Doctor Warns of Permanent Damage He’s Seeing in Patients Who Are Forgoing Medical Attention Due to COVID | Eastern NC Now

Publisher's note: This post appears here courtesy of the LifeZette, and written by Polizette Staff.

    Dr. Scott Barbour, an orthopedic surgeon from Atlanta, Georgia, just spoke out to warn that some Americans who have avoided getting medical help for other health problems amidst the COVID-19 pandemic are being hit with permanent damage.

    During an interview with Breitbart News, Barbour explained that Americans are having heart attacks and strokes because of either an avoidance or delay in getting medical care due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    "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."

    "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," he added. "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."

    Barbour was then asked about the efficiency of masks, which has become a hot topic of debate throughout this pandemic.

    "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," he added. "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."

    "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," he continued.

    Barbour concluded by pointing out that he noticed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed its recommendations on masks regarding influenza-like illnesses after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

    "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," he concluded. "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."