MASKS: Not asking much
COVID-19 has killed more than 140,000 people, both young and old, in the U.S. in six months. Surviving COVID-19, even without having had symptoms, does not necessarily mean going back to normal. Doctors are reporting health effects due to lung and nervous system damage. No one knows yet how long these effects will last. But young people should not assume they are impervious to the effects of the virus.
Should we wear masks? The virus is spread primarily through aerosolized droplets of saliva that we exhale when we breathe. These droplets are caught by a mask, which is the most effective way to prevent release of virus-laden saliva aerosols. Mask use has been essential in every country in which the virus has been brought under control, which is now allowing many economies and schools throughout the world to reopen.
One website (covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu) calculates the risk of exposure to coronavirus given the rising case numbers in Kootenai County. As of this writing, if you are around 10 people there is a 30% probability that someone will be exhaling virus. Gatherings of 25 or 50 people present 55% and 80% probabilities, respectively. Wearing a mask precipitously reduces the probability that someone who is infected will spread the virus.
We need the unity and sense of self-sacrifice that led so many of us to sacrifice their lives in wars, when we faced existential threats like we face now with the pandemic. Except that now the only sacrifice we’re asking is for everyone to wear a mask when around others, wash hands, maintain social distancing and put up with an occasional brief quarantine. Those measures together can stop the pandemic.
BRIAN H. SMITH
Coeur d’Alene