The Medical Aspects of Mask-Wearing

Is a mask similar to wearing a bike helmet? I am seeing way too many analogies from pro-mask parents, saying that they are just like bike helmets, seat belts or steel-capped boots. This is nonsense. Let’s talk about the medical aspects of mask-wearing, not the peripheral aspects of social distancing, isolation, etc.

If you wear a surgical mask or a homemade mask of cotton …, especially in an enclosed space with other people, like a classroom or bus, this is what happens:

1) the air heats up and humidity rises. The mask rapidly becomes moist with your breath and as a result, the viruses, bacteria, and fungi which accumulate on the outside have a nice culture medium to grow in, and which can be breathed in, as you force air through the moist mess.

2) Constantly touching, or shifting the mask to attend to itches, or general discomfort contaminates the mask with anything on your fingers.

3) you start rebreathing your own carbon dioxide, which results in making your blood acidic. This can result in kidney dysfunction among a long list of other health issues well-proven and discussed in the medical literature.

4) your intake of oxygen is reduced and your brain doesn’t function as it should. These factors have been extensively discussed in the medical literature because those effects are even seen in the theatre when surgeons wear surgical masks, which cannot stop viruses but are principally there to prevent surgeons from splashes of blood from the patient and putting any droplet onto the patient. Because this is an issue in theatres, for both nurses and doctors when surgeons and nurses wear masks, this is what OSH has set up.

a) extra oxygen must be pumped INTO theatre to compensate for the oxygen decrease in breathing

b) the air pressure in theatre is negative which means that while oxygen is being pumped INTO theatre, the air in the theatre is pumped OUT of the room so that no air recirculates which keeps the air clean, so generally, air is pumped in from underneath and sucked out through the ceiling.

c) The humidity is also kept very low so that the surgeons can stay as sweat-free as possible, and the mask lasts longer.

d) Temperature is low and controlled.

e) because of breath moisture getting trapped in the fabric, the minute a mask becomes damp, that results in any virus or bacteria being trapped there, and becoming a Petrie dish.

It’s inevitable that breathing in through fabric will force some of that accumulating moisture with multiplying bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc, into your mouth resulting in infection, THEREFORE in theatre, the MINUTE a mask becomes even slightly moist, it is changed out and a new dry one put on. So a surgeon can go through a lot of masks during one operation. And if you are wondering why surgeons emerge from theatre and the first thing they do is rip the mask off, it’s because the very act of wearing a mask is incredibly tiring.

Surgeons hate wearing them, not for any of the above reasons, but because you end up touching your face to relieve the tickles and itches, or adjusting them because they are not comfortable. Masks are a distraction and a thought impediment…

Nowhere do I see any suggestions that buses, classrooms, or other enclosed spaces should be subject to the OSH regulations designed to keep surgeons safe. So essentially they are saying that children can do what surgeons can’t and that in an uncontrolled environment, masks are perfectly safe. Masks are not safe, and it’s also ludicrous to expect children to observe the sorts of hygiene requirements that surgeons have been trained to adhere to. And we aren’t even talking about the fact that cloth masks and surgical masks don’t stop infection – which is the government message of masking up. As far as I know, none of the above apply to bike helmets, car seat belts or steel-capped boots.

None of those things is an irritant, and neither do they change, in ANY way, the biochemical balance in the body or have the potential to result in serious staph skin infections, and an increase in respiratory pathogens as a result of breathing through the developing Petrie dish in front of your face. Masks have the potential to create serious issues for adults and children. Next time you go to buy that $52.00 box of masks make sure you read the warning on the side of the box that says that these masks cannot protect you from covid. And please rethink these faulty analogies, because it’s vital that people understand the facts so that they can avoid cognitive assumptions and biases.