NJ is getting worse. Is Governor Murphy to blame? (Opinion)

Despite all the evidence showing that lockdowns and mask mandates do nothing to stop the spread of coronavirus, New Jersey is headed down a path of increased restrictions.

The governor now has his sights set on your home. Successfully distracting the media and social media from the utter failure to protect elderly residents of New Jersey's long term care facilities, he's moved the "metric" from available hospital beds to treat the sick to using restrictions to stop healthy people from testing positive. It makes absolutely no sense.

Healthy people, renamed "asymptomatic" as the elite politicians wanted to keep people afraid of normal activities, rarely spread the disease and are not in danger of being sick themselves. But Murphy persists, shaming people and using law enforcement to crack down on those who wear a mask incorrectly, as if the mask will stop a virus that is literally 100 times smaller than the mesh openings in the mask.

The fundamental problem with assaulting and arresting people for not complying with mask rules is that there's no evidence to support the idea that masks prevent the spread of the virus. In fact, the science tells us masks cannot block viruses.

SARS-CoV-2 has a diameter between 0.06 and 0.14 microns.19 Medical N95 masks — which are considered the most effective — can filter particles as small as 0.3 microns.20 Surgical masks, homemade masks, T-shirts and bandanas are even more porous.

At best, a mask may reduce the transmission of large respiratory droplets, but it does nothing to prevent the transmission of aerosolized particulates exhaled by asymptomatic or presymptomatic individuals with COVID-19.21 Health agencies' own research show it's a futile measure that only provides a false sense of security.

For example, the World Health Organization's June 5, 2020, guidance memo22 on face mask use states "there is no direct evidence (from studies on COVID- 19 and in healthy people in the community) on the effectiveness of universal masking of healthy people in the community to prevent infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19." - Dr. Joseph Mercola - article from mercola.com

The Chief Epidemiologist in Sweden, Anders Tegnell, went further to proclaim that universal mask mandates could actually be "very dangerous."

Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency, has repeatedly expressed skepticism that face masks will control virus outbreaks, the Financial Times reported.

“It is very dangerous to believe face masks would change the game when it comes to COVID-19,” said Tengell, who is considered the country’s equivalent of Dr. Anthony Fauci from the White House COVID-19 task force.

He noted that countries with widespread mask compliance, such as Belgium and Spain, were still seeing rising virus rates. - Jackie Salo, NY Post 

Even the inconsistent CDC conducted a study showing that 85% of COVID patients were found to wear a mask "always" or "often." Additionally, emergency room visits as a percentage of total visits are about half for COVID patients compared to those suffering from the swine flu in 2009. HALF. And that with the knowledge that EVERYONE going to the hospital is being tested for coronavirus.  Don't forget unlike COVID, the flu is actually dangerous to younger healthy people.

But facts be damned. Here we are. Instead of embracing facts to justify the reopening and getting back to normal, corruptly, complicit pols like Murphy simply change the metrics. It’s day 243 of 15 days to stop the spread. And new restrictions are based on thousands of tests of healthy people. How did we go from making sure hospital beds were available to killing business because a healthy person has a trace of the virus?

How unfair that the big businesses like casinos are unaffected, but your small restaurant has to close at 10pm? Not only does the virus understand the difference between a red and blue state, but it’s also smart enough to distinguish between a small biz customer and a casino gambler? Is there really anyone left who thinks this is normal...acceptable?

Meanwhile NY is doing worse telling people they have to limit to 10 people, in their own home. All this while we’re into flu season so people will get sick. The politicians in our area have set up a scheme that if you accept the premise of killing your civil and economic liberty to stop healthy people from testing positive, it’s going to be another bad and deadly next few months. Unfair. Inconsistent. Dangerous.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Spadea. Any opinions expressed are Bill's own. Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015.