COVID Is Endemic. "Zero COVID" Is A Pipe Dream. Lockdowns And NPIs Are Useless.

The following Tweet really wins the internet:

Pretty much sums it up.  The virus can be defanged and reduced to a nuisance, and indeed it largely has already thanks to herd immunity and attenuation, but it will never be eliminated.  It will continue to ebb and flow to one degree or another indefinitely.  Even smallpox took over 200 years to eradicate after the vaccine.  And it's time we accept that fact and deal with endemic COVID like we do seasonal flu and the common cold.  That is, learn to live with the virus just like all other endemic viruses.  We know now that lockdowns, masks, social distancing, and stuff like that really make no difference to the course of the virus in the long run, and they come with their own set of problems, ultimately doing more harm than good.  And that applies a fortiori to endemic COVID.

That's right, these restrictions are all pain and no gain.  And there is a name for doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We know how to treat this disease now.  We know what to use for prophylaxis as well.  We know that the virus, while bad, was never the apocalyptic Big One that some had predicted.  We know who the risk groups are, and we have already vaccinated them (plus a good chunk of the general population as well) to a greater extent and faster than we have for any other disease in history.  So anyone who says we still somehow can't go 100% back to normal yesterday because reasons is a LIAR with a hidden or not-so-hidden agenda.  And we thus must completely disregard their bluster.  Yesterday is not soon enough!

UPDATE:  Another Tweet, even more to the point:

This one too, setting the internet on FIRE:

And this one as well, to which we would also add "and early treatment and prophylaxis for all who want it":

UPDATE 2:  See also here and here for some good articles from The Daily Sceptic about the nuances of herd immunity.  And yes, it is very nuanced indeed.

UPDATE 3:  Yet another study finds lockdowns to be worse than useless.  Again.  Sooner or later, everyone (or at least those with anything approaching a conscience) will collectively regret how we panicked and knee-jerkedly threw the wisdom of the ages out the window like so much garbage back in March 2020.  Even the most rabid Zero COVID zealots can only keep doubling down so long to postpone, and ultimately amplify, the inevitable agony of regret.

Britannia Waives The Rules! NOT

It was announced today that the UK's final reopening step in removing the last remaining restrictions, scheduled for June 21st, will most likely be delayed for "up to" (read: at least) another four weeks.  The latest excuse is that the supposedly much worse Indian Delta variant of the virus is spreading like wildfire in the UK.  Yes, "cases" (i.e. positive tests) are up per the official numbers, but I think we have all seen this movie before, and it's never ended well:

Come on, Boris, stop being such a wee-willy wanker and grow a pair already!  What happened to that fun-loving libertarian you once were just 15 months ago?  And ask yourself, if the Delta variant is so much more contagious, why isn't it spreading like wildfire in the many other countries in which it has been detected for as long as the UK, including, but not limited to, the USA?  Don't think too hard, though--you don't wanna fry the few brain cells you still have left, buddy.

(OK, granted there is Nepal, but they are an outlier.)

Look, practically all of the vulnerable members of society are either 1) fully vaccinated or 2) chose not to get the vaccine.  In fact, the UK has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, as does the USA (who the UK just caught up to recently).  Fully 80% of British adults (70% in Scotland) have measurable levels of antibodies, from vaccination, previous infections, or both.  If that is not herd immunity, I really don't know what is.  Besides, we know the virus is sharply seasonal, and it is now out of season.  So the odds of the NHS being overwhelmed this summer are practically zero.  Hospitalizations are still largely flat despite the rise in "cases", and though up slightly in some places they are are still nowhere near the first or second wave levels.  And deaths are still not budging.  Thus, COVID-19 has been reduced to a mere nuisance, and mass testing has created a "casedemic".

Even if there were no vaccines, or for those for whom the vaccine may be a dud, we nonetheless have treatments that work (Ivermectin, Budesonide, etc.).  If only the government would allow them, of course.

(Shhhh!  Don't be too loud about Niacin and NAC!  Now THAT would be the ultimate game-changer!  And Vitamin C, D, zinc, and an ionophore like Quercetin.)

We know now that lockdowns and NPIs are worse than useless, and at best you will only push the virus into the fall and winter where when know it is far worse.  Thus, a "safe spread summer" is just what the doctor ordered, even if the vaccines were somehow useless against the new variants (which is not true).  And masks?  Well, maybe chain-link fences are the best defense against mosquitoes, right?  Riiiiight. 

Meanwhile, the USA is largely full steam ahead with reopening and unmasking, many states already did months ago, and we are doing fine over here.  Cases, deaths, and hospitalizations are still falling.  Perhaps us "septic tanks" (Yanks) really do have the right idea now after all?  I think we all know the answer.

So how about it, Boris? Time to send the SAGE bedwetters packing and open up 100% yesterday!

UPDATE:  UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced officially that he will be delaying the final reopening step by "four crucial weeks" until July 19th, while leaving open the possibility of delaying it even longer still in the event of a "far more dangerous variant".  He dangles the carrot of it possibly being shortened to only a two week delay until July 5th (riiiiight!), and also gives the consolation of the 30 person cap on weddings being lifted on June 21st.  But I really wouldn't bet on a full lifting of restrictions anytime soon in Britain, unless of course there are massive and relentless protests along with some very conspicuous civil disobedience there no later than the next week or two.  But of course, under the current regime, that would technically be illegal (wink wink).

Oh, and by the way, if you really read between the lines you will see that COVID is actually becoming......milder.  That is, it is becoming more cold-like in terms of symptoms and significantly less likely to result in hospitalization or death compared to older strains.  And yes, that is the supposedly much worse Delta variant we are talking about, that is now dominant in the UK and will likely eventually become dominant worldwide.  As for being somewhat more contagious, that is most likely true, but remember it only needs to be very slightly more contagious to edge out the competition and become dominant, and estimates of it being 60% more contagious than the Alpha strain are most likely grossly exaggerated.  In a nutshell, the pandemic is over, attenuation of the virus is occurring along with herd immunity, and endemic COVID is now essentially becoming the new common cold in more and more places, following in the footsteps of the four other endemic common-cold coronaviruses (at least one of which, OC43, most likely started out as a pandemic as well).  The fact that this overall good news is being ignored by the mainstream media and government really speaks volumes as to their real agenda of fearmongering, power, and control.  Meanwhile, the USA is already several steps ahead of the UK on the road to true normalcy, and in practice is mostly already there now.

Indeed, it seems that the Delta variant's symptoms for most people are practically identical to hay fever and the common cold, with perhaps a mild hangover thrown in for good measure.  That is, headache, sore throat, runny nose, and/or generally feeling a little bit "off" are reportedly far more common than the classic fever, cough, loss of smell/taste, or shortness of breath that are common with previous strains of the virus.

UPDATE 2:  On June 26th, the March For Freedom had an excellent turnout.  And with Matt Hancock resigning in disgrace for his scandalous hypocrisy in flouting his own rules, thus following in the footsteps of the disgraced Neil "Professor Pantsdown" Ferguson, the regime does not seem to be winning anymore. 

UPDATE 3:  Looks like Delta is already dominant in much of the USA as of July 1, yet overall cases are still not exploding, deaths continue to fall, and hospitalizations remain quite low.  Soon it will be dominant worldwide (if it isn't already), but since the best evidence suggests that it is LESS deadly/nasty than previous strains, that is again actually a blessing in disguise on balance.  Behold, the soon-to-be new common cold.  And you know that Delta is already old news now, as the fearmongers are already talking about the Peruvian Lambda variant now.

Our Very Last Chance To Let America Be America Again, For Real This Time

It is Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start to summer, and COVID-19 is on the run pretty much everywhere now.  Cases and deaths are plummeting left and right.  All of the most vulnerable members of the American population are either a) fully vaccinated or b) were offered the vaccine but chose not to get it, more than half of the entire population has had at least one vaccine dose, and half of all US adults are now fully vaccinated (i.e. more than two weeks after the final dose).  In fact, in ten states and counting, at least 70% of adults (often considered the "herd immunity" threshold in a naive population, ignoring the plentiful natural exposure of at least 30% of Americans already and as much as 50-70% in some states) are now fully vaccinated.  And furthermore, we also know now how best to treat this disease as well, even before we had the vaccines.

Is it technically even a pandemic anymore?  Depending on one's definition, it may not be.

All states except Hawaii have at least eased (or set a date for easing) their mask mandates, and many have dispensed with them altogether, while nearly all states have reopened their economies and ended most restrictions.  The CDC has recently eased recommendations as well.  Things are thus largely moving in the right direction for the most part.

Now is thus the time, in fact LONG past time, to end ALL restrictions and go 100% back to normal.  And not just for the vaccinated, but for everyone, period.  For children as well, in fact a fortiori for them.  Masks and social distancing are NOT healthy for children, and fortunately they were generally never at much risk from COVID to begin with.  Ignore the bluster from the zealots that want to make these restrictions permanent.  No more lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccine passports, or anything like that ever again.

(Another myth bites the dust as well:  Not only are kids at a vanishingly low risk of dying or being hospitalized from COVID, they are apparently also highly unlikely to suffer from Long COVID either.  Turns out, many if not most of the supposed cases of children under 16 suffering from this vaguely-defined protracted syndrome are likely not even related to the virus at all, given the lack of difference between seronegative and seropositive children in experiencing it.  One could thus argue that "lockdown disease" from a toxic mix of prolonged anxiety, isolation, and vitamin deprivation is probably the most parsimonious explanation for most of these cases in both children and adults, even in many cases when the virus is a contributing factor as well.  Post-viral syndromes are of course very real, but are generally far more likely to follow severe infections rather than mild ones, and the vast majority of COVID infections are quite mild, especially in children.)

And given how we know that COVID is a very seasonal virus, it would in fact behoove us to allow a "safe spread summer" (i.e. a truly normal summer, kinda like we had in the summer of 1969 despite being during the nasty Hong Kong Flu pandemic, even including Woodstock and literally putting a man on the moon, imagine that!) to build up our immune systems before the fall and winter in case the virus comes roaring back again.  Had we done that last summer, we would have had a far less nasty second wave than we did (and third wave in some places as well).  And the new variants of the virus if anything make the case for doing so even stronger in fact.

This summer is our LAST CHANCE we have to end the New Abnormal for good and fully restore the civil rights and liberties that we feared were lost forever.  If we successfully demand to have a normal summer and resist any attempt to continue or reimpose these authoritarian restrictions in the fall, then the forces of liberty will have won.  But if we fail to, well, we only need to look at Germany and the UK to get a glimpse of our dark future going forward.  Thus, we must demand a complete return to true normal yesterday, settle for nothing less, and by Labor Day (a day followed by fully open, in-person, un-masked, un-distanced schools starting the very next day) at the latest we must fully resolve to completely lay waste to all that remains of 2020 forever, God willing.

Let America Be America Again.  For real this time!  And may America finally be reborn on the Fourth of July.  So what are we waiting for?

And So We Finally Learn Just How Effective Mask Mandates Really Are

Spoiler alert: not very.  That is the conclusion of one of the most recent studies, that found--surprise!--no robust correlation between COVID case growth rates and either mask mandates or even mask usage rates across the USA.  This dovetails rather nicely with that iconoclastic Danish study from last year, plus literally decades worth of research as well.  Look, you can cherry-pick the data all you like to get the results you want, as some previous studies have, but dare to include just enough inconvenient data and the whole house of cards collapses faster than you can say, "A-HA!  So THAT'S why Americans universally stopped wearing these things in the spring of 1919, returned to normal, and didn't look back for over 100 years!"

And people will probably keep debating the mask question 100 years from now as well, given how it is one of the oldest debates in public health history.  Granted, we do not discount that masks, at least higher quality ones, may very well be at least marginally effective in selected instances.  But for the general population across the board, in the realest of real-world settings?  Well, if you really believe that, we've got a nice bridge we'd like to sell you.

(And an even bigger bridge to sell those who believe masks were what caused the flu to practically disappear for over a year now.  Hey, try to explain how it also practically disappeared in Florida, Georgia, South Dakota, and Sweden then. Go on.)

It's essentially a classic macro-micro problem, where just because something may work at the micro level, it does NOT follow that it will also work at the macro level.  The same goes for quarantines, the macro level equivalent of which being indiscriminate, population-wide lockdowns (instead of just the sick).  Some things simply don't scale very well at all!

Voluntary mask wearing may simply be a classic placebo, where the wearers may simply be more cautious in general, while forced/coerced mask wearing may lead the wearers to be less cautious in general than they otherwise would, a phenomenon that has also been observed with mandatory seatbelt laws.  (To be fair, unlike mask mandates, seatbelt laws do still seem to have a net lifesaving effect regardless, albeit to the chagrin of pedestrians and cyclists.)

Honestly, if they did work at the macro level, then in any place with a broad mask mandate like most states and localities had (or at least mask usage rates above 80%, like practically all of the USA eventually was for a while), the pandemic would have been over within two weeks, three weeks tops.  And then masks would have thus made themselves obsolete.  Yes, some otherwise highly intelligent and knowledgeable mask advocates actually predicted (over a year ago, no less) that would happen, which in turn influenced even the TSAP's own formerly pro-mask mandate position as an alternative to lockdowns at the time (a position which we now deeply regret).  Yet alas, that clearly did NOT happen--for obvious reasons.  

And so, once the proper statistical controls (timing, seasonality, previous exposure, etc.) are employed, the statistical mirage of spurious correlation is thus debunked, deboned, sliced, diced, julienned, and its remains have been completely laid waste.

Game. Set. Match.

The TSAP actually supported mask mandates (albeit with nuance) from April/May up until about August 2020, half-supported them until December, and since then we have generally opposed them and currently we support repealing them in their entirety, as was done in 1919 nationwide and has already been done in most states (including those who never had such mandates at all) as of late May 2021.  That includes schools too, by the way, especially for students, as even the CDC now subtly admits that school mask mandates for students did NOT show any statistically significant benefit no matter how much they tried to torture the data.  (Apparently, the only thing that robustly and reliably works in schools is to ventilate, ventilate, ventilate, which actually makes sense for what we know now is in fact a predominantly airborne virus.)  Nor do we support discrimination against anyone by vaccination status either.

Look, if YOU personally want to keep wearing a mask, fine, more power to you.  Ditto if you want to avoid people who don't wear them, fine, keep your distance then.  Problem solved.  But currently we see no valid or compelling reason to continue to force people to wear them, in public or private.  Since when did this become such a controversial position to take?

From the looks of it at face value, Fauci may have indeed been largely right the first time when he initially pooh-poohed masks and actually told us not to touch our faces, and we're certainly old enough to remember that.  And it's not like mask mandates have actually led to faster reopenings or averted lockdowns either.  So whatever merits there are to individual mask wearing in whatever circumstances, there is no valid reason for any government to force them on anyone (outside of a healthcare setting), period, and it should be left to individuals and businesses to decide for themselves. 

By the same token, it looks like the WHO was also right the first time in that regard as well.  Even as recently as July 2020, believe it or not.

Kinda like when they let it slip in June 2020 that truly asymptomatic spread, while possible, is a lot rarer than most people think, a mere 0.7% even in that very closest and riskiest setting of all, within households.  Only to be forced to walk it back the very next day, of course.  And outdoor spread?  A vanishingly low 0.1% of cases.  And fomites (surfaces)?  An even lower still < 0.01%, and probably even less than that if people wash their hands and don't touch their faces or keep fiddling with their masks!  All for a disease with an infection fatality rate within the ballpark of a nasty flu season for most people, and that we know now how to treat effectively.  This is what the actual science says.  And it utterly demolishes the need for lockdowns, closures, mask mandates, or any other New Abnormal restrictions at this juncture, period.

See also here as well for a good explanation of the crucial difference between large droplets (that masks do seem to work for) and much smaller aerosols (which basically go right through and/or around essentially ALL masks other than properly fit-tested N95s).  It is the latter that seem to be a bigger driver of transmission, unfortunately, and worse, since they tend to penetrate deeper into the lungs, they also tend to make you sicker too.  Thus, we should not be at all surprised by the null effects of universal community masking at the macro level.  In fact, even the "variolation" theory is basically turned on its head as well--larger droplets would probably provide better "variolation" than aerosols would, ironically.

As for children, see here for a good and thorough debunking of the notion that forcing them to wear masks in school and elsewhere is somehow necessary, effective, or benign.  Even the WHO says that children under 5 years of age should not wear masks at all, children ages 6-11 should only wear them in certain circumstances, and children of any age with various kinds of disabilities or health conditions should not be required to wear them at all.  The CDC, on the other hand, apparently prefers to steamroll over anything even remotely resembling nuance in that regard.

See also here as well for an excellent article about how continued universal masking may even be harmful in the long run for all ages.  All the more reason NOT to make this practice permanent in any sense, and to phase it out completely in nearly all circumstances. We ignore actual science at our peril.

UPDATE:  The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced that they recommend that children ages 2-11 (!) continue to wear masks and socially distance until they are fully vaccinated (despite the fact that no COVID vaccine has been authorized yet for children under the age of 12, and even if there were, safety concerns would still remain due to the relative lack of clinical trial data for that age group).  All for a disease that is less deadly than the flu for kids, and about as deadly as chickenpox (the reader may even be old enough to remember chickenpox parties for kids up until the early 1990s before that vaccine came out), and furthermore that they rarely transmit to adults (a majority of whom are anyway either fully vaccinated or very soon to be).  Seriously?  Talk about some grade-A gaslighting and triangulation there, that would make even the most malignant narcissistic abuser blush!  We will all one day look back on this dark time in history with utter horror and disbelief, and alas today's youngest generation may never fully recover.  To the AAP, we have one question for you:  how does it feel to be on the wrong side of history?  Because we really wouldn't know anything about that.

And the CDC's much-hyped, supposed "increase" in teen hospitalizations is based on outdated data, and many of those are likely incidental positives when hospitalized for non-COVID reasons, particularly psychiatric admissions that have increased due to the lockdown-induced mental health crisis that is has been hitting young people particularly hard.

And finally, the Earth will thank us as well when we finally do belatedy ditch these (mostly plastic) masks for good, but alas, the damage to the oceans is done.

JUNE UPDATE:  One nuance that gets glossed over by both pro-mask and anti-mask folks is the issue of presymptomatic transmission, as the Swiss Doctor notes.  While truly asymptomatic transmission is indeed quite rare, presymptomatic transmission may actually be quite common, as is the case with influenza (albeit with COVID having a more gradual onset of symptoms than influenza).  It is a brief window of usually 1-2 days, though sometimes up to 4 days between peak viral load and (known) symptom onset.  Regardless though, masks still don't work for aerosol transmission, which would be especially predominant in such instances given the lack of large sneezing and coughing droplets.  The only thing that really works for aerosols is good ventilation, as well as perhaps air filters and UV light.  Masks are to aerosol viruses as chain-link fences are to mosquitoes.

And lest you still credit masks with the apparently success of East Asian countries in keeping death rates so low, a better explanation would be the near-absence of obesity in these countries, along with perhaps previous exposure to other related coronaviruses.  Especially judging from these countries' performance during past flu seasons, during which masks seemed to make no difference. 

People keep citing a North Carolina school study as "proof" that "masks work!", but since that study lacked a mask-optional school control group for comparison (i.e. all schools in the study mandated masks for everyone ages 5 and older), it says literally NOTHING about the effectiveness of masks.

And another school study looking at Florida, New York, and Massachusetts found no correlation between school mask mandates and COVID case rates for students OR staff after adjusting for confounders.  Not only that, but greater in-person student density was actually associated with fewer COVID cases, not more.  This dovetails with the cross-sectional CDC study that looked at Georgia schools between November 16, 2020 and December 11, 2020 and found no statistically significant effect of student mask mandates.  And it also strongly implies that the latter study's apparent correlation between staff mask mandates and fewer cases was most likely spurious and driven by selection bias, endogeneity, and/or confounding from community case rates, especially since the former study looked a much longer time period than the latter one, and also controlled for community case rates.  Thus, this new study should really be the final nail in the coffin in terms of mask mandates, particularly for schools.  Game. Set. Match.

And see here and here as well.

AUGUST UPDATE:  Looks like there is even more evidence that masks are basically useless and little more than window dressing overall.  That is true even for adults, let alone for children to whom it applies a fortiori to.  The pro-mask side of what passes for "debate" really can't rely honestly on science anymore, so they increasingly resort to censorship and ad hominem attacks instead.  Ten years from now, if not much sooner, we guarantee that they will regret their stance just like they did not long after 1918.

SEPTEMBER UPDATE:  About that poorly-designed Bangladesh study that the pro-maskers are claiming "proves" once and for all that "masks work!", well, it clearly doesn't prove that at all.  It also says nothing at all about children, schools, or mandates, since neither of these were studied at all by this study.  The best it possibly says is that voluntary use of surgical masks when combined with distancing MIGHT work modestly at the margin in VERY selected instances (even if only a placebo effect as a universal symbol for "keep your distance!"), while cloth masks (i.e. the most commonly used kind) are basically completely useless, and it only goes downhill from there.

The Biggest Public Health Fiasco In History

What is "the biggest public health fiasco in history"?  If you had guessed the COVID-19 pandemic itself, you would actually be quite wrong.  As horrible as it is, anyone who has read a history book or stayed awake in history class can tell you there have clearly been far, far worse pandemics than this one.  No, that dubious honor would actually in fact go the highly counterproductive countermeasures--lockdowns.

That is the headline conclusion arrived at by the preeminent expert authors of a Telegraph article (worth reading in full), Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Martin Kulldorf, both of Great Barrington Declaration fame.  In a nutshell, the lockdowns and related restrictions not only failed to stop the virus, but also utterly failed to protect the most vulnerable members of society, and caused a massive amount of collateral damage as well, to say nothing of the unprecedented assault on our hard-won civil rights and liberties.

Many, many studies bear this out quite nicely.  In fact, lockdown states and countries tend to have, on average, higher death rates than their free and open counterparts.  You read that right:  greater government stringency is actually correlated with higher death rates.  It is thus painfully obvious now that the "cure" was far worse than the disease.

Just like we at the TSAP have been saying for over a year now, basically.  And we are at nearly day 400 or so (!) of "15 days to flatten the curve" now.  Groundhog Day effectively became Groundhog Year.  So what has become of the specious claims used to justify all of these unprecedented restrictions?

First, the infamous Imperial College model (devised by Professor Neil Ferguson) that was initially used to justify lockdowns was, in a word, wrong.  Not just a little bit wrong, but often orders of magnitude wrong for so many countries, both in countries that eschewed lockdowns and those who implemented them, and everything in between.  Once it became clear by the end of April 2020 that the model had utterly failed its first real-world tests in places like Sweden, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the few US states that did not lock down or barely did, that really should have been the end of it.  But the lockdown zealots then simply moved the goalposts again, and clung to a few other very questionable assumptions that supposedly made these restrictions necessary regardless of the models.  So what about those?

We know now that truly asymptomatic spread, while possible, is a lot rarer than most people think, a mere 0.7% even in that very closest and riskiest setting of all, within households.  And outdoor spread?  A vanishingly low 0.1% of cases. And fomites (surfaces)?  An even lower still < 0.01%, and probably even less than that if people wash their hands and don't touch their faces or keep fiddling with their masks!  All for a disease with an infection fatality rate within the ballpark of a nasty flu season for most people, and that we know now how to treat effectively.  This is what the actual science says, folks.  And it utterly demolishes any need for lockdowns, closures, mask mandates, or any other New Abnormal restrictions at this juncture, period.

As for indoor aerosol (airborne) transmission, which looks like the real dominant way it is transmitted as opposed to large droplets, if we put even a smidgeon of the effort we have been putting into masks, distancing, and disinfecting surfaces (which are largely useless against small aerosols) instead into simply improving ventilation and airflow, air filters and UV light, and avoiding indoor overcrowding, that would have made a far greater difference had we done so before or during the worst of the pandemic.

The TSAP currently advocates going "cold turkey", ending all restrictions and opening up 100%.  And yesterday is not soon enough!  Look, it's not April 2020 anymore.  We have not one, not two, but THREE vaccines now, and even well before that we already had proven treatments and prophylactics (including, but not limited to, Ivermectin, Budesonide, HCQ, and various vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Zinc, Selenium, Magnesium, Quercetin, Resveratrol, Niacin, Thiamine, B-12, and the amino acid Lysine) that the ghouls in charge wilfully chose to ignore, deny, or greatly downplay.  Which, by the way, is literally murder by omission.  Not only do we know a LOT more now, but knowing that lockdowns would do more harm than good is something we should have known before the pandemic--and in fact we did.  But then we threw the hard-won wisdom of the ages out the window like so much garbage, and now we are all paying a heavy price for it.  

So what are we waiting for?  Set a hard and permanent "quit date" no more than a week or two in the future, commit to it, and lift ALL restrictions on or before that date, period.  That is, revert back to being no stricter than we were in 1957-1958, 1968-1969, 2009-2010 (all pandemic years, by the way), 2018, 2019, or January-February 2020.  That is, return to the true normal 100%.  And finally end the officially declared state of emergency as well.  And make sure this public health fiasco NEVER, EVER happens again!

UPDATE:  We should all know by now that lockdowns are worse than useless, at least for a disease of this type.  The data clearly speaks for itself.  But even if they were somewhat useful in fighting the virus, the collateral damage is so massive and so predictable that, according to Julius Ruechel's excellent article, they are morally equivalent to pulling the switch in the classic Trolley Problem.  Which is to say, lockdowns are inherently immoral unless one is a truly incorrigible cold-hearted utilitarian who could care less about human rights and human dignity.  We at the TSAP believe in "first, do no harm", and lockdowns of course inevitably do plenty of harm (especially to the most vulnerable and underprivileged members of society) no matter how much money we may print in an attempt to paper over such contrived and unnecessary harm.

And once again, we see Sweden has still won the lockdown debate hands down.  Ditto for the wide-open states (Florida, Texas, etc.) in the USA as well.

There is even a good Covid Charts Quiz as well.  See if you can spot the difference in the trends between lockdown vs. open, and masked vs. unmasked states.

JUNE UPDATE:  And according new studies, two other things we can add to the list of worse than useless measures are Plexiglass (or Perspex in the UK) screens and nighttime curfews.  Both seem to be not only useless, but even counterproductive, in that they may even increase transmission of the virus!  So along with lockdowns and general mask mandates, these NPIs should also be scrapped yesterday and permanently removed from serious consideration ever again.  To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Biden, tear down this plexiglass!"

Is The Overton Window Finally Shifting?

A year ago in March 2020, the Overton window of what is considered socially and politically acceptable had abruptly shifted in a highly authoritarian and even totalitarian direction due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the response of our "leaders" to it.  What was once unthinkable had become unquestionable (and vice-versa) within a matter of days to weeks, almost overnight.  And once in place, the new restrictions (lockdowns, quarantines, business restrictions, school closures, gathering bans/limits, mask mandates, travel restrictions, etc.) have proven VERY difficult to undo in the climate of incessant and exaggerated fear that the authorities just kept on stoking, regardless of effectiveness or lack thereof and regardless of the very real collateral damage as well.  It felt like the ruling Pharisees had slammed the proverbial gates of heaven in everyone's faces and sent everyone a one-way ticket to hell, never to return again.  Or so it seemed, at least.

(Diagram courtesy of Wikipedia)

But it now appears to be finally shifting back in the direction of liberty and civil/human rights.  Little by little, and then eventually all at once at some point in the hopefully not too distant future.  As of March 6, 2021, several states (17 already, and growing) are now abandoning this whole ship of fools and doing what Florida already did back in September and South Dakota already did last May--going cold turkey (or nearly so) later this month if not already.  Once the first cracks and fissures in the facade appeared several months ago, it was only a matter of time before the proverbial dam would inevitably burst.

The last straw was most likely when they moved the goalposts for the gazillionth time recently when the establishment had the GALL to claim that we will still not going back to the true normal anytime soon even though we have all of the following now:  1) not one, not two, but THREE authorized vaccines now, 2) massively scaled-up virus testing since a year ago, 3) we KNOW how to effectively treat and prevent COVID now and have for a while, and 4) the virus has been in rapid retreat since January 2021, and even earlier in some places.  And President Biden went back on his word and extended his famous "100 days of masks" to all of 2021 and perhaps even beyond (who was whispering in his ear this time?).  So one can see how this would cause millions of people to say, "Enough already!", thus marking the "social end" of the pandemic now or in the very near future.  The establishment clearly overplayed their hand this time, and bit off far more than they could ever chew. 

The lockdown and mask zealots and technocrats, now clearly on the defensive, are probably having a collective heart attack right now, or at least soiling their trousers, but tough noodles for them!  They've already had their proverbial day in the sun for a whole year now (that was only supposed to be two or three weeks to "flatten the curve", remember?) and now it's long past time to start actually living again as humans qua humans.  To the wretched New Abnormal we say, "Good riddance!"  And God willing, may a century of liberty follow after we all say, "Never Again!" and really mean it.

UPDATE:  See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for good additional links on the topic.  And while it should clearly go without saying, we will say it louder for the people in the back:  THERE IS NO "PANDEMIC EXCEPTION" TO THE CONSTITUTION!  Ditto for the written and unwritten constitutions of many other countries which just so happen to be at least partly based on--guess what--the US Constitution as well.  The Founding Fathers, who lived through FAR worse disease epidemics than this one, and thus clearly would have carved out such an exception if they had seen fit to do so (but clearly did not), must really be spinning in their graves right now!

Oh, and by the way:  Lockdowns and shutdowns are among the most neoliberal public policy measures one could ever possibly devise, which have succeeded in making the rich richer, the poor poorer, and further hollowed out the already-shrinking middle class.  No wonder the oligarchs love them so much.  And since they tend to hurt people of color more so than white people, these classist policies are also quite racist as well. (Remember, impact > intent.)  In fact, they strengthen the entire kyriarchy as well, and for women they have basically been "patriarchy on crack" due to their disproportionate job losses, the double and triple burden faced by mothers when schools and daycares are closed, the isolation from the support of other women, and increased domestic violence as well.  Thus, lockdowns and shutdowns are a one-stop shop for neoliberalism, and all the more reason to end these highly toxic policies yesterday.

The TSAP proposes adding the following constitutional amendment (inspired by various folks on Twitter) to both federal and state constitutions, just to be crystal clear:

• All stay-at-home orders lasting more than 24 hours are prohibited.
• All nighttime curfews lasting more than three consecutive nights are prohibited.
• All forced school closures lasting more than one week are prohibited.
• Voluntary school closures may last longer, but any public school closure lasting more than two weeks shall be subject to a forced reopening or withdrawal of state and federal funding at the governor's discretion.
• All forced business closures shall constitute a "taking" as per the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the owners and employees must receive just compensation for the period of closure (including retroactively).  Places of worship shall also be compensated accordingly.
• Capacity restrictions below 100% lasting more than two weeks, or below 50% for any duration, shall be treated as partial closures, and prorated accordingly for the purposes of compensation.
• No state of emergency declared by any executive may ever last more than 60 days, or 90 days tops, without the express and democratic authorization of the respective legislature.  If not authorized, such a state of emergency shall become null and void after the deadline.  That is, we must repeal the highly dangerous and autocratic law MSEHPA section 405(b) yesterday.

In other words, this can never happen again.

We Need To Do Both

If you are confused about how to save America, you are NOT alone.  To fix this country we need to get out of this nasty rut we are stuck in ASAP.  And to do this, we need to not only reopen the country by ending the lockdowns and restrictions OR only firehose the economy with federal money, we need to do BOTH.  

Yesterday.  In fact, yesterday is not soon enough!

If we keep these restrictions for any longer while hoping to just paper over the massive holes in our economy and society with newly printed money, that will not work in the long run, as we will just keep on damaging the economy and society.  Likewise, if we attempt to reopen with a bang without injecting federal dollars into the economy, it will be a big disappointment since the damage is done and has not been repaired.  Either way, it is like pushing on a string--or like pushing an elephant up the stairs.

As we have already noted in a previous article, we can effectively end the pandemic in ONE WEEK tops without lockdowns, masks, or vaccines, full stop.  Simply send everyone an Indian-style $2 Ziverdo kit (Zinc, Ivermectin, and Doxycycline), and as Karl Denninger notes, the Doxycycline is optional and can be substituted with Vitamins C and D (and if we had our way, also add Niacin, Thiamine, and Quercetin as well).  And for the few severe or critical cases that still occur despite this, there is always the MATH+ Protocol (and even cheap steroid inhalers) to fall back on.  In fact, early use of steroid inhalers seems to reduce the number of severe cases by 90%!  Problem solved.

(In India, adding Vitamin D to the Ziverdo Triple Therapy mix is also known as Quadruple Therapy.)

Oh and by the way, did you know that we are basically at the holy grail of herd immunity in the USA (if not also globally on average) already?  Why else would virus cases be plummeting starting weeks before fully vaccinating a significant chunk of the population, in the middle of winter, even in states and countries with little to no restrictions?  Even with those supposedly scary new mutant strains allegedly running rampant for weeks, no less.  If it can't be due to seasonality, vaccines, or restrictions, then it MUST be due to naturally acquired herd immunity.   Too bad we had to climb a mountain of corpses to get there thanks to the incompetence and malfeasance of our "leaders" who suppressed the treatments and prophylaxis that actually work while throwing the wisdom of the ages out the window like so much garbage.  And that's to say nothing of all the collateral damage deaths caused by the lockdowns and panic.

(NOTE:  The sharp decrease in cases predates the reduction in the PCR test cycle threshold in many places, and was in fact followed by decreases in hospitalizations and deaths, so it can't be entirely due to sleight of hand unless one concedes that all of the data were nearly 100% false from the very start.  Either way, the case for restrictions crumbles.)

Thus, no reason not to end all restrictions and open up right away, full stop.  That is, no more restrictions than we had a year ago in February 2020, other than those that individuals and businesses voluntarily choose to put on themselves.  But again, the damage is already done at this point, even if we don't do any further damage going forward.  We must then do the Herculean task of healing the existing damage done.  Fortunately, the federal government has just the technology to do that--the printing press, or its more modern equivalent, a computer with a keyboard.  Money is simply an accounting entry these days, so make the entry and be done with it.  Yesterday. 

(And before anyone predictably cries "inflation!", the truth is that deflation is actually a much, much bigger risk nowadays in the age of secular stagnation.)

The recent paltry stimulus is just barely scratching the surface of what is needed.  We will need an ongoing Universal Basic Income for all (at least $2000/month per adult and $1000/month per child for the first three months, followed by at least half those amounts per month thereafter). We will need single-payer Medicare For All. We will need to expand Social Security.  We will need to increase funding for schools.  We will need free higher education as well.  We will need a Green New Deal to create millions of good jobs while saving the Earth at the same time.  And we will ultimately need some sort of debt jubilee as well.  Seriously, now is NOT the time to be pikers!

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  As the ever-insightful Bill Sardi notes, we can now add the amino acid lysine to the rapidly accumulating list of treatments and prophylaxis for COVID-19.   It may be the biggest game-changer of all.

How To End The Pandemic In ONE WEEK Without Lockdowns, Masks, Or Vaccines

DISCLAIMER:  The following article references third-party sources and is intended for general information only, and is NOT intended to provide medical advice or otherwise diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, including (but not limited to) COVID-19.  Consult a qualified physician before beginning any sort of treatment or prophylactic regimen and/or if you know or suspect that you currently have COVID-19.  Anyone who takes or does anything mentioned (or alluded to) in this or any other TSAP article does so entirely at their own risk and liability.  The TSAP thus makes absolutely no warranties, express or implied, and is not liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages resulting from any act or omission on the part of the reader(s) or others. Caveat lector.

See also our previous articles here, here, and here as well.  Also, special thanks to Bill Sardi, Dr. Gareth "Gruff" Davies, Dr. Dmitry Kats, Dr. Mikko Panunio, and Swiss Policy Research, et al. whose research this article draws upon and cites in the links throughout.

It's January 2021, and the COVID-19 pandemic is now over a year old, with still no signs of ending anytime soon according to the official narrative.  The much-awaited vaccines are finally here, but they are unfortunately far too slow to end an established pandemic quickly enough, and questions still remain about their safety and effectiveness.

But according to the ever-insightful Karl "Ticker Guy" Denninger, there is apparently a way to effectively end the pandemic within one week or less.  Yes, really.  It would not only cure existing cases, but also quickly cause an over 80% reduction in transmission that would thus push the R-value so low that the epidemic would be impossible to sustain itself.  And it does NOT require lockdowns, masks, restrictions of any kind, expensive new drugs, or vaccines:

The Ziverdo kit contains Zinc, Ivermectin, and Doxycycline.  And it apparently works very well as both treatment and prophylaxis.  Make it OTC and send to everyone.  Denninger notes that the Doxycycline (antibiotic) is optional, especially for children whose baby teeth it stains, and if it were up to him he would substitute Vitamins C and D instead, making it even cheaper still.  And we at the TSAP would add Quercetin to the mix, as well as Thiamine (Vitamin B1) and Niacin (Vitamin B3), and make the Vitamin C the liposomal variety.  Problem solved.

Quickly, safely, and cheaply.  $2 per kit × 330 million Americans = $660 million, the size of a negligible rounding error on the nearly $5 trillion federal budget.  A real no-brainer.  Apparently, this has been known for months now, yet ignored by the powers that be (who thus have massive blood on their hands).

For example, the recently updated MATH+ protocol (for hospitalized patients) and the new I-MASK+ protocol (for early treatment and prophylaxis) both from the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), both currently include Ivermectin.  See also the recently updated protocol by the Swiss Doctor as well.  And the EVMS protocol strongly echoes these ideas as well, as does the newly-updated and famous Zelenko Protocol.

One other thing that people may not think of (and is not part of any of the other aforementioned protocols) is Niacin (Vitamin B3).  Dr. Dmitry Kats, apparently discovered months ago niacin (as nicotinic acid), at about 20 cents per 1000 mg dose, actually does work as prophylaxis and even as a practically overnight cure for COVID.  It has to be the immediate-release, "flush" kind in order for it to work, since the classic "niacin flush" reaction is a feature, not a bug.  And niacin has numerous other health benefits as well, while being practically harmless when used as directed.  Certainly better than Gilead's Remdesivir (which is really just a "bunk niacin" and apparently the world's most expensive failure at $5000/dose) and better than even Regeneron's shiny new monoclonal antibody cocktail.  And yes, Dr. Kats ran a very impressive double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial himself with niacin alone.  (Though of course, we would still recommend Vitamin C, Vitamin D, thiamine, zinc, and quercetin along with it anyway.)  The censors, however, are not at all pleased with his findings.  Gee, I wonder why?

Talk about a game-changer!  It seems that everything else is a mere sideshow in comparison.

As for long-haulers (those suffering from longer-term COVID after-effects), many of the reported symptoms sound a lot like those of deficiencies in several of the aforementioned key nutrients, particularly Vitamin D (in general), Vitamin B1 (dysautonomia and recurring fevers), and zinc (loss of smell and taste).  Correcting these deficiencies would likely work very well to promote healing.  And according to Dr. Dmitry Kats, there is also at least anecdotal evidence as well that niacin (Vitamin B3) can be beneficial as well in healing from remnant COVID damage, which is not really surprising given how well it works to treat acute COVID (as he discovered in his aforementioned RCT study).

The famous Dr. Joseph Mercola also has a great article about Niacin, largely echoing what Dr. Kats has been saying for months now.  The article also notes the many benefits of the other B vitamins as well in relation to COVID.  Food for thought indeed.

Of note, Ivermectin also seems to work for long-haulers as well, to the tune of 94%.

And of course, wash your hands, clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces, cover coughs and sneezes, stay home if you are sick, and avoid contact with people who are sick.  Vulnerable individuals (over 65, immunocompromised, and/or with underlying health conditions) should really avoid crowds as much as possible.  In other words, use common sense. 

Also remember to ventilate, ventilate, ventilate indoor spaces, and avoid packing too many people in as well.  This is especially important during "broken immune system season", formerly known as flu season.

As for the massive test "casedemic" superimposed on top of the actual pandemic, that can be easily solved by reducing the PCR cycle threshold to between 30 and 35, and/or switching to lateral-flow rapid testing instead.  Additionally, mass testing can be phased out in favor of more targeted testing as well.

So what are we waiting for?

UPDATE:  The ever-insightful Bill Sardi recently pointed out that giving severe, deathbed COVID patients a thymus gland hormone called thymosin alpha-1 raises T-cell counts and dramatically slashes death rates by nearly two-thirds.  Note that this miraculous treatment only works when actually sick, thus it is not for prevention, but it works very well will no side effects.  It also works well against cancer, by the way.  While the pure stuff is rather pricey and can be hard to get, bovine thymus gland extracts would likely have similar benefits and can be purchased as dietary supplements.  And the effect can also be mimicked and/or enhanced with zinc supplements as well, which we should really be taking regardless as both treatment and prophylaxis.  Our white blood cells don't work properly without zinc, and zinc also stops viral replication too.

T-cells appear to be at least as important as antibodies, if not more so for this virus.

As for prophylactic nasal sprays, some are in development as we speak, though not yet commercially available.  Until then, fortunately there is already one that is likely to block the virus while yielding additional health benefits in the meantime.  It is called Xlear, a natural, drug-free saline nasal spray with xylitol and grapefruit seed extract.

(Probiotics might also be promising too.)

And yet another study via meta-analysis confirms the effectiveness of Ivermectin, and even helps elucidate the mechanism by which it works.  Apparently, it blocks a particular enzyme, and thus stops the virus from replicating, kinda like zinc does but with a different enzyme.  In the USA, unfortunately it is not yet available OTC except for veterinary use, or for topical use against head lice.  But President Biden, if you're listening, you of course could change that with a stroke of your executive pen.  Yesterday.

Another safe and promising treatment and prophylaxis, Bromhexine, is available OTC in most countries, but unfortunately NOT available in the USA at all.  Like the drug camostat mesilate does, but much more cheaply and safely, it apparently blocks the TMPRSS2 protein that the virus needs to unlock the cells' ACE2 receptors, thus inhibiting cell entry.  (A protein whose relative lack in prepubescent children also seems to explain their largely being spared the worst of the disease as well as being less likely to spread it.)  That, of course, can also be fixed with a stroke of Biden's executive pen as well.  Yesterday. 

For Vitamin C, very high, "Klenner-sized" doses may be in order, especially for serious cases.  In his book Curing the Incurable, Dr. Thomas Levy discusses its curative potential for virtually all viruses, many bacterial infections, and even some poisons as well.  No reason think COVID would be radically different in that regard.  And not for nothing, high-dose IV Vitamin C is indeed a key part of the MATH+ Protocol.  Note that liposomal Vitamin C can also be used as an alternative to IV use early on, since it makes very high doses possible to absorb orally.

As for the study that supposedly finds that Vitamin C and zinc don't work, well, the ever-insightful Bill Sardi does an excellent rebuttal of that study.  And don't forget to take your Quercetin too, which is known to synergize with both zinc and Vitamin C.

Back to Vitamin D, don't forget to also take it with magnesium and Vitamin B12, which apparently enhance absorption and thus its benefits according to a new clinical trial.  For prophylaxis and very early treatment, D3 is best taken in several thousand units daily, or tens of thousands of units weekly.  And for serious, critical, or otherwise late-stage patients, remember that the active form calcifediol (25-hydroxyvitamin D) would work better, since regular Vitamin D3 takes time to convert to its active form.

And the evidence for Vitamin D just keeps on piling up, with the latest impressive study.  A 60% reduction in death rates and an 80% reduction in ICU admissions is certainly nothing to, ahem, sneeze at.

Be sure to also check out the amino acid lysine as well, which is now emerging as a dark horse in treating and preventing COVID-19 as well.

Additionally, Dr. Thomas E. Levy has a new, FREE e-book out titled Rapid Virus Recovery, whose central idea has also been echoed by Dr. Joseph Mercola, namely the use of nebulized hydrogen peroxide against the virus.  A nebulizer can be bought in a drugstore for less than $40, and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide for as little as one dollar.  If you find that idea floats your boat, please do use caution, follow the instructions, and be sure to to properly dilute the hydrogen peroxide solution before nebulizing it.

And even failing all that, we now know that there are always cheap steroid inhalers to fall back on, that cost next to nothing in nearly every country except of course the USA where the Big Pharma racketeers mercilessly gouge their prices.  In fact, like that Texas doctor pointed out last summer, early use of steroid inhalers seems to reduce the number of severe cases by 90%!  Let that sink in.  Problem solved.

Worried about the supposedly scary new mutant strains of the virus?  Worry not, since unlike vaccines and antibody treatments, the aforementioned protocols are NOT strain-specific and thus would work for ALL strains, full stop.  But if you are still concerned, then the best thing to do is to NOT support ANY degree or kind of lockdowns since in practice those just concentrate and incubate these new strains which inevitably escape and spread further, when it's really better to dilute, dilute, dilute so they don't become the dominant strains anywhere.  Seriously. 

FINAL THOUGHT:  When we say to end the pandemic, that is NOT to be confused with the mirage of "Zero Covid", which frankly makes about as much sense as "Zero Flu".  Like it or not, the virus is here to stay, but by doing the above we can easily accelerate the process by which it stops being a pandemic and becomes just another endemic nuisance like--and about as scary as--seasonal flu or the common cold.

The TSAP's Updated Position On Face Mask Mandates

DISCLAIMER:  The TSAP still encourages everyone to continue observing official mask mandates in public places at the national, state, and/or local level, for as long as those mandates are still in effect, and does NOT promote or condone any civil disobedience in that regard.  Choose your battles very wisely, and don't be a Karen or Kevin either way (with apologies to people who actually have those given names.)

NOTE:  The following shall fully supersede any positions taken or advice given prior to August 1, 2020, and shall remain in effect until further notice.

As we now finally enter the endgame of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA, and face mask mandates are now entering in their third, fourth, or even fifth month in many places, we at the TSAP feel it is time to start talking about how long these mandates shall last, and to what extent, before they are ultimately phased out.   Yes, you read that right.  There, we finally said the heresy out loud now, and we don't regret it.

While the TSAP has enthusiastically supported fairly broad mask mandates from late April onwards, that support was predicated on these policies being temporary, logical, and nuanced.  We have never supported permanent mask mandates (or ones that last until that ever-elusive vaccine), nor have we supported ones that apply to any places that are both not open to the public and and not workplaces (such as private residences and exclusive members-only clubs).  Nor have we supported any outdoor mask mandates that last for more than two weeks, unless an exception is made for situations where six feet of distance is possible to maintain between people.  And we have opposed all mask mandates that apply to children under two years of age, and have not (yet) taken a position on whether children between the ages of two and ten years of age should be required to wear masks in public either.  And penalties for individuals, if any, should not exceed a small civil fine similar to a parking or traffic ticket, with no criminal record.  After all, for most people, not wearing a mask is no more dangerous to others than speeding is.

We have generally considered New York State's mask mandate, and later California's, to be a good model for the nation.  In contrast, the local ones in Miami and Broward County, Florida, are too broad and harsh by our standards.  But even the very best of such mandates should still ultimately have a sunset clause.

Our current position is the same as before, with the following changes:

1. All broad mask mandates should sunset no later than January 1, 2021 at the latest, or six months after they began, whichever occurs first.  Even in areas currently designated as "red" zones (i.e. characterized by seriously widespread community transmission of the virus).
2. In areas that are currently designated as "yellow" or "green" zones, all broad mask mandates should sunset no later than November 4, 2020 (i.e. the day after Election Day).
3. Narrow mask mandates, covering only very selected situations such as inside retail shops and/or public transit, can last beyond the end of broad mask mandates, but after November 4, 2020 shall sunset no more than an additional 90 days later in any case.
4. Until the November 2020 election is over, masks should remain mandatory at all election locations and on all public transit, even if masks are no longer required elsewhere.
5. Going forward, all new broad mask mandates imposed after August 15, 2020 should only be imposed on areas with seriously widespread community transmission of the virus.  Otherwise, no new mask mandates.

Of course, in the event of a severe second wave in the winter, these mandates may very well need to be reimposed, and nothing written here shall preclude that, but the TSAP doubts very much that will happen, since "herd immunity" is likely to be reached nationwide by then if it hasn't already.  Yes, really.

As for children under the age of ten, the TSAP now believes that after August 15, 2020 they should be completely exempt from any mask mandates, with the possible exception of public transit and within 100 feet of a polling place, in which case only children under the age of two should be exempt.

Furthermore, deaf people and those communicating with them, and anyone for whom wearing a mask is medically contraindicated, should also be automatically exempt from such mandates.

Face masks do work to an extent in slowing (not stopping) the spread of the virus when used properly, though their effectiveness has likely been overstated and they should not be regarded as a talisman or a substitute for social distancing and hygiene, but as an additional modest layer of protection when they are widely used by the vast majority of people.  They protect those around the wearer more so than they do the wearer.  The "effect size" of universal mask wearing is relatively high when there is a high level of widespread community spread of the virus (i.e "red" zones), while it becomes practically negligible when the level of community transmission is at a very low baseline level (i.e. "green" zones).  And outdoor transmission is relatively rare with or without masks, while at least 99% of transmission occurs indoors.  Thus, the TSAP's nuanced position makes sense now.

Interestingly, none of the Nordic countries (including Sweden) ever saw the need to mandate the use of face masks, nor did the Netherlands, and yet they did not do any worse overall in terms of the the pandemic compared with other European countries that did (often belatedly) require them.  On the other hand, all of the East Asian success stories did involve widespread mask wearing, though not every country required it and often it was voluntary.  So unlike lockdowns, which turned out to be unequivocally counterproductive and thus worse than useless, the jury is basically still out on the effectiveness of mask mandates when looking at the international evidence.

(The debate on masks, after all, is well over a century old.  Really nothing new under the sun here.)

Make no mistake, mask mandates are NOT lockdowns, and are nowhere near as bad.  After all, the TSAP supported them as a way OUT of lockdown.  But they do come with their own downsides too, and as the weeks turn into months and the months turn into years, they don't exactly age very well either.

UPDATE:  It looks like there is yet another nuance to the centuries-old debate about the effectiveness of masks.  That is, the latest theory is that even though masks (especially cloth masks) are only partially effective as PPE and source control, they do likely reduce the viral load, which while it can still be somewhat infectious it would would make the wearer and those around them less sick and less likely to die than receiving a higher dose of the virus.  A lower dose of the virus is easier for the immune system to knock out quickly before it gets bad, while still enabling the infected to build some immunity going forward.  After all, "the dose makes the poison", and indeed the etymology of the word virus comes from and old word for "poison".  Another way to potentially reduce viral load is to gargle with an alcohol-based mouthwash regularly.   That said, these nuances do not materially change the TSAP's position, and in fact reinforces our middle-of-the-road approach.

Of course, to avoid further concentrating one's own potential viral load, be sure to change or clean your mask very regularly, and don't wear it 24/7 with no breaks.  Fresh air is also a good thing too, after all.  That is, use common sense!

And this begs the question once more to the lockdown enthusiasts who at first opposed masks but later embraced them:  if masks are so effective, why did we even lockdown at all?  Seriously, why did we?

OCTOBER UPDATE:  A cursory review of the empirical evidence so far reveals that while masks may very well be marginally effective at the micro level, they apparently are practically insignificant at the macro level, at least in the long run.  To wit, as the charts here so clearly show, broad mask mandates do not appear to have had any noticeable impact on the course of a country, state, or locality's epidemic curve.  To name a few, Hawaii, Illinois, LA, Miami, Kansas, Wisconsin, Israel, Japan, Spain, Argentina, and most notoriously Peru all have seen no beneficial long-run impact on cases (which actually increased at some point after implementation, even in conjunction with strict lockdowns in some cases), and the same was ultimately true for deaths and hospitalizations as well, except for Hawaii, Israel, and Japan whose death rates remain unusually low for reasons not yet fully understood.  As for Czechia, the crown jewel of early mask mandates, it appears to have only worked the first time in conjunction with their early suppression strategy in the spring, but not the second time around when the virus came roaring back in the fall.  Meanwhile, mandate-free Sweden, Denmark, Norway, North and South Dakota, Georgia, and the parts of Florida without local mandates don't seem to have had worse trends overall.  Thus, the TSAP no longer officially supports broad mask mandates as of October, except perhaps for a limited time (two to three weeks) in locally-defined "red zones". 

And we certainly do NOT support any federal mask mandates in the USA at all, period.  They are not only constitutionally dubious at best, but as noted above there is simply not nearly enough evidence in their favor to justify such unprecedented federal government overreach even temporarily.  Fortunately, even Joe Biden himself has largely walked back his initially strong support for such federal mandates.

NOVEMBER UPDATE:  On November 18, 2020, the much awaited Danish mask RCT study was finally released and published three months late in the Annals of Internal Medicine.  And the results were, shall we say, rather underwhelming, and not statistically significant (i.e. not statistically different from null).  Not necessarily the final word, but hardly a ringing endorsement for the effectiveness of general mask use in the community at the macro level.

A recent Cochrane review of the literature is not exactly reassuring either, to put it mildly.

But what about source control, you say?  That is, protection of people around the wearer, which most studies were not designed to look at?  Again, a cursory look at the data in the weeks and months following the implementation of mask mandates don't really support that either, at least not at a general population level.  Thus any such community benefit is likely either very small, very transient, or both.

Thus, we can conclude that even if there is some overarching benefit to wearing masks in some situations, universal community masking (or lack thereof) is nowhere near the game-changer it was originally sold as.  If it were, the pandemic would have been effectively over in a given locality, state, or country (even as it raged elsewhere) within two or three weeks following the implementation of a broad mask mandate.  And that has not happened anywhere in the world, even in places with very high (90%+) compliance, and even when combined with a ban on indoor restaurant dining (a behavior which might vitiate the results).  And as of November, the TSAP believes going forward that mask wearing (outside of a healthcare setting) should be largely (if not entirely) voluntary, and that businesses of any kind should be free to decide whether or not to require employees and/or customers to wear them.

Our best advice?  "Use masks judiciously, NOT superstitiously", pretty much sums it up.