Fact check: False claim that NY hospitals reported thousands of lung infections from masks

Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: New York hospitals reported thousands of fungal lung infections due to wearing masks

A year-old claim about infections due to mask-wearing is recirculating on social media. And it's still nonsense.

A Facebook user shared an image on Sept. 16 with the text, "You can't make this up: NYS hospitals reporting thousands of fungus lung infections due to wearing a mask."

The image received more than 100 shares in less than a day.

An earlier version of this post was shared by another Facebook user on June 30, 2020. It has received about 7,500 shares.

But the claim is false. Health care providers in New York said they have not heard of such reports, and experts said wearing a mask does not cause fungal lung infection.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user for comment.

No evidence of these reports

New York hospitals have not reported thousands of fungal lung infections from wearing masks, according to Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health, the largest health care provider in New York.

"It is completely false," Farber said. "We have seen no cases of fungal infection from masks among our 76,000 employees or our patients."

Other health care organizations in New York have said the same thing.

"We have heard of no such reports from our members," said Michael Pauley, vice president of communications and marketing strategy at the Healthcare Association of New York State.

“We have not seen any issues with masking resulting in fungal infections in our patients or staff. We have seen mask use resulting in protecting our staff and patients from getting COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses," said Dr. Waleed Javaid, director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai Downtown.

Fact check: No, the CDC didn't warn of a polio-like disease outbreak coming in 2021

Experts say the line of reasoning in the post is as far off base as the claim of thousands of infections.

"Wearing a mask does not cause fungal infections in the lungs," said Dr. Ranit Mishori, professor of family medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine. "Fungal lung infections are rare and primarily affect people with compromised immune systems. Masks are protective and will prevent harmful particles from entering the respiratory system."

Fungal lung infection is caused by a combination of exposure to fungus and a suppressed immune system, said Dr. Lauren Ferrante, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Yale School of Medicine.

"Fungus is present in our environment but usually does not cause infection in people with healthy immune systems." Ferrante said. "Usually the people we see with fungal lung infections have suppressed immune systems. Masks do not cause fungal lung infection."

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim New York hospitals reported thousands of fungal lung infections due to wearing masks. No such reports were made, according to health officials in New York. Wearing a mask does not cause fungal lung infection.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Wearing a mask does not cause fungal lung infection