Masters of Health Magazine July 2020 | Page 68

I would like to refer you to a recent study done on two types of masks – 1) the cloth mask and 2) the disposable paper mask that I was referring to above.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-04-surgical-cotton-masks-effectively-filter.html

After only 5 coughs by a known COVID – 19 positive carrier each mask was swabbed and transferred to a petri dish. Another dish was cultured with a direct cough to make sure that the subject was active as a carrier. All the cultures came back positive. The swabs were taken from the outside and the inside of each mask, so it didn’t make any difference and demonstrated that either mask was ineffective at preventing droplet spread of the virus.

There are a number of concerns that I have regarding this ubiquitous wearing of masks by the general population. The first is that a large portion of the public have not been trained on how to properly fit a mask. So many people I see are very poorly fitted. This brings me to the second concern, and that is that people are running around thinking they are protected when in fact they are not. Considering the ill fitting of the masks plus the information from the article above on the ineffectiveness of the material, people are not protecting themselves or others, and in fact, may actually be causing more harm than good.

Another major concern about wearing face masks is that it has been proven that they reduce the amount of oxygen in the air you are breathing because you are recirculating the air you just breathed out, which has a lower content of oxygen and a higher content of CO2. In the link below, OSHA has determined that any oxygen level below 19.5% can have long term if not permanent brain damage.

Measurements inside a mask in use have revealed consistent oxygen levels below 19.5% - That should be a concern to anyone!

Even among expert medical sources and multiple studies, the use of masks in order to prevent the spread of the virus is questionable at best. One news source I was reading remarked that even if it “might help a little” it would be worth wearing one. My thought was, “What if it does a lot more harm?!”

A couple of weeks back, we were visiting a friend in another state and she wanted to take us out to eat. We found a place that offered take out food and went in to order. Not knowing the local ordinance, we didn’t have masks on since there were no signs stating they were required. We were immediately berated for not having a mask on and told to get outside. Our friend had a mask in her purse and said she would order for us – I was ready to walk away in response to the rude treatment. As we waited on the porch for our friend my wife and I were talking about this rudeness and how this “social shaming” was really having a negative effect on how people see and treat each other.

As we were talking, a masked person entered into our conversation and again was quite rude. I finally asked her if she had any medical training to back up her position. At that point she said she didn’t need any medical knowledge because she owned the store and stomped into the ordering counter. I expected she was going to cancel our order, but another employee came out and told us to get off the porch and go wait over by the bushes.

This brings me to my other concern about what these masks are doing to our society. These masks are removing the personality of people. It is causing a psychological distancing that I believe is harmful.

It is causing people to turn on one another with this “social shaming” that in some cases has even turned violent. I watched a video of people actually assaulting a person in a store because they didn’t have a mask on.

It is also causing people to be more distant and isolated. Many people are expressing levels of depression that is being exacerbated by this feeling of isolation. Statistics released for the State of California indicated that the number of suicides in one month had equaled the total number for a year under normal circumstances! That is a 12-fold increase! Even if we were saving lives by wearing masks, what is the sum-total gain here? There have been a number of psychiatrists on various news outlets speaking to this issue and it is not going away.

Just in the normal run of everyday encounters with people in our communities, we depend more than we realize on the facial expressions that mirror back to us how we are seen by them. It is how we gage our place within our community. When we say something and a person smiles, it gives us clues as to how we are received. Without over half of the face covered to give those subtle clues, we are forced to guess much more about those interactions. That uncertainty contributes heavily into an increase of the feeling of isolation.

It is interesting how these masks have become a form of “virtue signaling” in which many people are using them as a form of expressing that they are in the “in crowd”. Like the owner of the store, people are using the mask as a statement that they are somehow more “WOKE” than others, especially if the other is not wearing a mask. It is also interesting to observe the masks becoming a fashion statement with various styles and colors and patterns. How easily a large majority of people fall into accepting something that has been forced upon them without even challenging the validity.