Experts negate claim that wearing face masks causes neurological damage
Experts negate claim that wearing face masks causes neurological damage
(AFP) - Posts based on a video by a German neurologist have been shared thousands of times on Facebook making several claims about the alleged dangers of wearing face masks, notably that rebreathing oxygen in the mask leads to neurological damage. According to experts, this is false, since these masks allow fresh air to pass through and oxygen to be inhaled.
AFP Fact Check’s reporters in Germany first debunked the 20-minute German-language video by neurologist Margareta Griesz-Brisson after it was shared more than 30,000 times on Facebook.
The earliest German-language posts that AFP Fact Check found are from September 25, 2020, on YouTube and Facebook. Since then, the video has been circulating widely on Facebook and Instagram.
The multiple claims in the video have been translated into English and shared in Facebook posts along with a summary of the claims in image form.
In the video, Griesz-Brisson criticises the German government’s Covid-19 pandemic response and warns her viewers against wearing face masks.
She claims that masks let the virus through and wearing them creates a lack of oxygen as well as a flood of carbon dioxide in the body. She goes on to claim that nerve cells in the brain will die off after a short time.
Who is Griesz-Brisson?
In the video, Griesz-Brisson introduces herself as a neurologist with a practice in London and a second practice in Müllheim, in southern Germany.
On the homepage of the London practice, it says Griesz-Brisson completed a doctorate at the University of Freiburg. A dissertation by Margareta Griesz from 1989 can be found in the university database.
Griesz-Brisson specialises in natural treatment methods according to a DVD, which is a recording from a congress in 2006. There, she talked about detoxification of heavy metals from the body. She is also cited in connection with a “detox ion foot bath” therapy.
In a video on Vimeo from 2017, she talked about her natural medicine approach, saying that as much as possible, she rejects everything she considers unnatural in her treatments – for example, plasters.
After publishing her Facebook video, Griesz-Brisson made a number of public appearances. In an October 5, 2020 video on Bitchute, she promises to issue mask-exemption certificates for everyone, even those she had not seen as a patient.
She was recently also a guest on the stage of a lateral-thinking event in Konstanz, southern Germany, on October 4, 2020.
No publications by Griesz-Brisson can be found in the Google Scholar or PubMed databases. She justifies this in the video on Bitchute by saying that she doesn’t like to write or talk.
Masks lead to lack of oxygen?
AFP Fact Check reviewed Griesz-Brisson’s claims, which were summarised in the posts in English.
The first claim holds that face masks are harmful to an individual’s health: “The rebreathing of our exhaled air will without a doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding of carbon dioxide,” the posts read.
AFP Fact Check asked Philipp Lepper, a member of the German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP) and senior physician at the Saarland University Hospital, about the veracity of the claim.
“Since the amount of air behind the mask is very small and is mixed with fresh air each time you breathe in, this has no effect on the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels measured in the body,” he added.
Lepper explained that this is possible because air flows freely through the mask.
“An oxygen molecule has a size of around 260 picometers. The pore size of medical mouth and nose masks is around 100,000 to 1,000,000 times larger than an oxygen molecule,” he said. A face mask would not hold back any of the components of the air – not oxygen and not even CO
