General safety guidelines around the globe have recognized and implemented the wearing of face masks in public to help prevent spreading coronavirus.
However, an article has been trending on social media claiming the risks involved in wearing masks, such as inhaling toxic levels of one's own carbon dioxide.
Filtering Facts vs Fake Science
Netizens have gone on to agree that they have experienced feeling dizzy, lightheaded, and discomfort around the head and ears.
Yet these discomforts do not equate to face masks being detrimental to peoples' health.
These claims have been proven to be misleading as Dr. Russell Blaylock, a retired neurosurgeon, stated that the 'dangers to wearing a face mask...can vary from headaches, to increased airway resistance, carbon dioxide accumulation, to hypoxia, all the way to serious life-threatening complications.'
Dr Rebekah Diamond, a New York City Pediatrician from Columbia University Medical Center shared her experiment to debunk these health-threatening claims.
She posted on Twitter showing her CO2 levels after wearing an N95 mask for an entire day, proving that her carbon dioxide levels were normal. She even goes on to advise the public, 'Don't let fake science enable unsafe decisions [please].'
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have also advised the use of cloth face coverings, which 'are not surgical masks or N-95 respirators.' These types of masks should be reserved for medical professionals and first responders only.
The CDC also has another study showing that non-medical masks are a sufficient barrier against droplet spread, which they experimented on mice. They used 100% cotton textile and results showed that protected mice were germ-free.
In view of this, people should avoid using N95 respirators in general, and opt to face cloth masks instead. Face cloth masks will help ease breathing restrictions, and can be used by the professionals who need it instead.
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Continuing Basic Safety Precautions
Expert in respiratory care, Dr Steve Lubinsky of the NYU Lagone Health, agrees that face masks must be continually used as the coronavirus is still affecting thousands in his city alone.
While New York's positive cases and deaths because of COVID-19 continue to make headlines, he has stated that they've 'never seen anyone with an illness due to face mask use.'
Another false claim of Blaylock's article is that "the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the olfactory nerves and travel into the brain," citing facts from influenza studies.
This is then corrected by Dr. Shelly Payne, the Director of the LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease. She states that 'studies did not find a conclusive relationship between mask or respirator use and protection against influenza infection.'
Payne advises that we are to continue wearing masks since 'we don't know who is infected and who is not' due to the lack of testing kits.
Globally, we have not reached the capacity to detect who's asymptomatic and who's uninfected. For the general well-being of everyone, it's still best to continue wearing a face mask for as long as necessary.
Other basic precautions such as hand washing and social distancing should remain normal behavior until advised otherwise.
CDC shares that face masks "is not intended to protect the wearer, but it may prevent the spread of the virus from the wearer to others."
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