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HomeHealthDangerous pathogens found on local residents’ face masks

Dangerous pathogens found on local residents’ face masks

June 15, 2021

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

A group of local parents sent 6 face masks to a lab at the University of Florida, requesting an analysis of contaminants found on the masks after they had been worn. The resulting report found that five masks were contaminated with bacteria, parasites, and fungi, including three with dangerous pathogenic and pneumonia-causing bacteria. Although the test is capable of detecting viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, only one virus was found on one mask (alcelaphine herpesvirus 1).

The analysis detected the following 11 dangerous pathogens on the masks:

  • Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumonia)
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis (tuberculosis)
  • Neisseria meningitidis (meningitis, sepsis)
  • Acanthamoeba polyphaga (keratitis and granulomatous amebic encephalitis)
  • Acinetobacter baumanni (pneumonia, blood stream infections, meningitis, UTIs—resistant to antibiotics)
  • Escherichia coli (food poisoning)
  • Borrelia burgdorferi (causes Lyme disease)
  • Corynebacterium diphtheriae (diphtheria)
  • Legionella pneumophila (Legionnaires’ disease)
  • Staphylococcus pyogenes serotype M3 (severe infections—high morbidity rates)
  • Staphylococcus aureus (meningitis, sepsis)

Half of the masks were contaminated with one or more strains of pneumonia-causing bacteria. One-third were contaminated with one or more strains of meningitis-causing bacteria. One-third were contaminated with dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens. In addition, less dangerous pathogens were identified, including pathogens that can cause fever, ulcers, acne, yeast infections, strep throat, periodontal disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and more.

Here is an image of the infection francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia, fever, skin ulcers, sore throat, and pneumonia:

The face masks studied were new or freshly-laundered before wearing and had been worn for 5 to 8 hours, most during in-person schooling by children aged 6 through 11. One was worn by an adult. A t-shirt worn by one of the children to school and unworn masks were tested as controls. No pathogens were found on the controls; samples from the front top and bottom of the t-shirt found proteins that are commonly found in skin and hair, along with some commonly found in soil.

A parent who participated in the study, Ms. Amanda Donoho, commented that this small sample points to a need for more research: “We need to know what we are putting on the faces of our children each day. Masks provide a warm, moist environment for bacteria to grow.”

These local parents contracted with the lab because they were concerned about the potential of contaminants on masks that their children were forced to wear all day at school, taking them on and off, setting them on various surfaces, wearing them in the bathroom, etc. This prompted them to send the masks to the University of Florida’s Mass Spectrometry Research and Education Center for analysis.

Click to view the mask reports.

  • Breathing is an autonomic function…when we
    Cover both the nose and the mouth, we interfere
    With that breathing. The mask interferes with taking the breath in through the nose, and makes for more open mouth breathing.
    There’s a lot of open mouths under those people
    Wearing face masks. We were designed with a nose
    And a mouth for a reason. Our bodies inherently know
    When to breathe through the nose or mouth and that
    Process is interfered with by the masks obstruction.
    We also are emotional creatures. We communicate
    Happiness, sadness, and other emotions with our
    Mouths through smiles and frowns…We communicate a lot through facial expressions… The masks
    Are causing both physical & mental damage…what’s
    It really all about? Control . We need to breathe in
    Order to be Alive, Why wear a mask for something
    that has a 99.7% survival rate? Oh!, people are dieing!!!
    What’s really going on? The endgame is taking away
    Our freedom and changing society with a goal of global
    Totalitarianism….A Hell on earth where everyone is equally miserable. Good article! Those face masks
    Are dirty filthy things…yuck!

  • well How about checking and cleaning the surfaces that these masks are touching? any of these families been diagnosed and/or treated for any of these illnesses? I believe with or without masks they are all in our daily environment. wear your mask, wash your hands, don’t touch your mouth, nose or eyes without washing hands. easier said than done with kids , I know.

  • These pathogens are in our environment and that’s one of the problems with wearing masks. You’re attaching a petri dish to your or your kids face. A petri dish that’s designed to catch stuff you breathe out and breathe in.

    The pathogens are caught in the mask for you to continue to breathe all day long. Your mask is by its nature a wet, moist, and warm location that is perfect for growing cultures of bacteria and other pathogens.

    You and your kids touch it constantly or by necessity during your day. No one lives in or acts like they live in a clean room. People also don’t dispose of masks properly and frequently.

    The interesting thing about all this is that 0 COVID was filtered by the mask. The only virus caught by the masks was wildebeest herpesvirus.

    More studies are needed.

  • […] “Dangerous pathogens found on local residents’ face masks”“The face masks studied were new or freshly-laundered before wearing and had been worn for 5 to 8 hours, most during in-person schooling by children aged 6 through 11. One was worn by an adult. A t-shirt worn by one of the children to school and unworn masks were tested as controls. No pathogens were found on the controls; samples from the front top and bottom of the t-shirt found proteins that are commonly found in skin and hair, along with some commonly found in soil.“:https://alachuachronicle.com/dangerous-pathogens-found-on-local-residents-face-masks […]

  • As a neurosurgeon, I have worn surgical masks for countless hours while performing surgery over 40 years of practice. It was always a relief to remove the mask at the end of a case. Because the masks are disposable and intended for use during one case only, it was not unusual to use five or six masks per day. A fresh, new surgical mask right out of the box is a very different item than a cloth or fiber mask used for several days. Most masks used by the public during the pandemic are partially effective at capturing large droplets from a cough or sneeze. However, they are of little value when it comes to aerosolized virus particles because the “holes in the mesh” are several orders of magnitude larger than the viral particles. It seems, for many, masks have assumed a semiotic function that exceeds their utility regarding public health. They became a signal, a totem, broadcasting the user’s commitment to a particular ideology and willingness to defer to perceived authority. They advertise membership in a reassuring group that places great significance on displaying its superior virtues. It will be fascinating sociologically to follow how long the masks continue to be worn by this group when epidemiologically they are proven to be no longer necessary.

    • Yes, thank you. Finally, an intelligent health professional who is not fearful of speaking the truth. Why are we masking our least susceptible and least infectious population????

  • one needs to wear the correct kind of mask to protect against covid19 and one needs to know how to handle masks with regards to proper touching, placement and removal etc

    NIOSH Science blog on N95 Respirators and Surgical Masks
    Posted on October 14, 2009 by Lisa Brosseau, ScD, and Roland Berry Ann
    https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2009/10/14/n95/

    • These are kids wearing a mask…try reading that again…KIDS! For 7 to 8 hours a day…taking off only to eat but required to wear during PE and recess. What do you think is gonna happen?

  • Masks are nasty and ineffective; especially on kids!
    –
    Children are not naturally sanitary as they are still learning about social norms. They chew, sneeze, lick, sweat, play with them…no matter how often they are reminded to not eat them.
    –
    They use them to wipe their boogers after they sneeze and then plaster the nasty bacteria filled petri dish mask over their face for hours.
    –
    They can not learn like this because they can’t understand the teacher and facial cues given by their instructor.
    –
    I can’t for the life of me imagine how inhaling air through a cloth soaked in sweat, mucous, & saliva is deemed to be healthy for a child’s growing body and lungs. 😔 THEY EVEN SWAP THEIR masks with their friends.
    –
    Let mask wearing be a decision that is made between the child and their parent and doctor. Blanket mandates like this on children insane!

  • The article has left out one important bit of information. How many of the kids wearing the mask got sick from the pathogens found on the masks. That really needs to be answered. The way this was performed has absolutely nothing to do with the question do masks work?

    • See what happened in the 1920s with enforcement of masks, millions dead!

    • RealTruth from US of A…if the restrictions were placed on America’s borders to the extent Canada has placed on it’s borders, just think of what could be prevented from entering. Just saying…

    • Really? Half the masks were contaminated with different pathogens and unless children are sick or dying, you don’t believe this data is concerning? The masks are a petri dish for bacteria and other viruses. This is not just a concern for the children who are being made to wear these masks on their faces, but a concern for the spread of these infectious agents to others. Honestly.

  • I always sprayed my reusable masks with hydrogen peroxide at the end of the day and hanged them to dry in the same room. I’m the only person who uses that room in my house. But I know most people don’t do that and don’t live alone. Hence the collected pathogens we see in the research.

  • […] In den Masken von Kindern tummelt sich eine Vielzahl von Keimen – nicht immer nur harmlose. Darunter können auch Erreger von ernstzunehmenden Erkrankungen sein, wieTuberkulose, Blutvergiftung, Lungen- oder Hirnhautentzündung. Das zeigt die Analyse eines Labors an der University of Florida, über die das Lokalblatt „Alachua Chronicle“ berichtet.  […]

  • Fauci’s emails proved he said “drug store masks don’t work.Droplets go right through.Look it up.

  • […] n den Masken von Kindern tummelt sich eine Vielzahl von Keimen – nicht immer nur harmlose. Darunter können auch Erreger von ernstzunehmenden Erkrankungen sein, wieTuberkulose, Blutvergiftung, Lungen- oder Hirnhautentzündung. Das zeigt die Analyse eines Labors an der University of Florida, über die das Lokalblatt „Alachua Chronicle“ berichtet.  […]

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