The mask debate is getting epic. There is indeed quite a bit of disinformation, if not completely conflicting information put out regarding the regular use of masks and accompanying health information. As musicians performing indoors, the mask creates a serious dilemma. How do you play a wind instrument? How does a vocalist sing through a mask and at the same time be able to breathe the proper amount of oxygen to sustain long notes or high pitches? How about the rest of the band? Stages are tight; masks are mandated for less than 6 foot separation. While some gigs are easier than others, for the working musician, most gigs are in fact, work. We are sweating, our heart rates are up, we are needing more oxygen in balance of the dynamic creative input that uses so much energy from our bodies. Are masks really healthier for us as musicians, or even in general?

I am going to attempt to clear that up. I am not weighing in on whether or not YOU need to wear a mask and this is not medical advice. However, as a conscious human being on this planet, I feel it’s fair for everyone to know the pros and cons; the real truth and facts about wearing masks for health reasons, if nothing else. YOU can decide what works best for YOU.

For starters, it is important for the mask wearer to understand that the mask on your face reduces oxygen intake. For most, this is observed by a little dizziness, light-headedness or headache. For others, who depend on oxygen more than normal, the effects can be more pronounced and cause problems, especially long term. Remember that your body, your internal organs have to work harder when less oxygen in present. This is easily shown by the effects a significant rise in altitude can have on a professional athlete. Any person with pre-existing conditions that already tax the body is more at risk for issues when confronted with the lack of proper oxygen. Thus, it is not a one-size fits all strategy, especially for a diverse workforce that may be required to wear them 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week. The long term effects of taxing your body from lack of oxygen are proven and they are not beneficial, unless you are a well conditioned athlete, or already acclimated to a lower oxygen level geographically. Even then, lower oxygen levels will continue to cause the body to labor harder than it needs to.

Another important consideration regarding masks is the opposite side of the mask equation–exhalation. Your lungs are designed to inhale oxygen, process it and then expel carbon dioxide. In the process, various toxins are also expunged from your breathing apparatus. Both of these things can potentially get caught up in, or are hampered by mask wearing. With not as much CO2 getting out, you’re essentially breathing that CO2 back into your lungs, in addition to a reduced level of O2. Toxins that are supposed to leave the body can potentially go right back into the lungs, opposite of what should happen naturally. Again, the long term effects can be harmful; you are basically inhibiting the lungs from working properly. It would stand to reason that even a healthy person could become unhealthy, even temporarily, by not being able to properly process exhalation and lung functions.

The often debated question du jour–do masks really prevent transmission? Well, a few things to consider. First, we should scrutinize the masks themselves, as there is no mandate as to the specific type of mask that should be worn. A “respirator” type mask offers the most protection at a basic level, but this type of mask is impractical as there aren’t enough to go around and they’re expensive. N95 and M100 masks are probably the next best option, but consider the fact that when both become saturated with moisture they lose their effectiveness, which means that they have to be changed out every 3-5 hours. This can get expensive too. However, as a general public we’re really not talking about these type of masks are we? No, we are all told that a cloth mask is sufficient, even though it is the least protective, if protective at all.

Second, keep in mind that all masks have holes which are much larger in scale than a virus. Even an N95 or M100 mask cannot claim that they prevent the intake of a virus and some of those masks have holes or specific filters that allow more exhalation to occur, which ultimately allows more small particles to pass out of the wearer. When we get down to a cloth mask, the holes are even larger compared to the virus. For analogy, it’s like trying to stop mosquitoes with a chain link fence. Is this really a good strategy for stopping the transmission of a deadly virus or are we just fooling ourselves? Sure, the sneeze and cough will be mostly contained by a mask, but not all of it will stay inside, nor will all of someone else’s exhalation stay outside of your mask. Hospital staff aren’t wearing those masks to prevent inhalation; they are attempting to contain their own funk. Open wounds and/or surgeries are highly susceptible to even the more normally harmless germs, if those germs are able to directly access the bloodstream. This can cause major complications for patients, even for routine surgeries if hospital rooms and doctors/nurses aren’t disinfected as much as possible. This is an entirely different realm of issue than the transmission of a potential germ into the lungs through inhalation. Hospital staff still get sick from their patients, even though wearing those cloth surgical masks.

Third, as mentioned earlier, masks cease to function effectively when they are wet. However, even worse, they attract more particles when wet. The wetness of breath various greatly between wearer, especially when performing physical functions. Are all of these people changing their masks at the appropriate humidity level? It can just as easily be argued that wearing a mask out in public attracts just as many germs to it as your bare faced mouth would. The difference is that your face dries almost immediately; the mask is brought home (with germs in tow) to be integrated into other areas where the virus might spread again. And by the way, is the possible covid infected mask a bio hazard now? How do you dispose of it? Why would you even potentially bring such a deadly bug into your house after wearing a mask all day to avoid it?

A big concept that is getting missed here has to do with asymptomatic transmission. Regardless of the fear push by the media, most all of the experts agree that asymptomatic transmission is very rare and is not seen in any of the contract tracing that they are doing. Consider the fact that if you have covid but you have no symptoms, are you really technically sick? If you do not have symptoms, either your body already has (or has recently produced) antibodies. You don’t have enough virus in terms of parts per million to even raise your body temperature. To think that this incredibly small amount of bug (that can’t even produce symptoms) is still in such high amounts in a persons breath is ridiculous. Sure, we’ve all heard of “Typhoid Mary”, but that’s the typhoid; perhaps there is something with that particular illness that allows asymptomatic transmission, or maybe it’s just the “deadlier” part that had people scared. In either case, you’re going to tell me that the only well defined case of asymptomatic transmission is memorialized from 100 years ago from one person? “Science” thought that the flu was a bacteria up until ~ 1933. Where are the latest studies?

Essentially, the bottom line is that while most folks should be okay to wear a mask for short periods of time, longer term regular use can have adverse effects on the wearer. This is the reason mask boxes have a warning label. Additionally, the positive health effects of wearing a mask are minimal to the wearer, especially if they are healthy. The mask does not greatly reduce transmission at all and may actually increase it. This is also on the warning label.

So who are we wearing masks for? Other people. People who probably shouldn’t be out if they are truly health compromised. This brings us to perhaps the most important and yet most obfuscated part of the debate–the ethicality and morality behind forcing people to make health decisions that may potentially harm them, especially considering that those “decisions” are made by people who are specifically not YOU. Who should decide what is best for your healthcare–YOU or someone else? Ceding such an important decision to someone else makes little sense and the slippery slope of having to make YOUR health decisions based on the needs of other people is obvious to all but sheep. Are butt plugs next up to reduce fecal transmission? Sounds silly for sure, but you can see where this thing can go–mandatory health decisions (read: vaccines) that are unnecessary and even unhealthy to a person with a healthy immune system, that are being made by OTHER people for YOUR supposed health “benefits.”

We’ll cover this in Part 2. Stay safe out there. Your immune system is your friend–make sure to keep your own health in check and your buddy will always be there, fighting the nasty bugs for you. Get plenty of rest, exercise regularly, eat healthy, unprocessed foods and avoid negative energy vis a vis stress, worry, anger, etc. You’ll thank me when you don’t get sick!