Here’s a study from early of last year.
Many academics are pointing to this study as a reason to use the face mask. According to them the face mask increases the humidity of your airway.
They claim it does so because the mask traps water vapor which is then breathed back in to your lungs. Now, the reason they did the study is because they noted that people who live in moist humid environments have a lesser chance of contracting COVID-19 or experiencing the serious side effects of COVID-19.
Of course, this was already known during the first SARS epidemic; there was nothing new in knowing that humidity protected people, although you wouldn’t have known that from our government who failed to protect people when the pandemic began in 2020.
All Dr. Fauci had to do was tell you to turn off your air conditioner. He could have encouraged the elderly to move to a more humid environment. He could have encouraged people to purchase room humidifiers. I don’t remember him doing any of that.
In this study, individuals breathed into a box with a mask and without a mask.
What they discovered was that the humidity of the box went down when people wore a mask.
The researchers thus concluded that the mask would retain and increase humidity in the lungs.
This makes sense. If we aren’t wearing a mask and we are breathing into a box, the box then becomes an extension of our lungs. Of course the humidity will rise.
The problem with translating this experiment to the real world is that we don’t walk around with a box around our face.
When we walk, we walk at approximately 2 to 3 mph. it’s also likely that we’re encountering a wind current of another 2 to 5 mph. If we are walking outside we are also encountering the sun. Remember the sun? It’s that round thing in the sky that’s hot.
The sun and the wind tend to have a drying effect on the mask which will decrease markedly the water vapor that is retained within the mask. It’s very similar to placing a wet bath towel over a tub at night. You come back in the morning and the towel is magically dry.
Taking this into account, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that the mask is having the effect on humidity to the degree that they think it does. If you want to increase the humidity in your lungs, you’re probably better off by drinking a glass of water. Better yet, turn off the air conditioner.
So what’s the take home message?
A) Be careful about extrapolating studies to a real world experience. B) Many medical academics (not all) are often lazy thinkers and repeaters who are there to go along, get through the day, and make a few bucks.
Furthermore in our modern era, too much grant money is at stake for the professor to be truly objective. What is happening today in academia borders on extortion: Say what I want you to say, and I’ll leave you alone.
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Cowboy Archer 