Is wearing a face mask make you healthier or does it make you sick?

Dr. Russell Blaylock, author of the Blaylock Wellness Report, is a board-certified neurosurgeon with a medical degree from Louisiana State University and an internship and residency at the Medical University of South Carolina. He practiced neorsurgery for 26 years and then left those duties to devote his work to nutritional research.

Blaylock thinks that face masks not only fail to protect people from getting sick but they create a serious health risk to the wearer.

He defends his view.

The coronavirus, like other respiratory viruses, is typical in its spread among communities.

It is unusual in that most infected people show no illness (asymptomatic) or very little sickness. A very small percentage of people are at a potentially serious risk – mostly older people and those with some current serious medical conditions like a compromised immune system. Blaylock claims the standard treatment – intubation and the use of a ventilator – may have contributed to the death rate.

He looked at 17 studies and concluded, “None of the studies established a conclusive relationship between mask/respirator use and protection against influenza infection.” One of those studies was titled, “The use of mask and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza: A systematic review of the scientific evidence. (2012).”

Blaylock said recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control are based mostly on studies of transmission of the flu, not the coronavirus. By the way, the CDC in the first phase of the pandemic did not recommend the wearing of a mask to prevent being infected.

“When a person has tuberculosis, we have them wear a mask, not the community of non-infected,” Blaylock wrote. The recommendations of the CDC and the World Health Organization are not grounded on ways to contain any virus pandemic or epidemic in history, Blaylock said.

What happens when you wear a mask for extended periods of time?

Blaylock said several studies show significant problems with wearing a face mask.

Those problems include:

• Headaches (documented from health care workers)
• Increased airway resistance
• Carbon dioxide accumulation
• Hypoxia (diminished oxygen levels)

In one study of 212 healthcare workers, (“Effects of long-duration wearing of N95 respirator and surgical facemask: a pilot study” in 2014), a third of the workers developed headaches with the masks and 60% required medication for relief. The cause of the headaches was hypoxia (reduction of blood oxygenation) and/or hypercapnia (elevation of CO2 in blood).

Wearing an N95 mask can reduce blood oxygenation as much as 20%. It happened to one worker who passed out while driving his car and crashed.

There are cases of elderly patients passing out because of poor lung function and falling down.

A more recent study showed that 81% of 159 healthcare workers (ages 21-35) developed headaches from wearing a mask. Some previously had headaches but they became more severe after wearing a mask.

Blaylock said seniors with COPD, emphysema or pulmonary fibrosis that wearing a face mask of any kind could diminish their already frail lung function.

And a drop in oxygen levels can lower a person’s immunity to disease. Hypoxia inhibits the main immune cells (CD4+ T-lympoctye) that fight infections.

Cancer patients could be more at risk because cancer grows best in an environment that is low on oxygen. Low oxygen also promotes inflammation and can be linked to increased cardiovascular disease (strokes and heart attacks).

When someone is infected with the coronavirus or another respiratory virus, they expel some of the virus with each breath, Blaylock said. If you wear a face mask, especially an N95 mask or a tight-fitting mask, you are constantly rebreathing the viruses, which raises the concentration in your lungs and nasal passages. It is true that the patients who have the worst reactions to the coronavirus have the highest concentration of the virus early on.

More studies show that the virus can enter your brain through your olfactory nerves (smell nerves). They connect directly to the part of the brain that deals with memory.

So, to summarize Dr. Blaylock’s argument against masks:

• The coronavirus is relatively benign to most people.
• Most of the at-risk patients will survive.
• Masks delay the impact of “herd immunity.”
• People who refuse to wear masks should not be forced to do so.

Dr. Blaylock’s article cites 13 specific scientific studies.

He makes a great deal of sense.

Why is this scientific information being censored?

I thought science was supposed to be critically examined but it’s not in Tulsa. The mask mandates seem to be more political than healthful.

This is a serious problem. There is a lack of credibility. The answer to the pandemic from elected officials and the news media is that masks, washing hands and social distancing are the absolute answer to the pandemic.

Everyone should want the best health outcomes during this pandemic. It seems to be smarter to not wear a face mask than to use one if you are not sick.

And if we can’t have confidence in the public information about masks, you have to wonder about the truthfulness of the coronavirus vaccines.

They may be wonder drugs but there certainly is room for credible doubt.