People Still Wearing Masks, Even as Doctors Raise Concerns
Carbon dioxide harms the developing brain, neurosurgeon says
Last weekend we drove upstate to see my friend’s son perform in a high school production of Mary Poppins.
On the way back, we stopped for lunch at a soul food restaurant.
There was a MASKS REQUIRED sign on the door.
Thinking it was a throwback, my friends and I ignored the sign and went in.
But we were surprised to see several signs exhorting patrons that masks “must be worn at all times” inside the restaurant.
Though only one server had a mask on, about half the diners were actually wearing masks.
Chin jewelry
Mostly as chin jewelry. Or dangling from an ear.
A couple had them under their noses as they walked to the restroom. I only saw one patron, an older woman walking with a cane, wearing a mask covering her nose and mouth.
I was relieved that no one said anything to us about being naked faced. If they had, we would’ve left and found another place to eat.
But then a little boy entered the restaurant, dressed in his Sunday finest, with a mask completely obscuring his face.
He might have been eight years old. Seeing him masked up left me heartbroken.
It also made me think about a presentation I attended by Dr. Avery Jackson, a Michigan-based board-certified neurosurgeon.
Neurosurgeon reviews harms of masking
Two years ago, Jackson told an audience of mostly medical doctors and Ph.D. scientists that he performs complicated brain surgeries in the operating room as often as four times a week.
During these surgeries, which can last for up to eighteen hours, Jackson, Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of Michigan Neurosurgical Institute in Grand Blanc, always wears a surgical mask.
While masks make sense in the operating room, Jackson said, people—especially children—shouldn’t be wearing masks in their everyday lives.
Wearing masks outside the operating room creates a host of health problems.
According to Jackson, masking is especially dangerous for children’s developing brains.
Inhaling your exhale isn’t healthy
In 1957, a team of eight scientists investigated the effect of carbon dioxide on the brain.
Their research, which was published in the American Journal of Physiology, found that when rats were forced to inhale carbon dioxide at low, medium, and high concentrations, concerning changes in their brains occurred.
This happened at every level of exposure.
Carbon dioxide inhalation, even at moderate levels, caused some of the rats to have brain seizures.
In 2014 scientists found that negative brain effects due to carbon dioxide exposure were even more pronounced for juvenile animals.
This research, which was done by a team of Turkish scientists and published in the peer-reviewed journal Biotechnic & Histochemistry, found that carbon dioxide exposure markedly impaired brain function, causing problems with memory and spatial learning. It also increased anxiety in adolescent rats.
At even the lowest levels, carbon dioxide inhalation hurts the brain
Masking isn’t just bad for rodents.
As Jackson explained, a study on human exposure to carbon dioxide had similar findings.
In 2011 a team of scientists based in Dallas, Texas sought to investigate whether inhaling carbon dioxide altered brain activity.
For this study in humans, the scientists did brain magnetic resonance imaging after exposing 50 healthy human subjects (32 men and 18 women) to carbon dioxide tainted air.
At even the lowest levels of exposure, this study found, carbon dioxide reduced brain activity.
Another study, done in 2021 with 11 healthy volunteers, found that using masks resulted in significantly increased concentrations of carbon dioxide.
While these researchers concluded that elevated levels shouldn’t be of concern for healthcare providers, they pointed out that “the clinical implications of elevated CO2 levels with long-term use of face masks needs further studies.”
Ample evidence
According to Jackson, there’s already “ample evidence” that the use of face masks is unhealthy.
Any kind of oxygen restriction, Jackson said, may have negative brain effects, reducing neural activity and increasing learning problems and anxiety.
Furthermore, the findings in the scientific literature dovetailed with what Jackson saw with his own 8-year-old daughter, as well as some of her classmates.
After the school forced all the children to wear masks, his daughter developed headaches, had difficulty concentrating, and started getting bad grades.
Jackson said that masking made another child at the same school feel so anxious that she threw up, twice, inside the mask.
Despite this, the teachers insisted the child wear it.
“Our children are having significant cerebral dysfunction when they wear masks,” Jackson said, adding that the problems created by masking are both neurological and emotional.
Developmental delays
Several studies have shown that babies and small children born during COVID—at a time when adults and children have been masking—are showing myriad signs of developmental delays.
According to research from Brown University, for example, the verbal skills of babies born during COVID went down.
This research included 672 Rhode Island children, 308 born before January 2019, 176 born between January 2019 and March 2020, and 188 born after July 2020.
The study found that babies had markedly worse cognitive, verbal, and motor skills than their counterparts born before COVID.
The researchers found that even in the absence of direct SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 illness, the environmental changes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic “significantly and negatively affect[ed] infant and child development.”
Another study found that COVID-era infants are less relational and vocal than babies born pre-pandemic.
COVID babies do not talk, babble, or coo as much as they should.
Vocalizations are precursors to speaking.
“Early talk is one of the most important factors shaping children’s brain development during the first few years of life,” the non-profit that conducted the study explain on their website.
According to Harvard University, early experiences lay the foundation for future learning, behavior, and health in children.
Compromising brain architecture early in life can have a profound effect on a child’s future.
“Just as a weak foundation compromises the quality and structure of a house, adverse experiences early in life can impair brain architecture, with negative effects lasting into adulthood,” Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child explains.
Adults wearing masks around small children may be one reason for the developmental delays babies and small children have experienced.
Masking makes it impossible for babies and small children to learn to read facial expressions, which in turn impedes language learning and emotional intelligence.
“Faces are a complex and rich source of social, emotional and linguistic signals,” wrote David J. Lewkowicz, Ph.D., a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories and an adjunct professor in the Yale Child Study Center at Yale University in an article for Scientific American.
“We rely on all of these signals to communicate with one another through a complex and dynamic dance that depends on each partner being able to read the other’s signals.”
Lewkowicz’s work found that babies learn to lip read when they are around eight months old, which is a crucial step in learning to speak as well as to understand speech.
People of all ages have difficulty understanding what others are saying when they’re wearing masks—both because it’s harder to hear a person speak through a mask and because the speaker’s face is not visible, making it difficult for the listener to read body language and emotions.
No wonder babies born during a time when most people in public places in America were masking experienced cognitive delays.
Jeffrey Barke, M.D., is a board-certified primary care physician in private practice in California.
When I interviewed him for an article, Barke didn’t mince words about the problems with children wearing masks.
It “causes direct harm,” he insisted, “including increased anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and learning disorders.”
Most importantly, he added, it prevents the critical bonding between children and adults.
I tried to smile at that 8-year-old who was wearing a mask.
But I couldn’t see his face.
So I have no idea if he smiled back.
Related articles:
The Real Reason Young People Are Still Wearing Masks
Masking Our Fears: Like a Lucky Rabbit’s Foot, Your Mask Protects You
Wearing a Mask Can Harm Your Health
About the author:
Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning science journalist and a sought-after speaker. A different version of this article first appeared in The Epoch Times. Support medical freedom and independent journalism by becoming a paid subscriber to Vibrant Life.
I heard a neurosurgeon say that in the OR they have increased oxygen pressure to negate the effect of the masking, especially for long surgeries.
Thanks - I think we all instinctively know masks are unhealthy, but you prove it. It always amazes me when I see someone walking outdoors in the open air with a mask on, or when I see someone all alone driving a car with a mask on, still today, long after the covid scare. What in the world are they thinking?