Former Disney actress Leigh-Allyn Baker spoke to the Williamson County, Tennessee school board recently. She said she was a “refugee” from California and was against the board’s mandate that children be masked in school.

She said, “I would never put them in a mask because their brain needs oxygen to grow which the neurologist can confirm.” A video of her remarks was posted on Reddit yesterday.

Ms. Baker said she had some “books” for the audience—The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers and the Bible. The first four are not books. She added, “And these guarantee my freedom and yours and our children’s [right] to breathe oxygen.” I admit I have not read them all, but I am certain they do not mention oxygen.

The crowd reacted enthusiastically. She was preaching to the choir.

As usual for Reddit, the comments were devastating. Here are a few of them:

“…which the neurologist can confirm.” Please….PLEASE record a video of you asking a neurologist if masks lower oxygen levels and stunt brain development.

A neurologist will also confirm that you get oxygen breathing through a mask.

I think she was starved of oxygen sometime early in life.

“Their brains need oxygen to grow” Following her logic, she apparently wore a mask for her whole life.

The scary part isn’t the crazy person doing the talking, it’s all the support the crazy person doing the talking gets.

I‘m a nurse. I spend 8 hours a day and longer in a mask. With all that lack of oxygen, you’d think I would pass out and die. Must be just lucky…

Having practiced general surgery for over 40 years, I must agree with the last comment. I never saw a nurse, doctor, or anyone else become hypoxic while wearing a mask. Honestly, we never gave it a thought.

The saddest thing about this is that Many children will suffer because of this ignorance.

 

Skeptical Scalpel is a retired surgeon and was a surgical department chair and residency program director for many years. He is board-certified in general surgery and a surgical sub-specialty and has re-certified in both several times. For the last 9 years, he has been blogging at SkepticalScalpel.blogspot.com and tweeting as @SkepticScalpel. His blog has had more than 3,700,000 page views, and he has over 21,000 followers on Twitter.

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