Megan Conroy
June 26 at 7:50 PM ·
Misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic cannot be left unaddressed. If these conspiracy theorists are left un-checked, more and more lives will be lost as a result.
I’m a board certified pulmonologist— that’s right, an expert on the lungs and breathing!
So let me respond to these points made in the photo below, circulating online with its content similarly being touted by those who claim to “educate themselves”. I’ve spent 11 years of medical training educating myself in this area...
1- masks do not decrease the fraction of inspired oxygen (which is about 21% in the environment). No mask is able to filter something as small as two oxygen atoms. Masks do not cause hypoxemia (low blood oxygen), if they did then everyone who has ever painted a house wearing a mask, done woodworking wearing a mask, and surgeons performing hours upon hours on end of surgery would have probably died. They did not. Masks do not decrease oxygen levels.
2- we don't clear "toxins" from the body by our breath. The lungs do have a very small role in the metabolism of some substances, but they don't exit by the exhaled breath in any meaningful way as the route of clearance. Carbon dioxide is exhaled, a mask does not cause you to re-breathe this and retain it. Refer to examples above that painters, woodworkers, and surgeons are also not suffering from acute or chronic hypercarbic respiratory failure
3- Masks don’t decrease oxygen or increase carbon dioxide either at the alveolar level or in the blood, as stated above. Cortisol does not "shut down immune processes". One can't put random medical words near each other in a sentence and make science.
4- if you have a dormant retrovirus living in your body, you probably have HIV that's well controlled on antiretroviral therapy. Otherwise, this isn't a thing.
5- masks don't need to "filter" the virus, they need to protect you from the respiratory droplets upon which the virus travels and is transmitted. The size of the virus is mostly irrelevant in droplet transmission
6- False. This person might have just learned the term "peer reviewed" and wanted to sound reputable. Here's a peer reviewed study from 2008:"Professional and Homemade face masks reduce exposure to respiratory infections in the general population" accessible at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18612429/
Here's another specifically in SARSCoV2 showing reduced transmission among household contacts estimated at 79% reduction! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32467353/
Edited to add: this is true of all face masks— medical grade or home made!
fun feature of the human body: the sensation of shortness of breath (dyspnea) comes about by a variety of mechanisms— unrelated to oxygen or carbon dioxide levels in the lung or blood. That dyspnea you feel when wearing a mask might be improved by a different type, or different fit. The goal is not to stop all flow of air from around the mask (that’s important for an N95 with airborne transmission) the goal is to stop contact with respiratory droplets. You can’t actually “say it, without spraying it”. There’s no medical reason not to wear a mask, I even recommend it for patients who require supplemental oxygen at home if they must be in public.
Please discuss your personal medical details with your physician, this is not a platform for the provision of individualized medical advice.
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MESSENGER
Anderson & Fugate Attorneys at Law updated their business hours.
Reclaimed Inspired Goods
February 2, 2018 at 11:19 AM ·
COFFEE + PIE, OH MY! We are excited to host Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop Johnson City, Tennessee along with Families Free TOMORROW! We’ll have Woven Coffee with some of the best pie around from 1pm-4pm in the shoppe. These two are teaming up all month long to support local mothers reconnecting with their families. Come experience the inspiration for yourself Saturday!
http://wapo.st/2xpm3sx
I have had several clients victimized by this type of scam. Please discuss this with friends or family that may be vulnerable. Changing your status to divorced or widowed is a red flag. Also check who is following you in the drop down menu on Facebook. You will be shocked at the foreign sounding names. Block them!
WASHINGTONPOST.COM
He said he was in love. She sent him money. Then he disappeared.
Thoughts from the week: It is not a good idea to upgrade three major software programs and have a DOJ trustee audit the next week. Fortunately, we could provide all necessary documentation and audit went smoothly. I am not sure I like Windows 10.