Letter: Lockdowns and mask mandates disproportionately affect people of color

OPINION

The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com.

If BLACK LIVES MATTER, Alachua County and City of Gainesville elected officials would heed the instructions of the United States Surgeon General on his original, science-based warning for healthy members of the general public, not to wear face masks. The Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, is an African American physician. (VIDEO)

If BLACK LIVES MATTER, Alachua County and City of Gainesville Elected Officials would publicly acknowledge that COVID-19 mortality rates fall within the same order of magnitude as seasonal Flu outbreaks.  In fact, the Flu vaccine carries a higher mortality rate than the Covid-19 virus!(See Data)

If BLACK LIVES MATTER, Alachua County and City of Gainesville Elected Officials would revoke the face mask mandate based on numerous scientific publications establishing face masks as a health hazard to all populations, whether they are healthy or with underlying medical conditions. Blaylock: Face Masks Pose Serious Risks To The Healthy

If BLACK LIVES MATTER, Alachua County and City of Gainesville Elected Officials would acknowledge that lockdowns and face mask mandates are based on questionable science and inflict disproportionate economic hardship to African American and Latino families.

NPR – 6/5/2020: Minority Workers See Highest Levels Of Unemployment From COVID-19 Crisis

NPR’s David Greene talks to NPR’s Scott Horsley and William Spriggs, chief economist for the AFL-CIO, about the pandemic’s effect on joblessness — especially on minority employees.

NPR Host, David Greene: “We already know that a pandemic brought the highest unemployment rate in our country since the Great Depression. Later this morning, we will see if it has gotten even worse. Forecasters say new numbers could show unemployment reached near 20% last month. We also know the reality behind these numbers. It’s the fact that the unemployment picture is even more dire for African Americans and Latinos.”  (More) 

If BLACK LIVES MATTER, Alachua County and City of Gainesville elected officials should consider the OSHA Field Guide and how it applies to the general population: The current face mask mandate exemption for gyms and exercise establishments is consistent with the requirement to maintain blood oxygen at sustainable physiological levels as stipulated by OSHA.  (See Appendix citations on “hypoxia”, “deoxygenation” – 4,5,6,7 and 10).

Comment-1: Re-breathing exhaled coronaviruses and bacteria trapped in the face mask is a recognized bio-hazard where the virus enters the brain via the nasal and olfactory system (See Appendix citations 11,12,and 13)

Comment-2:  Per OSHA’s definition, a face mask creates an artificially induced “Confined or enclosed space”

Page 14: Confined & Enclosed Spaces “Confined or enclosed space” means any space having a limited means of egress, which is subject to the accumulation of toxic or flammable contaminants or has an oxygen deficient atmosphere, and its primary function is other than human occupancy.

Page 15: Employees must not be permitted to work in hazardous and/or toxic atmospheres! A hazardous atmosphere means an atmosphere that may expose employees to the risk of death, incapacitation, impairment of ability to self-rescue, injury, or acute and/or chronic illness from one or more of the following causes:

• Flammable gas, vapor, or mist in excess of 10 percent of its lower flammable limit (LFL).
• Airborne combustible dust at a concentration that meets or exceeds its LFL (dust obscures vision at a distance of 5 feet or less.
• Atmospheric oxygen concentration below 19.5 percent or above 23.5 percent.
• Atmospheric concentration of any substance for which a permissible exposure limit (PEL) is published in OSHA’s standards.

Page 44: Use only NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health) approved respirators.

Page 45: Respiratory Protection Program

The allowable use of a respirator depends on certain circumstances; two scenarios in which an employee may wear a respirator are:

1. Employee must wear a respirator due to job-site conditions; if concentrations of airborne contaminants cannot be effectively minimized to below permissible exposure limits through engineering or administrative controls then respiratory protection must be worn.

2. Voluntary use by employee; an employee may choose to wear a respirator under voluntary conditions when concentrations of airborne contaminants are below legal permissible exposure limits. (OSHA FIELD GUIDE)

Comment-3: There is no evidence that voluntary social distancing, alone, would not be an effective method to minimize CV-19 to ‘below permissible exposure limits”.

Harold Saive, Gainesville   

APPENDIX:

Citations from Dr. Russell Blaylock’s study: Face Masks Pose Serious Risks To The Healthy

References

• bin-Reza F et al. The use of mask and respirators to prevent transmission of influenza: A systematic review of the scientific evidence. Resp Viruses 2012;6(4):257-67.
• Zhu JH et al. Effects of long-duration wearing of N95 respirator and surgical facemask: a pilot study. J Lung Pulm Resp Res 2014:4:97-100.
• Ong JJY et al.Headaches associated with personal protective equipment- A cross-sectional study among frontline healthcare workers during COVID-19. Headache 2020;60(5):864-877.
• Bader A et al. Preliminary report on surgical mask induced deoxygenation during major surgery. Neurocirugia 2008;19:12-126.
• Shehade H et al. Cutting edge: Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1 negatively regulates Th1 function. J Immunol 2015;195:1372-1376.
• Westendorf AM et al. Hypoxia enhances immunosuppression by inhibiting CD4+ effector T cell function and promoting Treg activity. Cell Physiol Biochem 2017;41:1271-84.
• Sceneay J et al. Hypoxia-driven immunosuppression contributes to the pre-metastatic niche. Oncoimmunology 2013;2:1 e22355.
• Blaylock RL. Immunoexcitatory mechanisms in glioma proliferation, invasion and occasional metastasis. Surg Neurol Inter 2013;4:15.
• Aggarwal BB. Nucler factor-kappaB: The enemy within. Cancer Cell 2004;6:203-208.
• Savransky V et al. Chronic intermittent hypoxia induces atherosclerosis. Am J Resp Crit Care Med 2007;175:1290-1297.
• Baig AM et al. Evidence of the COVID-19 virus targeting the CNS: Tissue distribution, host-virus interaction, and proposed neurotropic mechanisms. ACS Chem Neurosci 2020;11:7:995-998.
• Wu Y et al. Nervous system involvement after infection with COVID-19 and other coronaviruses. Brain Behavior, and Immunity, In press.
• Perlman S et al. Spread of a neurotropic murine coronavirus into the CNS via the trigeminal and olfactory nerves. Virology 1989;170:556-560.