The deadly side of mask mania

The previous entry in this series is one of many that has dealt with forced masking—a policy that is the secret love child of COVID stay-at-home orders and officially enforced dress codes. Mask mandates are the media’s dream come true. Specifically, that entry was primarily about people taking mask enforcement into their own hands.

That entry prompted much feedback, and new incidents have taken place just in the past few weeks. Four years after the pandemic began, lockdown town criers are still digging in—with consequences that are as deadly as ever.

Just last month, a daycare teacher in New Taipei suffocated an 11-month-old boy by forcing him to wear a mask. This was just after the daycare implemented a brand new mask mandate. Police opened an investigation into the baby’s death, and the infant’s parents are suing daycare employees.

Taiwan actually didn’t adopt most major COVID restrictions until much later than most other countries. The country waited until well after vaccines were available before enacting many restrictions. It also kept doubling down on restrictions after other places dropped them. A Reddit commenter in Taiwan lamented the worsening situation there, saying the country “turned such a fantastic COVID success story into this awful drain on the population.” The fact that Taiwan imposed restrictions when it did is one of the reasons that suspicion points to the CIA secretly fanning most of the lockdown and mask mania that has gripped the world.

Even the most severe official guidance in any country has clearly exempted children under two years old from masks, and almost every country except “zero COVID” strongholds like the United States has set the age limit much higher than two. Yet the New Taipei tragedy isn’t the only instance of masks being placed on infants under two. After the CDC in the U.S. announced relaxed masking advice in February 2022, a theater in Portland, Oregon, decided to require masks for one-year-olds. In another incident, a photo emerged of newborns in a hospital wearing masks.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: When children’s well-being is at stake, I don’t mess around. I have zero tolerance for child abuse. Zero.

It isn’t only babies being harmed by masks despite official guidance. It’s animals too. Dogs have been seen wearing masks, despite guidance that says masks should never be placed on pets.

There are other fatal mask-related incidents. In January 2023, the CBC reported on an outrageous ruling by an Ontario court. Back in May 2020, a 43-year-old woman with pulmonary disease was tortured to death by hospital guards in Toronto because she was unable to wear a mask. She was slumped in a hospital bed for 16 days, and her family had no idea where she was. The beginning of the attack was caught by a security camera, but the camera was then deliberately turned away. Two guards were then charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence. The guards were also caught lying about the ghastly event. But in November 2022, the judge suddenly decided to drop the case, and it didn’t go to trial.

Our previous entry briefly mentioned that a 73-year-old Ontario man was fatally shot by cops for not wearing a mask at a supermarket. We’ve found more details about this July 2020 shooting. The shooting actually took place in the man’s driveway three hours after he had left the store. Police had seen him leaving the store and later went through the trouble of tracing his car to his home.

In Bothell, Washington, a man stabbed and killed another man because he wasn’t wearing a mask outside his own apartment building.

It’s not only deaths but also severe injuries. In Vancouver, police broke a woman’s ribs because she wasn’t wearing a mask on a commuter train.

A patient in Britain was denied mental health services for two years because the facility would not honor a mask exemption. This resulted in suicide attempts.

New mask mandates still appear with stunning regularity. Just last month, Bolivia enacted a new mask mandate in schools—even though the country had fewer COVID cases than it did at that time last year. In fact, Bolivia ended its official state of emergency last August—so the new mandate exists despite no emergency. However, this mandate isn’t just for COVID. Officials said it will be imposed any time there is a disease outbreak from now until the end of time—not just COVID. The world is effectively in a permanent state of emergency. As George Orwell wrote, “The war is not meant to be won.”

The only bright spot is that one region vowed not to hand out any punishment to noncompliant students. Early in the pandemic, however, Bolivia announced 10 years in prison for people who “promote noncompliance” with lockdown policies. If that decree is still on the books, regional officials might do time for refusing to punish barefaced schoolchildren.

Newfoundland & Labrador just reinstated its mask mandate for all healthcare facilities—even though the CBC reports that rates of all respiratory viruses are declining precipitously there. This is after officials there vowed not to reinstate the mandate. The province said the new rule is only temporary, but a new mask mandate in 2024 is equivalent to permanent.

Healthcare workers supported the province lifting its old mandate. The Registered Nurses’ Union of Newfoundland and Labrador backed the mandate’s repeal. The Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees—which represented many healthcare workers—agreed. But we now know that public officials won’t listen to unions unless it’s a company union that supported lockdowns and mask mandates—like major teachers’ unions in the U.S.

Online wasters haven’t stopped dreaming about more lockdowns and masks. Just this week, one complained on Twitter that “leftist spaces are completely inaccessible” because people there don’t wear masks. Are we “leftists” or “right-wing Trump supporters”? Make up your mind. Another online post reportedly bragged, “I wear a mask in my home when I’m sitting with my family watching television.”

The world is caught in a seemingly permanent cycle of mandates and death. There are some things in life that seem crazier and crazier the more you think about them, because it sinks in just how abnormal these things are. A good example of this is my high school. The ongoing universal diaper mandates are another. It absolutely boggles the mind. The resulting deaths are not only tragic and infuriating. They are crimes against humanity.