1/ Conspiracy theorists and peddlers of alternative health facts have been circulating various disinformation about the negative impact of wearing a mask for a while now. Though past 48 hrs it appears to have really taken off in QAnon and some far-right channels on Telegram

2/ One of the key elements of disinformation is this YouTube video circulating on various channels, where the man is performing an OSHA oxygen level test while wearing a face mask. Facebook has already labelled this video as false on it's platform.

3/ Between twitter embedded videos, Telegram videos and YouTube videos, this disinformation has garnered about 400,000 views. It has also been actively spammed in responses to pro-mask content on twitter for the past 48 hours

4/ combined with this is a dangerous mix of misinterpretation or manipulation of scientific information or simply fake health facts. Again these have been circulating in QAnon Telegram channels, but also in some of the militia and white supremacists channels

5/ The narrative echoes that of the 5G conspiracy theory where 5G reduces oxygenation, increases toxin levels, impact the immune system, makes you more vulnerable to COVID, etc. The narrative is recycled to the new enemy which are masks.

6/ This has lead to a surge of mask exemptions cards, signs or forms for an individual to carry around with them. These have been circulated in QAnon circles, alternative health circles and within more extreme circles.

7/ Omega Kingdom Ministry, the QAnon church, back on June 7th was already discussing this in their weakly service and even provided their adheres a handy dandy exemption form

8/ Apparently you can even buy these exemption cards on Ebay, for... tbh I am not sure who would pay for this.

9/ Conspiracy theories, fake health information or manipulated health information from various communities are a big issue. Many societies are at a crossroad int he pandemic where things a beginning to reopen and it behooves everyone to wear a mask to protect their peers.

10/ without a wide societal collaboration on this we are going to be face with secondary, tertiary, quaternary, quinary, senary, etc. waves of infections. We are already in a complicated societal landscape and these conspiracy theories do nothing but aggravate the situation.

11/ QAnon influencer intheMatrixxx shared this fake exemption card. However, not only have these cards been debunked. The DOJ put out a statement that Fraudulent Facemask Flyers “Exempt” Cards not Authorized by U.S. Department of Justice https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdnc/pr/covid-19-alert-fraudulent-facemask-flyers

12/ Additionally, the ADA also put out a separate statement on their website warning about these fake cards https://www.ada.gov/covid-19_flyer_alert.html