Commentary by Samuel Strait – June 6, 2022 Personally, I don't know how many studies on the effectiveness, or rather lack of effectiveness of masking, need to be conducted before it is universally accepted that masking serves no purpose as a mechanism for preventing Covid-19 infection. Nor does it prevent transmission to others. The most recent study conducted here in the United States by the University of Louisville found no conclusive difference between infection rate of the masked over those that did not mask up. Further details from the Louisville study concluded the disturbing information that masking for prolonged periods of time could actually have negative consequences for the wearer. Apparently, at least up to now, researchers have largely ignored such negative consequences. Two even more recent studies conducted in Western Europe have found masking to be similarly ineffective for preventing infection from the virus or acting as a preventative from infecting others. The two studies continue with the warning similar to the University of Louisville study, that mask wearing was very likely to have serious consequences for the wearer. Both studies take things a step further by indicating that there is a "moderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths in Western Europe". The bottom line in all of the continued research into the use of masking as a technique for preventing the spread of viruses is that there are distinct and serious consequences for those that continue to mask up. The bombshell comes in the form of a new work published in a medical journal that is comparing infection rates in Kansas during 2020 that alleges mask wearing led to a heightened risk of death. Dr. Zacharias Fogen, publishing in Medicine, February 2022, produced the following observational study "The Foegen Effect: A Mechanism by Which Facemasks Contribute to the Covid-19 Case Fatality Rate". The study concluded, contrary to accepted medical theory that fewer people are dying because infection rates are reduced by masks, this was not the case. Study results conclude that mask mandates and continous mask usage actually caused death at a rate 1.5 times higher than those who were maskless. In simple terms 50% more deaths in areas with mask mandates over those without mandates. A follow up study whose results were published in April of 2022 in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science found nearly identical results from analyzing the correlation between mask usage against morbidity and mortality rates in the 2020-2021 winter in Europe. For some this new evidence that masking may contain "new" and unknown hazards to health will likely not be compelling enough to ditch their masks. After all masking has become such a virtuous art form for many on the left and they are welcome to it. Recent efforts by the Biden administration to overturn a court decision to ditch masking on public transportation is currently under way. So much for science when there are political postures to maintain. Likely should any resurgence of the virus going forward occur, masking will be one of the political policies put in place in spite of real science saying "not so fast". Various places in California are already resorting to a return to indoor masking with a recent uptick in cases surrounding San Francisco. Local areas where "Public Health" is returning to such mandates would be wise to resist such measures as negative to good personal health and safety.