Masking policies are about power, control | Letter to the editor

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Regarding Sheila Westerman’s July 15 letter: 

Board of Health member Westerman suggests that, because she’s “never heard of or read about” healthcare workers complaining of complications due to mask wearing, those issues do not exist. This is an astonishing admission by someone in a position of responsibility for public health.  Scientific evidence doesn’t evaporate because one is disinterested in it.  

I wrote to the Board of Health and Board of County Commissioners on May 19, providing five links to legitimate research discussing potential problems with masking.  For example, a March 2020 study of 158 healthcare workers found that 81 percent developed headaches from wearing a face mask.  

Is there any point in writing to the Board of Health if they don’t read what you write? Or if they only read what aligns with what they already believe? The latter is a chronic problem with health authorities — it’s known as “discipline conceit.”

An illness with the recovery rate greater than 99 percent is not “an unprecedented public health emergency.” U.S. figures are off the charts due to improper treatments and mixing of the infected with uninfected in hospitals and nursing homes, incentivization of COVID-19 diagnoses, the lockdown itself, and wholly unreliable testing (neither PCR nor antibody tests are trustworthy).

Major health agencies aren’t flip-flopping?  On July 12, BBC’s Newsnight medical correspondent, Deborah Cohen, tweeted: “We had been told by various sources [that the] WHO committee reviewing the evidence had not backed masks but they recommended them due to political lobbying.” When pursued on this point, the WHO did not deny it.

My sister was a registered nurse in hospital and hospice settings for more than 30 years. She and her cohorts only wore masks if they themselves were unwell or if their patients had a trach tube.  

The truth is that masking policies are about power and control, which is facilitated by maintaining fear.

Annette Huenke
PORT TOWNSEND