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Donors donate to virus relief, social justice in 2020
While the U.S. has struggled with COVID-19, a recession and a racial reckoning, the ultra-rich have given a wider range of causes than ever before, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking of the 50 Americans who most gave to charity. (February 9)
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The claim: Wearing a long-lasting mask can cause advanced lung cancer, according to one study
It is already known that masks can help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. New data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends even better prevention with dual masking. But one post on social media claims that wearing a mask can cause serious damage in the long run.
” Long-term mask use may contribute to advanced lung cancer, study findings ”, claims an article on January 29 from BlackListed News, an independent news platform known for publishing content related to pseudoscience and conspiracy.
How exactly this alarming condition arises is through the “inhalation of harmful microbes” into the lung that has been “cultured by prolonged masking,” claims author Phillip Schneider.
He also quotes lead author Dr. Leopoldo Segal, director of the New York University Lagone’s Lung Microbiome Program, which explains the scientific basis for the destructive effect of these microbes, and links the study’s discovery to the greater tendency of alleged evidence against mask wear.
BlackListed News did not return USA TODAY’s request for comment.
Fact check: People are encouraged in federal states if distancing is not possible
Oral bacteria can lead to poor prognosis and progression of lung cancer
The human body hosts millions of different types of microorganisms that live on the skin surface and deep in various organs, such as the digestive tract. These bacteria, viruses, fungi and other life forms – the microbiome – play a key role in maintaining health and preventing disease. Changes in microbiome due to aging, long-term diet, stress or pharmaceuticals have been linked to conditions such as obesity, depression and autoimmune diseases.
It may even contribute to cancer, as some emerging research has found. Segal’s study looked in particular at how the microbiome in the lungs – previously believed to be a sterile, microorganism-free environment – plays a role in the development of lung cancer, a disease that affects more than 2 million people worldwide and in 2018 is responsible is for nearly 1.8 million deaths, the World Health Organization.
The study analyzed the lung microbiome of 83 untreated adult patients with lung cancer and found that patients with advanced stage lung cancer (stages III to IV) had a greater enrichment of oral commensals in the lung than those with early stages of the disease (stages) had. 1-3a), “reads a November press release on the study by the American Association for Cancer Research. Oral commensals are merely oral bacteria.
Some of the bacteria are the same as those commonly found in the lower respiratory tract of the airways, such as Prevotella and Veillonella, which can both cause oral infections and mix with Streptococcus to form dental plaque (in the case of Veillonella).
These oral bacteria have been found to be associated with ‘reduced survival, even after adapting to the tumor stage.’ Veillonella, Prevotella and Streptococcus in particular were associated with poor prognosis. All three, plus another bacterium that makes up the normal flora of the mouth, Rothia, have been associated with the progression of the tumor.
The study did report that one limitation on its findings – apart from the fact that the study size was too small to allow patient stratification into subgroups – was that since the microbiome was taken from the lung before patients underwent their respective cancer treatments, ‘changes due of the treatment could not be judged. ”
Fact check: Reports use the photo of Magic Johnson in 2012 to falsely claim to have donated blood
No association between long-term mask wear with lung cancer
USA TODAY reviewed the study paper published online this month: Nowhere is long-lasting masked wear mentioned or even referred to.
Segal and another author, dr. James Tsay of the Grossman School of Medicine of NYU, told Reuters their study did not wear a long-lasting mask, and that there is currently no scientific evidence for this misinterpretation of our result.
The study participants were individuals recruited before the NYU’s Biomarker Center for Lung Cancer before the pandemic. Tsay said that “since mask wear was not common during our study period, it is highly unlikely that it is one of the reasons contributing to our findings.”
“The main source of these bacteria in the lung is the mouth and oropharynx (the part of the pharynx behind the mouth) itself,” Segal said, explaining that the oral bacteria are in “almost every individual” and how many there are. depends on oral hygiene and food intake.
In an email to USA TODAY, Schneider, the author of the BlackListed News article, acknowledges that this was his personal view: “this study suggests that long-term masking can produce microbes that can contribute to advanced lung cancer.” Schneider did not say whether he confirmed his inference with the study’s authors, but did provide an explanation on the article’s website. The original BlackListed News article was not reviewed.
Fact check: People are encouraged in federal states if distancing is not possible
No evidence of mask danger to health
Claims about whether face masks work against COVID-19, are harmful to health (causing hypoxia or excessive carbon dioxide levels in the blood) or violate constitutional amendments have been exposed several times.
The claim in November alleging that people went to the intensive care units who were ill with pneumonia due to a mask was denied.
While bacteria and other microorganisms can accumulate inside a mask, microbiologist Patrick Grant of Florida-Atlantic University told CBS Florida subsidiary CBS12 that anything that collects can not harm the potential unless it allowed to build up; borrowing someone else’s mask is also not recommended.
The CDC recommends that cloth masks be stored properly – whether in plastic bags for wet or damp masks, paper bags for dry or clean – and washed regularly, and ensure that you dry thoroughly. Disposable masks should be discarded after one use.
Fact check: Post distorts WHO’s COVID-19 PCR test guidelines
Our rating: false
The claim that long-term mask wear has been found by one study to contribute to advanced lung cancer is FALSE, based on our research. The study, led by dr. Leopoldo Segal, director of the NYU’s Lung Microbiome Program, found that patients with advanced stage lung cancer have greater amounts of oral bacteria in the lungs compared to patients in the early stage. The presence of these bacteria was accompanied by a reduced survival, poor prognosis and tumor course. Nowhere is the impact of long-lasting mask wear or the association with lung cancer mentioned or referred to. The author of the article making the claim said the relationship was his own personal view. There is no evidence suggesting masks, the only effective way to prevent COVID-19 transmission but rather cause disease.
Our sources for fact checking:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February 10, “Maximum Suitability for Cloth and Medical Procedures to Improve Masks and Reduce SARS-CoV-2 Transmission and Exposure, 2021”
- Media bias / fact-finding, visited on 16 February, “Blacklist News”
- Nature, 29 January 2020, “The complex relationship between drugs and the microbiome”
- The New York Times, September 10, 2019, “In Search of an Obesity Drug, Researchers Apply to Intestinal Microbiome”
- Science Magazine, 7 May 2020, “Meet the ‘psychobiome’: the gut bacteria that can change the way you think, feel and act”
- Nature, January 29, 2020, “Can a Bacteria-Filled Pill Cure Autoimmune Diseases?”
- Nature, 29 January 2020, “Fighting cancer with microbes”
- The Journal of Immunology, 15 June 2016, “The lung microbiome, immunity and the pathogenesis of chronic lung diseases”
- The World Health Organization, 12 September 2018, “Cancer”
- American Society for Cancer Research, November 11, 2020, “The lung microbiome may affect lung cancer pathogenesis and prognosis”
- American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, June 2, 2011, “Topographical Continuity of Bacterial Populations in Healthy Human Airways”
- Journal of Bacteriology, 3 June 2015, “Interaction between Streptococcus spp. and Viellonella tobetsuensis in the early stages of oral biofilm formation ”
- Journal of Microbiological Methods, 10 January 2017, “Isolation and identification methods of Rothia species in oral cavities »
- Cancer Discovery, February 1, “Lower airway dysbiosis affects lung cancer progression”
- Reuters, February 4, “Fact check: no evidence linking masks to oral bacteria and lung cancer; article refers to study in which no masks were involved”
- USA TODAY, July 27, 2020, “Fact Check: What’s True and What’s False Face Masks?”
- CBS12, 20 November 2020, “Bacteria grow on your mask”
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 28, 2020 “How to Store and Wash Masks”
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