Dr. Scott Barbour, an Atlanta-based orthopedic surgeon, noted that some Americans with health problems who avoided seeking medical care due to fears of COVID-19 are now stricken with permanent damage as a result of delayed treatment. He shared his comments on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
Some Americans have had heart attacks and strokes due to avoidance or delays in receiving medical care, Barbour said.
“There are people that are suffering from long-term negative effects of other medical problems because they’re afraid to go to the hospital,” Barbour remarked, “[including], in fact, strokes [and] heart attacks. In my own business, I’ve had one ankle fracture dislocation. [My patient is] going to have a destroyed ankle forever because they didn’t come to the hospital.”
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Barbour continued, “I have another patient [with] a dislocated finger that waited ’til it was impossible to relocate the finger, and so they’re going to have long-term consequences. So there are real negative effects by not opening, and I know that there’s a way to open safely. I’ve been doing it for the last seven months and I’m not the only one, so let’s talk about it and let’s figure out a way to get ourselves back to normal.”
Marlow asked about the efficacy of masks in preventing transmission of the novel coronavirus.
“Before this outbreak, the consensus literature was exactly what Dr. Fauci said it was originally, where there [did] not appear to be any studies that demonstrate the efficacy of masks in the transmission of what we call influenza-like illnesses, [which are] the types of viruses that are spread in respiratory droplets and cause respiratory illness,” Barbour said.
“The concept of masks has been studied for a long time, especially in the dental community. They obviously work very closely with people, and a lot of literature has been written. There are some studies out there that show that dentists who wear masks and face shields have the same antibodies to the plethora of influenza and respiratory syncytial viruses, which sort of show that the masks were not effective in preventing the disease transmission in these types of professionals,” Barbour said.
Some evidence indicates an increased risk of influenza-like illness transmission associated with cloth masks, stated Barbour.
“We have one randomized controlled study on cloth masks, and the results of that study were that the people wearing the cloth masks were actually more likely to contract the influenza-like illnesses. My attitude towards masks is there’s no real compelling evidence that they do work, and I think that that was sort of relatively accepted before 2020 now suddenly masks are being mandated,” Barbour said.
Barbour observed that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) changed its recommendations on masks regarding influenza-like illnesses after the coronavirus outbreak.
“When this pandemic first came around, as the owner of the medical practice, the first thing I did was go to the CDC website and look for the guidelines on masks,” Barbour said. “The CDC basically stated that masks have not been shown to be effective at preventing the transmission of influenza-like viruses. That has subsequently changed. They’re now recommending mask-wearing — sort of — it’s sort of confusing when you read the website, but when you look at the reasoning behind it it’s based on case studies like these hairdressers that were in St. Louis that apparently contracted the virus and were … providing haircuts. They tested something like 47 of the 139 people, and they were all negative, and this is now replacing science to help guide our our policy.”
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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