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Early 2020 expert advice in Japan: masks are pointless for healthy people (substack.com)
Many western Covidians/pharma hucksters like Eric Topol believe that the Japanese masked up early in the Covid-19 Pandemic because they “listened to the experts”. So what exactly were Japan’s experts saying in early 2020 about masks? Let’s start with Kobe University infectious disease specialist Prof Kentaro Iwata speaking in Feb 2020.
To be exact, Prof Iwata said masks were pointless for people without symptoms but recommended that symptomatic people wear masks.
Next is Prof Satoshi Kutsuna from Osaka University.“These no evidence (for masks) preventing infectious diseases”
Again, like Prof Iwata, Prof Kutsuna was speaking about masks for asymptomatic people. He similarly recommended masks for symptomatic people.
What about professional organisations like the Tokyo Medical Association? The below advice was put up on the TMA’s webpage in Feb 2020 and later deleted. Point 2 near the top says "People coughing and sneezing should wear masks with the aim to prevent infecting others. (The effectiveness of masks for people without symptoms isn’t said to be high.)”
If we go further back in time to December 2019, we can find Osaka University immunologist Prof Masayuki Miyasaka being very clear.The reason masks cannot prevent influenza infections.
Up until around late March 2020, the experts’ advice was widely followed.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows anything about pre-Covid Japan. Masks were worn by sick people, not healthy ones.
And healthy kids almost never wore masks. The idea of universal masking of healthy children would have seemed ridiculous in Japan in 2019. In Feb/March 2020, Japanese media were still willing to publish articles like this warning that kids could increase their infection risk by wearing masks because they were likely to use masks incorrectly (e.g., touching them with contaminated hands).Masks may increase infection risk. A doctor says “They should be strictly forbidden for children”
Higher infection risk from mask wearing isn’t limited to misuse by children either. In April 2020, Japanese media was still honest enough to run articles warning adults that sticking any old dirty rag over your face could increase your risk of infection.Are cloth masks effective? WHO says “They aren’t recommend whatever the circumstances”
However, all the experts mentioned above soon became wholehearted mask advocates. So what changed their minds? In addition to his regular TV appearances, Prof Kutsuna has been writing a weekly column for Yahoo! News during the pandemic, so hopefully he can tell us.Covid-19: Recent evidence that masks prevent infections
Well, the article is from July 2020, so the evidence is no longer recent, but let’s take a look at it. The image from the article shows transmission rates among…hamsters.
In case you’re thinking, “Hamsters!? Is this a joke?”, here’s the original peer-reviewed study.
And here’s the setup.
As evidence goes, I’m not sure that study is too convincing. So is there anything else that could have possibly changed Prof Kutsuna’s mind? While you’re thinking of an answer, here’s a Pfizer advert he appeared in last year about the importance of correctly knowing about vaccines.
So what’s Prof Kutsuna’s position on masks at the moment?
So if you get the jab, you may get to take off your mask. Now where have I heard that before?
The, er, flexibility of the views of Prof Kutsuna and the rest is probably one reason expert opinion is at the bottom of the Pyramid of Evidence. But at least it’s part of the pyramid, unlike hamster studies.
And on the off chance that anybody wants to read my regularly updated deep-dive into the scientific evidence higher up the pyramid for mask effectiveness, here it is.
