San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Experts address the most common excuses for not wearing a mask.
Health care professionals say wearing a face covering is one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of the coronavirus. So why do so many people refuse to do it? The Chronicle scoured social media for the most common excuses in circulation and ran them by local infectious disease experts to see whether they hold up. Here’s what they had to say:
Claim: “Masks cut off your oxygen.”
Worried that wearing a face covering will reduce your oxygen intake, which could lead to headaches, high blood pressure and brain damage? The experts say you can breathe easy (even if you are wearing a mask). While masks can get stuffy, they still allow for normal breathing.
“People might feel uncomfortable and short of breath,” said John Balmes, a pulmonary physician and professor of medicine at UCSF. “The actual lowering of oxygen is highly unlikely.”
To combat this myth, which has been widely spread on the internet, medical workers nationwide have countered with their own social media posts showing their oxygen saturation levels and heart rates remain unchanged while wearing a variety of face coverings over an extended period.
“This is a common misconception being perpetuated that has no evidence behind it,” said Krutika Kuppalli, a Palo Alto infectious disease doctor and a biosecurity fellow with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Fact check: Not true. Claim: “Wearing face coverings puts you at risk for carbon dioxide poisoning.”
Some people worry that wearing a face covering for a long period leads to breathing in excess amounts of carbon dioxide. That is not the case. CO2 molecules diffuse easily through everything from bandannas to medical masks to N95 respirators, allowing for normal breathing. This is why you don’t typically see medical care workers keel over in the middle of their 10hour shifts.
The state of California mandates that anyone older than 2 wear a cloth face covering in public settings where physical distancing measures are difficult to maintain.
“The type of mask being recommended is not something that is meant to prevent people from breathing,” Kuppalli said.
People with preexisting respiratory illnesses, like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — who are at higher risk for serious complications if they get exposed to the virus — may have some difficulty wearing tightfitting masks, such as N95 respirators. There’s an easy solution for that: Remove them periodically for relief.
Fact check: Not true. Claim: “Masks don’t do anything.”
The CDC and World Health Organization caused some confusion in the early days of the outbreak by recommending that the general public not wear masks. The goal was to prevent hoarding and make sure that critically low supplies of medical face coverings went to frontline workers. But people interpreted this the wrong way.
Public health experts believe that masks are one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of the virus. The coronavirus is transmitted by droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. A protective face covering lowers the risk of infecting others and becoming infected. It’s that simple.
“Science is not static,” Kuppalli said. “What we knew three months ago is not what we know now. As we get more information, our recommendations are going to change, too.”
People can also have the virus without showing any symptoms. Most critically, the viral load is highest in the presymptomatic phase. With the surging rates of confirmed coronavirus cases in California, the experts say we need to operate under the assumption that everyone is potentially infectious.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know about the disease,” Kuppalli said. “Even though you may not feel like you have the disease, you could get it and pass it on to a family member.”
Fact check: Not true. Claim: “Masks make you sick.”
As the weather heats up, masks may get warm and damp, but there’s no evidence that such conditions lead to bacterial infections or any other illness.
Masks do lose their effectiveness when they become wet, so experts suggest putting them in paper bags to dry out. Cloth masks should be washed between each use, in hot water with regular detergent, and dried completely on a high heat setting, according to the CDC.
The biggest risk with wearing them is not the mask itself but user error.
“You don’t want to be constantly touching the mask, moving it around your face,” Balmes said. “You’re bringing your hand up to the area where you can bring the virus up to your nose and mouth. Proper attention to how you wear a mask and mask hygiene is important.”
Fact check: Not true. Claim: “Wearing a mask infringes on my freedom of speech.”
Several audiological studies have concluded that the presence of face coverings — including surgical masks — does not have a detrimental effect on speech understanding in normalhearing people. While decibel reduction and frequencies affected are dependent on the type of material used and the thickness of the mask, your words will still get through loud and clear.
Fact check: Not true.
There are plenty of other benefits of wearing a mask circulating on social media as well. These include: Protection from harmful UV rays.
Shows you respect others. You don’t have to worry about that piece of broccoli stuck in your teeth. Easily avoid people you don’t like.
You can mouth bad words in public.
Wearing a mask is more comfortable than wearing a ventilator.