167 Empirical Research Studies show that facemasks can be actually harmful, and are largely ineffective

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

As I walked through the store, I became strangely aware of how disconnected our society has come. Every person who passed by me was wearing a mask, and it was hard to make out his or her facial expressions. I smiled at a woman passing by, and to be honest, I couldn’t tell if she had smiled back or not. It has been like that lately, each brief, socially distanced encounter feeling cold, and eerie.

Not being able to see other people’s faces challenges a crucial part of how we communicate. It is rooted in the ancient practice of physiognomy, which links external facial features to internal character. For years, people have long built relationships and assessed each other based on how they look. Even though these are serious implications to our social development, there is an even more insidious aspect that has been brushed under the rug for far too long.

On their website, the CDC states that you should wear a mask, even if you do not feel sick. They say it is because several studies have found that people with COVID-19 who never develop symptoms (asymptomatic) and those who are not yet showing symptoms (pre-symptomatic) can still spread the virus to other people. They present a handful of research that backs up their claim, and leave it at that.

I was recently sent a document from Dr Paul Alexander, a Canadian health researcher and former Trump administration official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the document he states that surgical and cloth masks, used as they currently are being used (without other forms of PPE protection), have no impact on controlling the transmission of COVID-19 virus. Current evidence implies that facemasks can be actually harmful, and are largely ineffective.

Dr Alexander presented a masking ‘body of evidence’ below (n=167 studies and pieces of evidence), comprising comparative effectiveness research as well as related evidence and high-level reporting. To date, the evidence has been stable and clear that masks do not work to control the virus and they can be harmful and especially to children.

Below I have presented five of the research articles that were presented for your review. Remember, this is only five out of 167 studies, and they are quite compelling.

Evidence for Community Cloth Face Masking to Limit the Spread of SARS-CoV-2: A Critical Review, Liu/CATO, 2021

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2021-11/working-paper-64.pdf

The available clinical evidence of facemask efficacy is of low quality and the best available clinical evidence has mostly failed to show efficacy. They failed to find statistically significant benefit in the intent-to-treat populations.

“Exercise with facemask; Are we handling a devil’s sword?” – A physiological hypothesis

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32590322/

Exercising with facemasks may reduce available oxygen and increase air trapping preventing substantial carbon dioxide exchange. The hypercapnic hypoxia may potentially increase acidic environment, cardiac overload, anaerobic metabolism and renal overload, which may substantially aggravate the underlying pathology of established chronic diseases.

Use of surgical face masks to reduce the incidence of the common cold among health care workers in Japan: a randomized controlled trial

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216002/

“Facemask use in health care workers has not been demonstrated to provide benefit in terms of cold symptoms or getting colds.”

Masking lack of evidence with politics

https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/masking-lack-of-evidence-with-politics/

“It would appear that despite two decades of pandemic preparedness, there is considerable uncertainty as to the value of wearing masks. The numerous systematic reviews that have been recently published all include the same evidence base so unsurprisingly broadly reach the same conclusions.”

Transmission of COVID-19 in 282 clusters in Catalonia, Spain: a cohort study, Marks, 2021

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30985-3/fulltext

“We observed no association of risk of transmission with reported mask usage by contacts, with the age or sex of the index case, or with the presence of respiratory symptoms in the index case at the initial study visit.”

For those of us who are still thinking that wearing a mask is helpful, I encourage you to visit https://drtrozzi.org/2021/12/21/more-than-150-comparative-studies-and-articles-on-mask-ineffectiveness-and-harms/, and take a look for yourself. This year is about making changes to keep you healthy, and setting a framework for proactive, not reactive healthcare.