Faces about not wearing masks in schools are being bullied by fiction about children who have died in Germany

“Why don’t educational institutions take the blame for what could be wrong? How many facts. Children died everywhere. Well, two children in Germany died recently, suffocated by those masks, because the carbon dioxide there increases 6 to 7 times, “says Andrius Lobov, a fierce skeptic of vaccines.

Since the post was published on Saturday, more than 10,000 have been shared on Facebook. times, and the number of visits exceeds 100,000. together. On November 10, even before the publication of this post, the recording of A. Lobov, which received much attention, disappeared from the man’s time zone on Facebook.

Other users of the social network claim that children with face masks lack oxygen, which causes the death of their brains. This is not true either.

The popularity of such recordings can be explained by the relevance of the topic: the second global quarantine of this year began in Lithuania on Saturday. As a result, children over the age of 6 must wear mouth and nose protection in schools..

Fictitious deaths

Information about children who supposedly died in Germany due to masks went around the world just over a month ago. History has reported that children wearing carbon masks have been poisoned by carbon dioxide and lost their lives.

But the story is fictitious. We wrote about it in early October. The Reuters news agency post on the same topic is here.

German news website Rnd.de According to journalists, Brigita Malsack-Winkemann, a member of the far-right German Alternative to Germany (AfD) party, was one of the first to attribute the unidentified cause of death to face masks, sharing a photo with the caption: first victim of the masks? What are the results of the autopsy? ”The post soon spread to Facebook.

The same cannot be said for the results of an autopsy carried out by German police, who claim the cause of death is unclear and requires further investigation. The only evidence of “mask-induced death” is Facebook logs and the opinion of AfD politicians.

Although there is no evidence that wearing masks is lethal to at least one child, the same cannot be said for COVID-19. According to the Robert Koch-Institut, 2 children under the age of 9 and three in the 10-19 age group died from the disease during a coronavirus pandemic in Germany.

Equal importance

In the video, A. Lobov explains that the most important thing is to wash your hands, and masks are only necessary for sick people, but this is not true. Face protection is one of the components of a multi-level protection plan.

To limit the spread of coronavirus infection, a safe distance between people, strict and consistent hand hygiene, and face shields are required. Each preventive measure is as important.

Kristupas Krivickas, who had unsuccessfully sought the post of a member of the Seimas, tried to test a similar theory before the first round of elections. You can find more information about the common logical mistake of using masks here.

Scientists have calculatedthat if all other factors are equal for a sick and healthy person wearing an N95 (FFP2) certified mask, the risk of disease transmission can be reduced by up to 400 times compared to the scenario where none of them wear the mask .

Surgical masks can reduce the risk of transmission 10 times, cloth masks 7 times if the same masks are used on both sides.

In the prestigious scientific journalAn analysis of 172 studies published by The Lancet in June showedthat the use of face masks significantly reduced the likelihood of COVID-19, SARS or MERS infections when present near the wearer. The study covered 16 states on six continents.

Risk free

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the myth that social masks are very common on social media poses a risk of carbon dioxide poisoning and the symptoms of hypercapnia can be felt. However, that’s not true.

Studies show that long-wearing type N95 masks can cause headaches, but disposable and cloth masks cannot, even when worn for long periods. does not present such a risk.

As a frequent critic of face masks, Lobov claims that there is scientific evidence to support the claim that wearing masks is dangerous. However, this is not the case.

Distorted or biased studies are often posted on social media, ignoring important research contexts. For example, we wrote in august on a case where the distortion of a double digit number of studies was intended to show that the mask represented a hazard.

However, a close reading of each study revealed that none of them contained information about the dangers of the masks that would be real in the context of COVID-19.

At the time, claims that face masks were supposed to be a “population reduction plan” to accompany the COVID-19 pandemic from the start of the disease outbreak and have no basis in reality.

WHO recommendations

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that children from the age of 12 use the same conditions as adults. Masks are not recommended for children under 5 years of age, and due to the obligation to use masks for children 6 to 11 years, it is appropriate to decide based on the epidemiological situation.

WHO recommendations state that masks should be mandatory for children 6 to 11 years of age if the child lives in an area where the coronavirus spreads extremely rapidly, as long as it is possible to ensure that the mask is used correctly and that the masks are available and washed.

It is recommended that children wearing masks be supervised by adults and that authorities assess the impact of wearing a mask on the child’s mental health.

We will not assess whether all these conditions are met in Lithuanian schools, but the statements that people are dying in Germany due to masks, the use of masks are harmful and can poison are false.

Reliable sources

Account owners seeking attention on a social network know how to exploit people’s emotions, so information space monitoring experts advise avoiding posts that attempt to elicit a strong emotional response from the reader.

The authors of such recordings are well aware that emotion-based messages spread much faster than recordings in a calm tone. It is recommended not to participate in discussions in the comments.

It is observed that sometimes disagreements are deliberately incited in order to create an image of a confronted society.

Representatives of the information space monitoring institutions and SAM advise not to use social networks as the only source of information and to be especially skeptical about any information published in the comments.

It encourages the selection of data from official institutions, reliable media and the monitoring of the origin of the information.

Official information on COVID-19 is provided by Ministry of Health (SAM), Center for Communicable Diseases and AIDS (ULAC), World Health Organization (WHO), National Center for Public Health, European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The post was prepared in 15 minutes. in collaboration with Facebook a program to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.