Posted on 06/07/2022 11:04:20 AM PDT by Heartlander
It took a long time, but my study on masks has finally appeared in the prestigious journal Medicine. What is my study about?
It is about whether masks decrease case fatality from COVID-19 (because less viral material is transmitted) or increase it. Increase sounds illogical? Ask yourself if you would wear the mask of a Covid patient. You probably wouldn’t, otherwise you could become infected by inhaling the viruses he or she breathed into the mask.
My study, based on the U.S. state of Kansas, provides the answer: case mortality was significantly lower in counties without mandatory masks. Mandatory masking increased case mortality there by 85%. Even after factoring in the reduced number of cases due to masks, the numbers still remain 52% higher. Over 95% of this effect can only be attributed to COVID-19, so it is not CO2, bacteria or fungi under the mask.
The reason for this is what I call the Foegen effect: deep re-inhalation of condensed droplets or pure virions which were trapped in the mask as droplets can worsen the prognosis. Each of these steps has been documented in the literature.
This effect has now even been demonstrated in animal models. Further studies in humans comparing mask versus helmet or nasal tube show the same result.
Two other, even larger evaluations show the same effect on the case fatality rate. A peer-reviewed study in the journal Cureus shows that there is no association between mask compliance and case numbers in Europe, but there is a statistically significant positive association between mask compliance and deaths. This means: more mask use, same number of cases, but more deaths.
A peer-reviewed study by Adjodah et. al. analyses the effect of mask mandates on cases and mortality (but not case fatality rate) in the USA on a pre-post-basis, and finds that after the lifting of a mask mandate, cases rise but mortality does not, which effectively means that lifting a mask mandate lowers the case fatality rate. Conversely, the implementation of a mask mandate increases case fatality rate.
My study is open access and you can find it here – the PDF version (available via the download button in the left bar) is particularly recommended for its helpful layout.The_Foegen_effect__A_mechanism_by_which_facemasks.60
And still see a significant number of peeps wearing masks in stores, cars, etc.......
Placebo effect worked wonders.
“And still see a significant number of peeps wearing masks in stores, cars, etc.......”
Non Sequitur
Even during the very worst of the "mask-mandate" madness during 2020, I almost never wore one. Even when I was forced to, such as on a train or in a doctor office, I would often pull it down to get fresh air. I always felt like I was suffocating in those darn things.
I have no idea how other people can happily wear one even when they are not required to.
I have been posting using this for a few days on line and face to face.
Facemasks and COVID-19 case fatality rate
COVID-19FACEMASKSFOEGEN EFFECTMASK MANDATESARS-COV-2
Zacharias Fögen
Abstract
Mask mandates have been a globally used epidemiologic intervention during the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. Although there is extensive supporting literature on the use of facemask to reduce infection rates, its effect on the individual and course of disease has remained controversial.
The purpose of this study was to find if mandatory masking influences the case fatality rate. This study used data on case updates, mask mandates, and demographic status related to the Kansas state, USA. The data were analyzed using a parallelization approach based on county-level data.
The results showed that in Kansas during the summer of 2020, the counties with mask mandate had significantly higher case fatality rates compared to counties without mask mandate, with a risk ratio of 1.85 [1.51-2.10] for death with COVID-19.
Even after adjusting for the number of ‘protected persons’, i.e., the number of persons who were not infected in the mask-mandated group compared to the no-mask group, the risk ratio remained significantly high at 1.52 [1.24-1.72]. By analyzing the excess mortality in Kansas, this study determines that over 95% of this effect can solely be attributed to COVID-19. The cause of this trend and the possible connection between long-term effects associated with SARS-CoV-2 and facemasks are explained in the theory herein by the ‘foegen effect’; i.e., deep reinhalation of pure virions caught in the facemasks as droplets can worsen the prognosis.
This finding suggests that the use of facemasks in COVID-19 pandemic did contribute to an increase in the death toll counterintuitive of its purpose, making mask mandates a highly debatable epidemiologic intervention.
I always go shopping in a non-mask-mandated county. However, I still see a few poor souls clinging to their precious masks.
“I would often pull it down to get fresh air. I always felt like I was suffocating in those darn things.”
I use the KN95s, and with COPD, I can only take it for a few minutes, too.
On Monday, Jewel Food Stores in Chicago, part of the Albertson’s chain reinstated the Mask Mandate for all employees and put up signs “strongly encouraging” customers to wear masks while shopping.
Many sheep obeyed.
Poor form to do a study and name an effect after yourself.
If your research is reviewed and can be replicated, others will name it for him.
Says the non-entity.
Wouldn’t the same hold true for bacteria that may be on the mask and then breathed in? I know of a little girl who had to have part of her lung removed because she got a staph infection there. I think it was because she was required to wear her mask at school, and she breathed in staph that was on her mask.
NEVER wore a mask. And I’m in Broward county FL, the giant tumor on the great state of FL. Try that!
Does anyone have a link to a repository or list of ‘mask science’ papers/articles?
I lost mine in a computer switch. I have some - including this new one - but would like more to have the list I had prior.
Thanks in advance.
SamAdams76
“I would often pull it down to get fresh air. I always felt like I was suffocating in those darn things.”
I use the KN95s, and with COPD, I can only take it for a few minutes, too.”
3 years ago we had the late summer months surrounded by forest fires. Smoke was
I was not able to finish even short walks due to the smoke.
My cardio doc recommended using the 3M KN95’s. So we bought a package of them.
I put one on and went on the 120 yard long street by our house with a simple 5 degree incline on the last 40 yards.
I was having problems breathing on level ground, and I barely made about 10 yards on the simple grade. I pulled off the mask and returned home. My RN wife met me at the door and helped me in.
She had me lay down on the couch and elevate my upper body. My pulse rate was over 100. It took about 10 minutes to get back into normal breathing.
There was a shortage of masks in the early phases of Covid 1984 and some hospitals accepted mask donations. Our HMO accepted some cheap cloth masks and turned down the KN95’s because they can’t breath with them.
...I am not sure where this issues stands, but I think the country would erupt (or at least part of it would...) if the mask mandate for public transportation comes back...”follow the science....” we were told, and the science tells us now that face diapers are NOT healthy, but.....who cares.....
That was really the last bastion of the face diapers. Even though I work in NYC, I haven't had one on since around April.
Prior to March 2020, the CDC, WHO and every major medical organization advise that only sick people (to minimize the spread suring coughing and sneezing) or those taking care of them should wear masks. By late March 2020, facemasks suddenly became synonymous with morality: either one cared about the lives of others and donned a mask, or one was selfish and refused to do so. By April 2020, as rapidly as mask use became a matter of ethics, the issue transformed into a political one with the national media noting that despite very little data showing that surgical masks have a protective effect for the general public, they argue that they “may be better than nothing”. The politicization intensified as President Trump refused to wear a mask relatively early on. By the end of March 2020, the New York Times and the Washington Post unequivocally promoted mask-wearing. By April 2020, to walk the streets of any major city with one’s nose and mouth exposed evoked the sort of reaction that in February would have been reserved for the appearance of a machine gun. What is shocking is the scientific community’s participation with multiple public health official claiming thousands of people could be saved with mask mandates, claiming “they were our first line of defense against the pandemic”.
Here is the readers digest version of that study:
• An observational study aimed to determine whether mandatory mask use influenced the case fatality rate in Kansas, USA between August 1st and October 15th 2020 concluded that “results from this study strongly suggest that mask mandates actually caused about 1.5 times the number of deaths or ∼50% more deaths compared to no mask mandates” (Medicine. 2022;101(7):e28924 doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000028924). The risk for the individual wearing the mask should even be higher, because there is an unknown number of people who either do not obey mask mandates, are exempted for medical reasons or do not go to public places where mask mandates are in effect. The mask mandates themselves have increased the CFR by 1.85 / 1.58 or by 85% / 58% in counties with mask mandates. It was also found that almost all of these additional deaths were attributed solely to COVID-19. Therefore, this number is most likely underestimated and depends to a large extent on the percentage of people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 but did not die with COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death. Other studies have described that 15% of patients with COVID-19 infection died from decompensation due to other pathologies and the cause of death was unrelated to severe complications of COVID-19. Kansas, with over 2.8 million residents was used for comparison because the state allowed each of its 105 counties to decide whether or not to implement mask mandates, with 81 counties deciding against the measure. This study applied secondary data on case updates, mask mandates, and demographic status related to Kansas State, USA. A parallelization analysis based on county-level data was conducted on these data. Results were controlled by performing multiple sensitivity analyses and a negative control. These findings suggest that mask use might pose a yet unknown threat to the user instead of protecting them, making mask mandates a debatable epidemiologic intervention. A rationale for the increased RR by mandating masks is probably that virions that enter or those coughed out in droplets are retained in the facemask tissue, and after quick evaporation of the droplets, hypercondensed droplets or pure virions (virions not inside a droplet) are re-inhaled from a very short distance during inspiration. In the “Foegen effect,” the virions spread (because of their smaller size) deeper into the respiratory tract. They bypass the bronchi and are inhaled deep into the alveoli, where they can cause pneumonia instead of bronchitis, which would be typical of a virus infection. The “Foegen effect” theory suggest that deep re-inhalation of hypercondensed droplets or pure virions caught in facemasks as droplets can worsen prognosis and might be linked to long-term effects of COVID-19 infection. While the “Foegen effect” is proven in vivo in an animal model, further research is needed to fully understand it. The fundamentals of this effect are easily demonstrated when wearing a facemask and glasses at the same time by pulling the upper edge of the mask over the lower edge of the glasses. Droplets appear on the mask when breathing out and disappear when breathing in. The use of “better” masks (e.g., FFP2, FFP3) with a higher droplet-filtering capacity probably should cause an even stronger “Foegen effect” because the number of virions that are potentially re-inhaled increases in the same way that outward shedding is reduced.
Whenever I see someone wearing a mask, that tells me EVERYTHING I need to know about that person.
Additionally, they should not procreate.
I have been know to laugh at them if I am in the mood.
I don’t give a Fu*k these days. Well actually for a while now.
I am not Vaccinated nor will I participate in these ridiculous & idiotic testing going on.
Pure Blood and Critical Thinker here.
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