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Masks and obesity

September 2, 2023

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Contact tracing, masks and mandates coming soon!

“What’s Her Face” just dropped a new video, and it is right on target.

As businesses, medical facilities, schools and public spaces are beginning to insist on masks again, it is important that this time, we all just say no as much as possible. Whether or not masks work is actually not the point. Personally, I found the Cochrane meta analysis that showed no obvious benefit to mask wearing to prevent infectious respiratory diseases, including COVID-19 to be compelling. More to the point is that it is our right to chose. Weaponizing public health to control people is a clear sign that our government has moved into dangerous territory.

But the truth is that mask use has negative consequences on mental and physical health.

Masks are not benign, particularly N95s -which are also classified as respirators. Among the many physical health risks of masking are that they reduce airflow, increase CO2 and increase body temperature during exercise.

The truth is that those most fearful of catching COVID are also the most vulnerable to the fear mongering. This fear mongering is coming from our government, schools, medical facilities and main stream media.

Currently over 42% of Americans are obese, and over 9% of Americans are morbidly obese. Being obese is unhealthy. Life expectancy is predicted to be 5.6-7.6 years less for people who are obese and loss of life expectancy for those who are morbidly obese is over 14 years.

One of the health issues associated with obesity is a reduction in lung volume and capacity as compared to healthy individuals.

Combining a reduction of lung volume and capacity, with the use of masking creates an even larger risk for people who are obese. One recent study warns that the “combination of warm ambient temperature, an N-95 mask, exercise, and young age appeared to induce exceedingly high CO₂ levels that should be avoided.” and that elevated CO₂ concentrations found behind masks “have historically caused symptoms of CO₂ toxicity.” A study published in July, 2023 documents that “metabolic demands and internal breathing environments are significantly impacted by all combinations of coverings tested when compared to N95 only”.

One does not have to be a physician to understand just how unhealthy being over weight is. To combine that with masking is a dangerous practice. Below are a series of images taken recently during one 25-minute period at a popular theme park. It is quite clear that the individuals in these photos are stressed.

As a nation, we can not let our public health officials normalize mask wearing as a tactic to combat infectious disease. Mask wearing is not normal. It is unhealthy. It is particularly unhealthy for children and for people with pre-existing conditions, such as obesity.

But even more importantly, public health should not be in the business of mandating life style choices – whether healthy or not.

Our bodies, our choice.