Are masks making wearers sick?
A July survey, reported by the CDC in the Sept. 11, 2020, issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows that 70.6% of symptomatic adults who tested positive for Covid-19 always wore a face mask. So did 74.2% of the symptomatic adults who tested negative for Covid-19. In fact, according to the table below, the more frequently you wore a mask, the greater your chance of getting sick – with or without a positive Covid test1.
Are masks safe for surgeons?
This study, though inconclusive, is the first (and only one so far) of its type to identify the effect that mask wearing has on surgeons2.
Considering our findings, this is the first clinical investigation reporting a decrease in blood O2 saturation and an increase in pulse rates of the surgeons after the operations due to surgical mask usage. This change in SpO2 may be either due to the facial mask or the operational stress, since similar changes were observed in the group performing surgery without a mask. However, it cannot be decided whether stress plays any role on the late changes, namely pulse rate increase and SpO2 level decrease; since surgeons are not allowed to perform major surgery without a facial mask in most institutions. In order to better elucidate the effects of stress, a randomized control study should have
been conducted in a more controlled environment with different sorts of workers from different gender who are or are not used to wearing face masks on (such as anesthesiologists, nurses) also working the same durations. Thus, it is important not to generalize the results of this preliminary study, and further studies involving measurement of gas tensions over time, both from blood and from samples obtained under the mask (in order to show a presumed build-up of CO2 under the mask) have to be carried out to elucidate this issue.
If it is so hard to figure out how masks affect surgeons and we have no good data on that, how can we know how masks affect the general public, especially when we have many different people with different health statuses, who are wearing masks while performing a variety of activities in different surroundings, with variable weather and humidity conditions, often for extended periods of time.
OSHA experts discuss fit testing for wearing masks in the workplace
US work regulations have very strict rules for oxygen levels in the workplace and fit tests and instructions for persons required to wear masks in the workplace. However, when it comes to the public, masks of any sort are being mandated for all, without any concern for the individual’s ability to wear a mask safely. Hear what they have to say about wearing masks, fit tests, and health precautions3.
Masks – a dental disaster?
“Now that dentists have reopened their doors, they’re having patients show up with a nasty set of symptoms, which the doctors have dubbed ‘mask mouth,’” reports FOX News. “The new oral hygiene issue — caused by, you guessed it, wearing a mask all the time to prevent the spread of the coronavirus — is leading to all kinds of dental disasters like decaying teeth, receding gum lines and seriously sour breath.”
“We’re seeing inflammation in people’s gums that have been healthy forever, and cavities in people who have never had them before,” Dr. Rob Ramondi, a dentist and co-founder of One Manhattan Dental, told FOX News.
Beyond embarrassing and painful, dental infections are life-threatening confirms a study by the American Stroke Association:
“Patients with gum disease were twice as likely to have a stroke caused by hardening of large arteries within the brain than those without gum disease.”One Manhattan Dental told FOX News that they estimate 50% of their patients are suffering from mask-induced dental problems.
The dentists theorize that the oral infections are largely caused by people’s tendency to mouth breathe while wearing a mask. Mouth breathing has many more side-effects other than dental infections. Bypassing the nasal cavity denies the body of nitric oxide (a critical blood vessel dilator). The nasal cavity also warms and purifies air before hitting the lungs4.
What don’t we know about mask safety?
Unknown Aspects of Mask Wearing
Many potential harms may arise from broad public policies to wear masks, and the following unanswered questions arise:
- Do used and loaded masks become sources of enhanced transmission, for the wearer and others?
- Do masks become collectors and retainers of pathogens that the mask wearer would otherwise avoid when breathing without a mask?
- Are large droplets captured by a mask atomized or aerolized into breathable components? Can virions escape an evaporating droplet stuck to a mask fiber?
- What are the dangers of bacterial growth on a used and loaded mask?
- How do pathogen-laden droplets interact with environmental dust and aerosols captured on the mask?
- What are long-term health effects on HCW, such as headaches, arising from impeded breathing?
- Are there negative social consequences to a masked society?
- Are there negative psychological consequences to wearing a mask, as a fear-based behavioral modification?
- What are the environmental consequences of mask manufacturing and disposal?
- Do the masks shed fibers or substances that are harmful when inhaled?5.
What are we inhaling from the masks?
While most studies have explored the functionality and effectiveness of the masks, this study is about the masks themselves – are they healthy? In this study the authors explore the possibility that we may be deeply inhaling fibers and other particulates from all the different types of face masks with potentially severe health ramifications for us over the long term.
There is no biological history of mass masking until the current era. It is important to consider possible outcomes of this society-wide experiment. The consequences to the health of individuals is as yet unknown. Masked individuals have measurably higher inspiratory flow than non-masked individuals. This study is of new masks removed from manufacturer packaging, as well as a laundered cloth mask, examined microscopically. Loose particulate was seen on each type of mask. Also, tight and loose fibers were seen on each type of mask. If every foreign particle and every fiber in every facemask is always secure and not detachable by airflow, then there should be no risk of inhalation of such particles and fibers. However, if even a small portion of mask fibers is detachable by inspiratory airflow, or if there is debris in mask manufacture or packaging or handling, then there is the possibility of not only entry of foreign material to the airways, but also entry to deep lung tissue, and potential pathological consequences of foreign bodies in the lungs6.
Masks lead to increased cases of impetigo
Doctors Hospital Pediatric Emergency Department says they have been diagnosing and treating an increased number of children with a rash on the face, extremities, neck, and other areas of the body.
The rash called, Impetigo is considered to be a highly contagious rash from a bacterial infection that can be worsened by wearing contaminated masks.
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After recently treating five children with cases of impetigo in mask-like patterns in a single day, Dr. Delacruz is warning parents what to be on the lookout for.
A neurologists explains why masks are dangerous
Margarete Greisz Brisson is a German neurologist practicing in London and Germany.
The much-loved mouth and nose cover … humans can live weeks without food and days without water but only minutes without oxygen and without breathing. The rebreathing of our exhaled air will without a doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding with carbon dioxide. But we know that the human brain is so sensitive to oxygen deprivation. There are nerve cells, for instance, in the hippocampus, that can’t be longer than three minutes without oxygen. They can’t survive. The acute warning symptoms are headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, concentration, slowdown in reaction time, the reactions of the cognitive system. But chronic oxygen deprivation – all those symptoms disappear because people get used to it, you get used to it. But your efficiencies will remain impaired and oxygen undersupply in your brain continues to progress. We know that neurodegenerative diseases lead years to decades so if today you forget your phone number, the breakdown in your brain already started twenty or thirty years ago. While you’re thinking you have gotten used to your mask and your own exhaled air, the neurodegenerative processes in your brain are getting amplified through the oxygen deprivation, continue to go down.
The second problem of the brain is that the nerve cells are not properly dividing themselves. So, in case the government generously lets us go back to without masks and we are allowed to breathe oxygen again, the lost nerve cells will no longer be regenerated. What is gone, is gone.
This is extremely important for fearful people who actually think they are protecting themselves from the viruses. The virus has approximately a size of 0.0 micrometers; the pores of the masks have a size of 80-500 micrometers and are getting bigger through each washing – they get bigger. The common masks do not at all protect you from a virus. I do not wear a mask. I need my brain to think. I want to have a clear head when I deal with my patients. A clear mind and not in a carbon dioxide anesthesia.
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For children -masks are an absolute no-no. Children and adolescents have an extremely adaptive and active immune system and need the constant dealing with the microbiome of the earth. And their brain is also insanely active – it has so much to learn. The child’s brain or the youth’s brain is thirsting for oxygen. The more metabolically active an organism is, the more oxygen it needs. In children and adolescents every organ is metabolically active. … It is not only dangerous to their health; it is absolutely criminal. Oxygen deficiency inhibits the development of the brain and the damage because of it cannot be reversed8.
Masks in schools are a threat to children’s development
The face mask requirement at school is bad for children’s general well-being and should be abolished, 70 doctors wrote in an open letter to Flemish Education Minister Ben Weyts.
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“In recent months, the general well-being of children and young people has come under severe pressure,” the letter’s authors said. “We see in our practices an increasing number of children and young people with complaints due to the rules of conduct that have been imposed on them.”
The doctors mentioned anxiety and sleep problems as well as behavioural disorders and germaphobia, which is a pathological fear of germs. They are also seeing an increase in domestic violence, isolation and deprivation.
“Mandatory face masks in schools are a major threat to their development. It ignores the essential needs of the growing child. The well-being of children and young people is highly dependent on emotional attachment to others,” they wrote.
According to them, “the face mask requirement makes school a threatening and unsafe environment, where emotional closeness becomes difficult9.
Footnotes
