Good health reasons for not wearing face masks
From the very beginning of the COVID pandemic evidence said they were ineffective
Though even healthy people have sound reasons to reject mask wearing, those of us with serious medical problems have even more reasons. As someone with congestive heart failure it was apparent that cutting oxygen flow was not good for me. So, wherever possible I avoided using a mask or, at least, keeping it below my nose.
Here are parts of a very good medical article published this month with the title “Physio-metabolic and clinical consequences of wearing face masks—Systematic review with meta-analysis and comprehensive evaluation.”
“Background: As face masks became mandatory in most countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, adverse effects require substantiated investigation.
Methods: A systematic review of 2,168 studies on adverse medical mask effects yielded 54 publications for synthesis and 37 studies for meta-analysis (on n = 8,641, m = 2,482, f = 6,159, age = 34.8 ± 12.5). The median trial duration was only 18 min (IQR = 50) for our comprehensive evaluation of mask induced physio-metabolic and clinical outcomes.
Results: We found significant effects in both medical surgical and N95 masks, with a greater impact of the second. These effects included decreased SpO2 (overall Standard Mean Difference, SMD = −0.24, 95% CI = −0.38 to −0.11, p < 0.001) and minute ventilation (SMD = −0.72, 95% CI = −0.99 to −0.46, p < 0.001), simultaneous increased in blood-CO2 (SMD = +0.64, 95% CI = 0.31–0.96, p < 0.001), heart rate (N95: SMD = +0.22, 95% CI = 0.03–0.41, p = 0.02), systolic blood pressure (surgical: SMD = +0.21, 95% CI = 0.03–0.39, p = 0.02), skin temperature (overall SMD = +0.80 95% CI = 0.23–1.38, p = 0.006) and humidity (SMD +2.24, 95% CI = 1.32–3.17, p < 0.001). Effects on exertion (overall SMD = +0.9, surgical = +0.63, N95 = +1.19), discomfort (SMD = +1.16), dyspnoea (SMD = +1.46), heat (SMD = +0.70), and humidity (SMD = +0.9) were significant in n = 373 with a robust relationship to mask wearing (p < 0.006 to p < 0.001). Pooled symptom prevalence (n = 8,128) was significant for: headache (62%, p < 0.001), acne (38%, p < 0.001), skin irritation (36%, p < 0.001), dyspnoea (33%, p < 0.001), heat (26%, p < 0.001), itching (26%, p < 0.001), voice disorder (23%, p < 0.03), and dizziness (5%, p = 0.01).
Discussion: Masks interfered with O2-uptake and CO2-release and compromised respiratory compensation. Though evaluated wearing durations are shorter than daily/prolonged use, outcomes independently validate mask-induced exhaustion-syndrome (MIES) and down-stream physio-metabolic disfunctions. MIES can have long-term clinical consequences, especially for vulnerable groups. So far, several mask related symptoms may have been misinterpreted as long COVID-19 symptoms. In any case, the possible MIES contrasts with the WHO definition of health.
Conclusion: Face mask side-effects must be assessed (risk-benefit) against the available evidence of their effectiveness against viral transmissions. In the absence of strong empirical evidence of effectiveness, mask wearing should not be mandated let alone enforced by law.”
Sadly, even today I am mandated to wear a mask in most medical offices. It has always seemed clear that very few medical professionals have read the medical literature.
Can't you just say "no" to wearing a mask? Here in the UK, if you say you can't, they are not supposed to even ask why but I appreciate in a healthcare setting they may refuse to treat you. They seem to be the worst, ironically.
The list of exemptions, which the UK govt published in 2020, included hidden conditions such as anxiety or panic disorders, autism, breathing difficulties, dementia, reduced vision or if you are with someone who relies on lip reading to communicate.
'People are not required to prove they are exempt and it is for individuals to choose how they would want to communicate this to others'.
Trouble is, 'jobs worth's' do the govt's dirty work for them and it takes courage to stand up to them for your rights.
At one point, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky tweeted, “Masks can help reduce your chance of #COVID19 infection by more than 80%” – but of course didn’t cite her source, while but a large study from researchers at Yale, Stanford and the University of California Berkeley found much less impressive results from masks. But there are “advantages”: Wearing a face mask carries inherent risks, including the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, oxygen deprivation, psychological effects and more, and while it does nothing the help your health, even harming it, it doies fashion the citizenry as slaves and act as symbols of enslavement. One idiot site even called anti-maskers “Granma killers” – while they themselves kill tens of thousands of granmas with their useless shots and prevent their kids from seeing them in nursing homes. Here is Tyson Gabriel’s video on the idiocy of mask wearing; his site is at https://www.tyscienceguy.com/mask-documentary-series.html or https://www.tyscienceguy.com/ Here’s a video of Dr. Richard Urso on masks pointing out they are useless against viruses. Naturally, people who disagree will claim he’s not qualified to talk about masks because he’s not an infectious disease specialist. Ad hominem attacks have to be used when you can’t argue with what he says. I get it… so let’s go to Dr. Knope talking about masks. And try to forget Dr. Fauci initially mocking the use of masks on 60 Minutes. Steve Kirsch has a full document on the on again, off again mandate to use masks here, which as a very comprehensive list of sources, quotes, etc. As Dr. Vinay Rasad, MPH, a hematologist-oncologist and associate professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco, put it in the Brownstone Institute, “I don’t know how to put this politely, but it is a lie, and a truly unbelievable one at that … The idea that masks could reduce the chance of infection by 80% is simply untrue, implausible and cannot be supported by any reliable data.” And that Bangladeshi study on masks? The trial involved 342,183 people from 600 villages in rural Bangladesh from November 2020 to April 2021. In villages that received masks, the number of symptomatic COVID-19 infections were 9.3% lower compared to villages without masks, or 11% lower in villages that received surgical masks instead of cloth masks. But you DO get to kill granma with pathogens on the masks! Both cotton and surgical masks collect pathogens that may increase your risk of infectious illness — a factor that’s rarely taken into account when discussing their merits. When researchers from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, analyzed the microbial community on surgical and cotton face masks from 13 healthy volunteers after being worn for four hours, bacteria including Bacillus, Staphylococcus and Acinetobacter were found — 43% of which were antibiotic-resistant. To fix this, boil at 100 C, wash at 60 C (140F) or steam iron. The researchers summarized “Taken together, this study suggests that a considerable number of bacteria, including pathobionts and antibiotic resistant bacteria, accumulate on surgical and even more on cotton face masks after use. Based on our results, face masks should be properly disposed of or sterilized after intensive use. Clear guidelines for the general population are crucial to reduce the bacteria-related biosafety risk of face masks …”
Researchers in Germany found:
Increase in dead space volume Increase in breathing resistance Increase in blood carbon dioxide
Decrease in blood oxygen saturation Increase in heart rate Decrease in cardiopulmonary capacity
Feeling of exhaustion Increase in respiratory rate Difficulty breathing and shortness of breath
Headache Dizziness Feeling of dampness and heat
Drowsiness Decrease in empathy perception Impaired skin barrier function with acne, itching and skin lesions
The same researchers found more from the real grandma killers, stating:
“Extended mask-wearing would have the potential, according to the facts and correlations we have found, to cause a chronic sympathetic stress response induced by blood gas modifications and controlled by brain centers. This in turn induces and triggers immune suppression and metabolic syndrome with cardiovascular and neurological diseases. It can be assumed that the potential adverse mask effects described for adults are all the more valid for children: … physiological internal, neurological, psychological, psychiatric, dermatological, ENT, dental, sociological, occupational and social medical, microbiological and epidemiological impairments.