COVID-19 PANDEMIC: SIDE EFFECTS OF WEARING FACE MASKS

Updated September 17, 2020

This Covid-19 pandemic has essentially thrown the entire human race into a deep chaos. One of the common effects of the coronavirus pandemic is the widespread reliance on wearing face masks. Those protective masks, covering the nose and mouth, have become an integral part of our daily life. However, there could be side effects of wearing face masks.

Fortunately, I live in China. Across the mainland, the novel coronavirus outbreak has been contained successfully. We are already in the in the post Covid-19 phase. However, I see those face masks every day. Although the usage of face mask has gradually declined, they are still here.

Currently, the summer season is going on. The short phase of beautiful autumn is going to start soon. Then winter, a season when Covid-19 could simply bounce back to screw up our lives. Therefore, I suspect that the face masks are here to stay, at least for the next 9-10 months.

What’s Wrong With The Face Masks?

Why I am talking about the face masks? Because I had tremendously screwed up my health by using face masks. Let me quickly summarize the side effects of regularly using face masks.

Well, do you know if using face mask is good for your health?

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Speaking from the experience, NO!

Face masks are essentially a huge source of disaster for us, albeit some protection (debatable).

Face Mask Are Dangerous!

In fact, I went through a very serious health crisis after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. I had shortness of breath. It was so difficult to breath! Often, I’d start sneezing. It felt almost certain to have caught the Covid-19 virus. The problem continues for SIX months. Yep, fucking six months. No kidding, SON!

However, I never had any fever. No cough either. I had no clue what was wrong with my breathing.

I went from hospital to hospital. Wasted time, energy and money. Not to mention, as a foreigner, it was quite difficult to interact with the friendly Chinese doctors.

The doctors didn’t find any issues with my health. In particular, my lungs and respiratory tack were fine. I was asked to go through CT scan, and I complied. The CT scan results were fine.

I was given some medicine, two week course. I had to eat pills for two weeks. However, the breathing problem didn’t really go away. I still struggled to breath.

My breathing problem still persisted. WTF.

I Was Afraid Of Contracting Tuberculosis (TB)

Then I recalled that last year (early 2019) one of my colleagues was found to be TB positive. He was a Chain smoker, and had a long history of TB (he didn’t initially informed the employer). Eventually, He was asked to not come to office until fully cured (1.5 years are gone; the poor guy is still not back to the office).

I was afraid to have contracted TB infection.

I was afraid if I had asthma. I searched for the symptoms of asthma in Google. I felt I had strong symptoms of asthma.

Since searched “asthma” in Google, I was continuously shown asthma treatment ads in for the next few weeks (I use Chrome browser). So frustrating.

I decided to go for a test of TB antibody.

When I went to the test, my girlfriend was so worried. She also wanted to get tested for the TB antibody. However, the test was quite costly. I suggested her to wait to see my results. If I had no TB antibody, then there was virtually no possibilities for her to contract the nasty TB virus.

So I went to get tested for TB antibody.

My result was negative. I didn’t have TB antibodies. The negative results meant that I was never infected with the TB virus in my entire life.

Side Effects of Wearing Face Masks

So why I had this berating problem?

After connecting the dots, I finally seem to find a reliable answer!

My breathing problems were caused by wearing the face masks. Specifically, I had the breathing problem since I started using the mask.

Here are two side effects of wearing face masks:

Difficult To Breath.

It’s common sense. Once you put a mask, you need to put more effort to inhale oxygen. You are putting extra burden on your sensitive lungs.

You Inhale Carbon Dioxide

When you exhale, some of the carbon dioxide gets trapped in the mask, and you end up inhaling your own carbon dioxide.

Well, I’m certainly not a medical expert. I can only speculate.

However, after I stopped using face masks, my breathing problem has suddenly disappeared. I feel almost 95% fine. 🙂

How is your experience about wearing face masks? Did you feel any side effects of wearing face masks?