A Canadian immunologist called masks "crazy" in an Instagram post, but fact-checkers for Meta’s platform of Instagram say that's false..Byram Bridle, an associate professor of viral immunology at the University of Guelph, made his comments in an interview with the Canadian Covid Care Alliance. The three-minute video was posted to their Instagram channel on November 11..“As a scientist, I must provide the facts and let people draw their own conclusions,” Bridle begins in his video..“The primary mode of transmission of SARS Coronavirus 2 is through aerosols. So there's three sizes of the water droplets that can come out of your lungs: large water droplets... are over 60 microns … Small water droplets, these are between 10 and 60 microns in diameter. And then there's what we call droplet nuclei, which are smaller than 10 microns….“Low-cost masks have pore sizes that range between 80 and 500 microns in size…The diameter of the virus is one micron. And the largest possible small droplets than can comprise a typical aerosol and to viral particles is 62 microns in diameter…So that means the largest droplet coated with the virus can pass right through.”.Bridle asserted air escapes even from a tight-fitting mask, allowing tiny aerosols to form a plume that could conceivably carry the virus. To demonstrate, he put on five surgical masks, each having three layers..“So 15 layers. I'm going to seal it around my mouth. If this is true, and aerosols come through then this should fog up, we'll see.”.Bridle held up a pair of glasses and after a few seconds they began to fog up. Then he made a cross-shaped pattern with his finger..“You can see that cross pattern there's so much moisture there. So I'm not going to say anymore, right? All I'm saying, I'm just pointing to the science. So this is crazy.”.Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, labelled the video within an hour with a warning that read “False Information.” When readers clicked on “See why,” they were told:.False .This same false information was reviewed in another post by fact-checkers. There may be small differences. Independent fat-checkers say this information has no basis in fact..Fact-checker: Science Feedback.Conclusion: False.More information: Face masks can filter small airborne particles, including respiratory droplets , and are effective at reducing the spread of COVID-19 – Health Feedback..Learn more..The “Learn more” link provides details on how Instagram conducted its fact checks. Readers wanting to know specifically where Bridle got it wrong must search for themselves..The Canadian Covid Care Alliance drew its own conclusions in the post: “Masks are not an effective means of protection from an airborne virus.”.Public figures in Ontario were not swayed by Bridle’s arguments. On November 13, Ontario Premier Doug Ford echoed more typical advice..“Wear a mask every time possible, number one. Number two, get a vaccination shot, if you haven't already received yours, and get a flu shot. Those are the recommendations I have,” Ford said..Ontario chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore made similar recommendations on November 14, but added, “children aged two to five should only wear a mask with supervision if they can safely tolerate masking, and can put it on and take it off.”.Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at University Health Network in Toronto, told CTV News the province should do more to increase mask levels..“If you're not going to mandate masks, there are multiple steps to take to improve mask adherence in the community in the absence of this mandate,” Bogoch said, such as putting them in every mall and school sports facility.
