Best-selling writers Mikovits and Heckenlively, authors of Plague of Corruption (see review, page 59), have done us a favor with this timely little book, in which they compile the scientific findings against mask use. Even if you believe that the current wave of illness is caused by a virus, making everyone wear a mask makes no sense at all.

Did you know that OSHA regulations oppose the routine use of masks except under certain circumstances, and then only with proper training? If you are breathing into a cloth mask, you will soon be breathing high levels of carbon dioxide, leading to a condition called hypercapnia (carbon dioxide toxicity). Symptoms include headache, vertigo, double vision, an inability to concentrate, tinnitus, seizures and suffocation. For people suffering from asthma or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), face masks are intolerable. Even for healthy people, the lowered oxygen intake may actually make them more susceptible to Covid-19, because lack of oxygen can lower the functioning of our immune systems.

Moreover, most masks do not provide protection against particulate matter, and certainly not against tiny microorganisms. They do not provide a good face seal (if they did, you would suffocate in short order), and breathing on others is not likely to spread “viruses” anyway. And the inside part of the mask may harbor the build-up of pathogens (or create conditions where normally benign organisms become pathogenic).

While this book comes squarely from the point of view that viruses exist and cause disease, for beginners it is a good way to convince them of the futility of mask wearing without getting into more esoteric discussions. I highly recommend this little volume to give to frightened friends and relatives. Thumbs up.