Did an article published by one of the specialized scholarly outlets of the British Medical Journal say that child mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic led to "irreversible brain damage"? No, that's not true: The study didn't even mention brain damage. Posts on social media speculated about a conclusion the article didn't make on a topic it didn't address.
The claim originated in an article (archived here) published by The People's Voice on December 9, 2023, under the title:
Child Mask Mandates Caused Irreversible Brain Damage, BMJ Review Finds
It continued:
Forcing children to wear masks during the pandemic has resulted in permanent brain damage due to the adverse side effects of depleting the body of oxygen over extended periods, a BMJ study has concluded.
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: The People's Voice screenshot taken on Tue Dec 12 15:25:45 2023 UTC)
The review (archived here) cited by The People's Voice was a meta-study published by the Archives of Disease in Childhood (archived here), the peer-reviewed official journal of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Scholarly articles of this type are conducted to evaluate existing scientific literature, not to conduct new experiments.
Contrary to the claim, the review did not address the question of brain damage at all:
(Source: Bmj.com screenshot taken on Tue Dec 12 15:42:42 2023 UTC)
According to the collective of authors, the main findings were that studies that looked into the question of child mask mandates were of suboptimal quality and that the reviewers didn't see randomized controlled trials among them.
Lead Stories reached out to the authors of the study for additional comments. This article will be updated as appropriate when we receive a response.
The People's Voice
The People's Voice has a lengthy record of publishing false stories. It describes itself as a resource "comprised of various web pages operated by Fact Checked Limited," but it has nothing to do with fact checking.
As of this writing, its website contains a liability disclaimer, saying:
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Other Lead Stories articles debunking The People's Voice claims are here.
Fact checks about COVID-19 are here.
