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Editor’s Note: This is section 4 of Jim Meehan, MD, An Evidence Based Scientific Analysis of Why Masks are Ineffective, Unnecessary, and Harmful, 10 October 2020, meehanmd.com with the 17 points linked for direct access and sourcing.
Masks are Harmful: 17 Ways That Masks Can Cause Harm

As a physician and former medical journal editor, I’ve carefully read the scientific literature regarding the use of face masks to mitigate viral transmission. I believe the public health experts have community wearing of masks all wrong. Here are a few of the mechanisms by which medical masks can be harmful to their wearers and community wearing of face masks is a very bad idea:

Wearing masks for extended periods increased incidences of headaches and negatively affected work performance.

See Jonathan J.Y. Ong, et al., Headaches Associated With Personal Protective Equipment – A Cross-Sectional Study Among Frontline Healthcare Workers During COVID-19, Headache, the Journal of Head and Face Pain (May 2020). https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/head.13811

  1. Medical masks adversely affect respiratory physiology and function
  2. Medical masks lower oxygen levels in the blood
  3. Medical masks raise carbon dioxide levels in the blood
  4. SARS CoV-2 is armed with a “furin cleavage site” that makes it more pathogenic
  5. Medical masks trap exhaled viral (and other) pathogens in the mouth/mask interspace, increase viral/infectious load, and increase the severity of disease
  6. SARS CoV-2 Becomes More Dangerous When Blood Oxygen Levels Decline
  7. The furin cleavage site of SARS CoV-2 increases cellular invasion, especially during hypoxia (low blood oxygen levels)
  8. Cloth masks may increase the risk of contracting Covid-19 and other respiratory infections
  9. Wearing a face mask may give a false sense of security
  10. Masks compromise communications and reduce social distancing
  11. Untrained and inappropriate management of face masks
  12. Masks Worn Imperfectly Are Dangerous
  13. Masks collect and colonize viruses, bacteria, and mold
  14. Wearing a face mask makes the exhaled air (respiratory plumes) go into the eyes
  15. Contact tracing studies show that asymptomatic carrier transmission is very rare
  16. Face masks and stay at home orders prevent the development of herd immunity
  17. Face masks are dangerous and contraindicated for a large number of people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities

1. Medical masks adversely affect respiratory physiology and function.

2. Medical masks lower oxygen levels in the blood.[R]

Wearing a mask for more than a few minutes causes a significant reduction in a person’s blood oxygen level.

Any questions? Wait...there’s more...

3. Medical masks raise carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

Although the body has robust mechanisms for mitigating transient and minor elevations of CO2 in the air we breathe, these mechanisms can easily be overwhelmed by chronic exposure to significant elevations in CO2, such as occurs with prolonged wearing of a medical mask.

4. SARS CoV-2 is armed with a “furin cleavage site” that makes it more pathogenic.

5. Medical masks trap exhaled viral (and other) pathogens in the mouth/mask interspace, increase viral/infectious load, and increase the severity of disease.

6. SARS CoV-2 Becomes More Dangerous When Blood Oxygen Levels Decline

7. The furin cleavage site of SARS CoV-2 increases cellular invasion, especially during hypoxia (low blood oxygen levels)[R]

So, the question we should all be asking is how did the genetic sequence that codes for this serious gain of function that increases the potential for the virus to successfully infiltrate the host find its way into SARS-CoV-2?

That’s the trillion dollar question; it demands a real and honest answer.

8. Cloth masks may increase the risk of contracting Covid-19 and other respiratory infections.

See MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, et al., A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers, BMJ Open 2015; 5: e006577, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577, April 22, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/pdf/bmjopen-2014-006577.pdf

9. Wearing a face mask may give a false sense of security

10. Masks compromise communications and reduce social distancing

11. Untrained and inappropriate management of face masks:

12. Masks Worn Imperfectly Are Dangerous

To fully appreciate the danger of improper wear and handling of face masks, all you have to do is observe how the public is managing them. Take a trip to Walmart or your local school and observe how mask wearers pull masks from their pocket or purse, drop the masks on the floor, cough and sneeze in them, move them below the nose, on their heads, or under their chin. I see it every day. I also see their soiled and stained surgical face masks and know that these people are dangerously reusing a mask that should never be reused.

You don’t need a clinical trial to determine that even when mask-wearers manage to don a fresh, sterile mask properly, keep them on for more than a few minutes at a time, they very quickly contaminate the mask, their environment, and increase their risk of infection as the mask induces them to compulsively touch their faces and their masks.

Failing to follow strict medical standards for wearing protective equipment and specification of sterilizing and cleaning often leads to “skin and mucous membrane injury, which may cause acute and chronic dermatitis, secondary infection and aggravation of underlying skin diseases.”

13. Masks collect and colonize viruses, bacteria, and mold.

In Germany, where schools are open and masks are mostly optional, the association of “Kinder f.Weltfrieden eV” commissioned a laboratory analysis to investigate the level of microbial contamination that results after a fresh mask is worn by a child for 6-8 hours in school. What they found was alarming to all those recommending we mask our children for several hours every day. The masks were found to be contaminated with 82 bacterial colonies and 4 mold colonies. Where do you think the bacteria, molds, and viruses progressively colonizing and growing on the warm moist mask-mouth interface end up?

Many of the microbes get transferred to surfaces the child (or adult) touches after they touch, fiddle, and mishandle their mask. This is one of the many reasons that masks are almost certainly INCREASING the transmission of infectious disease. More dangerously, these microbes are being inhaled and delivered deep into the lungs where respiratory disease far worse than CoVID-19 can result.

The oxygen lowering effects of masks forces the body to compensate by increasing heart rate and deepening inspirations (increasing tidal volumes). Increased tidal volumes drives the mask pathogens deep into the lungs where they can cause serious pneumonia, inflammation, and tissue damage.

Furthermore, these risks are compounded by the immune suppression (CD4+ T-cell suppression) that results from diminished arterial oxygenation. Thus, the mask-wearing child is at imminent risk for harm caused by lung infections that are far more dangerous than a CoVID-19 infection.

In fact, based on reports from my colleagues in emergency medicine, pulmonology, and infectious disease, an alarming explosion in bacterial pneumonias is being reported at ERs and urgent care centers across the country.

Evidence that supports the points above:

14. Wearing a face mask makes the exhaled air (respiratory plumes) go into the eyes.

15. Contact tracing studies show that asymptomatic carrier transmission is very rare.

16. Face masks and stay at home orders prevent the development of herd immunity.

17. Face masks are dangerous and contraindicated for a large number of people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities.

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