2 Teenage Chinese Students Die in Gym Class While Wearing Masks

Two Chinese teenagers are dead within a week in similar incidents involving masks during gym class.

Could Masks Be The Cause?

Both of the students were 14-year-old Chinese teens, who shared similarities in their cases. Six days apart from each other, both boys dropped dead during gym class while running and wearing masks.

The first student was just a few minutes into class when he fell April 24 at Dancheng Caiyuan Middle School. His father told Australian news outlet 7News, that he believes the mask his son was wearing while running laps around the track could have played a part. Despite teachers and students rushing to help, the boy died, with the death certificate listing the cause as sudden cardiac arrest, despite no autopsy being performed, per the outlet.

The second teen passed away six days later at Changsha’s Xiangjun Future Experimental School. The case is similar – the boy had been running a 1,000-meter exam while wearing a N95 respirator, when he collapsed.

It is so far unknown whether or not the masks played a crucial role in the teenagers’ deaths, although some schools in Tianjin and Shanghai have canceled physical education exams. Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine professor Cao Lanxiu, however, believes it unlikely that the mask caused suffocation.