Do Masks Increase Your Risk Of Cancer?
Mar 20, 2021 23:21:25 GMT -5
Post by Honoria on Mar 20, 2021 23:21:25 GMT -5
Do Masks Increase Your Risk Of Cancer?
By Neenah Payne
Note: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment provided by a qualified healthcare provider.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force has advised Americans to wear masks. The theory is that even healthy people might be asymptomatic carriers of the COVID-19 virus and wearing a mask not only protects them from others but protects people they come in contact with. How does that requirement stack up to the science? Is wearing masks helpful? Can they be harmful?
Cloth Masks: Dangerous To Your Health? reports:
Respiratory infection is much higher among healthcare workers wearing cloth masks compared to medical masks, research shows. Cloth masks should not be used by workers in any healthcare setting, authors of the new study say….The widespread use of cloth masks by healthcare workers may actually put them at increased risk of respiratory illness and viral infections and their global use should be discouraged, according to a UNSW study….The penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% compared to medical masks with 44%…The author speculate that the cloth masks/ moisture retention, their reuse and poor filtration may explain the increased risk of infection.
The article adds:
Professor MacIntyre, who has completed the largest body of clinical trial research on respiratory protection in health workers internationally, said “it is important for global disease control that the use of cloth masks be discouraged in high-risk situations. Despite more than half the world using cloth masks, global disease control guidelines, including those from the World Health Organisation, fail to clearly specify conditions of their use. These guidelines need to be updated to reflect the higher infection risk posed by cloth masks, as found in our study. Professor MacIntypre said the study’s results pointed to the effectiveness of medical masks, in addition to the harm caused by cloth masks.
WHO: Asymptomatic People Rarely Spread CV-19!
Unpacking the New WHO Controversy Over Asymptomatic COVID-19 Transmission includes a video in which Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for COVID-19, said at a press briefing on June 8 that asymptomatic transmission appears to be “very rare.”
The article says:
For months, researchers have warned that people without any COVID-19 symptoms could still be silent carriers of the disease, making it that much harder to get the pandemic under control—and that much more important to take precautions like social distancing and wearing a mask, even if you feel fine.
So it came as a surprise when Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) technical lead for COVID-19, said at a press briefing on June 8 that asymptomatic transmission appears to be “very rare.” Her statement came just days after the organization directed healthy people living in areas with widespread community transmission to wear fabric face masks in public to help contain the advance of the disease.
In an interview with TIME following the press briefing, Van Kerkhove said she did not mean to suggest that asymptomatic people cannot spread COVID-19. “I did not say that asymptomatic cases cannot transmit; they can,” Van Kerkhove says. “The question is, do they? And if they do, how often is that happening?” Van Kerkhove says there’s not yet a clear answer, but the WHO’s analyses suggest symptomatic individuals are responsible for most coronavirus transmission. (She also clarified during a June 9 briefing that her comments were in response to a journalist’s question, and did not constitute official WHO policy.)
Article continues at link
By Neenah Payne
Note: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment provided by a qualified healthcare provider.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force has advised Americans to wear masks. The theory is that even healthy people might be asymptomatic carriers of the COVID-19 virus and wearing a mask not only protects them from others but protects people they come in contact with. How does that requirement stack up to the science? Is wearing masks helpful? Can they be harmful?
Cloth Masks: Dangerous To Your Health? reports:
Respiratory infection is much higher among healthcare workers wearing cloth masks compared to medical masks, research shows. Cloth masks should not be used by workers in any healthcare setting, authors of the new study say….The widespread use of cloth masks by healthcare workers may actually put them at increased risk of respiratory illness and viral infections and their global use should be discouraged, according to a UNSW study….The penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% compared to medical masks with 44%…The author speculate that the cloth masks/ moisture retention, their reuse and poor filtration may explain the increased risk of infection.
The article adds:
Professor MacIntyre, who has completed the largest body of clinical trial research on respiratory protection in health workers internationally, said “it is important for global disease control that the use of cloth masks be discouraged in high-risk situations. Despite more than half the world using cloth masks, global disease control guidelines, including those from the World Health Organisation, fail to clearly specify conditions of their use. These guidelines need to be updated to reflect the higher infection risk posed by cloth masks, as found in our study. Professor MacIntypre said the study’s results pointed to the effectiveness of medical masks, in addition to the harm caused by cloth masks.
WHO: Asymptomatic People Rarely Spread CV-19!
Unpacking the New WHO Controversy Over Asymptomatic COVID-19 Transmission includes a video in which Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for COVID-19, said at a press briefing on June 8 that asymptomatic transmission appears to be “very rare.”
The article says:
For months, researchers have warned that people without any COVID-19 symptoms could still be silent carriers of the disease, making it that much harder to get the pandemic under control—and that much more important to take precautions like social distancing and wearing a mask, even if you feel fine.
So it came as a surprise when Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) technical lead for COVID-19, said at a press briefing on June 8 that asymptomatic transmission appears to be “very rare.” Her statement came just days after the organization directed healthy people living in areas with widespread community transmission to wear fabric face masks in public to help contain the advance of the disease.
In an interview with TIME following the press briefing, Van Kerkhove said she did not mean to suggest that asymptomatic people cannot spread COVID-19. “I did not say that asymptomatic cases cannot transmit; they can,” Van Kerkhove says. “The question is, do they? And if they do, how often is that happening?” Van Kerkhove says there’s not yet a clear answer, but the WHO’s analyses suggest symptomatic individuals are responsible for most coronavirus transmission. (She also clarified during a June 9 briefing that her comments were in response to a journalist’s question, and did not constitute official WHO policy.)
Article continues at link