I am a biologist and have a different point of view on many of our issues. I write this letter as a scientist.

Many have expressed disapproval of Ron Wesen, Bill Bruch and other candidates for attending the Skagit GOP rally in August, because they did not wear masks. I actually applaud and congratulate those candidates for their independent thinking and willingness to stand up for truth and honesty. This is especially difficult in the midst of the fear and panic we are exposed to daily from politicians, the media and public health bureaucrats.

True scientific data addressing the effectiveness of cloth or surgical masks is rare. To be sure, the internet is full of flawed evidence supporting the usefulness of masks. Science, however, requires carefully controlled, randomized studies performed and interpreted by scientists. The CDC reports one such study, “Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Non Health Care Settings.” The article concludes that, “Evidence from RCT’s [randomized controlled trials] of hand hygiene or face masks did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza”

The average person has no idea how small this virus is. It averages about 125 nanometers (red blood cell diameter is about 7,000 nanometers). Average pore size of the blue surgical mask is 19,290 nanometers. Do the math. Is it possible the virus might escape its droplet and pass through these masks? If masks were so useful, why were they not mandated before COVID?

Our state and local health departments are supposedly following “the science.” The science has been wrong from the start, including the modeling, the data collection, the testing and lockdowns. Many people got the virus because they were locked in their homes. And why is Washington State’s science different from Idaho’s science? The only science we have been forced to follow is political science.

Life is full of risk; it is time to move on.

Val Mullen

Sedro Woolley