COVID Diary: The dangers of wearing a mask

I never thought I’d say this, but after yesterday it’s my view that the wearing of masks could be doing us more harm than good. Here’s why…

First of all, a disclaimer, I’m not one of the flat-earth brigade that denies the COVID risks or the impact it’s having. I get it. It’s real and we should all be vigilant, follow the rules, keep our distance and try to beat this thing together. I’m not one of the disgruntled hordes who’ve had summer holiday plans put on hold. I’m in favour of lock-downs and most of the measures put into place. But, as I discovered recently, masks are causing us an even bigger problem, and, well, solutions can never be bigger than the problem can they?

You see, until yesterday, my mask-wearing had been limited to very brief spurts, 10 or 15 minutes in a shop perhaps. I’m asthmatic, and even then I was beginning to breathe heavily. I have pretty well-controlled asthma at the moment so it’s not a worry, but yesterday was an eye-opener and the first visit to the city of Newcastle since March…

First off, I can’t do shopping centres in a mask. Once that 15 minutes threshold passed, I was done. Out of breath, dizzy, and nauseous. Yes, I’ve read the evidence, masks don’t retain carbon dioxide, the particles are too small. But you could’ve fooled me! Something was wrong, and shortness of breath doesn’t usually, for me, mean dizziness and nausea. I was as white as sheet at one point.

So shopping’s out, but what of the poor soul’s that work in retail? Surely it’s impacting them? A conversation later in the day with a friend confirmed it. It’s horrible, and I for one physically couldn’t do it.

Of course, this physical impact is deterring people away from the shops, which in turn is impacting businesses already having to adapt, already on their knees financially. Newcastle is like a ghost town because wearing a mask for a prolonged period of time just can’t be healthy, so people just prefer to stay away. Basic human instinct.

I’m already concerned about upcoming situations, like maybe my son’s Birthday party. I won’t be able to do it in a mask, but imagine if this goes a stage further, to the enforced wearing of masks in all situations, outdoors, walking down the street. That would be unbearable, and to be honest, I’m more worried about that than COVID. We’re talking about the real basics of health and survival here, being able to breathe, and a mask impedes that directly.

As a counter-argument, you could say asthmatics are a special case, and that people with this and other conditions are exempt from wearing masks anyway. But I say, whoever you are, and at whatever age, wearing a filter over your respiratory system for any length of time must be causing you some harm, to some degree, and that harm will eventually have an impact on all of us. The human body is a perfectly designed machine, and that design definitely does not include a mask over your airway.

So there you have it, wearing masks is dangerous to our and the economy’s health. If they’re affecting my health there’ll be many others. They’ve taken the sting out of a once vibrant city centre. Retail therapy, going to the pub, going for a meal, it’s just more of a hassle, less fun, to the point that people just won’t bother to venture out anymore, and businesses that depend on them will fail. But mainly, in my view, COVID or no COVID, wearing a mask is dangerous.

What’s you’re take on masks? Drop me a comment below or visit the Forum