MSNBC's mask-monger is back, stressing it's 'time to bring them out again'

MSNBC medical contributor Kavita Patel, a former policy official in the Obama White House, appeared bare-faced Tuesday on "José Díaz-Balart Reports" to tell Americans to once again don their masks.

Díaz-Balart led into the segment, saying, "If you’ve noticed more of your friends, neighbors, loved ones are testing positive for COVID, you’re not alone. According to the CDC, COVID-19 hospitalizations are up 12% from last week, and while we’re nowhere near previous levels, it’s still raising concerns."

The CDC indicated that between July 16 and July 22, there were 8,035 hospital admissions for COVID-19 in the U.S., a nation home to well over 335 million souls. The bulk of the hospitalizations appear to have been in parts of Texas near the southern border; southeastern Oklahoma; Mohave County, Arizona; four counties in southern Nebraska; northeastern Oregon; and Colquitt County, Georgia.

Patel, a staunch supporter of coercive vaccine mandates, acknowledged in her introduction that "we are not seeing anywhere near the dramatic rises that we saw in previous summers or previous years ... because a large part of the population has either been infected and vaccinated or both several times."

As of November 2022, an estimated 94% of the American population had already been infected with COVID-19 at least once.

Despite intimating that the population now enjoys herd immunity, Patel stressed that it was prudent to "keep people on alert."

To this end, Patel — who suggested in April 2022 that people should still wear masks on airplanes and foist them on fellow passengers despite the expiration of the TSA's mask mandate — attempted to drum up fear over going out in public.

"When you're in those crowded spaces, think about the cost of colds," said Patel. "Sometimes, many people don't have any symptoms. A mask can be your best friend. Keep it."

Patel told Díaz-Balart it was "time to bring them out again, especially as the school season starts," adding, "We don't want to see kids missing school for things we could have prevented."

Despite Patel's invocation of kids' well-being — greatly undermined by the school closures teachers' unions supported in recent years — children have faced an infinitesimal likelihood of succumbing to COVID-19, even early in the pandemic when the virus was ostensibly far stronger. Even if there was more than a nominal risk, studies have indicated that the masks commonly used by the public might be ineffective.

A comprehensive Cochrane analysis of scientific studies concerning the efficacy of masks in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, led by Oxford epidemiologist Tom Jefferson and published in January, concluded, "Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing masks. ... Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza/SARS‐CoV‐2 compared to not wearing masks."

Jefferson told journalist Maryanne Demasi, "There’s still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic."

The Centers for Disease Control's own peer-reviewed journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, published a study in May 2020 that found "no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks."

The researchers stated, "There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza."

Also early in the pandemic, Dr. Michael Klompas of Harvard Medical School's department of population medicine and others noted in the New England Journal of Medicine, "We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. ... [T]he desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic."

Dr. Brendan Jackson, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager, told NPR last week that the CDC presently has no plans to encourage widespread masking again.

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