This is the Daily Article podcast, published by the Denison Forum for Culture-Changing Christians.

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thedailyarticle.com. Now here's today's news, discerned differently.

On the eve of our nation's Independence Day, let's talk about masks.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams stated this week, this mask, this face covering, actually

is an instrument of freedom for Americans if we all use it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote,

We must have no stigma, none, about wearing masks when we leave our homes and come near

other people. Wearing simple face coverings is not about protecting ourselves. It is about

protecting everyone we encounter. President Trump said in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday,

I'm all for masks.

Yesterday, Fox News aired a public service announcement with Sean Hannity,

encouraging viewers to wear masks.

And effective today, Texas joins a growing number of states requiring masks in public.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated recently that 33,000 lives could be saved if at least 95% of Americans wore masks in public. Opponents, however, claim that masks are

more harmful than helpful. Let's consider their objections. First, some claim that masks

decrease oxygen levels and increase carbon dioxide levels for those who wear them. Dr. Russell Burr, a pulmonary and critical care physician at UCLA Health, disagrees.

He explains that gas molecules are much smaller than the pores in the material,

meaning that the masks do not keep oxygen or carbon dioxide from moving through it. Medical professionals

wear these masks for hours a day for entire careers, he notes. A second objection is the claim

that masks increase our risk to viruses by triggering dormant retroviruses in the body, which

take advantage of immune systems compromised by mask wearing.

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