The dangerous link between masks, hypoxia, and cognitive impairment

You and I, anti-maskers, have our intelligence criticized without end. We are accused of poor thinking, ignorance, idiocy. The default argumentative tactic in virus debates has become the dreaded ad hominem. An attack on the person, not the idea they have presented. Admittedly, I myself slip into it, labeling maskers and lockdowners as stupid, ignorant, dumb. But I wonder if it’s really true that “nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”

Let’s indulge in some ad hominem.

Despite refutations of pro-maskers, it is a well-established fact as well as being common sense that a face covering makes it harder to breathe and reduces your blood oxygenation. The masks we’re all sold as the gold standard, it is commonly known, reduce your oxygenation by up to 20%. That masks reduce blood O2 has been cited by numerous sources such as OSHA and even professional athletes.

To maskers, it may raise eyebrows that even “meathead jocks” training for their next triathlon or endurance race know that masks reduce their O2. So-called “high altitude” training is based on the body’s response to thin air of gradually increasing blood cell counts and the body’s use of oxygen. However, even top-level athletes show at most a 2% gain in performance using this method. Athletes at lower elevations try to replicate it by inhibiting airflow or oxygen intake during workouts. It’s risky; even a healthy athlete can end up in the ER or dead.

Among those living at high altitude it is common knowledge that visiting low altitude brings temporary benefits. But using devices to simulate high altitude does not allow for acclimatization because these machines or breathing restrictors are not worn the required 12-16 hours a day. It takes up to a week of living and training at high altitude to acclimate, so unless you’re an athlete in a supervised training regimen, depriving yourself of O2 for various periods throughout your day will bring no gain.

This means your body simply won’t get used to low oxygen caused by wearing a mask.

So, we know that putting a mask on causes low blood O2, a medical condition called hypoxia. A real-world example would be instantly teleporting from sea level to the top of the highest peak in the Northeastern United States, 6,288-foot Mount Washington. There the O2 is about 20% lower than normal. You would quickly feel ill effects, including anxiety, tiredness and headache. If you deprive yourself of oxygen for days, you develop a condition called chronic hypoxemia. Symptoms of this commonly include impaired judgment, irritability, fatigue, and sleepiness.

It’s been well proven by decades if not centuries of science that cutting off oxygen from the brain causes impairment. Ask any pilot or mountaineer if low O2 can inhibit cognitive function. There are numerous video examples of pilots or climbers in hypoxic states acting as if drunk. They slur their words, they fumble solving puzzles meant for toddlers, and they lose the ability to focus on tasks or make decisions. As we’ve all seen with stroke victims or drowning survivors, cutting O2 for too long can leave one with substantial neurological impairment.

Anyone wearing a mask, even for a few minutes, incurs a mental deficit. Their problem-solving and decision-making skills decrease. Their memory and senses are impaired. Listening to information, processing it, and bringing forth a reasonable response becomes difficult or even impossible. The lower brain kicks in, and the only possible thoughts are fight or flight, feast or fornicate. They cannot be properly reasoned with or communicated to. Like victims of waterboarding, they also are more easily manipulated.

The worst part is that those masked, hypoxic, with even mild cognitive impairment will not be competent handling basic activities such as banking, keeping appointments, or using everyday technology. Would you trust a mentally impaired person to make a medical decision? What about your elected officials? Can we see how a population in masks can be a danger to itself? With responsibilities ranging from driving a city bus to dispensing the right medicine at the right time to deciding the fate of a country, a masked person is a dangerous person.

Where then, does that leave those of us who’ve never worn a mask? Not once have we hurt our brains, or caused cognitive impairment, even long-term damage. From the start of the outbreak, we’ve been clearheaded and right-thinking. It’s quite easy for us to understand various concepts regarding the virus, such as how PCR tests work, how to understand or analyze current statistical data, or the efficacy of various treatments. How to spot inaccuracies in news reports, or spot propaganda disguised as reporting. During interactions with other people, we are fully capable of listening, processing information, and mounting a rational reply. It is not in our automatic response to become confused and angry, to become anxious, or to flee the discussion.

So, this time, and perhaps for the first time, we can justifiably use ad hominem in our argument. It is not an insult, dear maskers, but rather provable statement of fact that wearing a mask decreases your ability to think, reason, understand, and decide. You are cognitively impaired. For that reason you must accept that those of us not masked are the most clearheaded thinkers right now. You need to trust that we know what we’re doing, and that our opposition to masks, distancing, lockdowns, and our lack of fear of the virus, are reasoned, informed, and logical.

The upside, impaired maskers, is that all you have to do is remove the mask. In minutes you’ll feel better, and you’ll begin to feel less anxious. Thoughts and memories will come more easily. Within days of stopping the mask you’ll be so clearheaded that the previous time spent masked will seem a fugue, where reality blurred and the only emotions were fear, anger, worry. You’ll be able once again to form sophisticated thoughts, no longer needing the dumbness of propaganda.

Of course we know masks are not effective for the virus, and that they impact the immune system negatively, and those reasons, well discussed by other sources, are only further evidence for the case we’ve all made: it is abundantly clear that healthy people should not wear masks.

They hurt your brain. They make you dumb.

Ad hominem.