Flu and ”orange light”

Masks come back !!

By Bernard RENTIER *

On December 11 , sensing some very questionable measures coming, I published this on Facebook and LinkedIn:

Read this carefully before forcing children to wear face masks again…

In Pediatric Respiratory Reviews in September 2024 , it was stated: “ There is no strong evidence that masking children reduces transmission of SARS-CoV-2 or other respiratory viruses.

Identified harms of masking include negative effects on communication, speech and language, learning and comprehension, emotional development and confidence, due to physical discomfort and reduced exercise duration and intensity .”

❇️ Masks: the return

At a time when we learn from a circular for schools and from the press that distancing measures and wearing masks will be recommended in schools, it may not be useless to come back to this and insist.

A Cochrane Group study (1) updated in January 2023 had already established a number of troubling findings after a very serious examination of the issue. It read: “ The effects of face masks are uncertain. The low to moderate certainty of the evidence means that our confidence in the estimate of effect is limited and the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of effect. Pooled results from randomized clinical trials did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infections with the use of medical/surgical masks. There was no clear difference between the use of medical/surgical masks and N95/P2 masks in healthcare workers when used as part of routine care in reducing respiratory viral infections. Hand hygiene may modestly reduce the burden of respiratory disease and, although this effect is also present when influenza-like illness and laboratory-confirmed 'true' influenza are analysed separately, the difference is not significant. The harms associated with physical interventions have not been adequately studied .

❇️ More disadvantages than advantages?

The question is obviously not limited to whether or not wearing a mask is an effective intervention against the transmission of respiratory viruses.

1. We understood that its effectiveness is not as great as we would like, that it collapses quite quickly but also due to improper handling (under the nose and not on it, taking it off and putting it back on, leaving it lying around anywhere in the meantime, in a pocket or hanging from the rearview mirror of the car, etc.). Even proper wearing quickly becomes ineffective in a room that is not intensively ventilated and aired . Indeed, not all the air inhaled and exhaled does not pass through the mask: most of it, except for direct projections (coughing, sneezing, spit), passes through the sides, top and bottom, and contributes to gradually loading the air in the unventilated room with nanodroplets loaded with transmissible virus. This is why occasional ventilation is not enough . Wearing a mask cannot be considered effective on the scale of a school classroom or a lecture hall. A serious study of ventilation/filtration is necessary.

2. Masks themselves can pose a hazard when worn extensively, and these hazards vary greatly depending on the quality of their manufacture. While masks do filter out larger dust and plastic particles and airborne fibers and have specific indications, they also carry risks, including the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) . Mandatory mask-wearing during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been found to have created an additional source of potentially harmful exposure to toxins with health-threatening and carcinogenic properties, at virtually no distance from the respiratory tract. An extensive review was conducted and its findings were published in the scientific journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety in 2023 .

3. Finally, there remains a clear epidemiological risk attributable to non-

   pharmaceutical health measures, namely that they interfere with natural immunization against various respiratory infectious agents...

❇️ Freedom of choice

Everyone must obviously decide what they want to do and is free to wear a mask if they wish, as long as they do not fall under the ban on hiding one's face which prevails at the same time ( law of 1 June 2011, which introduced article 563bis into the Belgian Penal Code ), which seems very difficult... Everyone must also exercise common sense and seriously consider wearing a mask (under the strict conditions which ensure its effectiveness and knowing that this is limited) if they are symptomatic or weakened.

The important question is that of the obligation , in particular for children and especially when it encourages flagrant errors of use or entails a risk greater than that of contamination. In any case, it is necessary to recall the major disadvantages, mainly for schoolchildren, in terms of social life , perception of emotions , school learning and toxicity .

Of course, it will be objected that this new implementation of the "orange mode" is clearly not mandatory , unlike the "red code" but only recommended . However, we all know that from orange, the turn to red is never far away and we know the zeal that school management can often apply when anxiety is present and maintained.

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(1) Cochrane is an international, independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving healthcare decision-making through high-quality systematic reviews of medical research. Founded in 1993, it synthesises the evidence on healthcare interventions and diagnostic tests and publishes the findings in the Cochrane Library. Its global network includes more than 37,000 volunteers (researchers, healthcare professionals and patients) working in 53 specialist review groups. Cochrane emphasises rigorous methodology, free from commercial influence, and is recognised as the gold standard for evidence-based healthcare information.

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