Dr. Avery Jackson, a board-certified neurosurgeon based in Michigan, performs complicated brain surgeries in the operating room as often as four times a week. During these surgeries, which can last for up to eighteen hours, Jackson, who is Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of Michigan Neurosurgical Institute in Grand Blanc, wears a surgical mask.
While masks make sense in the operating room, Jackson said, people—especially children—should not be wearing masks in their everyday lives.
As Jackson explained to a group of nearly 100 doctors and other health professionals at a two-day medical conference in Conroe, Texas, on April 29, wearing masks outside the operating room creates a host of health problems. Masking, Jackson said during his talk, is especially dangerous for children’s developing brains. That’s because masks can cause people to rebreath a small amount of their exhaled carbon dioxide—over and over again.
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