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Let’s Talk About Masks!

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If you have been keeping up with COVID 19 research and whether or not masks are effective, you may be getting very confused.  And that is understandable, given that some research states wearing masks will provide protection against COVID 19 and other research states wearing them will not.  This Blog provides information from both thought processes.  Ultimately, the decision will be up to you to decide whether or not to wear a mask.  There are many, many articles which you can Google to find the pros and cons of mask wearing.  Try to look for ones that are based upon research and not just on someone’s opinion.  In the interest of brevity for this Blog, I am including links to two pro-mask articles and two anti-mask articles.

Pro-Mask Articles:

1. A Beaumont Research Institute study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and summarized in the Detroit Free Press (DFP) details that wearing a mask absolutely does protect people from contracting the COVID 19 virus.  Here is the link to the DFP article for you to read in its entirety. https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2020/11/16/beaumont-study-shows-effectiveness-masks-covid-19-spread/6314336002/

2. An article by Maria Godoy for National Public Radio (NPR) gives reasons why masks not only protect others, but also us, especially if those masks are made of multiple layers of high thread counts and/or include filters.  Her article, linked below, includes a link to choosing the best masks. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/11/11/933903848/wear-masks-to-protect-yourself-from-the-coronavirus-not-only-others-cdc-stresses

Anti-Mask Articles:

1. The Foundation for Economic Education published a Danish study released in the academic journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, that determined face masks do not protect wearers from COVID 19 infection. https://fee.org/articles/new-danish-study-finds-masks-don-t-protect-wearers-from-covid-infection/

2. Medical Press published an article entitled, “Masks, gloves don’t stop coronavirus spread, experts”.  This articled provides quotes by medical professionals and organizations. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-masks-gloves-dont-coronavirus-experts.html

Regardless of the train of thought to which you aspire, if you are seeking the facts, it is important to do your research with an open mind and explore many sides of the argument to make the best informed decision for yourself.

There is an interesting “pee” analogy that likens wearing masks to wearing pants.  If someone pees on your leg and neither of you is wearing pants, you will get wet.  If you are wearing pants and someone pees on you, your leg will get wet, but not quite as much.  If the person doing the peeing is also wearing pants, the pee will soak their own pants and not get to you.  Of course, pee is not airborne, so there is some flaw to the analogy, but you get the drift.

It is important to keep in mind that healthcare workers have been wearing the appropriate masks for whatever pathogen they are dealing with for years and have kept themselves safe.  However, with the virulence of COVID, there are other factors involved besides just wearing a mask to keep both ourselves and others safe.  To name just a few, these include social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face, keeping your environment clean, staying home if you feel sick, etc.

Lastly, it is the conviction of this writer that if wearing a mask and practicing other recommended guidelines has the potential to keep myself, our clients, and others with whom I may come into contact from contracting this deadly virus, then I will be happy to do so as long as necessary.