(LifeSiteNews) — Extended masking can result in mild carbon dioxide poisoning and in turn increase risks of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction, and cognitive decline in children, according to German researchers’ analysis of 43 studies.
Their findings, published in the medical journal Heliyon, suggest a “possible negative impact risk by imposing extended mask mandates especially for vulnerable subgroups. Circumstantial evidence exists that extended mask use may be related to current observations of stillbirths and to reduced verbal motor and overall cognitive performance in children born during the pandemic.”
Wearing a mask for more than five minutes raises the amount of carbon dioxide in the air one inhales from approximately 0.04% to between 1.41% and 3.2%, they write. While this is “usually within the short-term exposure limits, long-term exceedances and consequences must be considered due to experimental data,” and the data “indicate that mandatory daily long-term use of masks (surgical, N95), especially for children, adolescents, younger people and pregnant women can lead to negative effects.”
“So one has to ask: May there be a link between an increased mask-related (pandemic) global carbon dioxide re-breathing since 2020 and the current reported disturbing 28% rise in stillbirths worldwide?” they ask, noting that lockdown measures in Australia and Italy were associated with rising stillbirths but Sweden, which did not mandate masks, did not see such an increase. They also note “the fact that 42% of female USA surgeons surveyed between November 2020 and February 2021 lost a pregnancy according to a recent study,” which they take as significant because “surgeons are likely to have the heaviest mask exposure compared to the general population.”
“Altogether, there is experimental evidence for a possible negative impact risk on the mental and reproductive health of children, adolescents and early life (unborn) due to chronic carbon dioxide re-breathing since the introduction of mask mandates…” the study concludes. “Keeping in mind the weak antiviral mask efficacy, the general trend of forcing mask mandates even for the vulnerable subgroups is not based on sound scientific evidence and not in line with the obligation in particular to protect born or unborn children from potential harmful influences.”
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government recommended wearing face coverings in the presence of others, advice that many states and localities used to impose mask mandates on a wide range of public gatherings. But evidence has long since shown that masking was largely ineffective at limiting the spread of the virus.
Among that evidence is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC’s) September 2020 admission that masks cannot be counted on to keep out COVID when spending 15 minutes or longer within six feet of someone, and a May 2020 study published by the peer-reviewed CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that “did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility.”
In May 2021, another study found that, though mandates effectively increased mask use, that usage did not yield the expected benefits. “Mask mandates and use (were) not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among U.S. states” from March 2020 to March 2021. In fact, the researchers found the results to be a net negative, with masks increasing “dehydration … headaches and sweating and decreas[ing] cognitive precision,” and interfering with communication, as well as impairing social learning among children. Dozens of additional studies have reached similar conclusions.