Baruch Vainshelboim, who works with the cardiology division at Stanford's Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in California, is among the latest to sound the alarm that face masks should be avoided for the general public.
It's not simply an issue of whether or not they "work" - though as he writes, "scientific evidence supporting facemasks' efficacy is lacking" - or that wearing something is better than nothing because, as noted by Vainshelboim, "adverse physiological, psychological and health effects are established."
The paradox, he notes, has been apparent from the beginning as SARS-CoV-2 affects the respiratory system, potentially leading to respiratory failure and death (though it should be noted that the case fatality rate is low - considerably less than 1% or, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci and colleagues in March 2020, consequences may be "more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza".
Face-masks, by their very nature, restrict breathing, calling into question their clinical basis as a protective strategy. Face masks can cause a low level of oxygen in the blood (hypoxemia) along with excessive carbon dioxide in your bloodstream (hypercapnia), and may "increase the risk for respiratory complications, self-contamination and exacerbation of existing chronic conditions...<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...