Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio.
During the third hour, Carmichael talked about the unrealistic science being used to mandate masks nationwide. He added that data supports that children under the age of 12 are unable to contract or contaminate older people and advocated the importance of getting them back into school.
Leahy: We are joined as we often are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday by our good friend and the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael. Crom, I want to bring something to your attention about coronavirus. So now Governor Lee has authorized all the counties in the state to put these mask mandates out there.
I’ve said repeatedly there is no medical evidence that demonstrates that the wearing of a cloth mask or the wearing of a paper surgical mask has any impact on stopping the spread of COVID-19. People talk about the causality of masks. So there is a study that says if you mandate masks you might possibly decrease the spread of COVID by two percent. That’s out from the University of Iowa.
Two percent is not much. Here is a tweet, by Alex Berenson former New York Times reporter and author a very good guy. We’ll try to have him on because he looks at the facts. Governor Jay Inslee announced the mask mandate for Washington state on June 23. Since then the state of Washington COVID cases has increased by 400 percent therefore mask mandates have caused the COVID case spikes. What do you make of this Crom?
Carmichael: I don’t know if they’ve caused it but they haven’t stopped it. That’s the whole point. COVID, we’ve started talking about the politics of COVID back in March. And after I did kind of my own deep dive into trying to understand the nature of this particular virus and reading from people who are actual doctors and not doctors who are…
Leahy: Political analysts.
Carmichael: Political analysts. I came to the conclusion that COVID would ultimately be controlled by herd immunity. This means that a large percentage of the population actually has to come down with COVID or at least be infected by it. And infected is a charged word.
A very very large percentage of people who are under the age of 50 who are “infected” will barely even know it. And most people who are under 20 won’t know it at all unless they have some other condition. And so the politics of COVID what you see is the media now talking about the number of cases that are increasing. By the way, masks are being worn much more often now than they were a month ago.
Leahy: Yes.
So if masks help than the number of cases going up shouldn’t be happening. But the number of cases is going up. Now that’s also partly because we are testing a lot more. But I now read reports where doctors are saying 10-15 times as many people have gotten COVID as have tested positive for COVID just simply because you can’t test everybody.
So with the combination of the new study and it’s an actual clinical study on the benefits of hydroxychloroquine and how it beats any other drug in terms of benefiting people either as a prophylactic against getting COVID for healthcare workers or for people who come down with COVID who take hydroxychloroquine, they are better off.
It doesn’t’ mean it’s a solution but they are better off. And masks have clearly based on the fact that there are more masks being worn and the number of cases is going up that shows that masks don’t work. But, for me, the number of cases going up with the death rate staying flat or going down is good news.
Leahy: I would agree with that. I want to bring to your attention Crom and article published in the United Kingdom’s Sun back in March. Let me just read from this because it’s about the actual data and medical experts that we like to report on. Infection prevention specialist, Eli Perencevich a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Iowa’s College of Medicine said on Twitter “masks won’t protect the average person because they will wear them incorrectly and auto-contaminate themselves.”
Professor Perencevich added, “I’ve never seen a person practice hand hygiene before removing the mask in public and then after removing the mask.” He told Forbes that the average healthy person does not need to have a mask. “There is no evidence that wearing a mask on healthy people will protect them.”
Carmichael: Yes. And then you have that other doctor from California that you quoted before.
Leahy: Dr. Simone Gold.
Carmichael: Yes. And she says that the size of the COVID virus is tiny compared.
Leahy: A tenth of a micron.
Carmichael: Yes. And the holes in a cloth or paper mask.
Leahy: 200 microns.
Carmichael: So it’s like putting up a chain-link fence, I think her metaphor was putting up a chain-link fence to stop a mosquito. So when you look at all these people talking about science and they really don’t talk about the science because if they did talk about the science and the data then herd immunity would be the goal. And wearing masks which I think is more of a political tool.
Leahy: It’s a total political tool to basically compel the submission of average citizens to the authority of the government.
Carmichael: Yes. And its unjustified authority. And when I say unjustified I simply say that when you go back to the Declaration of Independence of what makes this country special is that our individual rights come from God and they do not come from government. So if people want to use government to control people they can only do so unjustly by usurping God-given rights.
So that’s all this mask thing, in my opinion, is all about. Now, do I wear a mask when I go into the supermarket? Yes, I do because I don’t want anybody to be mad at me. But I try to wear it as little as possible because I don’t want to self contaminate myself from wearing the darn thing around. When I go to a meeting I bump elbows. I’m not going to shake hands.
Leahy: You are socially distancing.
Carmichael: I am socially distancing.
Leahy: Which makes sense from a scientific perspective as well.
Carmichael: Yes and I’m over 70 and in good health.
Leahy: You don’t look a day after 50 to me. (Laughs)
Carmichael: Thank you. The other day someone confused me with a 60-year-old.
Leahy: Really?
Carmichael: Yes. That was a thrill.
Leahy: A spring chicken.
Carmichael: I said we should meet more often. (Leahy laughs) I see in schools you have the Left and the teacher unions who are now trying to do everything they can. I hadn’t figured out politically how it benefits the Left for children not to go back to school because children are clearly not at risk from COVID.
Leahy: Every study shows that children under 12 don’t get contaminated and really don’t really contaminate older people. That is what the studies show.
Carmichael: Yes. Yes. Especially when they are high school age or younger, these are the years when your brain is acquiring information.
Leahy: You need development.
Carmichael: And you need to develop the brain and to be educated at that age. So the harm that comes from mask non-education is so much greater than the harm that could possibly be caused by having children go back to school. So once again you see the left engaging in politics rather than in good public policy. It’s actually frightening to see how they are acting when they don’t have absolute power.
Listen to the third hour here:
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I am a scientist that works in a health care lab with over a hundred colleagues, mostly with degrees in physical science and health science degrees. The overwhelming majority of us are reliably conservative, and in many cases VERY conservative. The overwhelming majority of us are also dumbfounded as to why the simple act of wearing a mask is such a big deal. It’s a mask, people, and there is a large body of scientific evidence that indicates that wearing one is worthwhile. Finally consider this, the faster we beat this, through whatever means, the faster complaining small businesses can get back to normal. Isn’t THAT enough reason to try wearing one?
All of this goes away on November 4th. Then the left will pivot to how Trump cheated to win and Democrats will begin investigations. They are not going to let 2016 happen again without a fight.