask or N95 respirator , and show no differences in RCT comparisons between surgical masks and N95 respirators , regarding risk of infection from this class of diseases .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mechanistic explanation as to why any benefit from wearing a mask would be so small as to be undetected .
In other words , that masks don ’ t work must be discerned from the question of why masks don ’ t work .
The former is a scientific outcome of the studies , irrespective of what we believe or infer about the latter .
Nonetheless , regarding a discussion of the hypothetical mechanisms , one can say the following things : • There can be little doubt that the overwhelmingly dominant path @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of less than approximately 2 microns in diameter .
• Such a particle can contain many and up to hundreds of virions .
• One virion is approximately 0.1 microns in size .
• Such small aerosol particles stay suspended in air in-effect indefinitely , as part of the fluid air ; as would virions themselves , subject to chemical adsorption and aggregation .
• Regarding the masks and respirators , pore-size of the filtering material is not the relevant bottleneck in practice .
• The seal to the face is never perfect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by pressure differences , by the user for reasons of discomfort , and by normal facial and operational movements .
• Inhaled and exhaled air will flow mostly through the paths of least resistance ( or fluid impedance ) : through the breaks in the seal , through the sides of a mask , and though the larger pores or stretches or micro-tears in the filtering material .
• The minimum-infective-dose is expected to be less than a single small aerosol particle , and can be as little as a single undamaged virion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to conclude that mask and respirators should not work , even leaving out the complex particle-mask-material interactions that can occur , mask aging and wear considerations , and so on .
KP : You cite possible harm from dictates requiring the wearing of masks .
Could you elaborate ?
DR : My answer is in two parts .
First , there is potential medical harm to the individual from the wearing of a mask .
Second , there is societal and psychological harm from being forced to wear a mask in public .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ centers , health-care workers who wore respirators suffered significantly more headaches than the cohort of workers who did not wear respirators .
This was a statistically significant outcome .
Furthermore , professional health-care workers self-report significant discomfort from wearing respirators , and therefore often adjust them or remove them , contrary to protocol .
If healthcare workers , in circumstances in which there is no scientific basis for wearing respirators , suffer headaches and discomfort , then this can only negatively impact the intended health care .
More broadly , the potential health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have not been studied .
Potential health hazards include such factors as : • constriction of breathing itself , including both flow restriction , and recycling of CO2 and vapour-laden breath • breathing-in the particles , fibres and chemicals from the mask-material itself , both in a new mask and for aging , used , washed , and sun-bleached masks • retention of particulates and adsorbed substances in proximity to the face , which would normally be expelled in the exhaled breath • collection , concentration and retention of particulates and adsorbed substances @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in proximity to the face • reactions of particulates and adsorbed substances on the mask , including shedding of virions or virion-carrying nano-particles from larger mask-captured droplets Such factors have not been studied , yet population-scale policies of extended mask-wearing are being implemented .
From a societal perspective , what are the consequences of government coercion ( “ education ” and enforcement ) to wear masks in public , given that there is no scientific basis for any benefit from mask wearing , in terms of reducing the risk of being infected by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this not an arbitrary application of power , which directly infringes or denies personal freedom ?
What are the long-term consequences of habituation to arbitrarily applied violations of personal freedom ?
The recent scientific study of Hickey and Davidsen ( 2019 ) ( “ Self-organization and time-stability of social hierarchies ” ) in my view provides a theoretical foundation that such habituation to arbitrarily applied power is part of a progressive degradation towards an extreme totalitarian state , depending on the degree of authoritarianism ( whether contestation is effective ) and the degree @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for disobeying ) .
We should rollback arbitrary State powers .
I would say : If an individual evaluates or believes that a mask constitutes health or privacy or religious protection in public , then the individual should be free to wear a mask , but how can forcing all individuals to wear masks be justified , beyond government pronouncements ?
Security can not be based on arbitrarily forced behaviour of everyone .
This is the classic recipe for totalitarian rule .
In fact , the present case of pandemic mask laws or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pretext and stoked fear are being exploited by governments , in a globalized corporate environment in which there are billions to be made from vaccines and other treatments , and where legal liabilities for the treatments have largely been socialized .
Regular vaccination , for diseases that have always been kept in check by the human immune system , are a hard method of creating dependence on the State , involving seasonal violations of bodily integrity , which could become forced .
KP : You point a finger at governments , monopoly media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to operate in a science vacuum , or select only incomplete science that serves their interests.
” Which institutional propagandists do you refer to ?
DR : The main institutional propagandists here are the arms and legs of the pharma-medical complex , from the WHO and CDC , through the medical schools , to every hospital , research laboratory , clinic , community health center , and doctor ’ s office .
The medical establishment is a major network of the high-priests that structure and control modern society .
In their book , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the health system , not healthy living conditions , contrary to all the science regarding the determinants of public health .
I mean , Pharma and medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the Western world , after heart disease and cancer , and that is not a “ pandemic ” ?
It is not even on the radar , except in specialized conferences and journals .
As another example of institutional and professional alignment with top-down directives and recommendations , John Ioannidis showed in 2005 ( “ Why Most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that most of the scientific research that finds marginal benefits for expensive and dangerous treatments is incorrect .
In the case of the on-going COVID-19 saga , several top researchers and experts have broken rank , and these professionals have been profiled in a series of three articles in Off-Guardian , for example .
Generally , these contrarians who insist on practicing science , have been avoided by the mainstream media , and have had to be featured in the alternative media , and on YouTube .
John Ioannidis and Knut Wittkowski are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out for me .
KP : Given that the conclusion of your review of meta-analyses is accurate , why would so many health care professionals , who presumably have been trained in evidence-based practice , disregard the absence of evidence for the efficacy of masks and respirators ?
DR : It is a myth that medicine is an evidence-based practice .
This myth is propagated by the medical establishment .
It has never been the case in the history of medicine , and it is not the case today .
In practice , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away with and profit from .
From a political perspective , the public-relations statement about being “ science-based ” is a propagandist mantra applied in training those initiated into the profession .
It is designed to deliver legitimacy in the public ’ s mind and among other professions , and means that the profession will attack , destroy or capture competitors that are not in the profession , such as homeopaths , nutritionists , acupuncturists , chiropractors , psychologists , councillors , life coaches , etc .
There is a large litigation record @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against or attempt to discipline an MD or a medical specialist for a practice that is not science based , then you find that the in-court or administrative-tribunal argument will never be about the science itself or whether a scientific basis exists .
None of the actual medical researchers will be called as expert witnesses , and they would be seen as irrelevant and thus inadmissible .
Instead , a complete defence will be based on whether or not the hired expert witnesses for the defendant will be of the opinion that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actual practice in the field , irrespective of whether there is a scientific basis .
In order to win , you will need to prove that the impugned act or practice is egregiously contrary to what is generally done or officially recommended by a certifying body ; again , irrespective of any scientific-basis consideration .
“ Scientific basis ” is given lip service , nothing more .
For example , when a drug or procedure is convincingly and unavoidably proven to be unacceptably harmful after being put into practice , and this harm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and there is organized public outcry , then the practice is changed but no practitioners are ever found to have been at fault .
This means that the practitioners are not responsible to evaluate and establish a scientific basis for their prescriptions and treatments .
They are only bound to do what one does in the profession .
If mechanical ventilators are the treatment for critical COVID-19 patients , then we kill those patients with those mechanical ventilators until the proverbial shit hits the fan ( “ New study finds nearly all coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Hill , 23 April 2020 ) .
The history , to this day , of the American Psychiatric Association ’ s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is exhibit-one regarding the extent to which medical practice is distinct from any scientific basis .
The said Manual is the pseudo-scientific organizational pretext for a large pharmaceutical project of managing the mind , which relies on heavy-handed “ precautionary ” prescriptions , made by any army of medical practitioners .
For example , see Gary Greenberg ( 2013 ) ( The Book of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Psychiatry ) .
I could go on for days .
Coming back to the masks , medical commentators , like politicians , will say whatever seems advantageous at the time , in terms of propping up their own legitimacy and popularity , and in terms of avoiding public-perception liability .
If it is politically risky to recommend masks , then masks are out , and there is no evidence that they work .
If it becomes risky to go against masks , then masks are in , and we must all do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most vulnerable , etc .
KP : Since there is evidence that viruses flourish during dry periods , might the use of a humidifier be a recommended preventative measure during seasons when humidity is low ?
DR : There is conclusive evidence that viral respiratory diseases and flu-like diseases predominantly propagate via small aerosol particles , which are stabilized in dry air , and that this is why these diseases are seasonal in mid-latitude regions .
The reproduction number , R0 , can vary four-fold during a season , in accordance with absolute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discovery was initiated with the landmark work of Shaman et al .
( 2010 ) .
Closed buildings such as hospitals , residences for the elderly , and day-care centers are proven to have large densities of virion-laden aerosol particles suspended in the air , in the dry season .
In addition , air-flow has been shown to play a role regarding transmission , in restaurants and airplanes .
Therefore , it is not unreasonable to examine the use of controlled absolute humidity , and air-flow management in critical facilities housing many persons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A high humidity would in-principle draw-out virtually all the aerosol particles , by condensation , particle growth , and gravitational removal .
In principle , what was an environment of high-density of aerosol particles , would become an environment of low-density of aerosol particles .
Only a true RCT comparative study , with laboratory-confirmed infection determinations , could demonstrate whether such measures can be effective .
Kim Petersen is a former co-editor of the Dissident Voice newsletter .
He can be reached at : .
Twitter : @ kimpetersen .

Kim Petersen
A health professional told me back in March that face masks were ineffective but that respirators (the N95) were. Because of the source, I thought there must be validity to this. However, it seemed counterintuitive.
I reasoned that there would be differentials between using any type of mask versus no mask because no mask usage would allow aerosols to penetrate unabated, whereas a mask should capture much of the aerosol and reduce risk of spread to others and presumably should also function to mitigate breathing in viral-laden droplets. Because of the greater density of respirator material, the prophylactic would be reasoned to be greater.
However, what I had not considered was how extremely small the virion was in relation to the porosity of the material in the masks and respirators. I also had not looked at the scientific literature on the subject…until now.
Denis Rancourt, an eminent physics professor, former anarchist, and author, examined the scientific evidence for using face masks and respirators as preventative of contracting respiratory influenza-like disease, or respiratory illnesses believed to be transmitted by minuscule droplets.
What I have noticed is that Rancourt is wedded to the evidence, and he is unafraid to make known his conclusion even though it goes against the mainstream consensus. His article, “Masks Don’t Work: A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy,” is Rancourt at his iconoclastic finest. He concludes,
No RCT [randomized control trial] study with verified outcome shows a benefit for HCW [health care workers] or community members in households to wearing a mask or respirator. There is no such study. There are no exceptions.
The virions are super tiny, tinier than the pores in the respirators. Rancourt writes,
if anything gets through (and it always does, irrespective of the mask), then you are going to be infected. Masks cannot possibly work. It is not surprising, therefore, that no bias-free study has ever found a benefit from wearing a mask or respirator in this application.
Rancourt’s article is fascinating and anyone curious abut the efficacy of masks should read it.
* * *
Kim Petersen: Recently, American vice-president Mike Pence was criticized for walking around the Mayo clinic accompanied by mask-wearing staff although he did not wear a mask. He excused his refusal to don a mask based on the frequent testing he undergoes, so presumably he would not be a danger to others. Given what the science reveals on mask wearing, how do you view the reaction to Pence’s refusal to wear a mask?
Denis Rancourt: In my article “Masks Don’t Work: A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy”, I show that there have been many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses of RCTs, which were designed to detect any benefit from wearing a mask, in terms of reducing the risk of being infected by a viral respiratory disease.
In the many studies, in which the known bias of self-reporting is eliminated by using laboratory-confirmed infection detection, no statistically meaningful advantage is ever found, in either health-care or community settings, with either surgical masks or N95 respirators. No study, and there have been many, has been able to establish any advantage of wearing a mask or respirator, with viral respiratory diseases.
This means that, even in controlled professional health-care settings, any benefit is too small to be detected by science, and that other factors must be overwhelmingly more important.
Regarding all viral respiratory diseases — which are both known to be transmitted by small aerosol particles (i.e., “droplets” of less than a few microns in diameter) and known to be highly infectious in terms of the so-called minimum-infective-dose (i.e., the number of virions that will likely be sufficient to cause illness or detectable infection) — in plain language, this means “masks don’t work”. (A “virion” is a single virus unit, the RNA and its shell.)
Therefore, any societal debate about the virtue or responsibility of wearing a mask to reduce the risk of infection, whether it involves Pence or anyone else, is occurring in a science vacuum. It is a political and psychological debate, not one that is science-based.
Likewise, no unbiased RCT has ever shown any advantage for a confirmed-infected person to be less likely to transmit a viral-respiratory-disease infection to susceptible (i.e., not immune) persons if the infected person wears a mask.
Studies that show that cough and sneeze droplets are physically intercepted by masks are irrelevant in this regard, because they do not represent the reality of actual person to person transmission, nor do they measure actual transmission.
In my article, which has been read more than 70 K times on Research Gate, I also review what is known about the physics and biology of transmission of this class of diseases. I argue that, on this basis, one should not expect masks to work. Likewise, if masks cannot stop inward transmission (into the lung), then, by the same physics, they cannot stop outward transmission.
However, it is important to distinguish a RCT that evaluates risk of actual person-to-person transmission of confirmed infection, as one class of study, and the necessarily simplistic arguments based on hypothetical scenarios using physics and biology. And the “masks intercept droplets” studies are useless in the relevant context. Masks intended to stop a surgeon’s spit from impacting an incision area are a completely different question.
Coming back to Pence, a face mask is a powerful psychological symbol of submission (to both the invisible disease and any State policy directives), such that it is understandable that many political leaders would not want to wear masks in front of media cameras.
KP: You write that there has been no randomized controlled trial that shows a benefit for anyone (doctors, nurses, regular folks, et al.) wearing a mask or respirator. The reason proffered is because the mask/respirator material is too porous for virion particles.
The N95 respirator blocks at least 95 percent of very small (0.3 μm) test particles, but the virion particles (from 0.06 μm to 0.14 μm) (See Na Zhu et al., “A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China,” 20 February 2020, NEJM, 382:727-733.) can pass through.
I am trying to visualize this on a larger scale. If I kick a soccer ball at a chain-link fence, all soccer balls will be blocked. But if I throw a handful of sand at the chain-link fence, almost all grains of sand will pass through. Is this an apt analogy for the mask and the virion?
DR: The many RCTs show no statistically valid benefit from wearing a mask or N95 respirator, and show no differences in RCT comparisons between surgical masks and N95 respirators, regarding risk of infection from this class of diseases. That is a separate question from any hypothetical mechanistic explanation as to why any benefit from wearing a mask would be so small as to be undetected.
In other words, that masks don’t work must be discerned from the question of why masks don’t work. The former is a scientific outcome of the studies, irrespective of what we believe or infer about the latter.
Nonetheless, regarding a discussion of the hypothetical mechanisms, one can say the following things:
There can be little doubt that the overwhelmingly dominant path of infection is via small aerosol particles of less than approximately 2 microns in diameter.
Such a particle can contain many and up to hundreds of virions.
One virion is approximately 0.1 microns in size.
Such small aerosol particles stay suspended in air in-effect indefinitely, as part of the fluid air; as would virions themselves, subject to chemical adsorption and aggregation.
Regarding the masks and respirators, pore-size of the filtering material is not the relevant bottleneck in practice.
The seal to the face is never perfect, and the mask is regularly moved by pressure differences, by the user for reasons of discomfort, and by normal facial and operational movements.
Inhaled and exhaled air will flow mostly through the paths of least resistance (or fluid impedance): through the breaks in the seal, through the sides of a mask, and though the larger pores or stretches or micro-tears in the filtering material.
The minimum-infective-dose is expected to be less than a single small aerosol particle, and can be as little as a single undamaged virion.
Thus, it is not difficult to conclude that mask and respirators should not work, even leaving out the complex particle-mask-material interactions that can occur, mask aging and wear considerations, and so on.
KP: You cite possible harm from dictates requiring the wearing of masks. Could you elaborate?
DR: My answer is in two parts. First, there is potential medical harm to the individual from the wearing of a mask. Second, there is societal and psychological harm from being forced to wear a mask in public.
In one large RCT in Japanese health centers, health-care workers who wore respirators suffered significantly more headaches than the cohort of workers who did not wear respirators. This was a statistically significant outcome. Furthermore, professional health-care workers self-report significant discomfort from wearing respirators, and therefore often adjust them or remove them, contrary to protocol. If healthcare workers, in circumstances in which there is no scientific basis for wearing respirators, suffer headaches and discomfort, then this can only negatively impact the intended health care.
More broadly, the potential health hazards of population-scale extended personal mask use have not been studied. Potential health hazards include such factors as:
constriction of breathing itself, including both flow restriction, and recycling of CO2 and vapour-laden breath
breathing-in the particles, fibres and chemicals from the mask-material itself, both in a new mask and for aging, used, washed, and sun-bleached masks
retention of particulates and adsorbed substances in proximity to the face, which would normally be expelled in the exhaled breath
collection, concentration and retention of particulates and adsorbed substances from the environment onto the mask, in proximity to the face
reactions of particulates and adsorbed substances on the mask, including shedding of virions or virion-carrying nano-particles from larger mask-captured droplets
Such factors have not been studied, yet population-scale policies of extended mask-wearing are being implemented.
From a societal perspective, what are the consequences of government coercion (“education” and enforcement) to wear masks in public, given that there is no scientific basis for any benefit from mask wearing, in terms of reducing the risk of being infected by a viral respiratory disease?
How is this not an arbitrary application of power, which directly infringes or denies personal freedom? What are the long-term consequences of habituation to arbitrarily applied violations of personal freedom?
The recent scientific study of Hickey and Davidsen (2019) (“Self-organization and time-stability of social hierarchies”) in my view provides a theoretical foundation that such habituation to arbitrarily applied power is part of a progressive degradation towards an extreme totalitarian state, depending on the degree of authoritarianism (whether contestation is effective) and the degree of violence (magnitude of the penalty for disobeying).
We should rollback arbitrary State powers. I would say: If an individual evaluates or believes that a mask constitutes health or privacy or religious protection in public, then the individual should be free to wear a mask, but how can forcing all individuals to wear masks be justified, beyond government pronouncements? Security cannot be based on arbitrarily forced behaviour of everyone. This is the classic recipe for totalitarian rule.
In fact, the present case of pandemic mask laws or policies is a case where a health pretext and stoked fear are being exploited by governments, in a globalized corporate environment in which there are billions to be made from vaccines and other treatments, and where legal liabilities for the treatments have largely been socialized. Regular vaccination, for diseases that have always been kept in check by the human immune system, are a hard method of creating dependence on the State, involving seasonal violations of bodily integrity, which could become forced.
KP: You point a finger at governments, monopoly media, and institutional propagandists for deciding “to operate in a science vacuum, or select only incomplete science that serves their interests.” Which institutional propagandists do you refer to?
DR: The main institutional propagandists here are the arms and legs of the pharma-medical complex, from the WHO and CDC, through the medical schools, to every hospital, research laboratory, clinic, community health center, and doctor’s office. The medical establishment is a major network of the high-priests that structure and control modern society. In their book, “health” is a dependence on the health system, not healthy living conditions, contrary to all the science regarding the determinants of public health. I mean, Pharma and medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the Western world, after heart disease and cancer, and that is not a “pandemic”? It is not even on the radar, except in specialized conferences and journals.
As another example of institutional and professional alignment with top-down directives and recommendations, John Ioannidis showed in 2005 (“Why Most Published Research Findings Are False”) that most of the scientific research that finds marginal benefits for expensive and dangerous treatments is incorrect.
In the case of the on-going COVID-19 saga, several top researchers and experts have broken rank, and these professionals have been profiled in a series of three articles in Off-Guardian, for example. Generally, these contrarians who insist on practicing science, have been avoided by the mainstream media, and have had to be featured in the alternative media, and on YouTube. John Ioannidis and Knut Wittkowski are just two of the names that stand out for me.
KP: Given that the conclusion of your review of meta-analyses is accurate, why would so many health care professionals, who presumably have been trained in evidence-based practice, disregard the absence of evidence for the efficacy of masks and respirators?
DR: It is a myth that medicine is an evidence-based practice. This myth is propagated by the medical establishment. It has never been the case in the history of medicine, and it is not the case today. In practice, medicine is whatever the profession can get away with and profit from.
From a political perspective, the public-relations statement about being “science-based” is a propagandist mantra applied in training those initiated into the profession. It is designed to deliver legitimacy in the public’s mind and among other professions, and means that the profession will attack, destroy or capture competitors that are not in the profession, such as homeopaths, nutritionists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, psychologists, councillors, life coaches, etc.
There is a large litigation record of this reality. If you litigate against or attempt to discipline an MD or a medical specialist for a practice that is not science based, then you find that the in-court or administrative-tribunal argument will never be about the science itself or whether a scientific basis exists.
None of the actual medical researchers will be called as expert witnesses, and they would be seen as irrelevant and thus inadmissible. Instead, a complete defence will be based on whether or not the hired expert witnesses for the defendant will be of the opinion that the impugned practice is within the spectrum of actual practice in the field, irrespective of whether there is a scientific basis.
In order to win, you will need to prove that the impugned act or practice is egregiously contrary to what is generally done or officially recommended by a certifying body; again, irrespective of any scientific-basis consideration. “Scientific basis” is given lip service, nothing more.
For example, when a drug or procedure is convincingly and unavoidably proven to be unacceptably harmful after being put into practice, and this harm is reported in the mainstream media, and there is organized public outcry, then the practice is changed but no practitioners are ever found to have been at fault. This means that the practitioners are not responsible to evaluate and establish a scientific basis for their prescriptions and treatments. They are only bound to do what one does in the profession.
If mechanical ventilators are the treatment for critical COVID-19 patients, then we kill those patients with those mechanical ventilators until the proverbial shit hits the fan (“New study finds nearly all coronavirus patients put on ventilators died,” The Hill, 23 April 2020).
The history, to this day, of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is exhibit-one regarding the extent to which medical practice is distinct from any scientific basis. The said Manual is the pseudo-scientific organizational pretext for a large pharmaceutical project of managing the mind, which relies on heavy-handed “precautionary” prescriptions, made by any army of medical practitioners. For example, see Gary Greenberg (2013) (The Book of WOE: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry).
I could go on for days. Coming back to the masks, medical commentators, like politicians, will say whatever seems advantageous at the time, in terms of propping up their own legitimacy and popularity, and in terms of avoiding public-perception liability.
If it is politically risky to recommend masks, then masks are out, and there is no evidence that they work. If it becomes risky to go against masks, then masks are in, and we must all do our part to protect those who are most vulnerable, etc.
KP: Since there is evidence that viruses flourish during dry periods, might the use of a humidifier be a recommended preventative measure during seasons when humidity is low?
DR: There is conclusive evidence that viral respiratory diseases and flu-like diseases predominantly propagate via small aerosol particles, which are stabilized in dry air, and that this is why these diseases are seasonal in mid-latitude regions.
The reproduction number, R0, can vary four-fold during a season, in accordance with absolute humidity of the atmosphere. This oft-confirmed discovery was initiated with the landmark work of Shaman et al. (2010).
Closed buildings such as hospitals, residences for the elderly, and day-care centers are proven to have large densities of virion-laden aerosol particles suspended in the air, in the dry season. In addition, air-flow has been shown to play a role regarding transmission, in restaurants and airplanes.
Therefore, it is not unreasonable to examine the use of controlled absolute humidity, and air-flow management in critical facilities housing many persons at risk of severe complications if infected. A high humidity would in-principle draw-out virtually all the aerosol particles, by condensation, particle growth, and gravitational removal.
In principle, what was an environment of high-density of aerosol particles, would become an environment of low-density of aerosol particles. Only a true RCT comparative study, with laboratory-confirmed infection determinations, could demonstrate whether such measures can be effective.
Kim Petersen is a former co-editor of the Dissident Voice newsletter. He can be reached at: [email protected] . Twitter: @kimpetersen.


The Big Plantation

Three of the four police officers involved in the murder of George Floyd were previously employed as stock boys by TARGET and Home Depot , and two had worked at McDonalds .
One stocked for a grocery store .
One didn ’ t graduate high school .
In other words these were economically part of that large temp minimum wage workforce that is now increasingly unemployed .
The fourth , officer Kueng , whose file was redacted , was apparently more middle class , from a nice family and who graduated with some distinction from his high school .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ why his file was redacted .
But one of them had served in the military , Derek Chauvin , the man now charged with the murder .
Chauvin also had 17 complaints filed against him for excessive force before he kneeled on George Floyd ’ s neck .
There are a couple things to consider here .
One is why these men are not on the side of the people they abuse ( and murder ) ?
The answer is multifold .
One is a culture of machismo and violence that saturates American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States was a slave owning nation where twelve presidents owned slaves .
Racism and Calvinist and Puritan values have never left this society .
And it was founded ( and its in the constitution ) as an unequal and anti democratic republic .
Owners of property were established as privileged .
And so it has contiuned .
But it also the allure of the uniform .
Now its understandable that being a cop and being handed a gun and impunity to harass and abuse the public is preferable to flipping burgers .
One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is validated as heroic by popular culture .
Domestic police departments tend to hire military veterans before those without military service .
Those with special forces training tend to go into Private Security .
One in four soldiers in theatre in Afghanistan are private contractors .
The wars of empire are increasingly being outsourced .
Couple this to the growing social inequality in the country , where 15 % live below the poverty line ( in 2015 , and which no doubt is closing in on double that post Covid ) , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hysteria and government fear mongering , which resulted in a nation wide ( and global ) house arrest , the problems with a militarily trained and equipped domestic police force , one drawing its officers from the low end of the educational spectrum , and one that provides at best rudimentary training , is obvious .
A Buddhist friend of mine , was mentioning that at her retreat one of the Tibetan teachers observed that Covid19 and the authoritarian policies it has engendered will unleash cataclysmic dark forces .
Spiritual forces , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , actually .
And this is how it feels .
And this is beyond the clear fascist agenda in play , but extends into realms of psychic transformation for the bourgeoisie in particular .
The anxiety and fear that has grown silently for this privileged class , grown steadily over the last twenty years , is now cracking open and the toxic emotional slag of the atrophied inner lives is spilling out on the rest of society at large .
It feels or is felt most deeply , from my anecdotal experience , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the other .
And I have not felt this sort of collective confusion , anxiety , and fear since the days of Vietnam .
Things surface for people .
The psychological effects of this lockdown are being wildly underestimated ( especially in the long term for children ) .
The difference from the Vietnam war is five decades of screen damage and an accelerated transference of wealth to the top 1 % .
The reality of such profound economic inequality is impossible to deny now , and the staggering numbers of homeless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be NOT seen , it finally starts to serve as a psychic wound , a constant silent witness to the crimes of the system .
The ruling class , or certainly at the least one corner of it , launched the ‘ Covid19 panic ’ as a means to shut down western society .
No matter if the virus is man made or accidental or just a naturally occurring zoonotic virus… it served as a prop for their agenda .
The ultimate plan remains a bit opaque but it likely includes a wholesale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ liberties , intensification of an already draconian surveillance state , and a transformation and rebranding of the meager welfare state into something fit for 7th century serfs , only far worse actually .
This is the world of Bill Gates moist nocturnal dreams , and those elite new green capitalists , royal families , and digital billionaires .
It should be noted that global health bureaucracies like WHO and the CDC are political organizations first .
Both have deep and long standing ties to big Pharma and various other corporate interests .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ owns it and directs policy ) and the CDC is actually a part of the Health and Human Services department of government .
And the current head of the CDC is a former pharmaceutical company executive and a guy who worked with John Bolton drawing up the National Biodefense Strategy for president Trump .
Anthony Fauci is the creepy and slimy little frontman for all the agencies involved in urging governments around the world to shut down ( they like the term lockdown for its prison connotations ) .
Without digressing too much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when one starts to wonder how it is allowed for known white nationalists and Klansmen to openly serve as police officers , the answer is not that the decentralized nature of state and city police departments are hard to reform or clean up but rather that the very top officeholders in criminal justice share sympathy with the racists .
We are watching in real time the normalizing of martial law and the suspension of democracy .
And these measures have given a bit of a boost to the beleaguered and increasingly brutish police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even a high school diploma is necessary to be given a badge and gun , when the police recruit from the ranks of malcontent and angry TARGET stock boys and blank McDonald counter people , there must be a logic at work , and I suspect there is .
First , flipping burgers is the only thing many young men and women have open to them .
I ’ ve done that kind of work .
And I hated it , too .
But the domestic police , those city departments fresh with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want empathic or imaginative young men , they want the emotionally dead .
As a side point here , I know martial arts masters who can train you to subdue the wildest suspect without any harm .
Adroitly and calmly — but it would require a few months training , not a few hours .
But that is not what the departments want .
They want crude clumsy tactics , ones that instill fear and which cause pain and suffering and sometimes death .
Those few percent of military trained special force guys @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Minneapolis police department , or San Diego , or Toledo or Indianapolis .
They go into high-end private security .
This is not even to touch on the widespread use of steroids .
The police today are increasingly used for purposes of optics , as much as any real police work .
Most crimes go unsolved and for uniformed cops in their black and white ( usually ) Cruisers the job description is essentially to function as an occupying force in poor neighborhoods .
They carry out parole checks , harass and detain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Most acutely in black inner cities .
They are a new gestapo .
They are there to brutalize and frighten what is seen as a surplus population .
The essence of America ’ s slave legacy is found right there , in the grim counter insurgency tactics of domestic police departments on the streets of black inner cities .
For important work , for the protection of important persons and prestige property the ruling class have turned to private security .
That leaves the uniformed cops , badly paid , with minimum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enforcing racial oppression .
And if any more proof were needed , one need only check the hyper incarceration rate in America ’ s prisons , and further , the results of the Innocence Project .
The numbers of falsely convicted men and women is staggering , it is mind numbing and a spiritual stain on this society that can never be washed away .
It is the overriding and ineradicable symbol of a savage culture of strict class separation , a separation enforced with lethality and pointless cruelty .
For the hyper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same streets where Eric Garner was choked , or Tamir Rice was shot , where George Floyd was murdered , and Trayvon Martin and Philando Castile and hundreds of others have suffered and died .
One topic not discussed enough is post-arrest custodial deaths .
In 2009 , after Obama was elected , the Department of Homeland Security and FBI jointly wrote an intelligence study on white extremism in domestic police departments .
Janet Napolitano , then DHS head , quickly and quietly swept the report under the proverbial rug .
Back in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ J. Hatter Jr found that sheriffs at the Lynwood substation were , were engaged in what he called ‘ racial hostility ’ and ‘ terrorist tactics ’ against Latino and Black prisoners .
And that the top brass for the Sheriffs department were well aware of this .
In 2006 the FBI released a redacted memorandum warning of white nationalists in domestic police departments .
Or look up the Joe Burge case in Chicago .
In departments in Florida , Texas , and Ohio , there were active Klansmen in police departments .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ country police culture is profoundly racist and reactionary .
The educated classes in the U.S. have internalized the Hollywood version of all this .
Just think how many hours of cop shows ( all them , literally ) you have watched and how every single one signs off on a fantasy version of police heroism …the thin blue line metaphor , and how it is only these handsome and beautiful ( if slightly flawed , you know , human ) public servants are protecting you and your family from the vicious underclass , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and where all them , literally , portray inner cities are lawless wastelands without culture , brutish and bestial .
This has led to the new narrative archetype of ‘ taking the wrong off ramp ’ .
These are openly racist stories but the public has come to digest such pseudo storytelling in a sort of pattern recognition manner .
And nearly every single cop show features one or more military veterans .
Usually special forces , but not always .
Service in the military is a signifier for virtue and honour @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angeles again , this time in the incorporated mostly black city of Compton in south LA .
The details of the Ryan Twyman killing , by sheriffs again , is perhaps the most perfect example of American white supremacism and when empowered the violent consequences .
This is not what you see on the new FOX cop show Deputy .
Watch a few episodes and get back to me .
But that is hardly a unique phenomenon , there is SWAT , Chicago PD , the various Law & Order franchises , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and on , obviously .
The problem is not the violence depicted , for Shakespeare is violent .
It is the naked propaganda and the racism .
Anti black racism at the very top but today Islamaphobic narratives abound as well , often with pro-Israeli sub plots .
Military shows follow the same blueprint .
The point is that you can not separate the Imperialist wars of aggression across the planet , which serve as recruitment pools for domestic police and private security and you can not separate the counter-insurgency tactics in Iraq @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to mention the covert activities against Venezuela and Bolivia both of which involved at least some uniformed military personnel , from the sadistic actions of America ’ s police .
Nor can you separate these aggressions from the jingoistic entertainments ( recruitment shows for the military and police ) from Hollywood .
These foreign policy actions remain largely accepted and popular .
The country may hate Trump , with good reason , but his foreign policy is so far actually less lethal than Obama ’ s or Bush ’ s or Clinton ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gets a bump in approval ratings when he kills a dark-skinned foreigner either by drone or my military actions .
The public didn ’ t much care at all about Fallujah , and the architect of that butchery , Jim ‘ Mad Dog ’ Mattis , former Sec of State for Trump before being fired , is now a darling of the white educated liberals who are so incensed about the prez ’ and his failure to lockdown the country even more , harder , and certainly for longer .
They are quite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ FBI and war criminals like Mattis .
That exaggerated hatred of Trump contains a number of contradictions .
But for the purposes of this discussion the central one is that of soft or disguised racism vs. overt white sheets MAGA racism .
White paternalism knows no bounds .
And the inherent tokenism of the educated white American has sort of reached its own , from their perspective , cultural horizon event .
Another way of saying it is truly the death of irony epoch .
That Americans approve of military violence against the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the police in America are so steadfastly racist and white supremacist .
They are hugely supported .
Now , there is with the murder of Floyd a lot of discussion of defunding the police .
The problem being , as many have pointed out , this would only increase privitization of security .
The US spent 100 billion on domestic policing last year , give or take .
And around 80 billion on prisons .
The US defense budget is four or almost five times that amount .
So it would seem critical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the police .
It is clearly a positive to reallocate cop money to mental health and community infrastructure and education .
But this is the nefarious aspect of Covid19 and the lockdown .
I n Philadelphia the proposed budget cuts , do the massive effects of the lockdown include cutting nearly all sanitation workers down to almost nothing , cutting stuff like soap in hospitals and upkeep of school and city buses .
The Covid lockdown was a tool of the ruling class .
There is much press now given to polls showing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Except those polls are misleading .
Its that last sentence , you see .
Whatever grassroots movements achieve is always going to run up against that last sentence .
But I ’ m not cynical about defunding cops .
It is a concrete material step in developing alliances in the working class .
The movements for prison abolition and defunding are doing the groundwork for alliance formation .
It has to start somewhere .
And they are the front edges of suggesting property and capitalism are the source of most all of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ struggle as two-pronged – one to educate the working class from ideas that chain them to the existing order and their own exploitation , and two , to bring other ‘ subaltern ’ classes into what he called a ‘ bloc ’ with the working class .
I only see the average American remains bizarrely ignorant of US foreign policy .
How many people know of Hillary Clinton ’ s coup in Honduras ?
I suspect not many .
The violence against the global south has not abated for sixty years ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ From AT & T to United Fruit to Dole pineapple , the business interests of corporate America has stood on the backs of the developing world ( sic ) .
What would actually happen if police were defunded ?
What would massive upticks in privatized security look like ?
Possibly something out of Robocop .
And that is the danger today , that is the situation in which we find ourselves .
Over the last thirty years funding for domestic police has grown over 400 % according to the Justice Policy Institute .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for public education .
The problem there is that public education sucks bad anyway .
It is almost worse than no education , frankly ( and yes I know there are exceptions ) .
And this takes us back to the shelf stockers at Tesco and TARGET .
The elite Universities and prep schools are available for the rich , and increasingly the very rich only .
And which serves as yet another factor in the acute resentment that seems to fuel so much American discourse .
And while private schools are better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the problem is the culture at large .
It ’ s not only a reflexive and embedded and indelible racism , it is an anti-intellectualism , and fast-eroding literacy .
And then there are the screens .
The pernicious effects of social media ( which really is a machine for creating resentment and/or guilt ) and smart phones , aps , algorithms … the entire attention economy , has produced a populace of emotional deadness , of crippling anxiety and insecurity about self , and it has done nothing to even mitigate in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and what is called American Exceptionalism .
The cops that killed George Floyd , if prosecuted , will be exceptions that change nothing .
Most cops serve with impunity .
American soldiers shoot at Iraqi civilians as sport , amusement .
The vicious IDF , fresh from killing teenagers , comes to the U.S. to teach domestic departments better how to instil terror and pain , nothing more .
There is no secret magic Zionist martial art or mind control .
Its just brute terrorizing .
As it has always been for fascists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for plantations and chain gangs .

John Steppling
“European Left-wing political scientists find difficult to understand that the colonial contradiction is at the heart of our present, they think it’s a conceptual error, something anachronistic, that the joyful postmodernity – the one that delivers their Macs to them at home – has gone beyond all that, and that Trump or Bolsonaro are racist accidents of History, or of the « free world ». It’s just the opposite. Under the advertising varnish of capitalist globalization, the deep History of our world has never disappeared, it has even come back to the surface, even stronger. The revolt that is happening in the United States is the same one that founds the resistance of the Venezuelan people.”
Thierry Deronne, Algeria Resistance Mohsen Abdelmoumen’s blog 2020
*
“Everyone is a philosopher, though in his own way and unconsciously, since even in the slightest manifestation of any intellectual activity whatever, in ‘language’, there is contained a specific conception of the world, one then moves on to the second level, which is that of awareness and criticism.”
Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks
Three of the four police officers involved in the murder of George Floyd were previously employed as stock boys by TARGET and Home Depot, and two had worked at McDonalds. One stocked for a grocery store. One didn’t graduate high school. In other words these were economically part of that large temp minimum wage workforce that is now increasingly unemployed.
The fourth, officer Kueng, whose file was redacted, was apparently more middle class, from a nice family and who graduated with some distinction from his high school. It’s interesting, first off, why his file was redacted.
But one of them had served in the military, Derek Chauvin, the man now charged with the murder. Chauvin also had 17 complaints filed against him for excessive force before he kneeled on George Floyd’s neck.
There are a couple things to consider here. One is why these men are not on the side of the people they abuse (and murder)? The answer is multifold. One is a culture of machismo and violence that saturates American society. Another is that the United States was a slave owning nation where twelve presidents owned slaves.
Racism and Calvinist and Puritan values have never left this society. And it was founded (and its in the constitution) as an unequal and anti democratic republic. Owners of property were established as privileged. And so it has contiuned. But it also the allure of the uniform. Now its understandable that being a cop and being handed a gun and impunity to harass and abuse the public is preferable to flipping burgers. One job is utter humiliation while the other is validated as heroic by popular culture.
Domestic police departments tend to hire military veterans before those without military service.
The Obama administration helped expand the preference: in 2012, the Department of Justice provided tens of millions of dollars to fund scores of vets-only positions in police departments nationwide. Official data on the impact of veteran-cops is scarce. Nearly all of the 33 police departments contacted by The Marshall Project declined to provide a list of officers who had served in the military, citing laws protecting personnel records, or saying the information was not stored in any central place. The Justice Department office that dispenses grants to hire cops and study policing said it has no interest in funding research into how military experience might influence police behavior. – Simone Weichselbaum and Beth Schwartzapfel, The Marshall Project
Those with special forces training tend to go into Private Security. One in four soldiers in theatre in Afghanistan are private contractors. The wars of empire are increasingly being outsourced.
During the Obama administration, the Pentagon has been equipping US police departments across the country with a staggering amount of military weapons, combat vehicles, and other equipment, according to Pentagon data. According to a New York Times article published last week, at minimum, 93,763 machine guns, 180,718 magazine cartridges, hundreds of silencers and an unknown number of grenade launchers have been provided to state and local police departments since 2006. This is in addition to at least 533 planes and helicopters, and 432 MRAPs — 9-foot high, 30-ton Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles with gun turrets and more than 44,900 pieces of night vision equipment, regularly used in nighttime raids in Afghanistan and Iraq. Much of the lethal provisions have gone to small city and county police forces.{ } The recent militarization is part of a broader trend. According to Eastern Kentucky University professor Peter B. Kraska—who has studied this subject for two decades—as of the late 1990s, about 89 percent of police departments in the United States serving populations of 50,000 people or more had a PPU (Police Paramilitary Unit), almost double of what existed in the mid-1980s. Their growth in smaller jurisdictions (agencies serving between 25 and 50,000 people) was even more pronounced. Currently, about 80 percent of small town agencies have a PPU; in the mid-1980s only 20 percent had them. The domestic military ramp-up is far from being in proportion to any perceived threat to public safety. The Times notes that, “today, crime has fallen to its lowest levels in a generation… the number of domestic terrorist attacks has declined sharply from the 1960s and 1970s.” And yet, “police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs.” – Zac Corrigan, WSWS June 2014
Couple this to the growing social inequality in the country, where 15% live below the poverty line (in 2015, and which no doubt is closing in on double that post Covid), and where on the heels of the pandemic hysteria and government fear mongering, which resulted in a nation wide (and global) house arrest, the problems with a militarily trained and equipped domestic police force, one drawing its officers from the low end of the educational spectrum, and one that provides at best rudimentary training, is obvious.
A Buddhist friend of mine, was mentioning that at her retreat one of the Tibetan teachers observed that Covid19 and the authoritarian policies it has engendered will unleash cataclysmic dark forces. Spiritual forces, so I take it. Or anti spiritual, actually. And this is how it feels. And this is beyond the clear fascist agenda in play, but extends into realms of psychic transformation for the bourgeoisie in particular.
The anxiety and fear that has grown silently for this privileged class, grown steadily over the last twenty years, is now cracking open and the toxic emotional slag of the atrophied inner lives is spilling out on the rest of society at large. It feels or is felt most deeply, from my anecdotal experience, in the white bourgeoisie’s fear of the other.
And I have not felt this sort of collective confusion, anxiety, and fear since the days of Vietnam. Things surface for people. The psychological effects of this lockdown are being wildly underestimated (especially in the long term for children). The difference from the Vietnam war is five decades of screen damage and an accelerated transference of wealth to the top 1%.
The reality of such profound economic inequality is impossible to deny now, and the staggering numbers of homeless across the country eventually can’t be NOT seen, it finally starts to serve as a psychic wound, a constant silent witness to the crimes of the system.
The ruling class, or certainly at the least one corner of it, launched the ‘Covid19 panic’ as a means to shut down western society. No matter if the virus is man made or accidental or just a naturally occurring zoonotic virus… it served as a prop for their agenda.
The ultimate plan remains a bit opaque but it likely includes a wholesale eradication of what is left of civil liberties, intensification of an already draconian surveillance state, and a transformation and rebranding of the meager welfare state into something fit for 7th century serfs, only far worse actually.
This is the world of Bill Gates moist nocturnal dreams, and those elite new green capitalists, royal families, and digital billionaires. It should be noted that global health bureaucracies like WHO and the CDC are political organizations first. Both have deep and long standing ties to big Pharma and various other corporate interests.
The WHO is privately funded (Gates essentially owns it and directs policy) and the CDC is actually a part of the Health and Human Services department of government. And the current head of the CDC is a former pharmaceutical company executive and a guy who worked with John Bolton drawing up the National Biodefense Strategy for president Trump. Anthony Fauci is the creepy and slimy little frontman for all the agencies involved in urging governments around the world to shut down (they like the term lockdown for its prison connotations).
Without digressing too much here, what is relevant is that when one starts to wonder how it is allowed for known white nationalists and Klansmen to openly serve as police officers, the answer is not that the decentralized nature of state and city police departments are hard to reform or clean up but rather that the very top officeholders in criminal justice share sympathy with the racists.
We are watching in real time the normalizing of martial law and the suspension of democracy. And these measures have given a bit of a boost to the beleaguered and increasingly brutish police departments across the country. When not even a high school diploma is necessary to be given a badge and gun, when the police recruit from the ranks of malcontent and angry TARGET stock boys and blank McDonald counter people, there must be a logic at work, and I suspect there is.
First, flipping burgers is the only thing many young men and women have open to them. I’ve done that kind of work. And I hated it, too. But the domestic police, those city departments fresh with new military hardware, don’t want empathic or imaginative young men, they want the emotionally dead.
As a side point here, I know martial arts masters who can train you to subdue the wildest suspect without any harm. Adroitly and calmly — but it would require a few months training, not a few hours. But that is not what the departments want. They want crude clumsy tactics, ones that instill fear and which cause pain and suffering and sometimes death.
Those few percent of military trained special force guys, they don’t go the Minneapolis police department, or San Diego, or Toledo or Indianapolis. They go into high-end private security.
This is not even to touch on the widespread use of steroids.
When it came to incarceration, the US prison population had reached a staggering 2.4 million people by 2014. Out of this number — which accounted for a full quarter of the entire world’s prison population — 38 percent of inmates were black, even though as mentioned black people made up just 13.3 percent of the entire population. Compare this to whites, who made up 35 percent of the US prison population while constituting just under 78 percent of the country’s population. Mass incarceration was brought into being by Bill Clinton with the passage of his omnibus crime bill in 1994. Obama, over his two terms, did nothing to address what prison reform activists had long described as the new plantation.” – John Wight, Medium 2020
The police today are increasingly used for purposes of optics, as much as any real police work. Most crimes go unsolved and for uniformed cops in their black and white (usually) Cruisers the job description is essentially to function as an occupying force in poor neighborhoods. They carry out parole checks, harass and detain the poor, often on a whim. Most acutely in black inner cities.
They are a new gestapo. They are there to brutalize and frighten what is seen as a surplus population. The essence of America’s slave legacy is found right there, in the grim counter insurgency tactics of domestic police departments on the streets of black inner cities. For important work, for the protection of important persons and prestige property the ruling class have turned to private security.
That leaves the uniformed cops, badly paid, with minimum job security actually, as tools for enforcing racial oppression. And if any more proof were needed, one need only check the hyper incarceration rate in America’s prisons, and further, the results of the Innocence Project. The numbers of falsely convicted men and women is staggering, it is mind numbing and a spiritual stain on this society that can never be washed away.
It is the overriding and ineradicable symbol of a savage culture of strict class separation, a separation enforced with lethality and pointless cruelty. For the hyper incarceration starts right there, on the same streets where Eric Garner was choked, or Tamir Rice was shot, where George Floyd was murdered, and Trayvon Martin and Philando Castile and hundreds of others have suffered and died. One topic not discussed enough is post-arrest custodial deaths.
In properly staffed households throughout the world, the bodyguard is the new nanny, { } fear of terrorism, a volatile political climate and a pervasive sense that the wealth creation of a few has come at the expense of the many have made paranoia the norm.”
Town and Country, Dec 2016
We learned that the contractors in our sample are predominantly white man in their 40s who chose contracting as a second career. Most are veterans with significant military experience. Among those contractors who were previously deployed as service members, many are former officers and about half of them are Special Forces veterans. They are more likely to have a college degree than their active-duty counterparts, but less likely than their fellow veterans in the general population. They come from parts of the U.S. or United Kingdom with higher unemployment rates and fewer job opportunities—not the areas with the strongest traditions for military service.”
Ori Swed and Thomas Crosbie, Pacific Standard, “The Demographics of America’s Private Military Contractors”. March 2019
In 2009, after Obama was elected, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI jointly wrote an intelligence study on white extremism in domestic police departments. Janet Napolitano, then DHS head, quickly and quietly swept the report under the proverbial rug.
Back in 1991 Los Angeles US District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr found that sheriffs at the Lynwood substation were, were engaged in what he called ‘racial hostility’ and ‘terrorist tactics’ against Latino and Black prisoners. And that the top brass for the Sheriffs department were well aware of this. In 2006 the FBI released a redacted memorandum warning of white nationalists in domestic police departments. Or look up the Joe Burge case in Chicago. In departments in Florida, Texas, and Ohio, there were active Klansmen in police departments.
It is common knowledge that across the country police culture is profoundly racist and reactionary. The educated classes in the U.S. have internalized the Hollywood version of all this. Just think how many hours of cop shows (all them, literally) you have watched and how every single one signs off on a fantasy version of police heroism …the thin blue line metaphor, and how it is only these handsome and beautiful (if slightly flawed, you know, human) public servants are protecting you and your family from the vicious underclass, from drug dealing gangs, all minority, and where all them, literally, portray inner cities are lawless wastelands without culture, brutish and bestial.
This has led to the new narrative archetype of ‘taking the wrong off ramp’. These are openly racist stories but the public has come to digest such pseudo storytelling in a sort of pattern recognition manner. And nearly every single cop show features one or more military veterans. Usually special forces, but not always. Service in the military is a signifier for virtue and honour.
Forward to 2019, and Los Angeles again, this time in the incorporated mostly black city of Compton in south LA. The details of the Ryan Twyman killing, by sheriffs again, is perhaps the most perfect example of American white supremacism and when empowered the violent consequences.
Ryan Twyman was unarmed inside a parked car when two Los Angeles sheriff deputies approached and fired 34 rounds. Video of the entire incident, which happened in roughly 50 seconds, was as shocking as many police brutality cases that have gone viral in the US. But the killing of the 24-year-old father of three barely made the news. On that day, his death was far from unique: officers across LA shot five people in five separate incidents in just over 24 hours. Only one person survived. Families and activists said the bloodshed on 6 June provided a terrifying illustration of the culture of police violence and a system that trains officers to kill – while ensuring they won’t face consequences.”
Sam Levine, Guardian, Aug 2019
This is not what you see on the new FOX cop show Deputy. Watch a few episodes and get back to me. But that is hardly a unique phenomenon, there is SWAT, Chicago PD, the various Law & Order franchises, or Criminal Minds. I could go on and on, obviously. The problem is not the violence depicted, for Shakespeare is violent. It is the naked propaganda and the racism. Anti black racism at the very top but today Islamaphobic narratives abound as well, often with pro-Israeli sub plots. Military shows follow the same blueprint.
The point is that you cannot separate the Imperialist wars of aggression across the planet, which serve as recruitment pools for domestic police and private security and you cannot separate the counter-insurgency tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan, or Syria, not to mention the covert activities against Venezuela and Bolivia both of which involved at least some uniformed military personnel, from the sadistic actions of America’s police. Nor can you separate these aggressions from the jingoistic entertainments (recruitment shows for the military and police) from Hollywood.
These foreign policy actions remain largely accepted and popular. The country may hate Trump, with good reason, but his foreign policy is so far actually less lethal than Obama’s or Bush’s or Clinton’s. In any event every President gets a bump in approval ratings when he kills a dark-skinned foreigner either by drone or my military actions.
The public didn’t much care at all about Fallujah, and the architect of that butchery, Jim ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, former Sec of State for Trump before being fired, is now a darling of the white educated liberals who are so incensed about the prez’ and his failure to lockdown the country even more, harder, and certainly for longer.
They are quite happy to cheer and identify with the FBI and war criminals like Mattis. That exaggerated hatred of Trump contains a number of contradictions. But for the purposes of this discussion the central one is that of soft or disguised racism vs. overt white sheets MAGA racism.
White paternalism knows no bounds. And the inherent tokenism of the educated white American has sort of reached its own, from their perspective, cultural horizon event. Another way of saying it is truly the death of irony epoch.
That Americans approve of military violence against the poor nations of the world suggests why the police in America are so steadfastly racist and white supremacist. They are hugely supported. Now, there is with the murder of Floyd a lot of discussion of defunding the police. The problem being, as many have pointed out, this would only increase privitization of security. The US spent 100 billion on domestic policing last year, give or take. And around 80 billion on prisons.
The US defense budget is four or almost five times that amount. So it would seem critical to defund the military right along with the police. It is clearly a positive to reallocate cop money to mental health and community infrastructure and education. But this is the nefarious aspect of Covid19 and the lockdown. I
n Philadelphia the proposed budget cuts, do the massive effects of the lockdown include cutting nearly all sanitation workers down to almost nothing, cutting stuff like soap in hospitals and upkeep of school and city buses. The Covid lockdown was a tool of the ruling class.
There is much press now given to polls showing American support for the Floyd protests. Except those polls are misleading.
Forty-five percent of respondents told Morning Consult that, on the whole, most of the protesters are peaceful and desire meaningful social reform, while 42 percent said most protesters are trying to incite violence or destroy property. In Monmouth’s poll, only 17 percent felt the actions of the protesters were fully justified, 37 percent said they were partially justified and 38 percent said they weren’t justified at all. And the Reuters/Ipsos survey found that most Americans (72 percent) didn’t think violent protests were an appropriate response to Floyd’s killing, and that property damage caused by protesters undermined their goals (79 percent). Morning Consult’s survey also found that Americans were less supportive of the protests when they were specifically asked about black people protesting.”
– Five Thirty Eight
Its that last sentence, you see.
Whatever grassroots movements achieve is always going to run up against that last sentence. But I’m not cynical about defunding cops. It is a concrete material step in developing alliances in the working class. The movements for prison abolition and defunding are doing the groundwork for alliance formation. It has to start somewhere. And they are the front edges of suggesting property and capitalism are the source of most all of their problems.
Gramsci envisioned the ‘hegemonic’ struggle as two-pronged – one to educate the working class from ideas that chain them to the existing order and their own exploitation, and two, to bring other ‘subaltern’ classes into what he called a ‘bloc’ with the working class.
I only see the average American remains bizarrely ignorant of US foreign policy. How many people know of Hillary Clinton’s coup in Honduras? I suspect not many. The violence against the global south has not abated for sixty years (ok, for three hundred).
From AT&T to United Fruit to Dole pineapple, the business interests of corporate America has stood on the backs of the developing world (sic). What would actually happen if police were defunded? What would massive upticks in privatized security look like? Possibly something out of Robocop. And that is the danger today, that is the situation in which we find ourselves.
Take a look at Alabama, which sits up top in the U.S. alphabetically and in the middle, population-wise: Since 1996, Alabama police departments have received $78,534,297.32 in planes, helicopters, rifles, and mine-resistant vehicles. How is there so much stuff to dole out? After 9/11, U.S. military funding increased 50 percent. In fact, the average American has paid $23,386 in taxes to support the military and its war efforts since 2001. All that spending has translated to a lot of extra mine-resistant vehicles, which local police now own.”
AC Shilton (Fatherly, 2020)
Over the last thirty years funding for domestic police has grown over 400% according to the Justice Policy Institute. And there are millions of dollars shortfall for public education. The problem there is that public education sucks bad anyway. It is almost worse than no education, frankly (and yes I know there are exceptions). And this takes us back to the shelf stockers at Tesco and TARGET.
The elite Universities and prep schools are available for the rich, and increasingly the very rich only. And which serves as yet another factor in the acute resentment that seems to fuel so much American discourse. And while private schools are better (how could they be worse) the problem is the culture at large.
It’s not only a reflexive and embedded and indelible racism, it is an anti-intellectualism, and fast-eroding literacy. And then there are the screens. The pernicious effects of social media (which really is a machine for creating resentment and/or guilt) and smart phones, aps, algorithms … the entire attention economy, has produced a populace of emotional deadness, of crippling anxiety and insecurity about self, and it has done nothing to even mitigate in the slightest of ways the Imperialist project and what is called American Exceptionalism.
The cops that killed George Floyd, if prosecuted, will be exceptions that change nothing. Most cops serve with impunity. American soldiers shoot at Iraqi civilians as sport, amusement. The vicious IDF, fresh from killing teenagers, comes to the U.S. to teach domestic departments better how to instil terror and pain, nothing more. There is no secret magic Zionist martial art or mind control. Its just brute terrorizing. As it has always been for fascists. And as it has always been for plantations and chain gangs.