Masks are a “talisman”
Sept 26, 2020 10:59:18 GMT
Post by Admin on Sept 26, 2020 10:59:18 GMT
Former NY Times journalist tells Tucker Carlson real purpose of masks in COVID crisis
Alex Berensen said masks have become for the general population a 'talisman,' an object believed to possess magic powers,
Alex Berensen said masks have become for the general population a 'talisman,' an object believed to possess magic powers,
while being mostly 'useless.'
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 25, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A former New York Times journalist who has become one of the nation’s leading voices critical of heavy-handed tactics being exercised by the government during the pandemic explained that there is no scientific evidence to justify wearing masks in public spaces.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Alex Berenson, author of Unreported Truths about COVIS-19 and Lockdowns, Part 2, said masks “are at best marginally useful indoors in crowded settings. And the evidence that people have tried to drum up in the last six months to suggest otherwise is almost embarrassingly weak.”
After viewing a video of a woman sitting alone with her family at her son’s high school football game being tasered and handcuffed by police because she wasn’t wearing a mask, Berenson asserted that there was no justification for her arrest.
The smattering of studies being cited by authorities for mandating masks is “a joke,” said Berenson.
Berenson said the best scientific evidence available — before the science concerning masks became politicized beginning in March of this year — “suggested that masks were broadly useless in the general population.”
Masks are a “talisman”
“To the extent they were useful, it would be for people who were actively infected and coughing, and to the extent that made any difference, it was probably just as a signaling mechanism to show people, ‘step away from me, I’m sick,’” he said.
“So the evidence here is just beyond weak,” he added.
“Masks have become a talisman,” explained Berenson, something that we use to show that we’re taking the coronavirus seriously.
A talisman is an object believed to possess magic powers, conferring on its bearer or wearer supernatural protection.
“We can’t do lockdowns anymore — even the Democratic governors have dropped lockdowns because they’re so economically devastating — so they have to tell the people to do something, and they tell them to wear masks and the social pressure,” he continued.
Berenson shared his personal experience to illustrate the irrational societal pressures that one might now face in public spaces:
A few weeks ago I was in Walmart with my son who is 4. A 4 year-old is essentially at 0.0000 risk of anything happening with coronavirus. Little kids don’t spread coronavirus. He was not wearing a mask. I don’t like him to wear a mask, although he has unfortunately had to wear one now that he goes to school.
A woman came up to me and she said, ‘Your son’s not wearing a mask,’ and I said, ‘I know, he doesn’t like them,’ and she said, ‘I’m going to go get a police officer,’ and she did.
So what do I do? I don’t argue with the police. I tell my son to put on a mask, and he puts it on. This is the sort of social pressure that we’re engaged in right now, and it has real consequences.
A woman came up to me and she said, ‘Your son’s not wearing a mask,’ and I said, ‘I know, he doesn’t like them,’ and she said, ‘I’m going to go get a police officer,’ and she did.
So what do I do? I don’t argue with the police. I tell my son to put on a mask, and he puts it on. This is the sort of social pressure that we’re engaged in right now, and it has real consequences.
Worse heavy-handed government irrationality on the horizon
“There are other even more serious issues than masks coming,” predicted Berenson. “There are vaccines, there are ‘Test’ and ‘Trace,’ and how aggressively we’re going to isolate people and quarantine them.”
“There are hundreds of thousands of college students right now at no risk,” he stressed, “being forced to not leave their dorms, for no reason,” noted Berenson.
Carlson reacted: “So a society that can behave this irrationally about masks, you’re suggesting, could do things that are much worse than that.”
“What’s interesting, it’s actually the anglophone [English-speaking] countries — the U.K., it’s the U.S., it’s Canada and Australia and New Zealand — that have taken the most irrational steps,” said Berenson.
“Right now in Europe, they’re done with lockdowns,” he said. “It’s funny: the countries that we view as more ‘bureaucratic’ and ‘statist’ are the ones that are pushing back more and making more rational decisions than we are.”
“The Anglo world has gone insane,” concluded Carlson. “It clearly has.”