Is Mask-Wearing a Positive Feedback Loop?

 

CO2 does not present a danger to human life until it is consistently over 8,000 or so – and the N95 Covid masks increase the concentration we inhale to 3,000-36,000 ppm. Those masks might produce a positive feedback loop, making people stupider and thus more prone to keep wearing them

What are the symptoms of hypercapnia (hypercarbia)?

Symptoms of hypercapnia include:

  • Shortness of breath.
  • Headaches.
  • Persistent tiredness or sluggishness during the day.
  • Disorientation.
  • Confusion or altered mental state.
  • Paranoia.
  • Depression.

Chronic hypercapnia may cause vague symptoms like tiredness, headaches and shortness of breath. These may eventually lead to neurological symptoms like confusion.

Another study

Researchers from SUNY and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recruited 22 people and divided them into three rooms. In each room, CO2 levels were adjusted to either 600, 1,000, or 2,500 parts per million—all of which are well below the 5,000-ppm max dictated by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). Each group member completed a computer activity that measured decision-making ability.

The results were surprising: Average scores on seven different measures of decision making dropped 11 to 23% when the CO2 was pumped up from 600 to 1,000 ppm. And at 2,500 ppm—just half the maximum level approved by OSHA—decision-making ability slumped by up to 93%, an effect similar to being either drunk or having a head injury.

This suggests that people who started out as smarter than a potted plant but were terrified into wearing masks are making themselves ever-worse and unable to think their way out of the idiocy.

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  1. Mad Gerald Coolidge
    Mad Gerald
    @Jose

    Plus they make your glasses fog up.

    • #1
  2. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Being asthmatic, I just go straight to suffocation anxiety. Our institutions do not serve us.

    • #2
  3. Arthur Beare Member
    Arthur Beare
    @ArthurBeare

    The really scary thing about this is that many/most medical professionals still wear these masks, even the n-95’s, throughout the day (mostly in accordance with their employer’s policy). 

    So they are impairing their own cognitive functioning?   And have been for going on three years?  

    • #3
  4. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Arthur Beare (View Comment):

    The really scary thing about this is that many/most medical professionals still wear these masks, even the n-95’s, throughout the day (mostly in accordance with their employer’s policy).

    So they are impairing their own cognitive functioning? And have been for going on three years?

    That is indeed what the studies seem to be saying.

    • #4
  5. drlorentz Member
    drlorentz
    @drlorentz

    iWe:

    CO2 does not present a danger to human life until it is consistently over 8,000 or so – and the N95 Covid masks increase the concentration we inhale to 3,000-36,000 ppm. Those masks might produce a positive feedback loop, making people stupider and thus more prone to keep wearing them.

    Most of them were pretty dumb to start so it’s a double whammy.

    • #5
  6. drlorentz Member
    drlorentz
    @drlorentz

    The interesting thing about the second cited study is that it’s from 2012. The usual excuses we hear lately that “we didn’t know!” or “we were learning as we went along” do not apply. It was already suspected that increased CO2 levels could lead to cognitive impairment.

    Who could possibly have guessed that a mask with poor throughput would increase CO2 concentrations of inhaled air? Certainly not our betters at the CDC. They were just following the science. Too bad they followed it down a blind alley. Now they want our forgiveness? Fuggedaboudit.

    • #6
  7. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Arthur Beare (View Comment):

    The really scary thing about this is that many/most medical professionals still wear these masks, even the n-95’s, throughout the day (mostly in accordance with their employer’s policy).

    So they are impairing their own cognitive functioning? And have been for going on three years?

    Have you sought medical treatment lately? Just sayin’.

    • #7
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