“This study provides strong evidence for the identification that SMs [surgical masks] as source of bacterial contamination during operative procedures, which should be a cause for alarm and attention in the prevention of surgical site infection in clinical practice.”
In the PACU I used to work in, our orthopedic and GYN cases (“bones and vaginas” was how we remembered lol) were all being nasally swabbed with betadine preoperatively to reduce postoperative infections caused by the patient’s own nasopharyngeal bacteria! https://www.aorn.org/outpatient-surgery/articles/enews-briefs/may-5-2021
It would be interesting to see the study you referenced reproduced!
What we saw was the patient at home doing their wound care, or caregiver, were the culprits. Most likely leaning over the wound while changing the dressing, had their mouths open or were talking. Swabbing the nares with betadine was a great idea. As long as there wasn’t an allergy. Do you know if chlorahexadine swabs or something different was used in those cases? The only thing we used ever was Bactroban to the nares for MRSA+ patients. & behind the ears, axillae and behind the knees for colonized patients.
Yes that makes sense about patients transmission during self care. The betadine swabs worked well, hadn’t had any allergic patients, however if we did they just wouldn’t be a candidate. Chlorhexadine package says for external use only so not sure if it’s packaged or produced safely as a nasal swab.
I’ve never heard of chlorhexidine swabs being used, both products can be cytotoxic. In patients who had a need for a betadine wet to dry typically it was discontinued after a week for that reason.
Hi Paul, all your hard work and passion and that of your colleagues to educate the people over this COVID mandates madness is much appreciated. Regarding the mask wearing, could you please ask Dr. Pierre Kory why this is still up on the FLCC website, considering that masks don’t work? FLCC advice on treatment is great but on mask wearing is rather confusing.
non-doctor, non-scientist here with a question: isn't this study about bacterial transmission rather than viral, and doesn't that distinction matter? Also, as it pertains to infection of open wounds, rather than transmission of viral illness.
It is my (dim and possibly incorrect) understanding that viral particles are far smaller than bacterial, so masks are literally useless in preventing viral spread. Also, a question: do we know the likely source (s) of wound infection in surgeries?
1) Viral particles are in the environment as aerosols. This means that the tissues are exposed through any incision.
2) We don't culture surgical wounds for viruses. The infected wounds usually manifest with a positive bacterial culture, and sometimes get better with antibiotics. Prosthetic (surgical implant) infections often don't resolve and require removal of the prosthesis and 6-12 weeks of iv antibiotics (specifically for orthopaedic joint replacements.)
3) If you have a fungal infection in a joint (rare) you are in trouble.
4) Wound infections have various sources. Haematogenous spread is considered common, it absolves the surgeon of blame for technical error, although you do see inter-operator variability, and it is audited. We postpone elective surgery for people with recent antibiotic treatment or urinary tract infections.
5) It might be fun for your next thesis or dissertation to give prophylactic Ivermectin before surgery and see if you get better results. If your infection rate is 1% (which is average) you would want about 10,000 in each arm to get to significant statistics.
thank you for this detail. Makes me wonder why there ever has been any debate at all about masks for preventing or reducing transmission of COVID. Seems like people who should already know better have been pushing cloth masks.
Exactly. I am certified in the use of respirators (not a doctor) and have known that masks can not works against viruses. No way, no how. There is a century of studies showing that they do not and a century of practice verifying they do not. There are reasons why most societies have not used masks in the general public since the Spanish flu.
All that got thrown out the window late 2019/early 2020 depending where one lives. One of the first indicators that those telling us what we needed to do either did not know what they were talking about OR did and that would be even worse.
I'm honestly starting to think it's not that they don't care, but that they are participants in a dastardly globalist plan which includes depopulation. Enough time has passed, enough knowledgeable experts have spoken up, bringing mountains of data and evidence to attempt to rectify things, and getting nowhere. This goes way beyond government, bureaucratic incompetence. It has to be the other explanation: it's nefarious and it's intentional.
Add this to the controls the US enacts upon its citizens living abroad and a long list of other decisions made over the past couple of decades and it becomes difficult to say your concerns are unfounded.
A dust mask ie, a surgical or N95, will stop most dust. A spray painting mask with customised filters, N95 pre filters, particulate and vapour filters are effective and easier to breath out of. I find it shocking that industrial masks offer protection and medical masks don’t.
They are not designed for the same purpose. Most industrial respirators also do not protect against viruses. Take a look at what those working in bio labs use or those who worked in isolation wards in hospitals before the panic.
My husband wore a mask every day when they were introduced in the uk. He ended up with a large ulcer inside his nose that caused bleeding and pain. The consultant said it was almost to the point of causing a whole in his septum. He has since woken up. He caught covid last month from a triple vaccinated person. The other driver caught it from the same lady and he was vaccinated and masked, both interventions did not work work as both drivers, one being my husband caught covid. They’re disgusting everywhere in the streets.
The oxygen deprivation when wearing a mask must be connected with mental alertness. How many surgeons possibly do mistakes during long surgeries, because of exactly that issue alone??
It is inarguable that the mass of the fibers of the mask displace a certain amount of the air flowing through the mask. I do not understand how people could argue against this, but many do. The question is, does the mask displace enough air and all therein sufficiently to cause problems? Just as a clogged filter on the coolant line will eventually lead to overheating of whatever needs the coolant, so to will a clogged mask reduce airflow enough to cause problems.
The one confounding factor is that most of the airflow is around the mask as fluids always follow the path of least resistance. Even with a new mask, most air flows around it. As the mask collects more gunk, it offers more resistance to flow and leads to more air bypassing it. This is why for filters to work, two conditions muster be met. The passages through filter must be smaller than whatever it is to filter and the filter must be placed in the systems such that the fluid has no path around it. IF, the moisture collected in the mask provides some sort of seal, then there can be real problems.
There are studies that suggest that however it comes to be, that the amount of O2 in the blood is decreased and CO2 increased after a short time masked.
To me, the bigger issue is that masks are bacteria incubators. Given that they can not stop viruses, they present greater threat to health than benefit.
Thank you for the lengthy explanations, which sure make complete sense if we were talking pure mask functions. We need to add to this debate a HUMAN functions. There is not a single study to my knowledge, which would monitor gene expression of major metabolic processes in human body, while being on 20% lower oxygen level. Forgot to add, but the condition virologists grow their viruses are almost identical with what we breath out, 5% CO2 at 37 deg C! Every single SARS-CoV-2 paper has these growing conditions, which are clearly exactly the ones when we put the masks on our faces. Not only that, but look at the mirror with the mask on. I'd say there is a monkey in that mirror image..
Should also add the following. Going form memory, but as I recall, the percentage of O2 in the air we breath needs to be between 18% to 22%. Whatever the numbers, the range is quite small. Anything outside that range causes various problems that are well known. I used to know how long until certain symptoms set in from breathing in certain levels below the minimum. We were taught this for working in normally enclosed spaces aboard ship. A gas free engineer would know the exact levels that trigger these adverse affects.
I also I had to learn the affects of breathing in air that was over the maximum as I was also an O2N2 tech. Making Lox and LIN, knowing the affects of breathing in air with low and high O2 levels were of great importance to us.
Masks are bacteria and fungus incubators. Masks differ little in the environment our lungs and upper respiratory tract provide for bacteria. Where they do differ is that none of the protective systems the body has exist in the mask. This allows bacteria, and fungus, to grow to greater numbers in the mask than in the body and in the air we would be breathing without the mask. Masks are like a Petri dish across our face. The mask is warmed by our body heat, provided with warm and moist nutrient air from our exhaled breath and free from our infection fighting systems. What could possibly go wrong?
The main point of wearing masks these days seems to be virtue signalling, although I continue to be puzzled at people wearing them when driving alone in their cars.
Sorry folks. This is meaningless. It is older than 5 years old and thus “expired” or something. So I was told my a nurse about a year ago when I provided this and about 40 other studies that predate the panic.
These mask fetishists don’t care. They want everyone in masks and come up with unlimited reasons to discount any evidence provided.
How could operating be done in silence? Don't the surgeons have to ask for implements? Don't nurses or anesthesiologists have to update the surgeon on the condition of the patient during surgery, when needed? How about during hours long surgery? How tedious to not be able to speak to your co-workers at all.
Paul, I referenced a 2018 “Journal of Orthopaedic Translation” paper on surgical masks in my “Letter to the Oregon Health Authority” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-oregon-health-authority) you may find of interest:
“This study provides strong evidence for the identification that SMs [surgical masks] as source of bacterial contamination during operative procedures, which should be a cause for alarm and attention in the prevention of surgical site infection in clinical practice.”
In the PACU I used to work in, our orthopedic and GYN cases (“bones and vaginas” was how we remembered lol) were all being nasally swabbed with betadine preoperatively to reduce postoperative infections caused by the patient’s own nasopharyngeal bacteria! https://www.aorn.org/outpatient-surgery/articles/enews-briefs/may-5-2021
It would be interesting to see the study you referenced reproduced!
Makes perfect sense! I worked in wound care for 20 years and many wound cultures came back showing nasal-pharyngeal bacteria.
Yes I was surprised when I found that out and wondered where/how the transmission took place?
What we saw was the patient at home doing their wound care, or caregiver, were the culprits. Most likely leaning over the wound while changing the dressing, had their mouths open or were talking. Swabbing the nares with betadine was a great idea. As long as there wasn’t an allergy. Do you know if chlorahexadine swabs or something different was used in those cases? The only thing we used ever was Bactroban to the nares for MRSA+ patients. & behind the ears, axillae and behind the knees for colonized patients.
Yes that makes sense about patients transmission during self care. The betadine swabs worked well, hadn’t had any allergic patients, however if we did they just wouldn’t be a candidate. Chlorhexadine package says for external use only so not sure if it’s packaged or produced safely as a nasal swab.
I’ve never heard of chlorhexidine swabs being used, both products can be cytotoxic. In patients who had a need for a betadine wet to dry typically it was discontinued after a week for that reason.
Hi Paul, all your hard work and passion and that of your colleagues to educate the people over this COVID mandates madness is much appreciated. Regarding the mask wearing, could you please ask Dr. Pierre Kory why this is still up on the FLCC website, considering that masks don’t work? FLCC advice on treatment is great but on mask wearing is rather confusing.
https://covid19criticalcare.com/covid-19-protocols/i-mask-plus-protocol/. :
“Wear a cloth, surgical or N95 mask when in confined, poorly ventilated, crowded indoor spaces with non-household members”.
non-doctor, non-scientist here with a question: isn't this study about bacterial transmission rather than viral, and doesn't that distinction matter? Also, as it pertains to infection of open wounds, rather than transmission of viral illness.
It is my (dim and possibly incorrect) understanding that viral particles are far smaller than bacterial, so masks are literally useless in preventing viral spread. Also, a question: do we know the likely source (s) of wound infection in surgeries?
Viral particles are smaller, so they would be even LESS likely to be stopped by a surgical mask.
Let me try this.
1) Viral particles are in the environment as aerosols. This means that the tissues are exposed through any incision.
2) We don't culture surgical wounds for viruses. The infected wounds usually manifest with a positive bacterial culture, and sometimes get better with antibiotics. Prosthetic (surgical implant) infections often don't resolve and require removal of the prosthesis and 6-12 weeks of iv antibiotics (specifically for orthopaedic joint replacements.)
3) If you have a fungal infection in a joint (rare) you are in trouble.
4) Wound infections have various sources. Haematogenous spread is considered common, it absolves the surgeon of blame for technical error, although you do see inter-operator variability, and it is audited. We postpone elective surgery for people with recent antibiotic treatment or urinary tract infections.
5) It might be fun for your next thesis or dissertation to give prophylactic Ivermectin before surgery and see if you get better results. If your infection rate is 1% (which is average) you would want about 10,000 in each arm to get to significant statistics.
thank you for this detail. Makes me wonder why there ever has been any debate at all about masks for preventing or reducing transmission of COVID. Seems like people who should already know better have been pushing cloth masks.
The masks have other benefits. They separate people, and made it easier for the next step, the VaxxPasses, to be imposed.
Exactly. I am certified in the use of respirators (not a doctor) and have known that masks can not works against viruses. No way, no how. There is a century of studies showing that they do not and a century of practice verifying they do not. There are reasons why most societies have not used masks in the general public since the Spanish flu.
All that got thrown out the window late 2019/early 2020 depending where one lives. One of the first indicators that those telling us what we needed to do either did not know what they were talking about OR did and that would be even worse.
Dani, non-doctor, non-scientist, 'dim' ' don't underate or under estimate your own intelligence, thanks.
Will the gov officials actually read this, and the obsessed health professionals (present company excepted) too?
They have been presented this. They know and don’t care or just don’t care.
I'm honestly starting to think it's not that they don't care, but that they are participants in a dastardly globalist plan which includes depopulation. Enough time has passed, enough knowledgeable experts have spoken up, bringing mountains of data and evidence to attempt to rectify things, and getting nowhere. This goes way beyond government, bureaucratic incompetence. It has to be the other explanation: it's nefarious and it's intentional.
Add this to the controls the US enacts upon its citizens living abroad and a long list of other decisions made over the past couple of decades and it becomes difficult to say your concerns are unfounded.
A dust mask ie, a surgical or N95, will stop most dust. A spray painting mask with customised filters, N95 pre filters, particulate and vapour filters are effective and easier to breath out of. I find it shocking that industrial masks offer protection and medical masks don’t.
They are not designed for the same purpose. Most industrial respirators also do not protect against viruses. Take a look at what those working in bio labs use or those who worked in isolation wards in hospitals before the panic.
My husband wore a mask every day when they were introduced in the uk. He ended up with a large ulcer inside his nose that caused bleeding and pain. The consultant said it was almost to the point of causing a whole in his septum. He has since woken up. He caught covid last month from a triple vaccinated person. The other driver caught it from the same lady and he was vaccinated and masked, both interventions did not work work as both drivers, one being my husband caught covid. They’re disgusting everywhere in the streets.
The oxygen deprivation when wearing a mask must be connected with mental alertness. How many surgeons possibly do mistakes during long surgeries, because of exactly that issue alone??
Masks are to be changed periodically, well before the panic. My memory is every 4 hours, can any med professionals either confirm or correct this?
isn't it that the masks rob human brains of ~10%-20% of oxygen, every breath? How long does it take fro the brain to be dead without any oxygen?
Yes…But.
It is inarguable that the mass of the fibers of the mask displace a certain amount of the air flowing through the mask. I do not understand how people could argue against this, but many do. The question is, does the mask displace enough air and all therein sufficiently to cause problems? Just as a clogged filter on the coolant line will eventually lead to overheating of whatever needs the coolant, so to will a clogged mask reduce airflow enough to cause problems.
The one confounding factor is that most of the airflow is around the mask as fluids always follow the path of least resistance. Even with a new mask, most air flows around it. As the mask collects more gunk, it offers more resistance to flow and leads to more air bypassing it. This is why for filters to work, two conditions muster be met. The passages through filter must be smaller than whatever it is to filter and the filter must be placed in the systems such that the fluid has no path around it. IF, the moisture collected in the mask provides some sort of seal, then there can be real problems.
There are studies that suggest that however it comes to be, that the amount of O2 in the blood is decreased and CO2 increased after a short time masked.
To me, the bigger issue is that masks are bacteria incubators. Given that they can not stop viruses, they present greater threat to health than benefit.
Thank you for the lengthy explanations, which sure make complete sense if we were talking pure mask functions. We need to add to this debate a HUMAN functions. There is not a single study to my knowledge, which would monitor gene expression of major metabolic processes in human body, while being on 20% lower oxygen level. Forgot to add, but the condition virologists grow their viruses are almost identical with what we breath out, 5% CO2 at 37 deg C! Every single SARS-CoV-2 paper has these growing conditions, which are clearly exactly the ones when we put the masks on our faces. Not only that, but look at the mirror with the mask on. I'd say there is a monkey in that mirror image..
Should also add the following. Going form memory, but as I recall, the percentage of O2 in the air we breath needs to be between 18% to 22%. Whatever the numbers, the range is quite small. Anything outside that range causes various problems that are well known. I used to know how long until certain symptoms set in from breathing in certain levels below the minimum. We were taught this for working in normally enclosed spaces aboard ship. A gas free engineer would know the exact levels that trigger these adverse affects.
I also I had to learn the affects of breathing in air that was over the maximum as I was also an O2N2 tech. Making Lox and LIN, knowing the affects of breathing in air with low and high O2 levels were of great importance to us.
Of course, hence my last comment.
Masks are bacteria and fungus incubators. Masks differ little in the environment our lungs and upper respiratory tract provide for bacteria. Where they do differ is that none of the protective systems the body has exist in the mask. This allows bacteria, and fungus, to grow to greater numbers in the mask than in the body and in the air we would be breathing without the mask. Masks are like a Petri dish across our face. The mask is warmed by our body heat, provided with warm and moist nutrient air from our exhaled breath and free from our infection fighting systems. What could possibly go wrong?
The main point of wearing masks these days seems to be virtue signalling, although I continue to be puzzled at people wearing them when driving alone in their cars.
Sorry folks. This is meaningless. It is older than 5 years old and thus “expired” or something. So I was told my a nurse about a year ago when I provided this and about 40 other studies that predate the panic.
These mask fetishists don’t care. They want everyone in masks and come up with unlimited reasons to discount any evidence provided.
Breathe freely...
How could operating be done in silence? Don't the surgeons have to ask for implements? Don't nurses or anesthesiologists have to update the surgeon on the condition of the patient during surgery, when needed? How about during hours long surgery? How tedious to not be able to speak to your co-workers at all.
There is some necessary instruction and communication. Discussion of ski and golf stories can be curtailed.
Interesting, thanks!!!