Why Face Masks Do More Harm Than Good

More and more we are seeing the use of face masks forced onto people in the coronavirus outbreak. Unfortunately, as this blog post clearly shows from credible sources below, wearing a mask is not about science or effectiveness. What, then, could make us give up personal freedom so willing, especially against the advice of our best scientists on infectious disease?

Fear.

Yet truth dispels fear. So what is the truth about face masks? Why are they so ineffective in protecting us against viral infection?

The Problem with Face Masks

The problem with face masks is threefold:

First, the vast majority wear masks incorrectly and auto-contaminate themselves. Take a look at the classic example of the medical procedure for wearing masks below, and then take a look around you the next time you go to the grocery store. These procedures are not being followed 95% of the time. Most people don’t even have a tight fit and many are pulling them on and off at will, often letting them hang loose around the neck. This is the main reason why most experts do not recommend masks for the public. What politicians do is quite another thing.

Classical Medical Protocol For Wearing Masks:

1) Place mask carefully to cover mouth and nose and tie securely to minimize any gaps between the face and the mask
2) While in use, avoid touching the mask; – remove the mask by using appropriate technique (i.e. do not touch the front but remove the lace from behind)
3) After removal or whenever you inadvertently touch a used mask, clean hands by using an alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water if visibly soiled.
4) Replace masks with a new clean, dry mask as soon as they become damp/humid
5) Do not re-use single-use masks
6) Discard single-use masks after each use and dispose of them immediately upon removal.
7) Cloth (e.g. cotton or gauze) masks are not recommended under any circumstance.

Second, surgical masks are made to protect against bacteria, not viruses. A coronavirus particle is about 125 nanometers in diameter. Bacteria are about 1,000 nanometers. Surgical masks might excel at blocking bacteria, but they will do little to block smaller viral particles. Homemade masks are even worse. It’s not a dirt clod we’re trying to protect ourselves against. It’s a virus.

Finally, a mask ends up giving its wearer a false sense of assurance, and consequently many get lax on the fundamental stuff like hand-washing and keeping hands off the face.

This Is Not Old News

UPDATE: The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine just stated (May 21, 2020):

We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.

At the request of the Federal government, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a meta-analysis study this month on the effectiveness of cloth masks in protecting others from the spread of Covid-19. What is meta-analysis? It is a systematic study of all existing research to derive conclusions about what that body of research says or doesn’t say.

The National Academies concluded that because aerosols play an important role in coronavirus transmission, cloth masks will do little, if anything, to limit spread of the disease.

Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), who contributed to the paper, said the problem is that—like surgical masks—cloth face masks cannot stop the invisible droplets as small as 5 microns and tiny bioaerosol particles as small as a fraction of a micron that we breath in and out. This is the micro-world of viruses and—face it—cloth and surgical masks are useless here. These aerosol particles are the reason we can smell the perfume section at Macy’s halfway down the mall. We all know from experience that covering our nose with our t-shirt can’t stop the smell of perfume.

What Are the Experts Saying

The US Surgeon General, Jerome Adams:

Seriously people, STOP BUYING MASKS! They are not effective in preventing general public from catching Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk. Everyday preventative actions, like staying home when you are sick and washing hands with soap and water, are the best ways to protect yourself and your community from respiratory illness (italics mine).

Infection prevention specialist Eli Perencevich, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Iowa’s College of Medicine:

Masks won’t protect the average person, because they will wear them incorrectly and auto-contaminate themselves. I’ve never seen a person practice hand hygiene before removing a mask in public and then after removing the mask. There’s no evidence that wearing masks on healthy people will protect them.

Virologist Dr Judy Mikovits has a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry with over 30 years of experience. She has directed programs on HIV, cancer, epigenetics and neuroimmune disease with a focus on the development of novel drug and diagnostic technologies:

Why do I opt NOT to wear a mask? Well, let me break it down for you. The body requires AMPLE amounts of oxygen for optimal immune health. Especially during a so-called “pandemic”. Proper oxygenation of your cells and blood is ESSENTIAL for the body to function as it needs to in order to fight off any illness. Masks will hamper oxygen intake. Unless you are working in a hospital setting, it is NOT necessary.

Dr Ben Killingley, consultant at University College London Hospital:

Wearing masks can give a false sense of reassurance and might lead to other infection control practices being ignored, e.g. hand hygiene.

Dr. John Swartzberg, an expert on infectious diseases at UC Berkeley:

There’s no good reason to use these masks except psychologically you think you’re doing something. They don’t fit tightly around your face and when you have a mask over your mouth and nose, you have to draw in with more force and so you’re pulling air in and it’s going to go around the sides of the mask and get into your mouth and nose.

When you take the mask off, you’re going to have organisms that filtered through the mask on your hands. Then you may touch your face and you’ll just inoculate yourself.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee:

A regular surgical face mask won’t benefit you.

A 2010 review, publishing in the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Conditions titled, “REVIEW Face masks to prevent transmission of influenza virus: a systematic review,” found little supporting evidence:

In conclusion there remains a substantial gap in the scientific literature on the effectiveness of face masks to reduce transmission of influenza virus infection. While there is some experimental evidence that masks should be able to reduce infectiousness under controlled conditions, there is less evidence on whether this translates to effectiveness in natural settings. There is little evidence to support the effectiveness of face masks to reduce the risk of infection.

10,000 Times Better Than Face Masks

The message is clear: cloth or surgical face masks do not protect us against viral infection and actually increase the risk of exposure for most of us because we ignore mask protocol. A better protective protocol is to wash our hands frequently and keep our hands off of our face.

So, if social or political pressure deem it necessary, I’ll wear a mask. But rest assured that it’s not because I think it will do any good. It would save a lot of angst if everone knew that the best protection against any kind of pathogenic invader is not a mask or any other kind of isolation but a healthy body. An interactive, organic lifestyle that builds up a strong body ecosystem is what builds the bulletproof immunity needed to keep harmful microbes at bay and to live without fear. A strong immune system is 10,000 times more protective against disease than any mask.