A review of over 2,000 studies.
QUICK FACTS:
- According to a review of over 2,000 studies that analyzed the effects of wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, the practice can lead to a number of negative health consequences including headaches, itching, and lack of oxygen intake.
- “We found significant effects in both medical surgical and N95 masks, with greater impact of the second,” the review states.
- The review, published in the “Frontiers in Public Health,” analyzed multiple studies that concluded headaches were the “most frequent symptom” among those wearing masks.
- Thirty-three percent of general mask wearers experienced shortness of breath and 37 percent of N95 wearers experienced the effect.
- Skin irritation was found among 36 percent of the subjects tested and dizziness due to mask-wearing was found in 5 percent.
- “Masks interfered with O2-uptake and CO2-release and compromised respiratory compensation,” the review said. “Though evaluated wearing durations are shorter than daily/prolonged use, outcomes independently validate mask-induced exhaustion-syndrome (MIES) and down-stream physio-metabolic dysfunctions, MIES can have long-term clinical consequences, especially for vulnerable groups.”
- The review also said that several mask-wearing symptoms may have been confused for symptoms of lasting COVID. “In any case, the possible MIES contrasts with the WHO definition of health,” the review reads, referring to the World Health Organization.
REVIEW DETERMINES A “LACK” IN EVIDENCE OF MASK-WEARING EFFECTIVENESS:
“In the absence of strong empirical evidence of effectiveness, mask wearing should not be mandated let alone enforced by law,” the review states.
BACKGROUND:
- In February 2023, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews published a study suggesting wearing a mask “probably makes little to no difference” in flu or COVID-19-related infections.
- The study, conducted by researchers from the U.K., Canada, Australia, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, sought to compare infection rates of those wearing surgical masks versus no masks.
- “Wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference” in the number of people with flu cases, the study argues.
- In May 2022, American Faith reported that mask mandates caused almost 50% more deaths than no mask mandates.
- According to the study published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Medicine, masks worsen illness via the “Foegen effect,” that “deep re-inhalation of hypercondensed droplets” present in facemasks “can worsen prognosis and might be linked to long-term effects of COVID-19 infection.”
