Pastor Meeting to Introduce the 5th Epochal Urantia Revelations.- 61 Pastors in Attendance 2020-11-28

We meet with 61 Pastors in Place is called Nawe, Buwagajjo - Buikwe District in Uganda, Africa. 

It took us three and a half hours to be there at the meeting in Nawe, Buwagajjo - Buikwe District in Uganda. Those in attendance both men and women were all Pastors.

I was reading the introductory part to the Part iv and they are all following me in their books and also I gave out 36 books today!

We even formed 10 reading groups among them who attended! And they told me each group will at least have 5 members to begin with.

They grouped themselves according to distances from each other. We had 61 pastors both women leaders and men leaders in their respective churches.

I thank God that we got what to feed all these people although it was not so easy, I had to lift up my faith as usual so that I got what to feed my people whom we sat with to have our introduction to the book for almost three hours.

These were all very much excited I tell you, some of them who do not know English very well, we're begging to be given the books so they go back with them to always ask their Children to read and translate to them!  Until we resolved that they should have groups to belong to.

At the meeting we agreed that I will be checking on them every month before I make my report, and they said for them they will be meeting at least twice a week as a group but for individuals will be reading daily, I mean those who will be staying with the books as group leaders

I was pointing out to them, they are carrying life with them now, that is what I was reminding them of, that they have a treasure not so common among all mankind.

In the above are the children of this area who do not go to school because of fees, and other scholastic materials, needing help as well as help in knowledge and leaning about Jesus

SEE ALL PHOTOS HERE

We have now more two more 70-90 Pastors meetings left for this year

Honestly, and surprisingly other countries are calling me , they want me to go and introduce the book to them so they can start reading them.

Books arrive in Uganda. Moses and Caroline make the pick up​. Some of this order was for Siloam Altar Revival Ministries International where 3 groups of 70 Pastors each have requested Moses to come and speak on the new revelations. As well as provide teaching material in the small village of Buseru were Caroline Plans to build Eternal Hope Gospel of Jesus Primary School and use these new revelations as the foundation of learning. You can contribute to his Campaign here.

Pastor Soren and his team provided the funds for the delivery team transporting books across western Uganda to meet along the way with team leaders in Uganda at the Jinja city Hotel. 

They were able to share stories and the good news about the revelation outreach activities in different parts of Uganda. 

Gumpi Andrew Cohen received three boxes of books to keep pace with a rapid expansion of FER ASCENDERS Fellowship. He is teaching the revelation to an increasing number of schools in Uganda. Any support you can give to Andrew in support of these efforts would be appreciated. They can be made on his Campaign

Thank you Soren and your team, the Pipeline of Life, Derek Samara and many others who worked to make this delivery possible. 

The team worked late into the night making deliveries. Last stop at New Life Africa Ministries Mother Church where Bishop Joseph Oyuki & Irene's books were dropped off. Joseph has been steadily introducing these new revelations to the many Pastors in his ministry. You can contribute to his work on his Campaign Here.

MORE IMAGES CAN BE FOUND HERE

THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS AND STAFF

For the last 3yrs the stuff and caregivers and volunteers under our umbrella treated these  children with love and respect, encouraging right behavior and correcting wrongful actions.
 

The caring relationships helped foster the desire to learn and to be good people in a difficult and challenging environment.
 

But covid has posed unique challenges to these care givers and some have decided to look for alternative forms of survival like street hawking.

I am just very thankful for their BIG HEARTS and much appreciation for their service.

My target is to teach the young generation about the Urantia book so by the end of 2025 most of the village is covered with the message of Urantia Book.

This is a new place and New group they are twenty one in Number, I met them on Tuesday 9 November 2020. The organization of meeting these people were made by the FER ASCENDERS BOOK FELLOWSHIP KALIRO coordinator Kasokwe sub county.

They were so impressed by the new Revelation and the unknown and I told them the story of Jesus Christ as it is presented in the revelation. 

As per the moment, I have 6 schools where I have been given/ permitted to introduce the New Revelation to the students who are so excited and impressed to receive the Urantia Book. I have now made a time table for these schools. Monday and Tuesday = Kaliro Senior Secondary School [ 50 students] morning and Bumanya Community High School [40 students] in the afternoon. Kasokwe community school= Wednesday [25students] morning and Cranes High School Busulumba [30 students] in the afternoon. Palisa High School= Thursday and Friday [80 students] morning and Palisa community academy [28 students] afternoon. FER ASCENDERS URANTIA BOOK FELLOWSHIP KALIRO community readers groups visits and supervision/ monitoring the progress of the UB readers groups in their communities. Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, is programmed to be my resting day and a day of worshiping and listening to the voice of the father.

Brothers and sisters, I will need more books with time as the number is starting to multiply again. Then, I decided to accept to teach these students the UB because of so many reasons but list a few, some parents were becoming hard nut to crack so by teaching their children the UB, the children have carried the UB message home, around the villages as they come from deferent parts of the region.

So as a result, some of these parents have started looking for me at my place and some call me to visit their own homes and families to tell them more about the UB. At the end of it all am getting more and more disciples.

Yesterday I was invited by the Bulangila Village chairperson who with his team wanted me to tell them about the UB that my wife is teaching some women in his village.

Brother Paul and sister Monica, myself I don't want to believe / think that this is all excitement but these are the results or effect of my teachings to the students in schools and to my colleagues in the profession. This is now a circle that I can not stop but to continue with and adjusting according to the growing and development of the God's Kingdom

A History of the Urantia Movement

By The Contact Commission on June 30, 1960

Several members of this group who participated in the preliminary “contacts” which led up to the appearance of the Urantia Papers, had had considerable experience in the investigation of psychic phenomena. This group early arrived at the conclusion that the phenomena connected with the personality, who was later associated with the Urantia Papers, was in no way similar to any other well-known type of psychic performance – such as hypnosis, automatic writing, clairvoyance, trances, spirit mediumship, telepathy, or double personality.

It should be made clear that the antecedents of the Urantia Papers were in no way associated with so-called spiritualism – with its seances and supposed communication with spirits of departed human beings.

Contact Activities Preceding the Urantia Papers

It would seem that, during these early years, our unseen friends were engaged in a thoroughgoing testing of the contact personality, rehearsing the technique of communication, selecting the Contact Commissioners — in fact, in a general way — setting the stage for the subsequent initiation of the presentation of the “Urantia Papers.”

During these early years we were introduced to many new and, to us, somewhat strange concepts of the universe of universes and as concerned man and his life on earth.

Among these numerous new ideas of cosmology and philosophy, the following may be mentioned:

1. New concept of a far-flung cosmos
2. Millions of other inhabited planets
3. Introduction to scores of different and varied echelons of celestial personalities.
4. Confirmation of evolutionary origin of humankind — even of an evolutionary cosmos.
5. Intimation of multiple Creator Deities.
6. Tentative testing of our theologic concepts. Patient determination of how far we might possibly go in the direction of modifying our theologic beliefs and philosophical opinions.
7. Without realizing it, over a period of twenty years, our fundamental religious views and attitudes had been considerably changed.
8. We had been familiarized with such terms as “The First Source and Center”, “Havona”, “superuniverses”, and the “Supreme Being” — but we had but meager ideas as to the real meaning of these names.
9. We also heard such words as “Master Spirits”, “outer space”, and “Power Directors”. But, again, we understood little as to their meaning. We also learned about numerous orders of angels.
10. We heard about “Thought Adjusters”, but our concept of the meaning of the term was vague and indefinite.
11. We had acquired a fuzzy concept of the morontia level of existence — but we never heard the word “morontia” used until the Papers started.
12. The midwayers were very real to us — we frequently talked with them during our varied “contacts.” We quite fully understood that the secondary midwayers supervised the contacts.
13. We heard some things about the Lucifer rebellion, but got little information about Adam and Eve.
14. We gained the impression that there were special reasons for Jesus’ bestowal on Urantia, but we had little or no idea as to the nature of these unrevealed reasons.
15. We listened to occasional references to Jesus’ life and teachings — but they were very cautious about the introduction of any new concepts regarding Michael’s Urantia bestowal. Of all the Urantia Revelation the Jesus Papers were the biggest surprise.
16. While we did not hear the term “Corps of The Finality”, we did pick up a hazy idea that Paradise might be the destination of surviving mortals.

Our superhuman friends thus spent upward of two decades in extending our cosmic horizons, enlarging our theologic concepts, and expanding our over-all philosophy.

We never realized how much our religious thinking had been expanded until the Papers began to arrive. As the Revelation progressed we came more fully to appreciate how we had been prepared for the vast alteration of our religious beliefs by these preliminary contacts extending over a period of twenty years of pre-education.

Our apprenticeship training for subsequent service in association with the presentation of the Urantia Papers was facilitated by the fact that, except for contacts with the midwayers, no two contacts were alike. Seldom did we meet the visiting personalities more than once. Every contact was entirely different from any and all that had gone before. And all of this experience was an extensive and liberal preparatory educational training in the expansion of our cosmology, theology and philosophy — not to mention our introduction to new ideas and concepts concerning a vast array of more mundane objects.

The limited discussion of Jesus’ life and teachings during these pre-revelatory contacts might be explained by the fact that the midwayers were a bit dubious as to how much authority they had in such matters — as shown later on when a whole year was consumed in the clarification of their right to retell the story of the Michael bestowal.

Those of us who early attended upon these nocturnal vigils never suspected that we were in contact with anything supernatural.

During these early years, all of our observations and investigations utterly failed to reveal the technique of reducing messages to writing.

How the Urantia Papers Started

After about twenty years of contact experience, an alleged student visitor, speaking through this sleeping subject during one of these nocturnal vigils, in answer to one of our questions, said: “If you only knew what you are in contact with you would not ask such trivial questions. You would rather ask such questions as might elicit answers of supreme value to the human race.”

This was something of a shock, as well as a mild rebuke, and caused all of us to look upon this unique experience in a new and different way. Later on that night, one of our number said: “Now they have asked for it — let us give them questions that no human being can answer.”

Now it is best to let matters rest here while we shift this narrative to a new and different setting.

How the Forum Started

Dr. William S. Sadler, a member of this early group of observers and investigators, tells the following story regarding the origin of that group of interested individuals which later on became known as the “Forum.” He says: “On my way to the University of Kansas to deliver some lectures on Gestalt psychology, I wrote a letter to my son saying that I thought doctors should try to maintain some contact with their old patients. I suggested that he talk with his mother about the feasibility of inviting some of our old friends to meet with us on Sunday afternoons for an hour or two of informal discussion and social exchange.

When I returned to Chicago one Sunday morning I found that my wife had invited a group of our old patients to meet at our house that afternoon at three o’clock. It was the plan to conduct these Sunday afternoon gatherings somewhat as follows: First have a talk on some health topic — such as the treatment of common colds, the cause and cure of worry, and then, after a cup of tea, engage in informal discussions — asking and answering questions.

As time passed, this group became a cosmopolitan gathering consisting of professional men and women — doctors, lawyers, dentists, ministers, teachers — together with individuals from all walks of life. Farmers, housewives, secretaries, office workers, and common laborers.

Introduction of the Forum to the “Contacts”

Presently, I was asked to give a series of talks on “Mental Hygiene,” or “Psychic Phenomena.” At the beginning of my first talk, I said: “With only or two exceptions, all of the psychic phenomena which I have investigated have turned out to be either conscious or unconscious frauds. Some were deliberate frauds — others were those peculiar cases in which the performer was a victim of the deceptions of his own subconscious mind.”

I had no more than said this when one of the group spoke up, saying, “Doctor, if you have contacted something which you have been unable to solve — it would be interesting — tell us more about it.”

I asked Dr. Lena to get some notes she had taken at a recent “contact” and read them to the group. It should be understood that up to this time there was no secrecy connected with this case. The Urantia Papers had not begun to appear.

It was at about this time that this group meeting at our house on Sunday afternoons began to be called the “Forum.”

The group manifested such a great interest in this case that I never did get around to giving any of the health talks such as had been planned.

It was while these informal discussions were going on from week to week that the challenge came to us suggesting that if we would ask more serious questions we might get information of value to all mankind.

The Forum Begins to Ask Questions

We told the Forum all about this and invited them to join us in the preparation of question. We decided to start out with questions pertaining to the origin of the cosmos, Deity, creation, and such other subjects as were far beyond the present-day knowledge of all humankind.

The following Sunday several hundred questions were brought in. We sorted out these questions, discarding duplicates, and in a general way, classifying them. Shortly thereafter, the first Urantia Paper appeared in answer to these questions. From first to last, when the Papers appeared, the questions disappeared.

This was the procedure followed throughout the many years of the reception of the Urantia Papers. No questions — no Papers.

The Forum Becomes a Closed Group

About this time, the Forum, as it were, was taken away from us. We were instructed to form a “closed group” — requiring each member to sign a pledge of secrecy and to discuss the Papers and all matters pertaining thereto with only those persons who were members of the Forum.

Membership tickets were issued and the Charter membership numbered Thirty. The date of this organization was September, 1925. Seventeen of these Charter Members are still living.

The individuals charged with the responsibility of gathering up the questions and comparing the typewritten text with the original handwritten manuscript, came to be known as the “Contact Commissioners.” From that date forward only these Contact Commissioners attended “contacts” and received written communications through the contact personality.

From time to time new members were received into the Forum, after being interviewed by the officers and after signing the same pledge that was signed by the original Charter Members. This pledge read: “We acknowledge our pledge of secrecy, renewing our promise not to discuss the Urantia Revelations or their subject matter with any one save active Forum members, and to take no notes of such matter as is read or discussed at the public sessions, or make copies or notes of what we personally read.”

The last meeting of the Forum as a genetic assembly was held on May 31st, 1942. During the 17 years of official existence the Forum attained a total membership of 486.

During the period of the reception of the Urantia Papers, upward of 300 different persons participated in asking these genetic questions. With but few exceptions, all of the Urantia Papers were given in response to such questions.

How We Got the Urantia Papers

Just about all that is known or could be told about the origin of the Urantia Papers is to be found, here and there, in The Urantia Book. A list of such references is to be found on the back of the dust jacket of the Book.

Let us take a brief look at these citations

1. Page 1, par. 2. This passage refers to the difficulty of presenting expanded spiritual concepts when restricted to circumscribed human language, such as English.
2. Page 1, par. 4. An Orvonton Commission participated in the revelation and prepared this Foreword.
3. Page 17, par. 1. In presenting this revelation of augmented spiritual values and universe meanings, more than one thousand human concepts were drawn from the minds of human beings of the present and the past.
4. Page 16, par.8 & Page 1343, par. 1. In all revelation of truth, preference is given to the highest existing human concepts of ideality and reality. Only in the absence of the human concept is superhuman knowledge revealed.
5. Page 1109, par. 4. Revelators are seldom at liberty to anticipate scientific discoveries. Truth is timeless, but the teachings respecting the physical sciences and certain phases of cosmology will become partially obsolescent as a result of the new discoveries of advancing scientific investigations. The cosmology of the Urantia Revelation is not inspired. Human wisdom must evolve.
6. Page 215, par. 2-9 Human pedagogy proceeds from the simple to the complex. The Urantia Revelation begins with the more complex and goes on to the consideration of the more simple. Instead of beginning with man reaching up for God, the Urantia Papers begin with God — reaching down and finding man.
7. Page 865. par. 6, 7 The narrative of the midwayers function in initiating and carrying forward to completion the Urantia Revelation.
8. Page 865, par. 2, & Page 1208, par. 7. Midway creatures are always employed in the phenomenon of communication with material beings through the technique of “Contact Personalities.” The “subject” through whom the Urantia Papers were bestowed had a highly experienced Thought Adjuster. The “subject’s” relative indifference and unconcern regarding the work of his indwelling Adjuster was in every way favorable to the execution and completion of this revelatory project.
9. Page 1256, par. 1. The contact personality was a member of the Urantia Reserve Corps of Destiny. This was just one of several conditions favoring the impartation of the Urantia Revelation.
10. Page 1008, par. 3. The Urantia Revelation is unique in that it is presented by multiple authors. The Urantia Revelation, like its predecessors, is not inspired.
11. Page 32, par.2. A Divine Counselor “portrays the reality and nature of the Father with unchallengeable authority.”
12. Page 17, par. 2. The Revelators depend upon the indwelling Adjusters and the Spirit of Truth to help us in the appropriation of the truth in the Urantia Revelation.
13. Page 1007, par. 1. Revelation keeps in touch with evolution. Revelation is adapted to the age of its bestowal. New revelation maintains contact with preceding revelations.

How We Did Not Get The Urantia Book

Recently, a group of ministers from northern Indiana, who were engaged in studying The Urantia Book, spent the day with us and, during the evening, Dr. Sadler led a discussion on “How We Did Not Get The Urantia Book.”

The following is a gist of that presentation:

Several members of this group who participated in the preliminary “contacts” which led up to the appearance of the Urantia Papers had considerable experience in the investigation of psychic phenomena. This group early arrived at the conclusion that the phenomena connected with the personality who was later associated with the Urantia Papers, was in no way similar to any other well-known type of psychic performance — such as hypnotism, automatic writing, clairvoyance, trances, spirit mediumship, telepathy, or double personality.

It should be made clear that the antecedents of the Urantia Papers were in no way associated with so-called spiritualism — with its seances and supposed communication with the spirits of departed human beings.

Psychic Phenomena: Unusual Activities of the Marginal Consciousness

The Subconscious Mind

1. Automatic Writing
2. Automatic Talking
a. Speaking in “Tongues”
b. Trance Mediums
c. Spirit Mediums
d. Catalepsy

3. Automatic Hearing – Clairaudience
a. Hearing “Voices”

4. Automatic Seeing
a. Dream States – Twilight Mentation
b. Visions – Automatic Dramatization
c. Hallucinations (Shifty “Reality” Feelings)

5. Automatic Thinking
a. Automatic Fearing — Anxiety Neurosis
b. Automatic Ideation – Mental Compulsions
c. Automatic Judgements – Intuition, “Hunches”
d. Automatic Association of Ideas – Premonitions
e. Automatic Guessing – E.S.P. – Extra-Sensory Perception
f. Automatic Deductions – Delusions – Dreams and Hypnosis

6. Automatic Remembering
a. Clairvoyance – Automatic Memory Associations
b. Telepathy – Mind Reading (?)
c. Fortune Telling (Largely Fraudulent)
d. Musical and Mathematical Marvels

7. Automatic Acting
a. Automatic Behavior – (Major Hysteria, Witchcraft.)
b. Automatic Motion – Motor Compulsions
c. Automatic Overdrives – Manic Episodes
d. Automatic Walking – somnambulism

8. Automatic Personalization
a. Automatic Forgetting – Amnesia
b. Automatic Dissociation – Double and Multiple Personality
c. Schizophrenia – Split Personality

9. Combined and Associated Psychic States

Note: The technique of the reception of The Urantia Book in English in no way parallels or impinges upon any of the above phenomena of the marginal consciousness.

Reason for Silence Respecting Details
of the Origin of The Urantia Book

Among the several reasons given us at the time we were requested not to discuss the details of our personal experiences associated with the origin of The Urantia Book, the two major reasons were the following:

1. Unknown Features. There is much connected with the appearance of the Urantia Papers which no human being fully understands. None of us really knows just how this phenomenon was executed. There are numerous missing links in our understanding of how this revelation came to appear in written English.If any one of us should tell any one all he really knows about the technique and methods employed throughout the years of our getting this Revelation, such a narration would satisfy no one — there are too many missing links.
2. The main reason for not revealing the identity of the “Contact Personality” is that the Celestial Revelators do not want any human being — any human name — ever to be associated with The Urantia Book. They want this revelation to stand on its own declarations and teachings.

They are determined that future generations shall have the book wholly free from all mortal connections — they do not want a Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Luther, Calvin or Wesley. The book does not even bear the imprint of the printer who brought the book into being.

Remember: You could appreciate a good poem — even if you did not know the author. Likewise, you could enjoy a symphony even if you were ignorant of the composer.

The First Urantia Papers

The first group of Papers numbered 57. We then received a communication suggesting that since we could now ask many and much more intelligent questions, the supervising agencies and personalities responsible for transmitting the 57 Papers would engage to enlarge the revelation and to expand the Papers in accordance with our new questions.

This was the plan: We would read a Paper on a Sunday afternoon and the following Sunday the new questions would be presented. Again, these would be sorted, classified, etc. This program covered several years and ultimately resulted in the presentation of the 196 Papers as now found in The Urantia Book.

Receiving the Completed Papers

In a way, there was a third presentation. After receiving these 196 Papers, we were told that the “Revelatory Commission” would be pleased to have us go over the Papers once more and ask questions concerning the “Clarification of Concepts” and the “Removal of Ambiguities.” This program again covered several years. During this period very little new information was imparted. Only minor changes were made in any of the Papers. Some matter was added — some removed — but there was little revision or amplification of the text.

What has just been recorded refers more particularly to Parts I, II, and III of The Urantia Book. Part IV — The Jesus Papers — had a little different origin. They were produced by a midwayer commission and were completed one year later than the other Papers. The first three parts were completed and certified to us in A.D. 1934. The Jesus Papers were not so delivered to us until 1935.

The Delay in Receiving the Jesus Papers

The delay of one year in the reception of the Jesus Papers — Part IV of The Urantia Book — may be explained as follows: The midwayers were a bit apprehensive about becoming involved in the suit pending in the Universe courts — Gabriel vs. Lucifer — and they hesitated to complete their project until they were assured that they had full authority to retell the story of Jesus’ life on earth.

After some months waiting there came the mandate from Uversa directing the United Midwayers of Urantia to proceed with their project of revealing the story of the life and teaching of Michael when incarnated on Urantia, and not only assuring them that they were not in “contempt” of the Uversa courts, but instead granting them a mandate to do this service and admonishing any and all persons connected therewith to refrain from interfering with, or in any way hindering, the execution of such an undertaking.

And this is the explanation of why the Jesus Papers appear one year after the other Papers had been completed.

Functioning of the Contact Commissioners

During these early years the Contact Commissioners received many communications and directives in writing. Almost all of these messages had annotation at the bottom of the last page which read: “To be destroyed by fire not later than the appearance of the Urantia Papers in print.” It was the design of our unseen friends to prevent the appearance of an “Urantia Apocrypha” subsequent to the publication of The Urantia Book.

All of this was encouraging to us in that it assured us that the Urantia Papers would some time be published. It sustained our hopes through the long waiting years of delay.

The fact that no provision was ever made for replacing members of the Contact Commission who might be lost through disability or death, also led us to entertain the belief that the Book would be published during the lifetime of some of us.

The Commissioners were the custodians of the Urantia manuscript, keeping the carbon copy of the typewritten transcript in a fireproof vault. they were also charged with full responsibility for supervising all the details connected with the publication of the Book, securing the international copyrights, etc.

We were enjoined to refrain from discussing the identity of the Contact Personality and, after the publication of the Book, to make any statement at any time as to whether the “subject” was still living or was deceased.

The Seventy

In 1939, some of us thought the time had come when we should form a class to engage in the more serious and systematic study of the Urantia Papers. This project was presented to the Forum and when those who wished to join such a group were counted, it was found that just 70 persons desired to enter upon this study. So for several years this class was referred to as “The Seventy.” Two or three years preceding the formation of The Seventy an informal group had been meeting on Wednesday evenings.

The Seventy carried on systematic study of the Urantia Papers from April 3, 1939 to the summer of 1956, and was the forerunner of the later “School of the Urantia Brotherhood.”

During these years the Seventy enrolled 107 students.

The Seventy carried on its work of study, thesis writing, and practice of teaching for 17 years. During this period eight written communications were given to the Seventy by the Seraphim of Progress attached to the superhuman Planetary Government of Urantia.

The Publication Mandate

At long last, permission to publish the Urantia Papers was granted. The Introduction to this mandate reads:

“We regard The Urantia Book as a feature of the progressive evolution of human society. It is not germane to the spectacular episode of epochal revolution, even though it may apparently be timed to appear in the wake of one such revolution in human society. The Book belongs to the era immediately to follow the conclusion of the present ideological struggle. That will be the day when men will be willing to seek truth and righteousness. When the chaos of the present confusion has passed, it will be more readily possible to formulate the cosmos of a new and improved era of human relationships. And it is for this better order of affairs on earth that the book has been made ready.

“But the publication of the book has not been postponed to that (possibly) somewhat remote date. An early publication of the book has been provided so that it may be in hand for the training of leaders and teachers. Its presence is also required to engage the attention of persons of means who may be thus led to provide funds for translation into other languages.”

Upon receipt of these instructions, the Contact Commissioners entered upon the task of publishing The Urantia Book and preparation of plans for its distribution.

The Papers were published just as we received them. The Contact Commissioners had no editorial authority. Our job was limited to “spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.”

Before the demise of Dr. Lena K. Sadler in August, 1939 she had collected about twenty thousand dollars for the publication fund, and this was used to set type and prepare plates for the printing of the book.

The Urantia Foundation

It was these plates of The Urantia Book which constituted the basis for the formation of the Urantia Foundation. This Foundation, set up under the laws of Illinois, was completed on January 11, 1950. The first Board of Trustees were:

William M. Hales, President
William S. Sadler, Jr., Vice President
Emma L. Christensen, Secretary
Wilfred C. Kellogg, Treasurer
Edith Cook, Assistant Secretary

It was learned that one of the wealthy members of the Forum desired to contribute fifty thousand dollars for the publication of the Book. By instruction, this was circumvented, because, they told us, it was best to give all parties concerned an opportunity to contribute to the publication fund.

Accordingly, an appeal was made for $50,000.00 to defray the expense of printing ten thousand copies. The response was immediate. The sum contributed was in excess of forty-nine thousand dollars. The first money to reach the Foundation office was one thousand dollars from the late Sir Hubert Wilkins, the arctic explorer.

The Book was published under international copyright October 12, 1955.

The Urantia Brotherhood

It was inevitable that some sort of fraternal organization would grow out of the teachings of The Urantia Book. All interested persons could see that the Urantia teachings were opposed to the sectarianism of Christian believers. It was clear that it was not the purpose of the Urantia Revelation to start a new church.

Accordingly, on January 2, 1955, a group of persons who believed the teachings of the Book and who were interested in their proclamation, assembled in Chicago and completed the organization of the Urantia Brotherhood, a voluntary and fraternal organization of Urantia believers. This group composed the charter membership of the Urantia Brotherhood, and were 36 in number.

A Constitution and By-laws were adopted, and since that date numerous Societies have been formed throughout the United States.

When ten or more persons who are familiar with, and believe in, the teachings of The Urantia Book so desire they may be chartered as a Urantia Society. Membership in any church or fraternal organization does not interfere with becoming a member of a Urantia Society.

The original organizers of the Brotherhood and their successors were to direct the organization for the first nine years. Thereafter, the Brotherhood would be ordered by the action of the Triennial Delegate Assembly composed of delegates from the various Urantia Societies.

The departmental Committees of the Brotherhood are:

• Judicial Committee
• Charter Committee
• Fraternal Relations Committee
• Domestic Extension Committee
• Foreign Extension Committee
• Committee on Education
• Publication Committee
• Finance Committee
• Committee on Miscellaneous Activities

The Chairmen of the Committees, together with the Brotherhood officers, constitute the Executive Committee of the Brotherhood.

The over-all purpose of the Brotherhood is well expressed in the Preamble to the Constitution.

Preamble

“Inasmuch as it is our most solemn conviction that the comfort, happiness, and well-being of man will be enhanced by the creation of an organization devoted to the purposes hereinafter expressed may best be accomplished through the mutual assistance and association of a body of people working together for a common cause, we do hereby unite together as a voluntary association and fellowship under the name of Urantia Brotherhood, and we do hereby adopt and establish this constitution of Urantia Brotherhood.”

The original 36 Founders became the General Council which was designed to govern the Brotherhood for its first nine years.

The First Urantia Society of Chicago was organized and granted Charter No. 1 on June 17, 1956. The Society had 34 charter Members. The present membership of the First Society is 142.

Activities of Urantia Brotherhood

In co-operation with the Urantia Foundation, the Brotherhood is just now interested in the completion of the Index to The Urantia Book in reality, a concordance. Its publication is hoped for in 1961.

We are all interested in the progress of a French translation, which is in final review and may be published late in 1961.

The Brotherhood recently completed the formulation of a Funeral Service consisting of Scriptural passages and appropriate selections from The Urantia Book.

The Brotherhood sponsors a Quarterly News Letter which the Executive Committee sends to all Urantia Societies and other interested persons.

The Brotherhood posters many study groups scattered throughout the United States and in foreign countries. Eventually, most of these study groups will develop into Urantia Societies.

During the last year, two Field Representatives have been appointed to foster the individual Urantia Societies and pay them visits periodically.

In December 1959, the Internal Revenue Bureau of the United States government ruled that the Urantia Foundation, the Urantia Brotherhood, and the Urantia Brotherhood Corporation were exempt from paying income taxes, and that any and all contributions made to these organizations are deductible from the income taxes of such donors.

The Van Award, Section three of Article Thirteen of the Constitution of the Urantia Brotherhood reads: “If the opinion of the Executive Committee, any member of Urantia Brotherhood shall perform or render some unusual, extraordinary, or distinguished service, the Executive Committee shall present to the General Council the name of such member with the recommendation that a suitable award or citation in recognition thereof be given. Upon the presentation of such recommendation, the General Council, unanimous vote of all Councilors present at any duly constituted meeting, may give or confer on such member such award or citation in recognition of the unusual, extraordinary, or distinguished service of such member as the General Council may deem fitting and appropriate.”

On January 25, 1959, the first award under this Constitutional provision was made to the President of the Urantia Brotherhood School.

The reason for demonstrating this The Van Award is recited in the declaration of the award, and reads as follows:

“The spiritual insight and moral steadfastness which enabled Van to maintain such an unshakable attitude of loyalty to the universe government was the product of clear thinking, wise reasoning, logical judgement, sincere motivation, unselfish purpose, intelligent loyalty, experiential memory, disciplined character, and the unquestioning dedication of his personality to the doing of the will of the Father in Paradise.”

The conclusion of the award says: “In honor of his many years of devoted and distinguished service in behalf of the Urantia movement.”

Distribution of The Urantia Book

At the time of the publication of The Urantia Book we were given many suggestions respecting the methods we should employ in the work of its distribution. These instructions may be summarized as follows:

1. Study the methods employed by Jesus in introducing his work on earth. Note how quietly he worked at first – so often after even a miracle, he would admonish the recipient of his ministry, saying: “Tell no man what has happened to you.”
2. We were advised to avoid all efforts to achieve early and spectacular recognition.
3. During the first five years, these methods have been adhered to. The distribution increases yearly. At present, more than fifty book stores, from coast to coast, carry the Book.

The vast majority of the Brotherhood have concurred in this sort of quiet and gradual presentation of the Book. Only a few individuals have exhibited some restlessness and craving for aggressive plans for increased distribution.

One thing should be made clear: Nothing is done to interfere with the energetic and enthusiastic efforts of any individuals to introduce The Urantia Book to his varied contacts and human associations.

Read more about History of Urantia Movement, William Sadler Sr..

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PAGE 3 OF 3

13. Masks collect and colonize viruses, bacteria, and mold.

​   

In Germany, where schools are open and masks are mostly optional, the association of "Kinder f.Weltfrieden eV" commissioned a laboratory analysis to investigate the level of microbial contamination that results after a fresh mask is worn by a child for 6-8 hours in school. What they found was alarming to all those recommending we mask our children for several hours every day. The masks were found to be contaminated with 82 bacterial colonies and 4 mold colonies. Where do you think the bacteria, molds, and viruses progressively colonizing and growing on the warm moist mask-mouth interface end up?

Many of the microbes get transferred to surfaces the child (or adult) touches after they touch, fiddle, and mishandle their mask. This is one of the many reasons that masks are almost certainly INCREASING the transmission of infectious disease. More dangerously, these microbes are being inhaled and delivered deep into the lungs where respiratory disease far worse than CoVID-19 can result.

The oxygen lowering effects of masks forces the body to compensate by increasing heart rate and deepening inspirations (increasing tidal volumes). Increased tidal volumes drives the mask pathogens deep into the lungs where they can cause serious pneumonia, inflammation, and tissue damage.

Furthermore, these risks are compounded by the immune suppression (CD4+ T-cell suppression) that results from diminished arterial oxygenation. Thus, the mask-wearing child is at imminent risk for harm caused by lung infections that are far more dangerous than a CoVID-19 infection.

In fact, based on reports from my colleagues in emergency medicine, pulmonology, and infectious disease, an alarming explosion in bacterial pneumonias is being reported at ERs and urgent care centers across the country.

Evidence that supports the points above:

• Zhiqing, Liu, Chang Yongyun, Chu Wenxiang, Yan Mengning, Mao Yuanqing, Zhu Zhenan, Wu Haishan, et al. 2018. “Surgical Masks as Source of Bacterial Contamination during Operative Procedures.” Journal of Orthopaedic Translation 14 (July): 57–62.

  • This study investigated whether surgical masks (SMs) could be a potential source of bacterial shedding leading to an increased risk of surgical site infection.
  • Results: The longer the operating time the more bacterial colonization occurred. A significant increase [in bacterial counts] was noted in the 2-hour group.

• Colleen Huber, NMD, “Masks Are Neither Effective nor Safe,” PrimaryDoctor.Org, July 6, 2020. https://www.primarydoctor.org/masks-not-effect

  • “The foregoing data show that masks serve more as instruments of obstruction of normal breathing, rather than as effective barriers to pathogens. Therefore, masks should not be used by the general public, either by adults or children, and their limitations as prophylaxis against pathogens should also be considered in medical settings.”
  • Dr. Huber’s article cites 42 supporting scientific studies.

• “Dr. Jenny Harries, England's deputy chief medical officer, has warned that it was not a good idea for the public to wear face masks as the virus can get trapped in the material and causes infection when the wearer breathes in.”

  • Angela Betsaida B. Laguipo, BSN, “Reusing Masks May Increase Your Risk of Coronavirus Infection, Expert Says,” News, Medical, Life Sciences, March 15, 2020. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200315/Reusing-masks-may-increase-your-risk-of-coronavirus-infection-expert-says.aspx
• See also, Melkorka Licea, “Mask Mouth” Is a Seriously Stinky Side Effect of Wearing Masks. New York Post, August 5, 2020. https://nypost.com/2020/08/05/mask-mouth-is-a-seriously-stinky-side-effect-of-wearing-masks/
• Consider this: Health department investigating after high number of strep throat cases reported at Shepherd schools.
  
  The Central Michigan District Health Department is investigating after more than a dozen cases of strep throat were reported within Shepherd Public Schools despite COVID-19 protocols.

14. Wearing a face mask makes the exhaled air (respiratory plumes) go into the eyes.

• Masks may capture respiratory jets and large respiratory droplets, but they cannot prevent the respiratory plumes composed of aerosolizable respiratory droplet nuclei to escape the top, bottom, and sides of the masks.
• The respiratory plume wafts into the eyes and generates an uncomfortable feeling and compulsion to touch and rub the eyes. If your hands are contaminated and you touch or rub your eyes, you are transmitting and infecting yourself through the ocular mucosa.[R]

15. Contact tracing studies show that asymptomatic carrier transmission is very rare.

• Asymptomatic carriers are not a major driver of the disease.[R]
• Therefore, one of the key reasons the public was told to wear masks, asymptomatic spreaders, should not be used as a reason for community wearing of masks.

16. Face masks and stay at home orders prevent the development of herd immunity.

• Only herd immunity can prevent pandemics; it is the only thing that ever has.
• Only herd immunity will protect the vulnerable members of society.
• Sweden’s example continues to prove this point.

17. Face masks are dangerous and contraindicated for a large number of people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities.

• Large percentages of the population have medical conditions that make wearing a mask dangerous. Individuals should be examined by a medical professional to ensure that mask wear will not further compromise their medical condition.

  • Children with asthma (7.5% of American children) and other respiratory disabilities are being harmed by mask mandates, they are being discriminated against by businesses, schools, and public spaces that require masks.
  • Children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders are extremely prone to agitation and severe anxiety that results from the adverse effects, e.g., oxygen lowering effects, of masks.
  • An ever increasing number of children and young adults with autism are sensitive to touch and texture.[R] Covering the nose and mouth with fabric can cause sensory overload, feelings of panic, and extreme anxiety.
• If a person with a disability is not able to wear a face mask, state and local government agencies and private businesses must consider reasonable modifications to a face mask policy so that the person with the disability can participate in, or benefit from, the programs offered or goods and services that are provided. A reasonable modification means changing policies, practices, and procedures, if needed, to provide goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations to an individual with a disability.
• Examples of a person with a disability who might not be able to wear a face mask include individuals with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or other respiratory disabilities may not be able to wear a face mask because of difficulty in or impaired breathing. People with respiratory disabilities should consult their own medical professional for advice about using face masks.
• The CDC also states that anyone who has trouble breathing should not wear a face mask.[R]
• People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), severe anxiety, or claustrophobia (an abnormal fear of being in enclosed or narrow places), may feel afraid or terrified when wearing a face mask. These individuals may not be able to stay calm or function when wearing a face mask.
• A person who has cerebral palsy may have difficulty moving the small muscles in the hands, wrists, or fingers. Due to their limited mobility, they may not be able to tie the strings or put the elastic loops of a face mask over the ears. This means that the individual may not be able to put on or remove a face mask without assistance.
• A person who uses mouth control devices such as a sip and puff to operate a wheelchair or assistive technology, or uses their mouth or tongue to use assistive ventilators will be unable to wear a mask.

Masking School Children is Ineffective, Unnecessary, and Harmful

Face masks are not only ineffective, they are more dangerous than parents are being told. Scientific study after scientific study over the course of many years have concluded that wearing face masks for extended periods of time puts the wearer, especially children, in imminent risk of physical and psychological harms.

If the previous section (“Masks are Harmful”) did not serve to make you question much of what you have heard about the risks of medical masks, let us now examine what the science and experts say about masking children.

Mandatory masks in school are a ‘major threat’ to children’s development, doctors warn

Wednesday, 09 September 2020

The face mask requirement at school is bad for children’s general well-being and should be abolished, 70 doctors wrote in an open letter to Flemish Education Minister Ben Weyts.

The doctors want [Flemish Education Minister] Weyts to immediately reverse his approach: no face mask requirement at school, only protect the at-risk group and only advise people with a possible risk profile to consult their doctor.

“In recent months, the general well-being of children and young people has come under severe pressure,” the letter’s authors said. “We see in our practices an increasing number of children and young people with complaints due to the rules of conduct that have been imposed on them.”

The doctors mentioned anxiety and sleep problems as well as behavioural disorders and germaphobia, which is a pathological fear of germs. They are also seeing an increase in domestic violence, isolation and deprivation.

“Mandatory face masks in schools are a major threat to their development. It ignores the essential needs of the growing child. The well-being of children and young people is highly dependent on emotional attachment to others,” they wrote.

According to them, “the face mask requirement makes school a threatening and unsafe environment, where emotional closeness becomes difficult.”

Moreover, “there is no large-scale evidence that wearing face masks in a non-professional environment has any positive effect on the spread of viruses, let alone on general health. Nor is there any legal basis for implementing this requirement.”

“Meanwhile, it is clear that healthy children living through Covid-19 heal without complications as standard and that they subsequently contribute to the protection of their fellow human beings by increasing group immunity”.

“The only sensible measure to prevent serious illness and mortality caused by Covid-19 is to isolate individual teachers and individual children at increased risk,” they said.

“This risk assessment is not the task of the Ministry of Education,” the doctors underlined, “but the task of the treating physicians in consultation with their patients.”

- From The Brussels Times

The Great Barrington Declaration

A letter authored by 3 top epidemiologists and professors on October 4 th, 2020, has, as of 6:00 pm, October 9th, 2020, been signed by 4,051 Medical & Public Health Scientists and 7,247 Medical Practitioners. This is a portion of their consensus declaration:

"As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.”

Thus, "The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection."

Read the letter in full: https://gbdeclaration.org/

Forcing Children to Wear Face Masks is Unnecessary

Forcing children to wear face masks in school is ineffective, harmful, and unnecessary. The risk of CoVID-19 in children is so low (see, “Masks are Unnecessary” above) that any imagined benefits cannot possibly outweigh the risks. Based on CDC data, the risk of children between the ages of zero and 19 years of age dying from CoVID-19 is an incredibly low risk of 0.00195%. This rate is much lower than the risk of children dying from influenza.

In fact, there is a large and growing body of physicians, pediatricians, scientists, epidemiologists, and researchers around the world that are speaking out against the anti-scientific public health recommendations that have been forced upon the public and our children.[R] Those of us that have read the science have concluded that it is senseless and dangerous to force children to wear face masks in school:

• See e.g., Michelle Science MD, MSc, FRCPC, et. al., COVID-19: Guidance for School Reopening, Division of Infectious Diseases, The Hospital for Sick Children (“Sick Kids”), University of Toronto, Canada. https://www.sickkids.ca/PDFs/About-SickKids/81407-COVID19-Recommendations-for-School Reopening-SickKids.pdf

  • The use of [Non-Medical Masks (“NMMs”)] in the school setting should be driven by local epidemiology with age-specific considerations.
  • When transmission in the community is low, the use of NMMs throughout the entire school day should not be mandatory for elementary, middle or high school students returning to school.
  • Safe masking practices (e.g. proper wearing/storage/removal) should be reinforced with educational materials provided to parents, students and teachers.
  • Given the current epidemiology, the use of NMMs is not recommended for elementary school students.

• A Covid-19 cross-country study by the University of East Anglia in England found that a mask requirement was of no benefit and could even increase the risk of infection.

  • Hunter, et al., Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID- 9 in Europe: a quasi-experimental study, May 6, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.01.20088260
  • “We found that closure of education facilities, prohibiting mass gatherings and closure of some non-essential businesses were associated with reduced incidence whereas stay at home orders, closure of all non-businesses and requiring the wearing of face masks or coverings in public was not associated with any independent additional impact.”

Forcing Children to Wear Face Masks for Long Periods Risks Causing Them Physical Injuries.

The topic of the physical harms caused by masks was covered previously, but it is worth repeating a few of the key points:

Wearing a mask for more than a few minutes causes a significant reduction in a person’s blood oxygen level.

• See A. Beder, et al., Preliminary report on surgical mask induced deoxygenation during major surgery, Neurocirugía (2008). http://scielo.isciii.es/pdf/neuro/v19n2/3.pdf
• Transcranial Ultrasound Doppler (TCUD) studies on masked and unmasked individuals demonstrate the changes in blood flow in the brain the result from the arterial CO2 elevation that occurs within seconds of donning a mask.
  
  This video demonstrates the use of TCUD and heart rate variability to measure the adverse effects of masking a healthy nine year old child: https://bit.ly/2GGQWiZ

Wearing masks for extended periods increased incidences of headaches and negatively affected work performance.

• See Jonathan J.Y. Ong, et al., Headaches Associated With Personal Protective Equipment – A Cross‐Sectional Study Among Frontline Healthcare Workers During COVID‐19, Headache, the Journal of Head and Face Pain (May 2020). https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/head.13811

Most children wear cloth masks.

• See Brittany Dionne, How hard is it to find a medical grade face mask?, WBRC News, April 18, 2020. https://www.wbrc.com/2020/04/18/how-hard-is-it-find-medical-grade-face-mask/

But wearing a cloth mask may increase the risk of contracting Covid-19 and other respiratory infections.

• See MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, et al., A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers, BMJ Open 2015; 5: e006577, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577, April 22, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/pdf/bmjopen-2014-006577.pdf

  • “This study is the first [Randomly Controlled Trial] of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks.
  • This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection.”

Forcing Children to Wear Face Masks for Long Periods Risks Causing Them Mental and Psychological Injuries

Children are at risk for psychological trauma in multiple ways by being forced to wear face masks all day long at school. Doctors from around the country warn of the dangers to children of wearing face masks all day.

• See e.g., Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D., Open the schools without politics, American Thinker, June 10, 2020. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/06/open_the_schools_without_politics.html

Mandatory face coverings on children is very harmful to the child: learning is inhibited; critical interactions among students and between student and teacher are fractured; and the face covering is counterproductive, as kids will naturally touch their faces, thereby contaminating their covering. This new normal that many are advocating may well lead to a spike in childhood behavior problems such as learning disabilities, anxiety disorders, and depression, to name a few.

• See also Kathleen M. Pike, PhD, Why a Mask is Not Just a Mask, Global Mental Health Programs, Columbia University, April 17, 2020. https://www.cugmhp.org/five-on-friday/why-a-mask-is-not-just-a-mask

Many young children burst into tears or recoil when someone wearing a mask approaches. It’s so common that some elementary schools prohibit masks at the school Halloween parade. One reason for this is that the development of facial recognition is relatively weak in young children. According to University of Toronto psychologist, Dr. Kang Lee, it is not until kids are about 14 years old that they reach adult skill levels in recognizing faces. Before then, kids tend to see individual facial features, rather than recognizing the person as a whole. By putting on masks, we take away information that makes it especially difficult for children to recognize others and read emotional signals, which is unsettling and disconcerting. These issues may be especially true for children with autism spectrum disorder, including Asperger’s syndrome, who tend to have particular difficulties reading non-verbal cues.

Dr. Alice Kuo, President of the Southern California chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement criticizing Los Angeles County school reopening guidelines that require children wear masks as “not realistic or even developmentally appropriate for children.” She explained that, “wearing masks throughout the day can hinder language and socio-emotional development, particularly for younger children.”

• Local Pediatricians Urge Collaborative Decision-Making About Reopening Schools, Southern California chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, June 2, 2020. http://aapca2.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AAP-CA2-press-release-on-schools-re-opening 6-2-20-Rev.pdf

Some of the serious psychological harms to children caused by extended mask wearing are tied to lack of facial and emotional recognition.

• See Christiane Bormann-Kischkel, Face Recognition in Children, Eur Arch Psychiatr Neurol Sci (1986) 236: 17-20. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00641052

The use of salient visual speech cues is hidden by masks making learning difficult for young children.

• Kaylah Lalondea and Rachael Frush Holta, Preschoolers Benefit From Visually Salient Speech Cues, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Vol. 58, 135–150, February 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4712850/pdf/JSLHR-58-135.pdf
• see also Martin Wegrzyn , et al., Mapping the emotional face. How individual face parts contribute to successful emotion recognition, PLoS ONE 12(5): e0177239, May 11, 2017. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177239
• Lawrence Brancazio et al., Use of visual information in speech perception: Evidence for a visual rate effect both with and without a McGurk effect, Perception & Psychophysics 2005, 67 (5), 759-769. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16334050/
• Mustapha Skhiri, Visual Cues in Speech Perception, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, GSLT, LiTH 20001/3/02. http://www.speech.kth.se/~rolf/gslt_papers/MustaphaSkiri.pdf

Voices of teachers and other students muffled through face masks makes learning more difficult, especially for any child with a diagnosed or undiagnosed hearing impairment.

• See Amanda B. Silberer, PhD, et al., Importance of High Frequency Audibility on Speech Recognition With and Without Visual Cues in Listeners with Normal Hearing, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders The University of Iowa, March 2014. https://haar.lab.uiowa.edu/sites/haar.lab.uiowa.edu/files/wysiwyg_uploads/silberer_bentler_wu_aas _2014.pdf

The Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) has made clear that “Schools are an important part of the infrastructure of communities and play a critical role in supporting the whole child, not just their academic achievement.”

• See Preparing K-12 School Administrators for a Safe Return to School in Fall 2020. Guidance from the CDC to school Districts. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/prepare-safe return.html
• Nowhere in the guidance provided to local schools by the CDC is any information about compelling students to wear face masks. In fact, the CDC acknowledges that “[m]ore research and evaluation is needed on the implementation of mitigation strategies (e.g., social distancing, masks, hand hygiene, and use of cohorting) used in schools to determine which strategies are the most effective.” Id. at 5.

The lack of any such recommendation is understandable given that the great weight of scientific evidence shows unmistakably that wearing face masks for extended periods is harmful to people’s health, safety and emotional well-being, especially to young children.

◄SOURCE ARTICLE►

PAGE 2 OF 3

The Evidence FOR Masks

The best evidence for masks was commissioned by the WHO and published in the Lancet in June 2020. The title, “Physical Distancing, Face Masks, and Eye Protection to Prevent Person-to-Person Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” sounds like high-level scientific evidence. After all, systemic reviews and meta-analyses are typically considered the epitome of evidence based medicine. However, don’t be deceived by the authors’ deceptive attempts to elevate the relevancy of this study. This systemic review/meta-analysis was entirely comprised of low-level observational studies. No high-level randomized controlled trials were included.

No matter how much the authors attempt to deceive or embellish the study’s relevance with its “dressed up” title, the fact remains, this study still amounts to nothing more than a steaming pile of weak evidence. No matter how much the authors and the WHO want this study to represent high-level evidence for masking world populations, it simply cannot be considered to be more than the sum of its low level parts.

Furthermore, the study is seriously flawed with serious misrepresentations and misinterpretations of the data. The flaws, errors, and mistakes in this analysis of 29 observational studies should lead to its retraction from the Lancet. The flaws are buried in the data tables, therefore, it is missed by those that do little more than read titles and conclusions. Which is exactly why studies like this should be subjected to thorough and independent peer-review before publication.

Scientists all over the world are raising concerns and speaking against the study and demanding its retraction. For example, University of Toronto epidemiology professor Peter Jueni called the WHO study “methodologically flawed” and “essentially useless”.

Garbage-in-garbage out: the June 2020 WHO commissioned study of masks published in The Lancet.

• Source: Chu, Derek K., Elie A. Akl, Stephanie Duda, Karla Solo, Sally Yaacoub, Holger J. Schünemann, and COVID-19 Systematic Urgent Review Group Effort (SURGE) study authors. 2020. “Physical Distancing, Face Masks, and Eye Protection to Prevent Person-to-Person Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” The Lancet 395 (10242): 1973–87.

Summary: the WHO-commissioned meta-study on the effectiveness of facemasks and social distancing, published in The Lancet, is seriously flawed and should be retracted.

This study is nothing more than a seriously flawed meta-analysis of 29 weak observational studies. None of the trials were randomized controlled trials. No matter how thoroughly you sift through the weak, low-level of evidence, observational studies, in the end, all you end up with is weak, easily biased, and essentially unusable evidence.

For a more comprehensive analysis of the flaws and a thorough debunking of the relevance of this study, read this: WHO Mask Study Seriously Flawed, Swiss Policy Research (Sept. 9, 2020), copied here:

Update: A US analyst has reviewed all 29 studies and found numerous additional mistakes.

A. General flaws

1. Of the 29 studies analyzed by the Lancet meta-study, seven studies are unpublished and non-peer-reviewed observational studies. Non-peer reviewed studies should not be used to guide clinical practice according to the medRxiv disclaimer. [3] [4] [31] [36] [37] [40] [70]
2. Of the 29 studies considered by the meta-study, only four are about the SARS-CoV-2 virus; the other 25 studies are about the SARS-1 virus or the MERS virus, both of which have very different transmission characteristics: they were transmitted almost exclusively by severely ill hospitalized patients and not by community transmission.
3. Of the four studies relating to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, two were misinterpreted by the Lancet meta-study authors[44] [70], one is inconclusive [37], and one is about N95 (FFP2) respirators and not about medical masks or cloth masks (see detailed analysis below).
4. Despite the weakness, misinterpretations, and inapplicability, the Lancet meta-study is used to guide global facemask policy for the general population. However, of the 29 studies considered by the meta-study, only three are classified as relating to a non-health-care (i.e. community) setting. Of these three studies, one is misclassified [50] (relating to masks in a hospital environment), one showed no benefit of facemasks [69], and one is a poorly designed retrospective study about SARS-1 in Beijing based on telephone interviews [74]. None of these studies pertained to SARS-CoV-2.
5. The authors of the Lancet meta-study acknowledge that the certainty of the evidence regarding facemasks is “low” as all of the studies are observational and none is a randomized controlled trial (RCT).
6. The WHO itself admitted that its updated facemask policy guidelines were based not on new evidence but on “political lobbying”.

B. Study misinterpretations

As mentioned above, several studies have been misinterpreted by the authors of the meta-study. All of the misinterpretations resulted in falsely claiming or exaggerating a benefit of facemasks. In the following, only the four studies relating to SARS-CoV-2 are reviewed. (HCW: health care worker)

1. Heinzerling et al. [44]: The meta-study claims that 0 of 31 HCW wearing a facemask and 3 of 6 HCW not wearing a facemask got infected. This is not correct.
   
   The study showed that 0 of 3 HCW wearing a facemask and 3 of 34 HCW not wearing a facemask got infected. This result was not statistically significant (p=0.73). Moreover, of the 3 HCW who got infected, one reported wearing a facemask “most of the time”, but the meta-study classified this HCW as “not wearing a facemask”.
2. Wang et al. [41]: This study, which did show a benefit of facemasks, was about N95 (FFP2) respirators in a health-care setting, not about medical masks or cloth masks.
3. Wang et al. [70]: The meta-study claims that 1 of 1286 HCW wearing a facemask and 119 of 4036 wearing “no facemask” got infected. This is not correct.
   
   According to the study, 78.3% (94/120) of infected HCWs were in fact wearing a surgical mask, and only 20.8% (25/120) did not wear any mask when exposed to the source of infection. The “1 of 1286 HCW” mentioned in the meta-study refers to HCW wearing an N95 (FFP2) respirator, not a medical or cloth mask.
4. Burke et al. [37]: This study had no results relating to the use of facemasks.

Non-Covid studies were also misinterpreted or misrepresented by the Lancet meta-study authors. For instance, in the case of the non-Covid study with the allegedly biggest impact of masks (Kim et al. [49] about N95 respirators in a hospital with MERS patients), the meta-study authors incorrectly mixed serological and PCR results, again exaggerating the benefit of (N95) masks. The actual results of the Kim et al. study were not statistically significant (p=0.159).

C. Studies relating to “social distancing”

In an additional section, the WHO meta-study evaluated studies on the benefit of “social distancing” measures. However, several independent experts have shown that this section is seriously flawed. The authors again misinterpreted several studies and made several statistical errors.

As with the studies on facemasks, all of these mistakes resulted in falsely claiming or exaggerating a benefit of “social distancing” measures.

For more information on this section, see PubPeer (and links therein) and the CEBM review.

Conclusion

As shown in this analysis, the WHO-commissioned meta-study on the effectiveness of facemasks and social distancing, published in The Lancet, is seriously flawed and should be retracted. Health authorities may want to reconsider their Covid-19 policy guidelines.

Community Use Of Face Masks And COVID-19: Evidence From A Natural Experiment Of State Mandates In The US

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818

• Wei Lyu and George L. Wehby

Limitations of the Studies Typically Used to Support Masks

• They are all low-level evidence, retrospective observational studies. At the time of my analysis and writing of this paper, none of the studies purporting to support community wearing of masks used high-level randomized clinical trial methodology.
• Cannot distinguish correlation from causation.

• Does not measure face cover use in the community or any measure of compliance.

  • Estimates represent the intent-to-treat effects of these mandates, not the individual-level effect of wearing a face mask in public on one’s own COVID-19 risk.
• Did not measure types of masks worn.
• Did not assess adverse effects of masks.

• Did not control for other community-wide and hospital-specific interventions that may have contributed to or confounded their observations, including:

  • Declarations of emergency (March 10),
  • New hospital policies to restrict visitors (March 12) and elective procedures (March 14),
  • School closures
  • Hospital restrictions on business travel and on-site working (March 16),
  • Local public transportation reductions (March 17),
  • Issuance of statewide stay-at-home orders (March 24), and
  • Automation of screening and testing (March 30).

Masks are Unnecessary

Fear and Politics are Subverting Science and Reason

Public health officials and the media have been warning us that coronavirus kills not just old or immunocompromised people but young people too. While this is true, it remains extremely rare.

A Pandemic of Fraud and Fear is More Dangerous than the COVID-19 Pandemic

Death rate data from the CDC: COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios

Table 1. Parameter Values that vary among the five COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios.

Parameters:

• Scenario 5: Current Best Estimate, R0 = 2.5, 40% asymptomatic
• For a definition of R0, see HealthKnowlege-UK (2020): R0 is “the average number of secondary infections produced by a typical case of an infection in a population where everyone is susceptible.” The average R0 for influenza is said to be 1.28 (1.19–1.37); see the comprehensive review by Biggerstaff et al. (2014).
• According to the CDC's latest best estimate, 40% of COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic.
• Parameter values are based on data received by CDC through August 8, 2020.
• These estimates are based on age-specific estimates of infection fatality ratios from Hauser, A., Counotte, M.J., Margossian, C.C., Konstantinoudis, G., Low, N., Althaus, C.L. and Riou, J., 2020

Masking Children in Schools is Unnecessary - So Says The Science

School and daycare transmission studies show that transmission of Covid-19 among unmasked children is remarkably low.

German study finds low Covid-19 infection rate in schools. Tests of pupils and teachers in Saxony suggest children may act as brake on infection.

The study by the University hospital in Dresden analysed blood samples from almost 1,500 children and 500 teachers from 13 schools in Saxony, Germany suggests schools may not play as big a role in spreading the virus as some had feared.

“Of the almost 2,000 samples, only 12 had antibodies,” said Reinhard Berner, a professor of paediatrics at the hospital. In other words, in Saxony’s open and unmasked schools 0.6% of school children demonstrated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.

All cases were asymptomatic. There were no fatalities.

“Children may even act as a brake on infection,” Berner told a news conference, saying “infections in schools had not led to an outbreak, while the spread of the virus within households was also less dynamic than previously thought.”

“For other states with low infection rates, the study suggests schools could be reopened without fear of causing widespread outbreaks of the virus,” Berner said.

Sweden and Finland: 0.05% of children infected by Covid-19

Sweden kept schools open and unmasked during the pandemic, yet their decision to adhere to the science and do what has always been done before, did not lead to a higher rate of infection among their children compared to neighboring Finland, where schools were closed temporarily.

Based on Covid-19 case data collected from each country during the time period, Feb. 24 to June 14, the percentage of children between the ages of 1-19 infected by Covid-19 was the same:

• Sweden: 1,124 cases 0.05%
• Finland: 584 cases 0.05%

Separate studies by Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet (KI), an independent medical research institute, and the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children and Unicef, showed that Swedish children fared better than children in other countries during the pandemic, both in terms of education and mental health.

COVID-19 transmission rate 0.3% among children in schools and nurseries in New South Wales, Australia

The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health: Effective testing and contact tracing is essential for schools to safely open during COVID-19 pandemic, two studies show. The Lancet; August 3, 2020. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-08/tl-pss080320.php

Real world data from schools where masks were not required or worn demonstrates a remarkably low rate of transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Analysis of COVID-19 case data from 3103 schools and approximately 4600 nurseries in New South Wales demonstrate that schools and nurseries do not pose a high risk for COVID-19 transmission.

Subset analysis found that only 27 children or teachers went to school while they were infectious, with an additional 18 people later becoming infected. Out of 1448 contacts in total, the rate of secondary transmission was found to be 1.2%.

A subset analysis of 7 schools and nurseries that underwent additional investigations including antibody testing, symptom surveys, and extra RT-PCR testing for the virus showed that the transmission rates among children and staff were extremely low:

• child-to-child rate was 0.3%,
• child-to-staff rate was 1.0%
• staff-to-child rate was 1.5%
• staff-to-staff rate was 4.4%.

The researchers noted that this finding suggests that children are less likely to transmit the virus than adults.

While coronavirus is obviously concerning and a very real threat to some people (namely, the elderly and immunocompromised), these data also show that the risk for the rest of the population is extraordinarily low.

Masks are Harmful: 17 Ways That Masks Can Cause Harm

As a physician and former medical journal editor, I've carefully read the scientific literature regarding the use of face masks to mitigate viral transmission. I believe the public health experts have community wearing of masks all wrong. Here are a few of the mechanisms by which medical masks can be harmful to their wearers and community wearing of face masks is a very bad idea:

Wearing masks for extended periods increased incidences of headaches and negatively affected work performance.

See Jonathan J.Y. Ong, et al., Headaches Associated With Personal Protective Equipment – A Cross‐Sectional Study Among Frontline Healthcare Workers During COVID‐19, Headache, the Journal of Head and Face Pain (May 2020). https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/head.13811

1. Medical masks adversely affect respiratory physiology and function.

• Masks inhibit air flow into and out of the lungs.

  • For people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and many other chronic lung diseases, face masks are intolerable to wear as they worsen breathlessness.[R]

• Medical masks lower blood oxygen and raise carbon dioxide such that respiratory rate and depth of breaths are increased.[R]

  • Decreasing oxygen and increasing carbon dioxide in the bloodstream stimulates a compensatory response in the respiratory centers of the brain. These changes in blood gases result in increases in both frequency and depth of breaths.
  • As masks Increase both the frequency and depth of respirations (breaths), they increase the likelihood that each respiration will contain a larger amount of infectious viral particles. This may worsen the community transmission of CoVID-19 as infected people wearing masks exhale respiratory plumes loaded with greater levels of infectious viral particles. These infectious plumes readily move around the sides, bottom, and top of masks.
  • This may also increase the severity of CoVID-19 as the increased tidal volume delivers the viral particles deeper into the lungs.
  • These effects are amplified if face masks are contaminated with the viruses, bacteria, or fungi that find their way or opportunistically grow in the warm, moist environment that medical masks quickly become.

2. Medical masks lower oxygen levels in the blood.[R]

Wearing a mask for more than a few minutes causes a significant reduction in a person’s blood oxygen level.

• Beder, A., U. Büyükkoçak, H. Sabuncuoğlu, Z. A. Keskil, and S. Keskil. 2008. “Preliminary Report on Surgical Mask Induced Deoxygenation during Major Surgery.” Neurocirugia 19 (2): 121–26. DOI: 10.1016/s1130-1473(08)70235-5

  • This study of 53 surgeons evaluated the effect of surgical masks on oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in surgeons performing surgery.
  • The study revealed the surgeons experienced a significant decrease in the oxygen saturation of arterial pulsations (SpO2) and a slight increase in pulse rates after one hour. The decrease was more prominent in the surgeons over the age of 35.
  • Given that a small decrease in SpO2 reflects a large decrease in partial pressure of oxygen in the arterial blood (PaO2)[R], the findings of this study suggests that surgical masks worn more than one hour may lower arterial oxygen enough to induce physiologically detrimental effects.

• Here are two cases of the tragic consequences of forcing children to wear masks: Two Chinese boys drop dead while wearing face masks during physical exercise classes.[R][R]

  Two boys from two Chinese cities died of sudden cardiac arrest within a week. The first boy, 15, collapsed after jogging in PE class while wearing a face mask on April 24. The other boy, 14, reportedly died during a running exam while wearing a mask.

  Why would healthy boys drop dead while wearing masks and running in gym class?! To answer this question, we must consider how mask induced deoxygenation and increased oxygen demands of heart muscle during exercise could have precipitated heart attacks in otherwise healthy teenagers:

  • Point #1: Heart muscle needs oxygen to survive. And the harder the heart works, the more oxygen it requires. The American Heart Association says this about heart attacks:
  • "Your heart muscle needs oxygen to survive. A heart attack occurs when the blood flow that brings oxygen to the heart muscle is severely reduced or cut off completely."[R]
  • Point #2: Masks block air intake and decrease arterial oxygen.

  Studies of masked individuals have shown that mask wear decreases arterial oxygen. For example, the effects of surgical masks worn by surgeons in the operating room (an environment in which the oxygen blocking effects of masks are minimized by the high air flow, increased oxygen levels, and cool temperature of the operating suite) during major surgery showed a significant decrease in arterial oxygen.[R]

  The lesson here is that medical masks should not be worn during intense exercise. As described above and shown in the study of surgeons wearing surgical masks, medical masks block oxygen intake. Depriving the heart of oxygen while exercising, especially intense exercise, could precipitate an acute heart attack.

Any questions? Wait...there’s more...

• Jogger's lung collapses after he ran for 2.5 miles while wearing a face mask [R]

  Mr Zhang's left lung was punctured due to high pressure caused by running. The 26-year-old became breathless whiling jogging with a mask on in China. Doctors said his punctured lung was caused by jogging with a face covering. He is now in stable condition after undergoing an operation, the hospital said.

• Hypoxia increases the risk of blood clot formation.[R]
• Lowering arterial oxygen suppresses the immune system, thus increasing the susceptibility of mask wearers to infectious disease.

3. Medical masks raise carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

Although the body has robust mechanisms for mitigating transient and minor elevations of CO2 in the air we breathe, these mechanisms can easily be overwhelmed by chronic exposure to significant elevations in CO2, such as occurs with prolonged wearing of a medical mask.

• The science clearly demonstrates that face masks cause carbon dioxide rebreathing and hypercapnia [R]

  • Fletcher, S. J., M. Clark, and P. J. Stanley. 2006. “Carbon Dioxide Re-Breathing with Close Fitting Face Respirator Masks.” Anaesthesia 61 (9): 910. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2044.2006.04767.x
• Exhaled air is rich in carbon dioxide, a waste product of cellular respiration.
• A portion of carbon dioxide previously exhaled is inspired (breathed) at each respiratory cycle.
• Masks trap CO2 rich respiratory exhalations at the mask-mouth interface, force re-breathing of CO2 rich exhalations, raise carbon dioxide blood (CO2) levels. [R]

• Objective evidence demonstrating how masks increase blood carbon dioxide levels and negatively impact health and function.

  • Transcranial Ultrasound Doppler (TCUD) is a noninvasive means of assessing blood flow in the cerebral vasculature. The increase in carbon dioxide partial pressures (PCO2) caused by medical masks can be assessed by TCUD.[R]
  • Elevation of PCO2 causes vasodilation of the arteriolar channels leading to a decrease in peripheral vascular resistance. The decrease in peripheral vascular resistance is responsible for the changes in cerebrovascular circulation time, CBF, and the velocity of flow (V) in cerebral arteries.

  • Medical masks force the wearer to inspire (re-breathe) air that is a mix of air from the local environment and the respiratory waste products from the mask wearer’s previous exhalations.

    • Respiratory exhalations contain significantly higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the waste products of respiration.
    • The pulmonary system is designed to collect oxygen and remove CO2 from the body. Masks trap CO2 rich exhalations at the mask-mouth interface.
    • Changes in arterial PCO2 considerably influence cranial blood flow (CBF).[R]
  • Transcranial Ultrasound Doppler (TCUD) studies on masked and unmasked individuals demonstrate the changes in blood flow in the brain the result from the arterial CO2 elevation that occurs within seconds of donning a mask.
    
    This video demonstrates the use of TCUD and heart rate variability to measure the adverse effects of masking a healthy nine year old child: https://bit.ly/2GGQWiZ

4. SARS CoV-2 is armed with a "furin cleavage site" that makes it more pathogenic.

• The furin cleavage site makes the virus more capable of invading human cells.
• The furin cleavage site makes the virus even more capable of invading cells when arterial oxygen levels decline.[R]
• Therefore, wearing a medical mask may increase the severity of CoVID-19.

5. Medical masks trap exhaled viral (and other) pathogens in the mouth/mask interspace, increase viral/infectious load, and increase the severity of disease.

• Face masks trap exhaled viral particles in the mouth/mask interspace. The trapped viral particles are prevented from removal from the airways. The mask wearer is then forced to re-breathe the viral particles, thus increasing infectious viral particles in the airways and lungs.
• In this way, surgical masks cause self-inoculation, increase viral load, and increase the severity of disease.

• Neurosurgeon, Russell Blaylock, MD, raises additional concerns:

  “By wearing a mask, the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the lungs, olfactory nerves, and travel into the brain.”[R]

• Face masks trap exhaled viral particles in the mouth/mask interspace.[R] The trapped viral particles are prevented from removal from the airways. The mask wearer is thus forced to re-breathe the viral particles, increasing infectious viral particles in the airways and lungs. In this way, Medical masks cause self-inoculation, increase viral load, and increase the severity of disease.

• Asymptomatic or mild cases of CoVID-19 become more severe when the infected is masked, oxygen lowers, viral load increases from particle re-breathing, and the disease overwhelms the innate immune system.

  • The main purpose of the innate immune response is to immediately prevent the spread and movement of foreign pathogens throughout the body.[R]
  • The innate immune system plays a crucial role in destroying the virus, preventing infection, or decreasing the viral load to decrease the severity of infection.
  • The innate immunity’s effectiveness is highly dependent on the viral load. If face masks increase viral particle re-breathing at the same time they create a humid habitat where SARS-CoV-2 remains actively infectious, the mask increases the viral load and can overwhelm the innate immune system.
• This trapping, re-breathing, and increasing pathogen load delivered to the lungs becomes dramatically more dangerous when the medical mask becomes contaminated with the opportunistic viruses, bacteria, and fungi that can grow in the warm, moist environment of the mask.
• “By wearing a mask, the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the olfactory nerves and travel into the brain.” - Russell Blaylock, MD

6. SARS CoV-2 Becomes More Dangerous When Blood Oxygen Levels Decline

• Arterial oxygen desaturation is a critical issue in CoVID-19. The virus' ability to infect cells is markedly enhanced by oxygen desaturation, which has been shown to occur even in the ideal operating room environment in which surgeons operate: high air flow/exchange systems, cool temperature, and higher room oxygen levels. when wearing a surgical mask.[R]
• One of the features that make SARS CoV-2 uniquely infectious is the "furin" sequence in the virus that activates increased ACE2 receptor attack and cellular invasion in low oxygen environments.[R]

7. The furin cleavage site of SARS CoV-2 increases cellular invasion, especially during hypoxia (low blood oxygen levels)[R]

• The furin cleavage site found in SARS CoV-2 is the likely result of the bioengineering “gain of function” (which means increasing the virulence of a pathogen) research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This unethical, dangerous, and illegal-in-most-countries research is alleged to have been funded by Dr. Anthony Fauci (with $7.4 million taxpayer dollars) and Bill Gates.
• Furin cleavage sites are found in some of the most pathogenic forms of influenza, which can be acted upon by furin and other cellular proteases. The ubiquitous expression of cellular proteases across cell types increases the potential for the virus to successfully infiltrate the host.
• Furin is a membrane-bound protease that is expressed in multiple tissues throughout the human body. Furin is expressed in significant concentrations in the lungs. Thus, viruses in the respiratory tract can make use of this enzyme to convert and activate their own surface glycoproteins. This makes their role in viral protein processing noteworthy.[R]
• Some of the most pathogenic forms of influenza and HIV have similar furin cleavage sites. It is not present in other bat beta coronaviruses. (By the way, Fauci built his career researching and failing to create a vaccine for HIV). The furin cleavage site is NOT present in SARS CoV-1 or MERS, or any of the other known "bat coronaviruses."
• Let me say it again, the SARS-CoV (aka, SARS-CoV-1), which is closely related to the newest SARS-CoV-2 strain, does not bear the furin cleavage site.

So, the question we should all be asking is how did the genetic sequence that codes for this serious gain of function that increases the potential for the virus to successfully infiltrate the host find its way into SARS-CoV-2?

That’s the trillion dollar question; it demands a real and honest answer.

8. Cloth masks may increase the risk of contracting Covid-19 and other respiratory infections.

See MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, et al., A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers, BMJ Open 2015; 5: e006577, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577, April 22, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/pdf/bmjopen-2014-006577.pdf

• “This study is the first [Randomly Controlled Trial] of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks.
• This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection.”

9. Wearing a face mask may give a false sense of security

• People adopt a reduction in compliance with other infection control measures, including social distancing and hands washing.[R]

10. Masks compromise communications and reduce social distancing

• The quality and volume of speech between two people wearing masks is considerably compromised and they may unconsciously move closer to improve communications
• This increases the likelihood of becoming exposed to the infectious viral particles in the respiratory plumes of aerosolized droplet nuclei that escape the top, bottom, and sides of the masks.

11, Untrained and inappropriate management of face masks:

• The public is untrained and inadequately educated in the proper selection of masks (most are wrongly wearing cloth masks), proper wear, sterility management, and importance of not reusing single use masks.
• People must not touch their masks, must change their single-use masks frequently or wash them regularly, dispose of them correctly and adopt other management measures, otherwise their risks and those of others may increase.[R][R]
• We can all observe the countless ways in which people in communities are mis-wearing, mishandling, and increasing their own and the communities risk of contracting infectious disease, including CoVID-19.

12. Masks Worn Imperfectly Are Dangerous

To fully appreciate the danger of improper wear and handling of face masks, all you have to do is observe how the public is managing them. Take a trip to Walmart or your local school and observe how mask wearers pull masks from their pocket or purse, drop the masks on the floor, cough and sneeze in them, move them below the nose, on their heads, or under their chin. I see it every day. I also see their soiled and stained surgical face masks and know that these people are dangerously reusing a mask that should never be reused.

You don’t need a clinical trial to determine that even when mask-wearers manage to don a fresh, sterile mask properly, keep them on for more than a few minutes at a time, they very quickly contaminate the mask, their environment, and increase their risk of infection as the mask induces them to compulsively touch their faces and their masks.

• The World Health Organization, which has repeatedly changed its position on universal masking, is adamant that if face masks are not worn carefully, correctly, and kept sanitary, they are worse than ineffective.

• In other words, masks worn imperfectly are dangerous.

  • See Linda Lacina, WHO updates guidance on masks for health workers and the public - here's what you need to know, World Economic Forum (June 5, 2020). https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/who-updates-guidance-on-masks-heres-what-to-know-now/

  People can infect themselves if they use contaminated hands to adjust a mask or repeatedly take it on or off,” explained WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "I cannot say this clearly enough. Masks alone will not protect you from COVID-19."

Failing to follow strict medical standards for wearing protective equipment and specification of sterilizing and cleaning often leads to “skin and mucous membrane injury, which may cause acute and chronic dermatitis, secondary infection and aggravation of underlying skin diseases.”

• Yan, et al., Consensus of Chinese Experts on Protection of Skin and Mucous Membrane Barrier for Health-Care Workers Fighting against Coronavirus Disease 2019. Dermatologic Therapy, March 2020, e13310. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7228211/pdf/DTH-9999-e13310.pd

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