Dear Reader,
The wearing of a face mask to protect against a respiratory virus is an act of grand deceit. It is a behavior that defies research on the topic. Wearing a face mask, as this article (one of many) points to — is unsafe to do and is ineffective.
Until the narrative around mandatory masking has changed, each day by 6am Eastern, I will both post here and send out a science-based reason why no one should wear a face mask.
I ask that you help me circulate these pieces to those around you who you believe could most benefit from them. It is important not to remain silent on this topic. These are important discussions to be having with friends, family members, business owners, healthcare practitioners, public servants, and others in the community.
-Allan
There is research and policy going back decades, that says any respiratory equipment worn on the face has to not produce a high physiological burden on the wearer.
In the HSE Contract research report No. 27/1991 article, “Dead Space and inhaled carbon dioxide levels in respiratory protective equipment,” L. A. Morris writes:1
“One of the more important functions of respiratory protective equipment (RPE) standards has been to ensure that devices do not impose an excessive physiological burden upon the wearer. High levels of strain may lead to operator fatigue or, where other environmental stressors exist, to acute health damage.”
This question has hardly been asked since the Ides of March 2020, at least not by those institutions tasked with asking them. It has hardly been asked by the elites tasked with asking them. It has hardly been asked by the scientific journalism community tasked with asking them. One purpose of this book is to more thoroughly ask that question. If it were asked properly, it would fail that test.
Does the mandatory masking of the general population impose an excessive physiological burden upon the wearer?
The answer is yes.
The response therefore, by all institutions and professionals tasked with this work must be to stand against such mandates.
They largely refuse to do the work they have been trusted by society to do for decades: ensuring that a respirator does not place an undue burden on the wearer.
Instead, they are largely silent.
In contrast, Face Masks Hurt Kids is filled with the accounts of heroes who refused to remain silent.
Morris continues, pointing to foundational and still very much relevant studies on the topic of “dead space” and the “rebreathing of carbon dioxide” from 1974 and 1984:
“A review of the literature by Louhevaara2 found that the re-breathing of carbon dioxide due to added dead space was a potential source of strain in RPE. In physiological terms, dead space can be defined as the volume of the airway in which there is no significant exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.”3
The term “dead space,” is sometimes used in connection to face masks and other respiratory protective equipment.
Dead space is space in the respiratory system that is unable to engage in an efficient exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. It is part of your respiratory system, but it is not a part that efficiently exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide. The wearing of a face mask increases the dead space by trapping air outside of the body, so near the mouth and nose that it can effectively be considered part of the body’s respiratory system, part of the “dead space,” in which air is present but does not engage in efficient oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange. Morris Continues:
“Wearing a respirator face mask or mouthpiece increases the physiological dead space and hence the volume of the previous exhalation (with high carbon dioxide content) which is re-inhaled with each breath. The increased inhaled carbon dioxide levels which result from this effect lead to both increased lung ventilation and the retention of carbon dioxide in the lungs.4,5 Initially the RPE wearer may only be aware of increased breathing effort but as inhaled carbon dioxide levels increase, the ability to compensate through hyperventilation diminishes, leading to the onset of adverse physiological reactions and symptoms. Limits must therefore be set for inhaled carbon dioxide in respirators if adverse health effects are to be avoided.4
“A number of factors influence the dead space imposed by a respirator face mask. The design of the mask in terms of its internal volume, the location of openings and the paths of air into and out of the device, all have an influence on the dead space effect.6 It is important to recognize that not all the dead space volume within the face mask is re-breathed. The volume closest to the mouth and nose will be, but there may also be static pockets of air around the edge of the facepiece. On this basis one can distinguish an effective dead space from the geometric dead space, the latter being the actual volume of the facepiece cavity. Physiological effects are dependent upon the effective dead space and it is this parameter which is evaluated either directly or indirectly (through inhaled carbon dioxide levels) in standard test methods.”
As can be seen, there is such intricacy of design that has long gone into the study of the safety of respiratory devices.
This was entirely done away with in 2020 and beyond. This leads one to ask “If it was so important then, why is it so unimportant now?”
The initial answer was “Because Covid is so dangerous.” That was proven to be an inaccurate claim by February 2020 with the quarantined cruise ship known as the Grand Princess.
Very few died. The old and infirm were most likely to die. Those with serious comorbidities were an easy target for this virus.
My family and I were passengers aboard the Grand Princess in December 2019. My daughter, celebrating her first birthday, was a beloved passenger to many. We befriended dozens of crew members who were eventually quarantined off the coast of California as health officers and researchers figured out what was going on aboard that ship.
I could not help but notice as salacious and deceitful reports came off that ship. The media told lie after lie about an illness proven in February 2020 to have health outcomes comparable to the seasonal flu — a little worse in the sick and elderly, far better in the young and healthy.
Despite that near perfect closed environment for an experiment, that February 2020 data about how minor of a concern Covid was, both biologically and medically, it did not stop the March 17, 2020, lockdown of the San Francisco Bay Area adjacent to the ship and the April 3, 2020, face mask orders.
Everyone who signed those orders had access to how not serious Covid was because of the data from the Grand Princess and proceeded anyway with these brutal public health measures.
Our institutions, our professionals, our elites are either inept or up to no good. Either way, they need to be removed and never allowed a position of trust in our society again, as long as they live.
Morris LA. Dead Space and Inhaled Carbon Dioxide Levels in Respiratory Protective Equipment. HSE Health & Safety Executive. 1991. Retrieved from https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/crr_pdf/1991/crr91027
LOUHEVAARA (1984). Physiological effects associated with the use of respiratory protective devices. A review. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health; 10: 275-281.
COMROE, (1974). Physiology of respiration. An introductory text. 2nd ed. Chicago: Year Book Medical.
JAMES, (1976). Breathing resistance and dead space in respiratory protective devices. Physiological effects of breathing resistance and equipment dead space in respiratory protective devices: status of the problem. Cincinnati (OH): US Department of Health, Education and Welfare. (HEW Publication (NIOSH) 77-161)
DAHLBACK and FALLHAGEN, (1987). A novel method for measuring dead space in respiratory protective equipment. Journal of the International Soc. For Respiratory Protection; 5(1): 12-17.
KLOOS and LAMONICA, (1966). A machine-test method for measuring carbon dioxide in the inspired air of self-contained breathing apparatus. Pittsburgh (PA): US Bureau of Mines. (USBM Report of Investigations 6865).
The bestselling book "Face Masks In One Lesson" by Allan Stevo describes how to never wear a face mask again. The follow-up to the book, "Face Masks Hurt Kids," describes why to never wear a face mask again. We must defeat the awful, narrative around the mandates.
Examples of how face masks hurt kids will be posted to the Lockdown Land Substack each morning by 6am Eastern until the narrative around this ineffective and harmful medical intervention has shifted. Face masks are, in fact, not just harmful to children. Face masks are harmful to everyone. Thank you so much for helping me circulate this research.