Ep 473 ｜ Carrie Underwood Gets It： Masks Don't Belong in Schools (with Data)
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Summary
In this episode of Relatable, we take a break from talking about some of the big things going on in the world right now to talk about something that's less important, but still important. Today, we're talking about Carrie Underwood and why she should wear masks in schools.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone had a great Monday and Tuesday
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and Wednesday so far. Today we are going to talk about Carrie Underwood. We have never
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talked about Carrie Underwood on this podcast before. And if you have no idea what I'm talking
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about, what happened was she got blasted on Twitter and across social media for liking a tweet about
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kids not needing to wear masks at school. We're going to break down the data on masks and why
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it actually matters. But before we get into it, as you guys know, there are a lot of big things going
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on in the world right now. We've talked about them this week, especially yesterday. If you haven't
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listened to yesterday's episode about Afghanistan, I encourage you to do that. We really give all of
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the context and all the details, information, insight that's necessary to really understand
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what's going on. Tomorrow, I'm going to be talking big picture about what's going on in the world,
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what's going on in Afghanistan, taking a theological view of all of that and what we can learn from
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this that is going to be a really, really important episode. The big thing that is weighing on me and on
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the hearts of Christians everywhere is the persecution being suffered by Christians in
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Afghanistan right now. They are no strangers to persecution, of course, as many of us are in the
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United States. But this may be more intense persecution than many Afghan Christians have seen
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in a very long time, maybe even in their lifetime. So tomorrow, we are going to talk about this,
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like I said, from a spiritual perspective, most importantly, but also practically and politically,
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how we can help, what this all means. And I understand this is the big thing that is weighing on your
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heart and your mind right now. Today, though, we're going to take a break from talking about some of
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that. We're going to talk about something that is objectively less important, but it's still
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important. And I mean, how needed, though, is it to get perspective on things when we see the
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suffering of people around the world? It makes the political problems that we have in America seem so
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small. And yet they are problems that exist. And because they exist, they do matter to an extent
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because they affect people. Like we're talking about policies that actually have an impact on
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people's lives. And so that's why we're talking about mask mandates in schools and if they're
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really necessary. And while we know this is extremely small potatoes compared to so much of what's going
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on in the world, I still think that it's worth talking about because the truth matters. Two plus two
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equaling four may seem like an inconsequential equation compared to more complicated mathematical
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formulas that are used to build rockets or create life-saving medical treatments. But it's
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foundational. Without it, none of the other formulas would make sense or even be possible.
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And in the same way, saying what is true about seemingly little things is necessary to knowing and
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saying what is true about the much bigger things. And the truth is always worth saying, especially in
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my opinion, when it comes to questioning what the state sanctions in the name of safety, especially
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when it comes to rules that are ostensibly implemented for our good, but aren't well explained at all and
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aren't, as we will talk about, really backed by a whole lot of data. I mean, especially when all of
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this stuff affects our kids. And that is why we are going to talk about these mask mandates in schools
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and break all the data down. And it starts with this fateful like of a tweet by singer Carrie
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Underwood. So Carrie Underwood, she liked the tweet by Matt Walsh, whom we had on, I believe it was last
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week. So go listen to that episode if you haven't already or watch it on YouTube. She liked a tweet
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that was a video of Matt Walsh speaking at a school board meeting about kids wearing masks. It's a great
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video. You should go watch it. He points out that none of the people demanding that children wear masks in
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schools are actually explaining why factually, scientifically, they should do so. He makes the
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what's considered probably a pretty scandalous and maybe offensive argument that really the masks are
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more a security blanket for the adults rather than for actual safety measures for the kids. And like I
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said, we're going to we're going to look at that argument. We're going to look at some of the facts from
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around the world that I believe prove that we do not need mask mandates, especially for kids. Now,
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I know that some of you out there who may adamantly disagree with me may already be really uncomfortable
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with me saying that. But let's hold on. Hold on to your britches. Make it through the episode. And then
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if you still disagree with me or you disagree with my interpretation of the data, I would be happy to
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hear from you and happy to talk to you about that. But first, I want to talk about how things devolved
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on Twitter because of this, because it was truly absurd. And I've got some nuggets in here about
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other cultural things that I think that we should be analyzing and taking from this. So someone by the
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name of Keith Edwards, who, of course, of course, works or has worked for the Lincoln Project and
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multiple Democrat campaigns, according to his Twitter bio, he posted a screenshot that showed
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Carrie Underwood's like of that tweet. And his commentary was not this dot dot dot. Well, eventually,
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a bunch of blue checkmarks and other random Twitter users heard about it and started tweeting about it.
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And pretty soon there were a whole bunch of people saying how sad they were, how disappointed they
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were in Carrie Underwood, that they were going to unfollow Carrie Underwood, not going to play her
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music anymore. And then get this. This is this was so crazy for me to watch. They were calling Carrie
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Underwood because of liking because she liked a tweet about not forcing kids to wear masks in schools.
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They called her an anti-vaxxer. So nowhere did she or even Matt Walsh say anything about vaccines.
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The video was not about vaccines. It wasn't even about masks in general. It was specifically about
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forcing kids to wear masks in schools. And yet, if you go look at the replies to the tweets on her
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page, if you go look at some of what some of the blue checkmarks are saying about this,
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they're calling her an anti-vaxxer. And so this this is such a great lesson that all of us need to
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learn. Are you ready for this lesson? Because I really think that it's crucial for us to know.
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The rage mob does not care about the truth. They don't care about the truth. They're not thinking
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rationally. Like they don't care about how nuanced your take is. It doesn't matter how kind you are,
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how sweet you are, what your tone is when you're saying what you're saying, or even really the
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content of what you say or how logical and sound your arguments are. Like if they don't like what you
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say, they will accuse you of being guilty of the worst possible thing that they can think of.
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And it will not matter how you defend yourself. It will not matter the facts of what actually
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you did or what you said. These people, unfortunately, and I'm not just talking about
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people who just disagree with Carrie Underwood. I'm talking about these people who get whipped
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up into a frenzy and whip other people up into a frenzy and direct people to harass and dox and try
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to cancel someone based on an opinion that they don't like. These people are thoughtless.
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They're amoral at best, immoral at worst, creeps who have no life and whose only purpose and joy
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is found in trying to cancel other people for deviating from their views. I think that is a
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very generous description of people who do things like this. They don't see it that way,
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though. They see it as holding bigots and science deniers accountable. But of course,
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that's not true. They're overly sensitive, intolerant, fascist bullies who cannot tolerate a difference
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of opinion. And again, I'm not talking about, you know, even the person who originally tweeted
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the screenshot or everyone who expressed his agreement with her, whatever. That is totally
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fine. I'm talking about the people who are calling her an anti-vaxxer and tagging the NFL because she
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sings their theme song. So I don't know what they want the NFL to do, denounce her. So they're really
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trying to get people to harass her and make her regret what she did. It's such a totalitarian and evil
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and corrupt tendency that people have in these kinds of situations. And Twitter, of course,
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makes it trend, which just incites more people. Twitter loves to do this. It started out as a few
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totally random people talking about it, and then it turns into a Twitter moment. The same Twitter
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who claims to be against harassment and wants to create a so-called healthy platform for productive
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dialogue, they exacerbate bullying and they allow all kinds of terrible abuse and false narratives to
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thrive while suspending people for stating facts about human biology, suspending or banning permanently
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the president of the United States, even while the leaders of the Taliban are on Twitter. My goodness.
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So understand, understand this, understand what's going on. Understand that you will never be enough
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for the cancel month. You will never be nuanced enough. You'll never be woke enough. You'll never be
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kind enough. Your tone will never be sweet enough for the rage mom. So do not try to please them in
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the first place. Don't self-censor or over-explain in the hopes that they won't come for you. They're not
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thinking logically. So it really doesn't matter how well you can defend yourself. So you've got two
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options in these scenarios if you find yourself in it. If you are being dragged for something that you
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don't actually regret, if you're being pressured to renounce something that you still actually believe,
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you either double down or you ignore it. And that's what I hope that Carrie Underwood does. I hope she
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either says, hey, yeah, I don't think we should be masking young kids and y'all can get over it. Or she
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can just totally ignore that it even happened. Because guess what? People will forget. They will move on.
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They will download and listen to her next song. I can almost guarantee you that. Do you remember,
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we did a whole episode on it. We'll link it in the description. If you remember taking care of
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babies, she is a baby sleep trainer, very popular. A lot of people, a lot of celebrities follow her
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to gently sleep train their babies. She's just a wonderful, sweet person. If you follow her,
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you know that she's nothing but love and positivity and help and care and compassion.
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But she and her husband committed the unforgettable, not unforgettable, maybe unforgettable for some
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people, unforgivable crime of donating somewhere like $1,000 to the Trump campaign over the course
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of a few years. And people found this out. I think the guy, his name was, well, I don't remember. So I
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don't want to accidentally throw someone under the bus by using the wrong name. But there was a guy who
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apparently he reviews like baby products or something on Instagram. He originally posted
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about this, called for people, quote, holding her accountable. The cancel mom really tried to come
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for her. They put her videos, which are behind a paywall. That's how she gets paid up on Reddit for
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free to try to hurt her business, try to get everyone to unfollow her. And that was really hard
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on her. Like it was an intense few days. I saw the things that people were saying about her,
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people who consider themselves her friends. And what we did in that is that I reached out to her
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and I encouraged a bunch of you to reach out to her. And I know for a fact that she not only
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appreciated that, but that actually gave her so much encouragement and buoyed her that she was able
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to, by the grace of God, not just because of the encouragement that she got from us, she was able to
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handle this with a whole lot of kindness and a whole lot of confidence. She did not apologize.
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She made a statement and she just kept doing great work, helping families and their babies get better
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sleep. And now it's fine. So she was a wonderful example. And as I say, when we see something like
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this happening, we have to share arrows with the people who are getting unfairly attacked. I'm not
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talking about people who are suffering consequences for, you know, actual sinful actions for immoral
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actions. Like I'm not talking about coming to the defense of some, you know, monster like Harvey
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Weinstein, like that person needs to be canceled because what they did was criminal. It was objectively
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wrong. Donating to a campaign of the sitting president is not like you might not like it, but it's not
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morally wrong. Um, and so I think it was really good that we came to her defense, treat, treat those
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people that are in the line of fire for whatever thing, um, as you would want to be treated. You
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would want people to come to your defense. You would want people to share arrows. You would want to stick
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up for her. And this community specifically, the relatable community did. And I know for a fact that
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it gave her a lot of encouragement and that she was able to stand strong. Um, and she did and things
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are okay. Like she's still, um, she's still doing such a good job and serving so many families. Now
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there's another story. There was another baby products company. This happened around the same
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time. This was after, after the George Floyd incident last summer, like people were so social
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justice warriors were so excited to try to guilt and to cancel specifically. It seemed like white
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female social media influencers for not being sensitive enough, for not being enough of an
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activist, for not doing and saying all the right things. And so you saw a lot of these different
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kinds of scenarios and a lot of people, um, you know, there were a variety of reactions to this.
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And so Solly baby is a company that makes baby wearing wraps and they made one wrap that they were going
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to get patented. Um, great. Except apparently this is off limits because baby wearing was according to
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the people who came for the founder of this company, started by African women and women in other
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cultures. And I guess was only, they, they claim was only learned by white women, which I, I don't even
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know if that's actually true. If you go back hundreds of years and you look at all the different kinds of
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cultures that baby wore, I'm sure there were all different kinds of people with all different kinds of
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melanin count, um, in their skin that have used fabric to carry their babies. But apparently
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because this was a white woman who started Solly baby, it was wrong of her to try to patent this
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particular, uh, this particular wrap. So, and this woman, she created this particular wrap and the
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particular fabric. Um, and so she wanted to patent that, but again, the social justice, anti-racist,
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so-called, uh, rage mob came, lambasted her, and she ended up posting multiple apologies,
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multiple apologies because the first one wasn't good enough. All the comment section was filled
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with people telling her how her apology was bad, how it centered, you know, her white woman feelings
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and how, uh, she needed to do more and say more and do something differently. And so she did, she bent
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over backwards to please the people who were after her. And I'm sure she was sincere. Like, I don't think
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that she is, um, I'm not trying to throw her under the bus from this direction either. Um, I'm just
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saying that her probably very sincere efforts did not matter. Um, and you could tell that this was
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really, that this really took a big emotional toll on her and maybe everything is fine now. I hope her
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business is doing well, but the latter situation was drawn out and caused a lot more pain because of
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the assumption that I guess she had that social media bullies can actually be appeased, that they
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can be satisfied by anything other than total and complete self-loathing and groveling and
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capitulation. I think honestly, they probably only would have been satisfied if she had just shut down
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her business altogether and decided she wasn't going to make baby wraps anymore. And then even that
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probably wouldn't have been sufficient. So learn a lesson from all of this. Apologize when you know
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that you have sinned, when you know that you are legitimately in the wrong, but do not do it for the
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mob no matter what, even if you are legitimately, uh, legitimately in the wrong, do it to obey God,
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but do not apologize. Do not acquiesce. Don't give in a single centimeter. Don't even defend yourself
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when you are being wrongly dragged for something that you said that you truly do believe or something
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that you did that you know is right. Um, and as I said on Twitter, this stance that kids should not
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be forced to mask is backed by the data. So there is absolutely no reason for anyone, including Carrie
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Underwood to apologize for saying that. So we're going to get into all of that data. As some of you have
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already read in a blog post, um, I am going to articulate it again for you now.
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All right. So like I said, I already wrote a post about this. It's been out for about a week now.
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Ton of you guys have been sharing it. Thank you for that. It's been helpful because I've been asked
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by so many people who want to talk to your school boards. Um, Hey, what do I say? Like, how do I,
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how do I try to convince people that it's, um, not scientific to force kids to wear masks
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in schools? And so I decided it took me a few days to compile all the studies from peer reviewed
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scientific journals, data from the New York times and our world and statistics. And by the way,
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there are a lot of other people that I drew from and that I credit in this, um, in this post who have
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been working on this for a long time. I'm certainly not the first person or the only person to compile
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these kinds of things. Um, I will include a link to that post in the description of today's episode.
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So if you're wondering, what are the citations? Can I, can I read these? Can I look at the data
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myself? Uh, yes, you absolutely can. I have cited everything, everything in my, um, in my post. I
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posted this on Twitter and of course you had crazy people saying, Oh, you're just citing, you're just
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citing yourself. You're citing yourself. This, this doesn't count. No, I'm not citing myself. I just
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happened to compile all this data, uh, cited from these peer reviewed studies and from these medical
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journals. Um, I just happened to compile it on my own website. So, um, I'm going to read you some of
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this, uh, some of this data now. Um, so if it weren't for governor Abbott banning mask mandates
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in Texas and, uh, Rhonda Santa's doing the same thing, uh, in Florida as well. But if governor Abbott
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hadn't done that in Texas, Dallas County would have required children as young as two years
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old, two years old guys, that's a baby. That is a baby. Uh, we'll be, they would have been required
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to wear masks in commercial entities. And that's not just true in Dallas. Uh, that's true in many
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places in the United States and on commercial flights. That's why it's so important by the way,
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for these red governors and red lawmakers to stand up and say, no, you're not going to do this,
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uh, because it violates individual liberty, but also because it's scientifically absurd from
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everything that I have read from the world's leading researchers. The science shows, here's my
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summary. The science shows that there are certain situations in which certain masks worn a certain
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way by certain people may, may be effective at preventing the spread of COVID. But even
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that is debatable. Personally, I think the risks far outweigh the benefits of masking kids. But
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like I say, I will present you with the data and you can decide for yourself first. So let's get some
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context. Let's look, uh, let's talk about this Delta Delta variant, which, um, has sent everyone
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into a tizzy and kind of for a good reason, but also kind of not for a good reason. Um, the Delta
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variant is causing a spike in cases. It is causing a spike in cases. There is also apparently an
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increase in hospitalizations too, but we're still nowhere near where we were at our peak in January,
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as far as deaths go. Now, vaccines could get the credit for this, of course, and, or it could be
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that the strain isn't actually quite as deadly as the original. And as we'll get to more later, the,
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uh, uh, American Academy of Pediatrics found that pediatric hospitalization numbers are being
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inflated because of the CDC's requirement for testing. Plus if Delta goes the way, uh, it's gone
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in other countries, um, the gone in other countries that it's passed through, it is going to spike and
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then it is going to steeply drop off. And this is going to happen for every kind of variant that we
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have. So if we look at data from India, where Delta actually originated, and we look at data from the
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Netherlands and the UK, it, um, and we look at the data compiled by the New York times, it shows a
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spike in cases due to Delta and then a sharp increase. So if you're watching on YouTube, I will,
00:21:35.300
I'll put this up. So right now you're seeing that Delta rose and fell in India. Now what's interesting
00:21:42.260
is that mass compliance in India has always remained low. About 32%, um, is what is reported by the
00:21:50.680
Times of India? Um, of course that is, um, you know, that's a self-reporting survey. So people are
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saying, do you wear a mask? Do you not wear a mask? Only 32% in India say that they do wear a mask and
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yet Delta rose and fell seemingly regardless of that. If you look at the Netherlands where, uh, Delta, uh,
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also swept through Delta rose and fell. The country though actually ditched masks in most places on June 26th.
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But if you look at the graph that's up right now, you'll see that the peak of the, of the Delta
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variant, uh, was on July 21st and it still fell. So they didn't have masks. Um, starting on June 26th,
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the Delta came around July and then it dropped off and, uh, they only require masks in some places
00:22:42.540
for people 13 and over. Um, and then if you look in the UK where mass compliance is much higher
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and there are a lot more people wearing masks than in the Netherlands and in India, um, it, it rose and
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fell in the UK. Now they are not required. The masks now though are not required in England. They're
00:23:02.660
enforced in some places in Wales. Uh, they are not required in Northern Ireland for worshipers or
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students in classrooms. The UK has made a lot of different decisions on kids wearing masks than
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the United States has. So all this to say Delta is going to do the same thing in the United States
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that it has in other countries spike than fall, regardless of universal masking. That's what we
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see from the other places where, uh, Delta has come through. We just really don't have a lot of
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evidence of masks of mask mandates staving off the virus. In late October, 2020, 93 of adults in the
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United States reported that they sometimes often or always wear masks when they leave their home.
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72% said that they always do. And if anyone is saying, Oh, you know, that's not good enough.
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Other countries are doing better. That puts us right on par with Germany and ahead of most other European
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countries like mass compliance in the United States comparatively is very high. And yet the data from
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the New York times shows that the end of October marks the beginning of the biggest spike in COVID
00:24:09.220
cases. And so the vast majority of adults in the United States reported in October of 2020,
00:24:14.280
that they, that, uh, they wore masks and the vast majority say that they always wear masks when they go
00:24:20.080
outside of their home. And yet, when you look at the New York times data that they compile, that you're
00:24:25.040
looking at, if you're watching on YouTube, you will see that the end of October, when everyone is
00:24:29.300
wearing a mask, that the cases go up, up, up, up, up. Now, could you maybe argue that, um, oh, the cases
00:24:36.340
would be way worse if people weren't wearing masks? Maybe you could argue that, but that would be a guess.
00:24:41.640
We don't know that for sure. And especially if you look at the fact that Sweden never mandated masks,
00:24:47.500
um, in January, um, in January of 2021, only 12% of Swedes said that they wore a mask all the time with 59%
00:24:55.820
saying never. So the vast majority of Swedes have never worn masks and they have not fared any worse than we
00:25:02.920
have. Their death rate is lower than some other European countries like those in the UK who have had mask
00:25:08.320
mandates, uh, in the past. So you'll see the graph of, uh, Sweden's new cases and you'll see, um, that really,
00:25:17.240
by population, you know, per capita, they're really not faring than worse than most countries. And we
00:25:24.280
can also compare Sweden to a U S state with a similar population size, because I understand the
00:25:28.380
argument that says, well, we can't compare Sweden to the United States population is totally different.
00:25:32.680
Okay. So the population size of Sweden and the population size of Michigan are very similar.
00:25:38.600
Michigan implemented their mask made mandate in March of 2020. Um, and while Sweden has had slightly
00:25:44.620
more cases than Michigan, 1.1 million versus 1.02 million, uh, Sweden has had far fewer deaths
00:25:52.360
than Michigan, 14,658 versus 21,243. Those numbers might just be a tiny bit different since I actually
00:26:02.240
wrote this last week. But so we see that Michigan has been wearing masks from the beginning of the
00:26:08.540
pandemic. Sweden has never worn masks. The deaths are right about this, or they're, they're not about
00:26:14.480
the same. The cases are right about the same. And then the deaths are actually much better in
00:26:18.700
Sweden. Um, you know, on Weiss, a reporter at the federalist, he graphed all these things out.
00:26:24.580
He graphed COVID case stats from our world and data of European countries, as well as states in
00:26:30.200
the United States. And he pinpointed when each national and state government implemented mask
00:26:36.060
mandates. And what he found was that mask mandates seem to have no effect on the spread of the
00:26:41.220
virus. You can go to that article. It's linked in my, um, article and I'll give you, I'll give you
00:26:47.400
one example right now. Um, and that example would be Israel. So Israel reinstated its mask mandate
00:26:54.320
on June 25th. Israel has been, um, has had a very unprecedented rollout of the vaccine. They've got
00:27:02.640
vaccine passports. They've been very restrictive on this kind of thing. And they are also seeing a
00:27:08.060
spike right now from, um, the Delta variant. And so they decided on June 25th, that they were going
00:27:14.380
to reinstate, um, the mask mandate. And so, uh, you can see that right now on YouTube. And what you'll
00:27:23.220
see is that the cases have risen in a similar fashion as other countries like the Netherlands,
00:27:27.840
which actually did the exact opposite. They ditched their mask mandate right before the rise in Delta
00:27:33.180
cases. And we're seeing the same rate of increase in both countries. Um, like we said, Sweden never
00:27:40.260
mandated masks. They've even created a stigma around masks or, um, and they did not lock down.
00:27:47.240
Their death rate is much lower than some other European countries that have mandated them. Like we
00:27:53.240
said, uh, like countries in the UK. I also, I'm going to include a link to this quiz that I saw someone
00:28:00.660
share on Twitter and it's called the COVID charts quiz. And it compares, uh, two States in the United
00:28:07.760
States, um, their, their COVID deaths. So they map them out and it doesn't tell you which line is
00:28:14.720
which state. And so one of the questions will be, uh, one of these neighboring States had a statewide
00:28:19.600
mask mandate until February, 2021. The other never had a statewide mask mandate. Uh, which state had the
00:28:25.860
mandate, click the line to select, then click show answer. And I'll put this up on, on the YouTube
00:28:31.680
screen as well. So you can see it. Um, and what you find when you go through all these questions is
00:28:36.420
that they're almost, they're indistinguishable. Like just by looking at the death rate of these, um,
00:28:43.000
of these States who had these disparate, uh, disparate mandates, you can't see which States, uh,
00:28:50.040
did what? And so really the conclusion is that we don't have evidence that these mask mandates,
00:28:57.480
we don't have very much a good evidence that these mask mandates have really done anything to stave
00:29:02.780
off the virus. Now there are other studies looking at some States and some countries that do show that
00:29:10.820
cases began to decrease after a mask mandate, but I believe that is coincidence, not causation.
00:29:17.920
Now, why do I believe that? And this is also in response to someone saying, oh, well, it could
00:29:24.120
have been a lot worse if this particular country or state, uh, didn't have a mask mandate. So that
00:29:30.080
doesn't prove anything. Well, there have been many studies, many studies, uh, that have already been
00:29:37.140
done on the effectiveness of masks at stopping the transmission of disease.
00:29:42.120
So the reason why mask mandates aren't proven to do much is because masks aren't really proven to do
00:29:54.700
much. I know that's scandalous to say. So, like I said, several studies demonstrate this. The Center
00:29:59.920
for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University points out that research on the efficacy of masks
00:30:05.000
to prevent the spread of COVID is weak. Quote, in 2010, at the end of the last influenza pandemic,
00:30:11.020
there were six published randomized control trials with 4,147 participants focusing on the benefits
00:30:17.600
of different types of masks. Uh, two were done in healthcare workers in foreign family or student
00:30:22.620
clusters. The face mask trials for influenza-like illness, ILI, reported poor compliance, rarely
00:30:29.280
reported harms, and revealed the pressing need for future trials. So basically they're kind of saying
00:30:34.440
it's inconclusive, but here's what they found. Despite the clear requirement to carry out further
00:30:38.960
large pragmatic trials a decade later, only six had been published, five in healthcare workers and
00:30:44.400
one in pilgrims. This recent crop of trials added 9,112 participants to the total randomized
00:30:52.740
denominator of 13,259 and showed that masks alone have no significant effect in interrupting the spread
00:31:01.100
of influenza-like illness or influenza in the general population, nor in healthcare workers.
00:31:06.920
And so they realized, okay, we need more trials after they did the first trials back in 2010. So
00:31:12.080
they did more trials, adding more people. And what they found is that masks alone have no significant
00:31:16.660
effect whatsoever in interrupting the spread of these kinds of illnesses. It would appear that despite
00:31:22.420
two decades of pandemic preparedness, there's considerable uncertainty as to the value of wearing masks.
00:31:30.020
And then it goes on to talk about how we are placing these restrictions, but we don't actually know how
00:31:38.720
effective they are. It goes on to say, Norway's Institute for Public Health reported that if masks
00:31:44.440
did work, then any difference in infection rates would be small when infection rates are low. Assuming 20%
00:31:50.620
asymptomatics and a risk reduction of 40% for wearing masks, 200,000 people would need to wear one to
00:31:56.920
prevent one new infection per week. And that's just, that's just not the case anywhere. The New England
00:32:03.900
Journal of Medicine concluded this in May 2020. We know that wearing a mask outside healthcare facilities
00:32:10.100
offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to
00:32:16.300
COVID-19 as face-to-face contact within six feet with a patient with symptomatic COVID-19 that is sustained for
00:32:22.540
at least a few minutes. The chance of catching COVID-19 from a passing interaction in a public
00:32:27.160
space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction
00:32:33.180
to anxiety over the pandemic. Now you might say, okay, that was in 2020. We've learned, we've learned
00:32:38.100
more. What do we learn? Can you tell me? The CDC hasn't articulated how the science is different from
00:32:44.000
what the New England Journal of Medicine concluded in May of 2020. Like it is still nearly impossible to get
00:32:50.440
COVID from randomly passing someone. And so the people who are wearing their masks on the beach
00:32:55.080
or outside, it just doesn't follow the science. Like the New England Journal of Medicine said,
00:33:00.360
the science is still the same. The desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to
00:33:05.100
anxiety over the pandemic. A randomized controlled trial in Japan testing for the effectiveness of
00:33:11.020
surgical masks and reducing the incidence of the common cold found, quote, face mask use in healthcare
00:33:16.260
workers has not been demonstrated to provide benefit in terms of cold symptoms of getting or getting
00:33:21.940
colds. A larger study is needed to definitively establish non-inferiority of no mask use. A 2010
00:33:28.200
study by Cambridge University found, quote, while there is some experimental evidence that masks should
00:33:34.080
be able to reduce infectiousness under controlled conditions, should be able to reduce. Really, that's what
00:33:41.080
we're running on here. And just to kind of insert my own commentary, because I've seen so many people
00:33:45.820
post as they're sourcing that masks work, recommendations for masks by the Mayo Clinic or
00:33:51.140
from American Academy of Pediatrics. That's not proof. That's not a study. Just because a medical or
00:33:57.080
so-called scientific entity recommends a mask is not data or scientific proof that the mask works. And so
00:34:06.700
while there are experimental evidence, is some experimental evidence, Cambridge University says
00:34:14.020
that masks should be able to reduce infectiousness under controlled conditions, they go on to say there is
00:34:19.660
less evidence on whether this translates to effectiveness in natural settings. So theoretically, it should
00:34:25.420
work, but there isn't a whole lot of evidence to prove that they actually do. They go on to say there is
00:34:31.580
little evidence to support the effectiveness of face masks to reduce the risk of infection. A study
00:34:38.320
from Oxford Clinical Infectious Diseases found that, quote, single-use medical masks are preferable to
00:34:44.420
cloth masks for which there is no evidence of protection and which, get this, might facilitate
00:34:51.320
transmission of pathogens when used repeatedly without adequate sterilization. Interesting. So sitting in a
00:34:58.140
cloth mask all day without sterilization could transmit pathogens or organisms that transmit
00:35:03.820
diseases. What does that sound like? Are you saying that kids are sitting in the sterile,
00:35:10.020
changed periodically in 95 masks all day at school? No, of course not. A Danish randomized
00:35:17.940
control trial with 6,000 participants, you'll probably remember when this came out, published in November of
00:35:24.940
2020, found no statistically significant effect of high-quality medical face masks against SARS-CoV-2
00:35:33.120
infection in a community setting. Now, other countries get this, apparently, and it's reflected in their
00:35:41.400
policies, but we apparently, we don't get it because everything is political in the United States, so it just
00:35:46.900
makes everything toxic and we can't actually have any logical scientific conversations about any of this
00:35:52.820
because it's become a symbol of who you voted for, which is so silly, so dumb, and so damaging.
00:35:58.980
Even UNICEF, which is pro-mask in general, and I would add they seem not to follow some of the
00:36:04.060
science that we've just talked about by they recommend cotton masks, but really they're talking to people
00:36:08.800
who don't have any other option and might be crammed together, and so they're in a situation where maybe
00:36:14.900
it would provide some protection from the spread of COVID, but they even strongly advise against kids
00:36:24.160
under the age of five wearing masks, and they recommend mask wearing for kids ages six to 11 only
00:36:30.560
in certain settings. So this is in direct opposition to airlines in some city governments mandating masks
00:36:38.780
for children as young as two years old, so UNICEF even disagrees with that, even being the pro-mask
00:36:43.980
entity that they are. The UK, as we noted before, removed face mask requirements for students in May.
00:36:51.640
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said this, removing face masks will hugely improve interactions
00:36:57.660
between teachers and students, while all other school safety measures will remain in place to help keep
00:37:03.060
the virus out of classrooms. A Swedish student, this was crazy, he was kicked out of a class for refusing
00:37:09.360
to take off his mask. This was reported, you can just search this, that this kid, he wanted to wear
00:37:15.600
a mask. I guess his parent wanted him to wear a mask. I think his parent was actually like an American
00:37:21.280
because I'm pretty sure this was an international school and he wanted to wear a mask, and he was sent
00:37:25.460
home because it was causing distress among other students. This kid wearing a mask could not be more
00:37:31.280
different here. And as noted above as well, the Netherlands only urges mask wearing for people
00:37:36.680
13 and over, so there's no expectation, there's no urging whatsoever for kids under the age of 13
00:37:42.620
to wear masks. Also, keep in mind, people seem to forget this, that mask wearing has been a prevalent
00:37:49.800
trend in Asia, China specifically, for years. And that obviously did not stop the virus from originating
00:37:55.760
there and spreading like wildfire there. And maybe it's also worth noting that many people or that
00:38:01.740
many of the same people mandating and advocating for these rules are not always following them
00:38:08.260
themselves. We've got examples from Lori Lightfoot, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Barack Obama,
00:38:13.660
Muriel Bowser, Nancy Pelosi, just to name a few. So that's just something to consider. Even if masks were
00:38:19.400
proven to be super effective, kids have a very, very, very small chance of getting anything close
00:38:27.120
to a severe case of COVID. I know if you're reading the headlines right now, you would think differently,
00:38:31.820
but it's still true. And actually, the American Academy of Pediatrics, which I have found, which all
00:38:37.040
of us have found to be very political sometimes, and their statements and recommendations, especially
00:38:41.860
when it comes to things like gender identity and toddlers and little kids, they did find that
00:38:48.800
pediatric, and they published this, that pediatric hospitalization of kids because of, key phrase,
00:38:56.460
because of COVID is extremely rare. So a recent study that they put out found that some hospitals
00:39:02.520
are reporting children admitted to the hospital with COVID symptoms or who tested positive for COVID,
00:39:09.060
but who were not admitted because of COVID. So this is what the study says. Children have suffered
00:39:15.320
tremendously due to policies that have kept schools and recreational facilities closed to them,
00:39:20.900
and the burden has been greatest on children who are low-income and English-language learners.
00:39:29.260
Scientific and media reports that inaccurately portray the risk of COVID-19 to children can do harm
00:39:35.560
by alarming parents and providing justification for ongoing restrictions to in-person education and
00:39:41.740
other programming, i.e. summer camps. Kushner et al. and Webb et al. have contributed greatly to the field
00:39:48.980
by careful work to understand the true burden of COVID-19 disease among children. Via these studies,
00:39:56.940
parents and policymakers should be reassured that pediatric hospitalization for severe COVID-19
00:40:03.400
disease is rare. And so every kid who is being admitted to the hospital is being tested for COVID.
00:40:11.740
And in many hospitals, that is being reported as the reason why they are in the ICU or in the hospital.
00:40:19.380
But in many cases, this study found it's actually just incidental. So it's actually just a coincidence
00:40:25.660
that they have COVID, and that's not why they're there. They could be there for something totally
00:40:29.640
different, for some other fatal disease or illness or RSV. There is a huge RSV breakout across the
00:40:37.780
country, especially in North Texas, where you're seeing a lot of the media reports coming out saying
00:40:42.920
pediatric ICU beds are full as COVID cases rise. You see how clever that wording is, that they're
00:40:49.240
not actually saying it's because of COVID. They're saying COVID cases are rising, pediatric ICU beds
00:40:54.640
are filling, but it's not actually because of COVID, if you look at the numbers. Not for these kids.
00:40:59.420
It's because mostly, not entirely, there are some kids with COVID. There are some kids who will go to
00:41:04.180
the hospital because of COVID. But it's very, very, very, very rare. It's mostly because of RSV.
00:41:10.840
RSV is a respiratory virus, as we've talked about several times on this podcast, that is very serious,
00:41:16.120
especially for babies under six months, much more serious than COVID is for babies under six months.
00:41:20.920
And it is roaring right now. And people are theorizing, pediatricians, nurses, medical experts,
00:41:27.060
not me are theorizing. It's because it wasn't able to cycle as it typically does in the winter months
00:41:33.440
because people were locked down. People, you know, people were trying to protect themselves from
00:41:39.920
COVID. And so they basically just shut down their immune systems for several months. And now it's
00:41:44.440
coming back with a vengeance and people's immune systems just are not prepared to be able to handle
00:41:48.960
it how they typically are. And so you've got a lot of pediatric cases of RSV, maybe worse than in
00:41:55.660
several years. And a lot of kids going to the hospital for it. But the media don't really care
00:41:59.920
because it's not COVID, which is crazy. As we talk about so many times, there are so many different
00:42:05.060
things, so many different threats that can kill you, so many different kinds of harm that our
00:42:09.980
compassion should cover, like that also demands our attention. But again, because things are so
00:42:16.700
politicized in the United States, we're not even able to, we're not even able to acknowledge that
00:42:21.680
there's also hand, foot and mouth disease, which is not, it doesn't put kids in the ICU. But that
00:42:27.240
very seriously is going around right now. Because again, people are out and about, they're congregating,
00:42:31.880
kids are going back to daycare, going back to Sunday school, going back to school, some in some
00:42:35.900
areas for the first time. And so there are a lot of things that are putting people in the hospital
00:42:40.300
that aren't actually COVID. But if the media, again, can whip you up that, okay, COVID cases are rising
00:42:47.580
over here. And also hospitals are full. They don't have to tell you why the hospitals are full.
00:42:52.640
In a lot of cases, also the hospitals are full because they are short-staffed. That's something
00:42:57.400
they don't want to talk about, that the lockdowns actually decreased the need for general hospitalizations.
00:43:07.500
And so in a lot of cases, some hospitals were less busy. Now, I know some hospitals were more busy
00:43:13.380
than ever before. A lot of hospitals were less busy than ever before. And so there were a lot of
00:43:18.260
staffers that were laid off in hospitals. And also, there are a lot of nurses who didn't want to take
00:43:23.580
the vaccine. And so rather than following the vaccine mandate that has been implemented in a lot of
00:43:30.120
these hospitals, some nurses quit. And so many hospitals are short-staffed right now. Some nurses are just
00:43:36.260
quitting because they don't want to do bedside anymore because it's just a really hard job. And also, here's
00:43:41.900
another thing. Hospital administrations, they run hospitals like businesses. They still want to make
00:43:46.960
money. And so they are going to try to keep their hospitals at capacity. So there are so many other
00:43:52.900
factors that are going into this. And the media, as usual, is being very irresponsible. Now, am I saying
00:43:59.500
that that means that we should not care about COVID or that no kids get COVID, that it's not a threat to
00:44:03.980
anyone at all? I'm not saying that. I'm saying that we have to be very careful about which narratives we
00:44:09.220
latch on to. Dr. Roshni Matthew is a Stanford School of Medicine pediatric infectious disease
00:44:15.040
specialist. She told NPR, quote, for children in particular, the risk of serious consequences from COVID-19
00:44:21.360
is the same magnitude as the risk they face from the flu, she says. But many parents seem more worried about
00:44:28.260
the new and less familiar disease that heightened anxiety by the new guidelines or that anxiety is heightened
00:44:35.380
by the new guidelines on mask wearing. But experts urge parents to try not to worry too much. Now, if we
00:44:43.060
are to take the CDC's numbers at face value, and there may be a reason or two not to, but if we are,
00:44:50.420
416 children have reportedly died with COVID. That's their phraseology, with COVID. Again, important,
00:44:58.320
not necessarily from COVID, but with COVID. Out of 74 million children in the United States,
00:45:04.320
and most, it seems, had underlying conditions. I linked proof of that, or I linked what seems to
00:45:10.020
be proof of that in the article that is linked in the description of this episode. So these facts,
00:45:16.740
taken with the AAP's warning that previously noted, or that we previously noted about inflated
00:45:23.100
pediatric hospitalization numbers, lets us know that there's almost a 0% chance of healthy kids dying
00:45:29.240
from this virus. And while every single life absolutely matters, no matter the age, it is
00:45:34.840
important to have some perspective. So in the 2017 to 2018 flu season, it was a really bad flu season.
00:45:41.080
You might remember, I actually, well, I guess that would have been the 2018-2019 flu season. I actually
00:45:47.480
know someone, a young, healthy person who died of the flu in 2018. But the 2017 to 2018 flu season
00:45:54.360
was a really bad flu season. The CDC estimates that 643 children, 17 and under, died of the flu.
00:46:01.680
Quote, deaths in children with laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infection are reportable in the
00:46:07.540
United States, and 183 deaths were reported for the 2017 to 2018 season. However, influenza-associated
00:46:16.540
pediatric deaths are likely underreported, as not all children whose death was related to an
00:46:22.460
influenza virus infection may have been tested for influenza. Therefore, we use the mathematical
00:46:27.720
model to estimate the total number of pediatric deaths based on hospitalization rates and the
00:46:33.120
frequency of death in and out of the hospital from death certificates, estimating that there were
00:46:39.300
more than 640 deaths associated with influenza in children. So keep in mind, too, that flu seasons are
00:46:46.760
about 6 months. We've had COVID for over a year and a half. So far more children died of slash with the
00:46:53.540
flu in 6 months a few years ago than have died of slash with COVID in the last 18-plus months.
00:47:00.680
There were 11 million kids who tested positive for the flu in 2017 and the 2017 to 2018 season.
00:47:07.020
There have been 4 million children who have tested positive for COVID so far. Now, did anyone suggest
00:47:11.800
shutting down schools or wearing masks in 2018? Why not? Because, well, one, as we already cited,
00:47:19.040
the study that shows that masks really aren't effective in stopping the spread of influenza-like
00:47:23.720
illnesses, but also, until COVID, we understood the importance of kids receiving in-person instruction
00:47:29.620
unencumbered by plexiglass and pathogen-laden face cloths. The only thing that has changed, at least
00:47:35.900
when it comes to talking about this age group, is politics. As Matt Walsh said in his speech before
00:47:42.600
a school board in Nashville, the masks are really more about security for the teachers,
00:47:47.420
security for the school board and the administration, not for the kids. Because even if kids do get it,
00:47:53.140
they are very unlikely to pass to teachers who, by the way, can get vaccinated if they want to.
00:47:59.940
And if they're not vaccinated, they've probably already calculated the risk and are okay with their
00:48:04.400
chances of surviving COVID. Studies in Sweden, France, Wales, and China, again, which we are linking,
00:48:11.980
show that transmission from a child to an adult, mask or not, is extremely rare. Dr. Raska said in the
00:48:20.240
article that we are linking, the data are striking. The key takeaway is that children are not driving the
00:48:27.200
pandemic. After six months, we have a wealth of accumulating data showing that children are less
00:48:32.580
likely to become infected and seem less infectious. It is congregating adults who aren't following
00:48:38.280
safety protocols, who are responsible for driving the upward curve. The risk of mask wearing for kids
00:48:44.520
simply outweighs the benefits. Dr. Marty Makari, he is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
00:48:51.420
School of Public Health. He wrote about the adverse effects of masks on kids for the Wall Street Journal.
00:48:59.280
So he says, in March, Ireland's Department of Health announced that it won't require masks in
00:49:05.020
schools because it may exacerbate anxiety or breathing difficulties. And the doctor agrees.
00:49:10.260
He said chronic and prolonged mouth breathing, which is sometimes what happens when kids are wearing masks,
00:49:15.300
it can alter your facial development. And it also, it says that because adenoids block their nasal
00:49:22.420
airways, it can develop a mouth deformity and elongated face. And there's also possible psychological
00:49:28.780
harm of widespread masking, he says. He says facial expressions are integral to human connection.
00:49:36.060
Now, what's interesting is that the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a tweet thread saying
00:49:41.620
babies and young children study faces. So you may worry that having masked caregivers would harm
00:49:46.800
children's language development. There are no studies to support this concern. I saw a reply that was like,
00:49:52.580
if you don't study it, there can't be any studies. There can't be any studies supporting it. So their
00:49:58.540
first sentence actually contradicts the next sentence. So we know that babies and young children study
00:50:03.200
faces, that it's important for communication. It's important for them to pick up social cues.
00:50:07.340
It's important for them to be able to see the articulation of words, especially when you're still
00:50:11.120
learning to talk and learning in class and learning new words and all of that, especially for kids who
00:50:18.040
are hard of hearing. And yet the American Academy of Pediatrics says, oh, there's no studies showing
00:50:22.900
that that's going to, it's going to harm them at all when it comes to communication and development
00:50:27.940
by covering their mouth. So the doctor in the Wall Street Journal also says seeing people speak is a
00:50:34.340
building block of phonetic development. I don't even think that we have scratched the surface
00:50:38.600
when it comes to the developmental and psychological issues that we are strapping onto kids by strapping
00:50:46.120
a mask onto their face. And so all of this has to be considered. We can't just say, okay, well,
00:50:53.640
we're going to believe whatever, you know, whatever this bureaucratic body, we actually have to look
00:50:59.140
at the scientific studies that have already been done for more than a decade when it comes to this
00:51:05.740
particular subject. And there just really isn't data supporting that young kids need to be mandated
00:51:12.960
wearing masks. Now, I think that there's not a whole lot of data supporting that people in general
00:51:17.580
need to be mandated wearing masks. But again, I'm more concerned. I'm more concerned with the kids and
00:51:23.340
their ability to be able to learn well and function well and communicate well. That's going to have
00:51:27.260
long-lasting, long-lasting repercussions. So to summarize all of this, kids are at an extremely
00:51:44.340
low risk of severe COVID illness. They are not driving the spread of COVID to adults. Plus, everyone 12 and
00:51:52.240
over has had the opportunity to get vaccinated. If the vaccines work, then everyone who has taken it
00:51:57.700
is protected. And everyone who has not chosen to take the vaccine has already accepted whatever risks
00:52:04.300
that choice may or may not pose. There is therefore no reason to treat kids as if they are a threat to
00:52:10.820
public health. Furthermore, there is no solid evidence to prove that masking kids is an effective
00:52:15.500
strategy in mitigating COVID. And in fact, as we have noted today, there's plenty of evidence to the
00:52:20.940
contrary. Parents can protect their kids as they see fit. As we say many times, the state does not
00:52:27.500
care about your children. They also don't own your children. But kids should not be forced to wear
00:52:32.340
masks. If we are going to hashtag follow the science, that means following the science, even when it
00:52:37.060
contradicts popular narratives. So gather with people who agree with you. Try to get more people in
00:52:44.120
your organization or in your school district to be concerned about this. Raise a respectful and factual
00:52:50.620
ruckus about this. Come together. Craft a message. Push back on this where you are. Try to influence
00:52:57.360
in a God-glorifying and strong, unapologetic way the spheres in which God has placed you, the spheres
00:53:04.760
that you occupy. And you can do it with a wealth of knowledge and data. So do that and then report back
00:53:11.080
to me and let me know how it goes. All right. I will see you guys back here tomorrow with a big episode