The Foegen effect: FACEMASKS contribute to the COVID-19 case FATALITY rate

… allowed its 105 counties to either opt out or issue their own mask mandate

… The objective of this study was to find out whether mask mandates contribute to the COVID-19 CFR

… comparing data between Kansas counties … during the same time period in the summer of 2020

… the accepted thought that fewer people are dying because infection rates are reduced by masks

… this was not the case

… mask mandates actually caused about 1.5 times the number of deaths

… ∼50% more deaths

… probably that virions that enter or those coughed out in droplets are retained in the facemask tissue

… after quick evaporation of the droplets, hypercondensed droplets or pure virions

… are re-inhaled from a very short distance during inspiration … “Foegen effect”

… increase the overall viral load

… Furthermore, the hypercondensed droplets and pure virions in the mask might be blown outwards during expiration

… resulting in aerosol transmission instead of droplet transmission

… FFP2, FFP3 … even stronger “Foegen effect”

… the number of virions that are potentially re-inhaled increases in the same way that outward shedding is reduced

… wearing facemasks might impose a great risk on individuals, which would not be mitigated by a reduction in the infection rate

… The use of facemasks, therefore, might be unfit, if not contraindicated, as an epidemiologic intervention against COVID-19

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